Whoops

Oh my goodness!!! I seriously forgot how long it had been since the last time I posted! I've been pretty busy over these last few months but I'm finally back (and hopefully I won't take such a big hiatus next time - for my 2 followers who aren't myself :D ). I've learnt a lot about music recently, especially from the music gen ed paper I'm taking at uni, and I've been experimenting a lot as well. So I think this update needs to be in bullet points:

•  I've actually been getting some good chord progressions going recently. In the past any attempts to write music on my own would result in a Brian Eno-ish ambience with no particular direction but now I've been putting together some useful stuff.
• I bought the special edition of Viva La Vida by Coldplay off iTunes the other day. I know it's been out for a couple of years now and they have released another album (albeit a live album with no new songs) since but there has been so little decent music released this year and I've wanted to get it for a while so I finally decided to. And yeah. It's awesome. And musically inspiring as well.
• I've been listening to slightly more esoteric music lately (grooveshark.com is a brilliant place to find music you've always wanted to listen to but don't want to buy unless it's rubbish). I am now a fan of Radiohead (thanks Jesse), Hans Zimmer, and Pink Floyd but I still don't like Florence and the Machine. Bands need to hear more of include Gorillaz, Arctic Monkeys, and The Doors.
• You might have noticed I've included Lost? by Coldplay in the 'What I'm Playing' list. I'm trying to pick up the piano version, hence the ? since the normal version of Lost ends with !, but it's a lot harder than it sounds. Chris Martin isn't amazing on the piano but he's probably better than me :(
• I've almost finished my transcription of Uprising and I'll try to get it done and uploaded to scribd soon. Watch for the link.

I think that pretty much sums things up for now. I've got a lot of ideas for posts so keep an eye on this page over the next couple of weeks cos I'm going to try to get most of them up.

A Rather Long 'Waffle' on Lyrics

Good lyrics are hard to come by. And, as I've found out, even harder to write. I don't think that the problem is so much the actual content of the lyrics how clever you use the words, although that is important for a good song. No, the problem is that to really make a meaningful song you need to really mean the lyrics you sing. REALLY mean them so that it's like you're pouring out all your innermost feelings as you're singing your song. For example, why is Tears of Heaven so amazing? Because Eric Clapton had just lost his wife to cancer (or something) and was pouring out all his emotions in that one song. And every time he sang it he truly meant every single word.


There are stories behind almost every famous song ever written. The songs are famous because they had such a strong meaning and the artist(s) sang with all their heart. When I write music I want it to be like that. But I'm stuck on my first piece. I've got a pretty OK verse and part of another pretty OK verse but I still don't know where it's going. I'm glad it's not just my song.


Have you noticed most great songs weren't written by just one person? McCartney and Lennon sometimes worked together, Brian May often assisted Freddie Mercury, and even Coldplay songs are never (afaik) attributed to only Chris Martin. It's been really cool working with Jesse so far because whenever I start to get off track or put down something that doesn't sound right he lets me know and vice versa. I couldn't have got this far without you bro. Our songwriting 'chemistry' (for want of a better word) so far is kinda akin to Switchfoot. In a similar way to Jon Foreman I mucked around with some chords and came up with a couple of progressions that sounded good which Jesse changed a bit and set them to a new rhythm. Then after discussing topics for lyrics we wrote a verse and a bit together. And now, having tried to get a bit further on my own I'm stuck.


The good thing, though, is that it's not long until Monday and our next session and if our last (well actuall our first) one was anything to go by we should get a fair bit done. We've got some good chord progressions now so hopefully we can get some good lyrics now. Can't wait!

On Song Writing and Song Transcriptions .....

I meant to post this on Wednesday evening but never got around to it. I was going to explain the exact whats and whys of the songs I'm currently playing but it's rather long and not very interesting unless you're me :) so instead I'm going to talk about my latest project. The song at the top of the list marked 'Untitled'.

So what is that?

For a while I've wanted to try and actually write some music of my own. As much as playing music is cool writing music sounds so much cooler but every time I sit down to start I muck around with a couple of chord progressions, decide it sounds boring, and 5 minutes later hear the same progression in one of my favourite songs where it sounds really awesome.

So eventually me and my friend Jesse decided to get together to write a song. We've got quite a few good chord progressions together for verses, a pre-chorus, and a chorus and we've written words for a verse and a half so far. It's coming along well and I'll keep you up to date with it as we work on it.

On another note: I've been scouring the internet for an accurate transcription of Uprising but haven't been able to find one so I'm doing it myself. When it's finished I'll upload it here. It will have both the actual melody and my interpretation in manuscript and chords so keep an eye out for it :)

On Entering the Blogosphere ........

(aka My First Post)


This was not something I ever planned to do. But here I am in the wide world of the blogosphere.
My idea for this post is to let you know what the scheme (if you will) of this blog is and what to expect.

Well as to the first point this blog is meant to be a journal of my musical undertakings: songs I'm learning, writing and covering. I will try to keep you up to date with what I'm doing and upload videos of stuff I've completed (if I ever complete anything) along with manuscript and/or chord/lead sheets.

As to the second ... well expect anything :-D

Here I was going to tell you a little bit about me but instead just read my bio. That's what it's there for.

And check out the other blogs I follow. :-)