Face the Sun

 

I am taking an online songwriting class with Berklee College of Music and just loving it.  I am finding new sides to expressing myself that I haven't really explored much before.  Any artist goes through periods where they run out of ideas or they find themselves saying the same things over and over again. So it is great to find ways to expand my horizons.

The song I wrote last week was inspired by a friend's sunflowers.  She had picked some and they were in a vase on the table. When I admired them, she said that she was disappointed they seemed to be kind of droopy and not standing tall. I said that it was because it was nighttime and sunflowers track the sun and that was why they were facing downward. I told her to look at them midday to see that they would be facing the sun. In fact they were not! (see photo above) and that inspired a song I started called, "Face the Sun."

What's more fun is that the songwriting class has these music loops we can use for our songs. I decided to try it and it was great fun because the kind of feeling this pop flavored loop produces is totally unlike anything I've ever done.  (click on the link to the song in paragraph above to hear).

As a child I wanted to be an actress and I was in many plays growing up. I see songwriting can be this way too-- this song Face the Sun is like me playing a new part in the Play of Life. One that others would not say, "hey, that's Blue singing". They are more likely to say, "huh? " but that is the fun of exploring!    When I was a DJ at WTJU (20 yrs), I often got comments from people saying, "I never know what you're going to do" which is a great compliment. 

I have another song I wrote for this week's assignment that is pretty depressing --it has a Gillian Welch kind of mood to it. It's about the deforestation of Charlottesville. 

Stay tuned for the next chapter in my adventures of new songwriting ideas!