Working on my 1st album
I’ve always wanted to create an album, and I’m finally working on it!
Maybe it’s the feeling of the clock ticking since I just turned 35 years old, or seeing through the excuses I’ve made in the past to delay starting this project. Or maybe it’s just recognizing that everything happens when it’s meant to, and I’ve ripened sufficiently as an artist to share something that feels authentic.
In any case, I’m excited to share this collection of original songs and standards that have special significance to me. They pay tribute to the musicians that inspired me to sing and play piano, as well as the wonderful friends, teachers and mentors I’ve had the opportunity to work with.
I’ve featured five arrangements in progress here, which will continue to evolve as I bring this project to completion.
Thanks for listening and supporting my work! 🙂
You’ve Got To Do It
On starting and first drafts…
The first song I want to present is a song by Fred Rogers called “You’ve Got To Do It.”
I didn’t grow up watching Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood, but ever since I became a dad I’ve enjoyed learning more about this remarkable man and the impact he had on children through his TV program and his music. Fred wrote many of the songs on his show and when I heard the lyrics to this song, it immediately resonated with me. Here is the original recording as a reference.
Lyrics:
You can make-believe it happens, or pretend that something’s true.
You can wish or hope or contemplate a thing you’d like to do,
But until you start to do it, you will never see it through
‘Cause the make-believe pretending just won’t do it for you.
You’ve got to do it.
Every little bit, you’ve got to do it, do it, do it, do it
And when you’re through, you can know who did it
For you did it, you did it, you did it.
If you want to ride a bicycle and ride it straight and tall,
You can’t simply sit and look at it ’cause it won’t move at all.
But it’s you who have to try it, and it’s you who have to fall
If you want to ride a bicycle and ride it straight and tall.
You’ve got to do it.
Every little bit, you’ve got to do it, do it, do it, do it
And when you’re through, you can know who did it
For you did it, you did it, you did it.
It’s not easy to keep trying, but it’s one good way to grow.
It’s not easy to keep learning, but I know that this is so:
When you’ve tried and learned you’re bigger than you were a day ago.
It’s not easy to keep trying, but it’s one way to grow.
You’ve got to do it.
Every little bit, you’ve got to do it, do it, do it, do it
And when you’re through, you can know who did it
For you did it, you did it, you did it.
Music Overview:
I love the simple story-telling quality of this song, both in the melody and in the words. One of the choices I made for this cover was to play the verses in time instead of rubato. Then when it goes to the chorus, I went from a 2-feel to a 4-feel with the walking bass. I love the extra 2 beats in the chorus. That’s definitely one of the hippest moments in the song!
There’s something quintessentially jazzy in the way the lyrics repeat, “do it, do it, do it, do it…” The repetition of those words reminded me of a scat solo, which inspired the full scat shout chorus about 2/3rds of the way through the song. I feel like I could still come up with a stronger ending, but overall, this is one of the tracks I’m happiest with so far!
Insights & Reflections:
For each song, I’ll share a few insights about what I learned while working on it.
Starting is often the hardest part of creating something. You play with it in your head, mulling over different ideas, but starting requires making a decision and committing to one version of all the possibilities that could exist. As Mr Rogers reminds us, “…until you start to do it, you will never see it through / ‘Cause the make-believe pretending just won’t do it for you.”
Playing with ideas in your head is easy. But recording them?
What helped me get past the resistance of recording was to recognize the power of drafts. The novelist Anne Lamott, in her book Bird by Bird gives some great advice for writers. “Shitty first drafts… all good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.”
The same goes for musicians. We need to just hit record, move our hands, and get that first draft out. Once it’s out of your head, you can listen back to it. You might hear a lot of things you don’t like, and some that you do. That’s the key… to just keep starting.
Of course, it helps to make some decisions up front. What is the key? How many beats per minute? What style do I want for this? (Swing / Ballad / Bossa / etc) What is the form? What mood or feeling am I going for? All these questions help create an outline and help guide the decisions for the first draft.
After that, it’s just about keeping the hands moving and getting out of the way. I’ll talk more about this later because oftentimes, our inner critic wants get involved and that can make the process a lot more difficult than it needs to be.
Pure Imagination
On inspiration and our inner child…
The next song I wanted to record is the classic, “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka, written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. With its captivating lyrics and beautiful melody, this song has been covered hundreds of times.
Lyrics:
Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination
We'll begin with a spin
Traveling in the world of my creation
What we'll see will defy
Explanation
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it
There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free
If you truly wish to be
Music Overview:
For this song, I wanted to go capture the dreamy quality of it with a Bossa feel. From the moment the opening melody leaps a 5th to become the minor 11 on the Fm7, I feel like I’m floating. This song has such a great hook, and the melodic development only gets better as the phrase continues.
I played it in the original key of Eb, and open the track with a pedal on the V to set up the groove. On the end of the B section with the words “there’s nothing to it", I added some extra chords, although the rhythm felt a bit stiff with the Band in a Box backing track I used. I think I’d prefer to stretch the time a bit when I record it live.
Speaking of backing tracks, all these recordings use bass and drum samples. I found it a great way to explore ideas. Of course I want to record these with a live drummer and bass player, but for my early drafts, Band in a Box is great tool to use.
The ending has an elongated vamp, sustaining the drifty atmosphere for this song.
Insights & Reflections:
What is imagination anyway? The Oxford dictionary defines it as, “the faculty or action of forming new ideas, images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.”
With music, we imagine the sounds we want to create. For me, it helps to close my eyes and vocalize the melody. I ask myself, “what does the music want to do?” And pretty soon something will bubble up to the surface. It could be a bass idea, a rhythm, or a certain chord voicing that fits the feeling I have inside. I often try to record these ideas quickly on my phone without judging them as they come.
If I’m feeling a lack of inspiration, sometimes I’ll listen to some songs or artists that have a similar style to what I’m going for, and this will get the creative juices flowing. Something unique could jump out at me which could jumpstart my own process.
Underlying all of this is something essential that we all knew how to do as children: playing. When you tell a child to play, they just do it without effort. They take the first thing that comes to mind and go with it. They don’t second-guess themselves.
I had an important moment in one of my lessons where one of my teachers Reggie Berg was helping me with this. He could tell I was overthinking, and he started asking me some questions about things I liked to do as a kid. I described to him one of my favorite comics that I used to read about a little creature named Marsupilami.
He said, “Ok great! Now play that.”
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“Just play what you described…” He instructed me.
I sat down and played the first thing that came to mind. It was silly, it was a bit weird, but it was also incredibly fun. After doing this exercise three or four times, I was laughing because I got what he was talking about. I remembered that feeling of “just playing” without any inhibition. I felt reconnected to my inner child.
Children have an endless wellspring of creative ideas. For them, using their imagination is effortless. As adults, when we “play” or give our selves permission to do something creative, we often carry expectations and our inner critic starts talking. Will this be any good? Why am I doing this? Am I wasting my time?
This is the lesson I wanted to share when I reflect on the song “Pure Imagination.” We all have access to this wellspring of creativity, even if we haven’t used it for years. All you have to do is invite your inner child to play.
Living there you’ll be free if you truly wish to be!
On the Street Where You Live
On process and fixing things together
“On the Street Where You Live” is a song from the musical My fair Lady, written by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay. It’s also the first song I learned when I started taking voice lessons in high school.
Lyrics:
I have often walked down this street before
But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before
All at once am I several stories high
Knowing I'm on the street where you live
Are there lilac trees in the heart of town?
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
Does enchantment pour out of ev'ry door?
No, it's just on the street where you live
And oh, the towering feeling
Just to know somehow you are near
The overpowering feeling
That any second you may suddenly appear
People stop and stare; they don't bother me
For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be
Let the time go by, I won't care if I
Can be here on the street where you live
Music Overview:
To me, this song expresses that giddy feeling of excitement that one feels when they’re in love. I wanted to capture this feeling with an upbeat rendition of the song. It opens with a rhythmic and motivic hook based on the end of the the A section (“No it’s just, on the street, where you live.”) This hook repeats throughout to express the breathless excitement.
For the intro, I was limited to vocal / piano but I think it would sound nice to have the drums and bass reinforce the rhythm when I record it live. I added some variety from one section to the next, starting with a stripped down first verse with just vocals / bass. The 4 feel comes in on the solo, and if you listen closely you might hear a loose quotation of another song from the musical My Fair Lady. Can you guess it?
The Count Basie ending after the tag is a bit sloppy with the backing track, but I’ll fix that later! I enjoy how this one turned out so far.
Insights & Reflections:
My first draft of this song sounded really bland. Totally vanilla… I just played it straight through. But it’s interesting what happens though when you give your brain a creative problem to solve. Your subconscious mind will work on it even when you’re asleep! I woke up one morning and had the exact idea for what I wanted to do with the form of this song. After about an hour of recording, I was able to put this arrangement together. It’s a great reminder to me not to get hung up on a first draft of a song.
Have you ever wondered where the word “art” comes from? I love looking at the etymology of words to get insight into the layers of meaning behind it. According to the online Etymology Dictionary, “art” comes from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to fit together." The Latin word artem describes art as, “a skill as a result of learning and practice.”
This is exactly what it comes down to… The skill of making music, painting, or any other art form is simply about “fitting things together.” And we do that everyday, don’t we? Whether it’s figuring out which pants to wear with a shirt, or which ingredients to put into a dish. With music, we take a melody, fit it with the harmony, and then find a way to organize those sounds in a unique and cohesive way with the instruments we’re using.
This happens on a micro level within the song, and also on a macro level across the album. The goals is to create a cohesive sonic palate with the instrumentation, while also having enough variety in the songs and styles to keep it interesting.
Why Do I Fall In Love?
On composing and accountability
“Why Do I Fall In Love” is an original song I wrote in 2016. I dedicated this song to my wife and muse Ariel.
Lyrics
Why do I fall in love, every time we meet? One tiny glance and my heart can skip a beat I know I’m the hopeless romantic, it’s true But I’ll keep wishing that you are too
How do I fall in love, every time we meet? You say a word and I’m dancing in the street Is it sad, am I foolish, or wrong… who’s to say? This is a game only two can play
Hoping that you would just notice me Suddenly your eyes met mine And in that moment my heart started glowing The time stood still
If we could fall in love, wouldn’t it be sweet? Just say the word and my life would be complete There’s so much of me that I could share with you So let’s make our wildest dreams come true
Music Overview:
This is a song I wrote where the lyrics guided the music. I felt that I wanted to keep the recording simple and keep the focus on the words. It’s an intimate ballad where the truism “less is more” definitely applies. No solos needed.
The song reminds me a bit of one of my favorite jazz ballads, “The Way You Look Tonight” with some of the chord progressions. The song uses a lot of turnarounds and also modulates up a minor third on the B section. There’s also a section toward the end of the B section that is reminiscent of a part of “Waltz For Debby.” It’s an interesting thing when I compose, I don’t consciously think of other songs, but the harmonies that I’ve digested from other songs find a way of being recycled with new melodies and forms.
Just like in language, we don’t invent our own vocabulary and grammar. Nobody would understand anything! In the same way with music, we learn the vocabulary of melody and grammar of harmony to share something original.
Insights & Reflections
If there’s one thing that can help you stick to a goal, it’s having an accountability partner. Back in February when I started this project, I shared it with some close friends and with my wife, Ariel.
I’m grateful for her support in starting this project, and she said she would hold me to it. Every month, she told me to share a new song with her. “Why do I Fall in Love” was the first song I recorded, and the timing worked out so that I had it ready for our anniversary on March 16th. I couldn’t wait to share it with her!
We’re social creatures, and it helps to have some accountability when working on a creative goal. Doing it for yourself is fine, but when you’ve told someone you’re doing it, you gotta follow through!
Nature Boy
On finding meaning
"Nature Boy" is a song made famous by the American singer Nat King Cole. It was written by eden ahbez, a composer who was part of an early hippie group in the 1940’s.
Lyrics:
There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise was he
And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things
Fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return"
Music Overview:
Nature boy is one of those musical gems that contains a perfect marriage or words and melody. Set in a minor key, it feels both “strange and enchanting,” like the boy the song is written about.
This recording is still very much in a draft form, but I have a general idea of what I want to do with it. I opened the beginning with a Phrygian sound palate that hints at the melody. The tremolos express the "wandering” and the unsettled feeling the song starts with. One of my favorite albums that I listened to growing up by Keith Jarrett is called “Dark Intervals” and it has similar textures that I love.
I then went into a slow bossa groove, which I’m not sure works. I went with it because I needed to finish my draft, but I may try another version where I stay more out of time and continue the tremolo textures further. We shall see!
Insights & Reflections:
To me this song speaks about the journey back ourselves, to the inner child, and to the pure essence of what we are. This essence / awareness / consciousness knows that the purpose behind everything we do is one simple word: love. To love and be loved in return. This is the greatest thing we’ll ever learn, both in our relationships and with ourselves.
It makes me think of love expressed as our gifts. Our gifts and talents are given to us to be shared. I sometimes have felt an internal struggle in thinking that working on my art is somehow selfish, when in fact it’s the very opposite. These songs and musical interpretations are gifts that I’ve received inspiration for and that are simply moving through me to be shared. They exist to uplift others and to remind them of their own creative callings and spark.
Thank you for listening and reading if you’ve gotten this far!
It’s taken a lot of inner work to pursue this project. The path is made by walking, so they say. It’s true… you have to eventually face the fears, the avoidance, and the doubt, while going forward anyway. The funny thing is that once you’re past those feelings, you remember how much fun the creative process can be.
As I continue working on these songs, I’ll share more of my thought process and ideas. Hopefully, what I learn along the way can also serve you in your artistic journey.
If you have an artistic project that you’re waiting to start on, begin it! You have the music within you. Set it free…