New Life
It’s too hot to work outside. So, I stayed inside, read a book, and worked on a song I was writing. There was a time when I’d would have never admitted I was writing a song, because it sounded a little pretentious. But I enjoy writing songs, and singing them, too. I like picker’s circle’s and singing for my friends and just playing by myself in the bedroom. So, I ought to be able to talk about it. It’s my hobby.
I had some help from my oldest son on the latest effort. I was writing in a minor key and couldn’t figure out how to end the song. We traded recordings and talked about scales, and chords and harmonics. Turns out, in my effort to keep the minor key from being to down I used too many major chords from the minor key. Thus, my ear thought I was in the major key. So, I got rid of some of the major chords while keeping pretty much the same melody and presto, it ended. Resolved. Oh, and it’s still up tempo.
Now I’ll get it ready for public display which likely happen in August when I go to Marathon for a music festival. We will gather at night at one of the houses we’re renting and add our songs to the evening air, and we’ll have several days of friendship, laughter, and music. It will be sweet and fine. And that’s how my new life runs these days, right between the lines drawn by my books and my music.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale