I'm a Musical Genius!!!

Well, kind of... =)

A couple of weeks ago, my division asked me to write a song for them, just for our D&D night performance.

It's not anything big, each division had to perform something. Last year, we got together on the day of the event itself and put something together spontaneously. This year, our division manager was smart. She knew we had musically-inclined individuals in the division: Willie, Lone, and I were all band-mates, and 'division-mates' as well. Willie was known for his performance in the highly acclaimed Christian musical, Drunk Before Dawn, and he was also a very good musician. Lone was known for his exceptional guitar skills, and his talent in writing music. I was known as the previous Walton Idol, and for writing songs too.

So...Our manager got Willie to be in charge of our division performance, with the idea that we write our own original song for the performance. And while the whole performance consists of other acts, not just the song, Lone and I were put in charge of writing the song itself...(like, obviously you knew that was where I was going, right?)

Anyway, the conception of the song started with me first. I had to write the lyrics, and then Lone would do the music, then we would do the arrangement together.

I wrote the lyrics, without a melody, which is actually the first time I'm doing it this way. Normally, I'd write the lyrics and melody together, but Lone was a whole lot better with melodies, so I decided to let him do the melody with the music. Trust me, I've heard his melodies, and I've heard mine, and I like his better. LOL!

So I wrote the lyrics knowing that I might have to change some minor words here and there later, to fit into Lone's melody better, and of course, with that idea in mind, I just wrote some really simple lyrics that fit into our purpose and meaning. And also at the time, I just thought, hey, just write it and get that part over with, coz it's no big deal anyway, and I won't have to keep thinking about getting it done later.

I wrote it in less than an hour (just the lyrics, mind you, which is really easy), and in a state of indifference, gave it to Lone to put the melody in. I was pretty much ambivalent about my lyrics, it wasn't stuff which made prize-winning poems or whatever. It was as literal as they come. Even now, I still don't think it's any good for anything other than as our division song. But as our division song, I think it's pretty good. *ahem* =P

Then it was Lone's turn to work on the song, putting the melody and music in. Well, I don't know much about his process, except that he let it stew for a long time before he actually got down to work on it. He finally set aside one night, and came up with really good music and melody. =D

And then he showed it to me, and then we got to work fixing it up. We changed some parts of the melody, I changed a little bit of the lyrics to make it fit, he worked on the guitar sounds and technique, we added the harmonizing sounds and effects, I added another part to add depth to the song, and viola! We have a hit song! =D

Ok, we don't actually have a hit song, but it could be one! =P It's a great song, it's a fun song, with a catchy tune and inspiring lyrics (for our divison! =P), and I ended up being really proud of my contribution to it!

Well, of course I know Lone has a part in it, etc. But my point of this whole post is that I'm proud of my own contribution to it, and I'm really satisfied and happy with what Lone and I have accomplished with this song. I've never truly written a *finished* song before, because I didn't have the musical knowledge that Lone does, all I could do is write the lyrics and melody, and imagine how it would sound in my head, but never manifest it with music. This is the first time I finished a song, with Lone's part in it being very important of course! =)

I'm proud of the song, I'm proud of our work, and I'm proud of Lone's and my ability to work together to produce something that's so good. I'm bias, of course. =P But it's really good!! I'm not just saying that! =D But then again, my judgement of it is probably skewed towards the more favorable side. And then again, I'm usually my own worst critic too!

Well, the only way for anyone else to judge is to hear it for themselves. Which our whole company is going to do this coming Wednesday night. Part of the wonderment of the song is having many voices singing it together, with lots of different parts for backup, harmonizing, different texture of voice, tone, etc. It definitely won't be the same if only one person sings it, it'd be a whole different arrangement of the song entirely. Which brings me back to, I'm so proud of our arrangement! =D

I'm feeling pretty smug and self-satisfied right now. So yeah, maybe I'm boasting, but I'm entitled to! =D