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February, 2018:

Week #9: More Creative Goodies

This is going to be a “prose week” for me. I’m still working on a number of different creative ideas, including ratcheting up my guitar-playing skills so that I can create instrumentals. And also re-familiarizing myself with Logic Pro, so that I can record and produce at least some of my own stuff. These are important projects for me to be working on, even if it takes me a while to turn out anything I can share with you.

I created new lyrics/prose on four out of seven days this past week, and was working on my other creative-related projects (above) on two of the other days. So I’m still spending time trying to focus on my creative self every day, though I can improve on that.

I *did* get what might turn into part of a song at some future time. I was thinking about my time in the Virgin Islands last June, remembering how polite and friendly everyone was down there. And I came up with a very rough verse and a possible chorus. At the moment, it seems to be about the entirety of the USVI, but I may narrow that down, broaden it, or do something else with it going forward. Here’s today’s very rough draft, for your enjoyment:

Looking eagerly out the window, as the plane came in to land

The runway’s gotten longer and the planes have gotten stronger

Since my first trip down with my family, when I was a very young man

Some things look familiar and others strange; there have been so many changes

 

“Good morning, good afternoon, good evening”

People will greet you every day

From the streets of Charlotte Amalie to the beach at Fredriksted

The Virgin Islands are where I want to lay my head

Creative Thing Week #8: Wonderful Life

In our last exciting episode, I described how I hadn’t managed to finish anything for last week, despite having spent some significant time up at the South Jetty in Venice, observing life and writing stuff down, among other things.

Well, this week, among other things, I’ve used a lot of that material in a new song. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

One big difference this week was that I spent more time focused on working with my creative muses. I’d like to get to “daily,” but this week I only had one day on which I didn’t create at least a couple of lines of doggerel, so that’s pretty close. And yesterday I dug into the accumulated lyrics of the week, and pulled out and assembled this song. Again, it’s likely not the best thing I’ve ever written, but it’s more or less complete (the bridge is a bit sparse) and it has music. I think I had some Jim Morris running through my head while creating lyrics, because the song at this point definitely has that sort of feel to it.

You probably want to hear the song now, right? Well, here it is: https://youtu.be/_g1dNFU5TmA

In addition, I managed to spend a bit of time brainstorming with a couple of my fellow artists on Friday, in between their sets. In the process, I came up with a chorus for something they’ve both been noodling on a bit, and got some constructive feedback on an old idea I’ve been knocking around for years. It was a helpful reminder of one of the reasons why I live here now, where my fellow artists track through fairly regularly.

I’m learning some worthwhile things about my creative flow and process, doing this exercise. And I’m already eight weeks in! 🙂

Copyright © Loren Davidson, all rights reserved

To buy any of Loren’s music, go to iTunes and search on “Loren Davidson.”

Or buy Loren’s music on CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LorenDavidson

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Loren’s Website: http://www.lorendavidson.com

Loren’s Facebook artist page: http://www.facebook.com/lorendavidsonmusic

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Creative Thing Week #7: I Fuck Up.

I got nothing.

Well, not exactly. I’ve created a bunch of lyrics, many of which are on similar themes in support of a couple of ideas I had around being by the water, dolphins, etc. Hell, I made a special trip to the beach today to try to get it together.

And it didn’t quite work. I got home; I got distracted. I did not meet my goal.

Yes, some of it is that I don’t dedicate regular time to creative work. Maybe I’ll manage to try that, and not try to pull an all-nighter on Saturday or Sunday.

My commitment is to be accountable through this journey, as I work on this stuff. Yeah, I’ve created three new songs in the last six weeks. That’s pretty awesome. But I ain’t done what I said I’d do for this week.

And I have to live with that, and figure out how to do better.

Thanks for listening.

Creative Thing #6: First Step (new song)

So Saturday morning arrived, and I was still about as idea-challenged as the guy who tried breaking a car window with his head. And I needed something by Monday.

And then I got an idea: Go through some of the song pitch requests that I get every day, find something that I can write to, and write something. So I picked a request looking for “travel songs” (because that *should* be in my wheelhouse) and listened to about five examples that had the feel they were looking for. Most of these used the same approximate groove, so that gave me a place to start. I picked up the guitar and started mucking around with chords and the groove, and trying out possible lyrics that might work for a hook.

After noodling with this for a bit, I started converging on a chorus idea, “take the first step.” I wanted to make it a love song, so I made sure there were two characters in it. And after getting a chorus, I had to make verses work.

In this case, I noticed that at least one of the examples was a contemporary folk song, with contemporary melodic phrasing. So I decided to do that in the verses, giving me contrast between verses and chorus. And then I kept beating stuff around until I had two halfway-decent verses and a passable bridge. A bit of refinement, and I have the “draft and a half” version that I recorded on Sunday afternoon before running off to play some Pokemon.

I don’t think the song is done. I’m not even sure it’s usable, and it’ll require a fair bit of work. But I’m proud of being able to create a song “to spec” in a very few hours, and I’m proud that I *finished* the blessed thing.

Give it a listen here, and let me know what you think: https://youtu.be/Y25cVGuAnQU

And if you like what I’m doing, please feel free to support me using the following links:

 

Copyright © Loren Davidson, all rights reserved

To buy any of Loren’s music, go to iTunes and search on “Loren Davidson.”

Or buy Loren’s music on CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LorenDavidson

 

Just want to help support me in making more music? http://www.digitaltipjar.com/lorendavidson

 

Loren’s Website: http://www.lorendavidson.com

Loren’s Facebook artist page: http://www.facebook.com/lorendavidsonmusic

Loren’s ReverbNation artist page: http://www.reverbnation.com/lorendavidson