more after the divotAiyee. Who knows where it comes from, the song that appears in my hands and in my mouth. Another one appeared just before church on Sunday afternoon. I came back to it, yesterday afternoon, grimly working my way through verse-chorus-and-bridge, remembering what my Master told me about it. It can always be better; you can always tweak it. But the moments it pours out as a charism never cease to amaze me.
I’ve been writing songs for over 40 years. Nobody had to teach me how to do it; some people corrected the gift, some abetted it, and some people stomped on it. Life, given sun, air, earth and water, will find a way, and so did these songs. Some are better than others. In some cases I wrote the songs thinking of other people, in others, I was cradling a feeling only I could know and give voice to.
When I got the Kaossilator, I thought it was a toy, but I’m beginning to think it’s a consciousness expander for musicians. When I get to experiment with 20 different scales, can write in any key, and may be accompanied by a very large number of percussive rhythms (all 4/4, alas), I feel like the top of my head has been blown off and it will take me a while to get everything stuffed back in. The possibilities for my writing are, and have always been, endless.
One of my exercises for myself is to write a song in every key, and at least one song in the 10 or 15 most popular time signatures.
The batteries only last about 5 hours. This is unacceptable for me and the planet; I am going to go off today in search of a 4.5vdc power adapter. Also beer; I’m down to one an evening when I’m home.
