Here we go again then, even more about FAWM. I was hoping that during February I would do more blog posts on here so that they wouldn't all be about FAWM, but it never came out that way. Oh well, there's only this and one more that are JUST about FAWM. Then it is back to the relative normality of my blogs.
Sunday 24th February
At midnight then there was another skirmish, this time with the title being Kick The Can. I don't know why, but I just saw it as an alternative to the "kick the bucket" saying. From there it became quite a complex and elaborate, possibly too much so. From that I thought of someone who was scared of going anywhere because of what could happen. I somehow caught onto the fact that the narrating character had watched a lot of films that included assassins in them, name-checking Leon and The Jackal for instance. The verses were slow melancholic pieces, the choruses were supposed to be punky at a much faster pace, and the middle eight was a rapped section over funky guitar, and all of that was pieced together. Quite a thing. I do like it because it has all of that going on in a little over three minutes. I posted up the lyrics at about twenty to one (well within the time), and the demo went up at ten past one. I have to say that I loved a few other people's versions (Brownium's version, Nick Sypniewski, Randy Xypher, John Staples, and Kevin Emmrich among them).
A song skirmish is a fascinating thing really. A song title is given at the head of an hour and then people have to come up wit a song that has that title. Just imagine the fact that each person has a slightly different interpretation or way to look at that title, and then there are the different styles that people play. It's incredible to me every time because I try to listen to every song written with that title.
At two in the morning the super-skirmish was the title A Woman I Can Trust. Actually the title given was A Woman You Can Trust, to which I asked if I could write this title and they said "said yes, any variation thereof". So here we have something where I was going for a very straight folk feel because I really wanted to get some harmonica into a FAWM song as I miss playing the harmonica.
From 4.05 in the morning until 4.55 I wrote the super-skirmish song Across The Pond which is something where I was thinking of, but not copying, a Venetian Waltz in timing/style, played on acoustic guitar though, and lyrically I was basically being myself where I have always dreamed of visiting the US and this is the sort of thing that I think of. Somebody suggested that if I were to take it further then perhaps extending on the "Across the pond" break would be an idea or write something else for that to be a link to. That is something that I will definitely look at because there is something sweet about the song.
I missed out on the 6am super-skirmish because all of my computer and music stuff was put away as I was expecting people to turn up at the site where I was working.
At 2.41 in the afternoon I looked at the titles from the super-skirmishes that I had missed and took note of them as potential titles for things.
Then I realized that there was a super-skirmish going on at that moment and looked at 2.45. By 2.53 I had written the lyrics for Think Big. At eighteen minutes past three I did another of those review things where I looked at what hadn't been done yet.
I was at work again that night, so between eight and nine I took part in the skirmish that gave us the title That's All. Now, a guy named Woody on there said that he just couldn't stop thinking of Porky Pig which meant that it was stuck in my head. With that firmly there then, I just wrote a fun little song with both words and music (on the ukulele that I had with me) about my memories of Looney Toons. It was so much fun, especially the Porky Pig bit, I really smiled when I thought of that hook - "me na me na me na me na, that's all!" Brilliant - so much fun.
At three minutes past eleven I looked at Titular.
In some ways I think that I could possibly have spent less time creating an perhaps more time listening to other people's music. I'll see how it goes for next February as to how I work it. If the muse is good again next year, then that will almost certainly be the way that I go. It almost feels selfish that I was just paying attention to my own material, especially considering that I had already smashed the fourteen songs thing within the first five days alone I think it was.
Monday 25th February
Between 1.58 and 2.50 in the morning at work I worked on the music for the earlier skirmish based lyric Think Big, and recorded it. I had seen people's chord changes written out and there were some astonishing changes going on in the some of them, especially Hoopshank's stuff - wow! With those chord changes in mind, I thought of the Peter-Gabriel led Genesis era where there were some very dramatic melody lines that he had to sing. So I have a progression that goes, erm, F-Fm6-Bbm-D7-Bm,D7,Bm for the verses and D-Dmaj7-G7-F-D7-Bm-D7-Bm for the chorus. A song that I am really happy about in the end. The melody is just spot on (perhaps my singing of it isn't perfect), and I love the big chords. The words are good as well I think, but I am tempted to think of different words and expanding on it at some point. Not sure about the word changing though, hmm.
Between 4.20 and 4.38 in the morning I went online and joined a Google Plus hangout with some other people from FAWM. That was fun speaking with those people from all over the states and hearing their stories. I'll be taking part in more of them next time as well, that is for sure.
At 1.48 in the afternoon I looked on the forums for challenges. I saw one which was to "write a song using the sounds around you." Now, from that I got that it meant basing rhythm and feel on the sound of the things around you (washing machine, etc), but I thought "what about talking about the sounds that you hear around you while waiting for something and include those sounds in the actual song eventually (when I've written the music and recorded these sounds of course). I'd written the lyrics by 14 minutes past 2. I was looking at somebody waiting at home for their partner to come home with nothing to do while they waited, and mentioning the sounds that could be heard while they were waiting, because strangely enough when you're bored and have nothing to do, you notice all of those sounds. It's called 'A Waitin' On My Girl To Come Home'.
I have a few pieces on FAWM that are lyrics only, which is bugging me to be honest.
At nineteen minutes past five I looked on the obligatory Titular again, followed by me typing stuff out onto the FAWM website. I had been silly and deleted songs (lyrics only) from the FAWM website in a ridiculous attempt to take off things that I thought were "filler". I realized, through what other people said, that I had sort of missed a point to FAWM. Through putting up those songs, it is possible for others and yourself to see how you got from A to B, and there are also the times where people like the things that you don't so much (which has sort of happened with a couple of those sets of lyrics). That was one of many things that I have come out of FAWM learning.
Between 8.20 and 8.50 I did some more typing up and wrote tentative music for Tears of Their Peoples, which was a set of lyrics from very early on in the FAWM month. The music I put down was reggae based, but I think needs looking at in the future. I did more typing up of stuff (including what I had for the gospel music) between 9.40 and 10 at night, and finally at three minutes past eleven, yep another Titular visit.
Thank you reading, please take care.
28 February 2013 (42 years, 3 months, and 2 days old)
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