Songwriting

 I started writing songs when I was ten years old. Songs call to me like a spirit. She helps me explain my feelings and describe my life stories. I am a strong auditory person .I listen hear tunes, see pictures in my mind, feel emotions, and I start singing. I often spend time repeating the chorus over and over until I am sure I will remember it and it is the tune I like.  When I plan to publish a song for an audience I will spend many hours working on the words and the tune.  I sometimes solicit advice from musicians like my husband   and friend Larry to broaden the musical composition of the song. I might do well to have a partner who has the musical ability to transcribe, create harmonies, and improve the overall quality of the song.

 Quiet time is mostly essential for song writing. The best spots to write or pre write I should say are at home alone, riding my bicycle, taking a long drive or road trip, sitting on a bus for many hours, sitting in nature and generally away from the company of people.  Song writing gives me great satisfaction. It fulfills my need to express myself creatively. In addition, it gives  great joy and happiness to others when a I sing a well written song with a melodic lyrical tune. I have written love songs, girlfriend love songs, lost and lonely songs,  nature songs, angry songs, religious rejection songs, political and funny songs, satirical songs (that have hurt peoples feelings) inspirational songs, spiritual songs, kids songs, my  son Kenny’s songs and more. Songwriting is an escape into a musical world that is unknown, mysterious and relentlessly demands that I write the song until it is finished! In reality there is a song for every second of time and every precious moment of life.

 My first polished song was about my dog who punctured my red four square ball with its sharp German Sheppard canines. I was the four square queen in 4^th grade and loved to practice with my ball at home. I was very angry at Mochschnell for destroying yet another ball of mine for which I had saved my own money. I realized I must have had some song writing ability when in 8^th grade Jeannie Glatzmayer tried to pawn off my, “Leave me Alone” song as her own. Jeannie was a good friend, even though she stole my sweater,   and we would sit in the tree fort  at the end of my driveway  singing and making up little jingles like ”Time and time again you make me happy. Time and time again you make me sad”.  These were perfect descriptions of our relationships with our  boyfriends and mothers.

 I have often written songs for educational purposes. When I first started teaching English as a second language to beginning levels of English learners I would write songs that utilized the vocabulary and themes I was trying to teach. For food and restaurant vocabulary the song “Lola” was a great hit. And of course I supplemented my songs with famous songs from the radio and movies that were helpful for fluency, articulation and further vocabulary development such as “Food Glorious Food” from the musical,  “Oliver”.

At twenty years of age I wrote  ”Coffee Trees” which was about the  working conditions of the people in the coffee plantations in El Salvador. It was December 1978 three months before the first civil war in El Salvador I had no idea that I was in the middle of a political hotbed that ws about to explode into a civil war. I had been living with a senator’s family in Izalco,   El Salvador. They were landowners of coffee plantations. One  day,  armed with their guns they took me to their plantation for pay day. It was a shock to see the poverty the people lived under, children running around with white burlap coffee sacks as clothes. The scene of being pulled by cart with oxen inspired me to write “Coffee Trees” While sitting on a bus and gazing at the countryside I remember the melody calling to me. Here are a couple of verses from the song.

 Little children wearing white cotton sacks.
They work along side their mothers and fathers.
Babies clinging to their mamas breasts
as she picks the ripe beans.
under the shade of the coffee trees.

After a days work
The owners pull in.
They weigh the sacks and pay the workers.
Sometimes the people wait in line until ten.
For their 1.50 a day.
beneath the coffee trees.

How do I know if a song is “good”? I suppose in many ways I don’t care. If someone else thinks it is good, it is satisfying yet not essential. I remember writing   a song after climbing Mt. Whitney and returning to Lone Pine, the nearest small town, without my car key.  It began, ”I am stuck in Lone Pine. It feels like forever. You see I lost my key on the top of Mt. Whitney….  I loved that song yet I remember my friend commenting that it wasn’t    very interesting. The song had meaning for me however. That was what was important. But, when I am writing a song for a particular audience or know there will be people listening to it I put a great deal of effort into getting it ready for the audience.

Sometimes I write songs for special events such as a birthday, a roasting, or a teacher strike. I often spontaneously create songs for my nine year old son. He loves to sing songs with me and loves most of the songs I sing about him.
One of our favorites when he was younger was called Roly  Poly  Boy.

My most profound songwriting experience was in   Sedona, Arizona.  I was with some women friends on a retreat in the red, rock mountains of the desert country.   We  were visiting ancient Indian dwellings.  Suddenly, I felt dizzy and overcome with a heavy dizziness. I sat down and my three friends joined me. I began chanting a song in a language I did not know and  with a harmony.  My friends joined in and the song became a round.  I could see the ancient people dancing and I told my friends what I saw.  For me,  that was a supremely  great time!

Writing songs and music have always provided me with the opportunity to be creative and uniquely express a part of me that is longing to sing,   dance and fly !  I hope to continue writing for whomever or wherever I am at a given moment..  Maybe someday I will make a CD. But until then I’ll keep writing and singing away.

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