2014 SAC Challenge, Week 1

(I am creating 6 songs in 6 weeks)

Artist: Shera Shakera

Lyrics and Music by S. Katz

Week 1 Blog Overview by S.Katz

PART 1: Listen to my song

PART 2: Lyrics

PART 3: Epiphanies on the songwriting process

PART 4: The Assignment

PART 5: Song titles, themes, & first lines for inspiration to create my own ones

PART 1: Listen to my song

https://soundcloud.com/sherashakera/awayfromhere-bysherashakera

PART 2: Lyrics

Away from Here

Artist: Shera Shakera

Just a little place in the sun not far from here,

Bring me a glass of berry juice or your favorite kind,

I’ll select your favorite music as the background piece,

Just a little place for you is waiting here

Chorus:

Away to a little place

Don’t need to spend a lot

Just a little bit of time with you

Just a little place in the sun where snow is glistening

Bring me a bottle of anything that smells so good like you

We’ll drink together when we get to the mountain top

And then slide down together on a tube

Chorus

Away to a little place

Don’t need to spend a lot

Just a little bit of time with you

Bridge:

Even if you can’t get away

When life is swallowing you

Just stop for a minute

Cause you know there’s always something

You can do,

It takes only a minute to contact me

To share a little space with you

Outro:

Away to a little place (little space)

Away to a little place (a little space)

Don’t need to spend a lot

Just a little bit of time with you

It takes only a minute to contact me

To share a little space with you

PART 3: Epiphanies on the songwriting process

For details on how I chose the song title and first line, plus lyrics go to part 5 and read the paragraph at the bottom of this blog.

I found that by doing the exercise that I will describe in Parts 4 & 5, below, it was much easier to write this song. By writing out themes, titles and song line openings, it gives an incentive to get the creative juices flowing.

When I wrote this song, I thought about the theme of getting away from here, but also wanted to represent the idea that just spending a brief moment with someone that cares can bring about a similar feeling to the feeling one has when stopping what they have to do in life, to take a moment for themselves.

Then I sang the song a capella and thought of an appropriate melody at the same time, with a piano.

Then I sang the song again and added some musical accompaniment. Then I listened to a draft of my recorded song and typed up more lyrics so they would match the extra words that I improvised at the end of the song that I created, and then I did a final recording.

I may, in the future, rewrite the lyrics so that they match the song word for word. When adding musical accompaniment, I may not use the exact words that I started out with because when I sing I am sometimes improvising to find a better phrasing for my recordings.

Here's a more detailed example about improvising and phrasing. Notice that the final lyrics of the song are slightly different than those listed here. It’s because I noticed that when creating the music for this song, I felt the need to change some of the lyrics to match the music that I was creating and to match the mood of the song. So, for example for in my original line “Don’t need to spend a lot, Just a little bit of time with you”, I decided to sing it as “Don’t need to spend a lot of time, Just a little bit of time with you” because lyrically, it sounded better to sing “spend a lot of time”, so I added some words to the line when I was singing it.

PART 4: The Assignment

The songwriting challenge this week(week #1) is called:

Songstarters

The focus is to choose:

A title
A theme
An opening line

Titles may give you a hint on what is to follow.

Themes clarify the song direction

Opening lines set the mood, the story in motion, and get people curious.

The assignment:

Find 3 songs that inspire you, for each category.
Create 5 titles, 5 themes, 5 opening lines
Choose one of the 5 that you created.

PART 5: Song titles, themes, & first lines for inspiration to create my own ones

For this challenge, I am thinking of songs that were meaningful for me when I went through some murky waters.

Three titles that inspire me

1. “Time” by the Alan Parsons Project, written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.

“Time, flowing like a river, time, beckoning me” are the opening lines.

The theme is about being old and wise. The opening line has strong imagery, using the

river as a metaphor for life, which is very powerful.

Details about the song’s meaning: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=10294

2. “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince.

The opening lines are: “Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today, to get through this

thing called life.” The main theme is life and death, as the beginning sounds like a

eulogy, with a clever play on words because it comes across as a eulogy about life.

3. “Time after Time”, written by Cindi Lauper & Rob Hyman.

The opening lines are: “Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick, And think of you, Caught up in circles confusion Is nothing new.”

It’s a powerful opening because of the strong imagery, and tells us her location, the imagery of an alarm clock, and the thoughts that go through a person’s mind in that typical location (the bed).

The main theme is the concept of time, and memories that go with it.

The following article interpret’s the song and compares it to Shakespeare:http://lyricandlyrics.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/time-after-time-cyndi-lauper/

Three Opening Lines that inspire me

1. “Same Bed But It Feels Just a Little Bit Bigger Now” by Bruno Mars

where the title is “When I was your man” by Bruno Mars and the theme is Breaking Up, Regret, Learning from your mistakes.

2. “If you ever leave me baby, leave some morphine at my door” by Bruno Mars

where the title is “It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars and the themes are Regret, Breaking Up and Love.

3. “Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move, Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove,” by Led Zeppelin.

where the title is “Gonna Make You Sweat” By Led Zeppelin and the themes are having fun, getting all your frustrations out via exercise, jumping into the air, dancing.

Three Themes that inspire me

1."Hard Road" by Sam Roberts:

Themes: Life’s Difficulties, Travel, Memories.

2. "Don’t Stop Me Now" by Queen,

Themes: Having a Great Time.

3. "Babe" by Styx…Themes: Loneliness, Memories, and Missing You.

My Themes, Original Song Titles and Original Opening Lines that I created.

Themes I would like to use:

Time: Older and Wiser
Memories
Life’s Difficulties & Travel
Having Fun
Learning from your mistakes

5 original titles:

Wise Young Man
Hungered Soul
Away From Here
Dancing on Clouds
Next Time Is Better

5 original opening lines

I know a little more than before
Thoughts in my head I’ll never delete them
Just a little place in the sun not far from here,
Pick up your feet even if you can’t jump up
Screw it back on for it fell off but that mistake was already made

I have decided to go with the #3 title I made up, "Away From Here" because it speaks volumes to me, as when people talk about going away, taking a break, but they can't take time off but I want to express that there is always something that they can do which is to stop and take a moment, just find a little place, a little space, a little bit of time and maybe just take a little moment to be with a close one, a friend, make a connection.

Then take time to imagine the scenario and just put on some music, also I want to create positive imagery of canadian snow, tubing at the top of the mountain, drinking a healthy berry juice, a sunny day.

I am inspired by Billy Joel's line "a bottle of white, a bottle of red, perhaps a bottle of rosé instead."

So I chose my songstarter opening line number 3, "Just a Little Place in the Sun Not Far From Here."

I also took into consideration the video that I saw by Ralph Murphy about songwriting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wBOUJ5Mbrk

Peace & Love from:
Shera Shakera

AMS For Art Music Songs - Shera Shakera Artist

Saturday, 22 February 2014