Songwriting

I'm currently taking three online classes. One is almost over, one half over, and one just started. I kind of like that they are staggered, because I don't have all my midterms and finals at the same time. However, most of them having quizzes every week, so it's still pretty stressful.

Music and lyrics.

 At the end of this month, I start two more. I'll have a brief period of overlap where I have all five classes for a week, but then two of them quickly fade out, and I'm back to three. Three is a good load; it's technically the minimum normal course load at my college for a full time student.

Most of what I'm taking is science classes - Genetics, Orgo I & II, and Brain Science classes fill my schedule for the rest of the year. However, it was really important for me to do something fun and relaxing as well. That's not to say the hard science and neuro courses aren't fun - I actually love the topics! But they are harder to grasp right away and take quite a bit of concentration.

The class I just started is my break class: Songwriting. So far, it's only in week one, but it's pretty interesting. The teacher uses metaphors and stories to get his ideas across, and we are required to listen to and analyze songs for the quizzes. 

My favorite part, however, is when we get to start writing our own songs. I've been sort-of writing songs for many years now. I consider myself a lyricist, and I can do a basic melody line. Being only a vocalist with no instrumentation makes it difficult to really write music.

M, W and I are writing a musical. We actually started writing one that we didn't have to write any of the songs for - just arrangements of songs by an already acclaimed artist. However, doing that inspired us to start working on our own. In this situation, I'm in charge of lyrics, M is doing music, and W is writing the book (theater speak for script). 

The future home of our show, obviously.

I've jotted down a few ideas for songs that would fit into the basic story, but with a full time job, W doesn't have as much time to work on the details of the plot - something I'd need to write more specific songs. Every once in awhile, I get an idea, though, and I have to write it down.

The songwriting course has already taught me a little bit about organizing my ideas. Outlining and determining point of view are steps I always sort of skipped, but the professor has shown me that they are extremely important in not getting lost.

Hopefully this course will get me more back into writing, and since M is taking it as well, maybe we can both convince W to get working on the story for our musical! Wouldn't it be awesome to see my work on Broadway one day? 

Yeah, that'd be rad.