the mechanical method of writing a song...

Sent: Sat, December 12, 2009 1:46:09 AM
Subject: my diary/lyrics-songbook - (mechanical way of writing lyrics)

dear diary,

let me continue this discussion of the mechanical way of writing a song
by saying that we went to sleep after i listened a couple of times to
the tune we recorded in a cassette tape.

when i woke up early next morning, i started replaying the melody on the
tape, while at the same time  trying to write down words to match the
notes in the said melody or to match each of the six notes in each of
the four lines in the main verse, and the seven notes in each of the
four lines in the chorus.

again, this took a while, but by noon, i already completed writing the
lyrics of this song, with two verses and a chorus.

i then asked ka art to memorize the tune and sing the lyrics in
accordance with that tune. and as they say, the rest is history. maybe,
not quite in any significant way. but just the same, the lyrics went
this way.

first verse -

i will love - 3 notes
you so much - 3 notes
you're my joy - 3 notes
you're my life - 3notes
i'll be there - 3 notes
when you're sad - 3 notes
care for you - 3 notes
oh my love - 3 notes

chorus -

love me too - 3 notes
with all your heart - 4 notes
care for me - 3 notes
when i am sad - 4 notes
laugh with me - 3 notes
when i am glad - 4 notes
stay, stay with - 3 notes
me oh my love - 4 notes

second verse

please don't go - 3 notes
please don't go - 3 notes
think of all - 3 notes
we've been through - 3 notes
say you'll stay - 3 notes
here and now - 3 notes
i'll be sad - 3 notes
if you go - 3 notes

eventually we had to modify the chorus  by adding an extra note so we
could make the lyrics say ..." love me too with all of your heart... so
the first line of the chorus had to have 8 notes instead of the original
7 notes that we used as a pattern for forming the chorus but we were
able to maintain the 7-note pattern for the rest of the lines in the
chorus.

so it seems, all we did was fill the blanks in a quiz.

we decided from the start that we were going to write the song based on
the pattern of six notes for each of the four lines of the main verse
and a pattern of 7 notes for each of the four lines of the chorus. these
were all the blanks that we had to fill.

and these were the same blanks that i had to fill in writing the lyrics
of this song.

but like i said, we had to modify the first line of the chorus to
accomodate the lyrics that i wrote for that line.

and much later, i again had to modify the chorus by adding another two
lines at the end thereof to accomodate the following ...

"please say you'll stay with me oh my lo-oh-ove,
please say you'll stay with me oh my love..."

the above in short is the mechanical way of writing a song.

it would have been more convenient of course, if i knew how to write
down the songs i wrote in a muscial sheet in which case i wouldn't have
had to make an audio recording of them or even to memorize them if only
in order to have a transcript so to speak of the melodies thereof.

i guess this should bring us to the conclusion of this email.

december 11, 2009

bomboy