Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Jammin'

Monday, my big accomplishment was that I wrote a song in full, lyrics and all! Which is wild because normally in a day I'll just get a spark, if anything at all, for a new song. The song is titled "The Three of Us" and it's out of my writing norm in that I usually write around a guitar part, but this is vocals with some strumming. I might add in some fancier parts for the guitar, but nothing much. I wrote it about two of my best friends who both live in South Carolina. I've known both of them since I was in 7th grade, one is my age (Colby) and one is a year older (Landon). We are all big Harry Potter nuts, so we call ourselves Moony (me), Padfoot (Landon), and Prongs (Colby). What is weird is, we've all sort of adapted traits of these characters along our lives. So there's a reference to that in the song..."We got two paw prints and some big strong antlers...". I'll post the rest of the lyrics at the bottom of the post, along with a vid. A lot has happened to us since we've become our own little family. I moved back down to FL halfway through 9th grade, which was so difficult, I loved it there. And Colby, who has anxiety, constantly worried about me losing touch and what not. It's been 3 years now and we've only gotten closer :) But late last year, Landon started talking about joining the Navy because it had such great benefits, and he'd be able to travel which is exactly what he wants to be doing. That made both Colby and I very worried, especially Colb. The past month, Colb has been so frightened that we're all going to lose touch due to college and Lando joining the navy. And it scares me too, but not half as bad. So all this is referenced in the song, looking on the bright side of things and putting trust in love. I played the song live monday night at Churchill's pub and got a great reaction from the crowd, even though I completely went blank on the lyrics and had to improvise a bit.

Today had it's ups and a down. After the Wise meeting at school, I went to MAE Music Store to pick up a mic cable I needed to make my microphone work through my computer since the power supply finally came in! When I walked in the store, I decided to have a bit of fun before I got to buying, and I went straight to the Acoustic room to check out some 12 string guitars. I picked up a Martin 12 string and started playing a tune I recently wrote and it sounded 100 times better. I got a bit excited :) While I was playing, the other guy in the room who had a Taylor 12 string in his hand started jamming a bit with my tune. Well that sounded good, so we talked a bit (his name is Mike) and kept jamming on some different stuff. Everything sounded so great! A guy I had walked by on my way in apparently heard us and walked in the room and picked up another guitar and started playing and talking with us (his name is Joseph). Another guy came in for a short while and played one song with us too. So we all sat there talking a playing, even drawing a crowd, and I got to play and sing Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin while Joseph busted out a harmonica. Two and a half hours passed and Mike shot up and exclaimed, "Damn! I have to be on stage in 45 minutes! I gotta go!". He invited us to his gig, unfortunately I couldn't make it, but I had a blast with the guys! It was so cool to just be able to hear what someone was playing and go along with it, making great music to listen to. When someone would start a song, I'd make up a second guitar part and we'd go from there, adding solos and vocals. Way fun. Then I came home and had a guitar lesson with A.J. Niilo, and interviewed him as well. The most difficult part of the lesson was when he showed me how to play La Grange by ZZ Top. The song requires an intensely strong pinkie. My pinkie is currently lacking in its strength, but I now have some good workouts for the little guy and I'll be able to play La Grange soon, yay! After that, tried getting my mic setup to work, and yet again I'm left in frustrated tears as it's not working. Another quest I have for this week is to get that thing working so I can record with some better quality!! Soon...soon.

The Three of Us



The sky was leopard printed and Lucy was there in all her finest jewels, 
we were spending the evening all wrapped up in the afternoon. 

Time mocks us cuz it moves too fast and 
we're left in the envy over what would never last, 
but you and I were built far too strong. 

We rise and we fall
Like bridges in the war but the bricks don't 
matter 'cuz we become the dust before the winds of change 

But before ya know it we'll be right back here, 
making good times like we never left eachothers arms, 
laughing at time Like we knew all along

We got two paw prints and big strong antlers
We fit together like the birds of a feather
You may sail the seas boy but I know you're comin home

Anxiety ridden and always full of fear
But you're the bravest lion with the tug of an ear
You might not be at my side but you're always near



2 comments:

  1. Wowww...ok well I'm supposed to be learning the guitar and doing similar stuff but now I'm not so sure. Hahahaa omg you're really good. Great, making me more nervous lol. Well you did a really good job, keep it up and by the end of the year you could be like..famous or something haha.

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  2. lol don't compare yourself to other people now if you're just learning. But what would be really good for you is to play with other people, start learning some songs, and maybe your own songs will start coming out :) And if you ever want someone to jam with, and maybe show you some stuff, I'd be happy to

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