(Photo by William J. Feerrar) I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve been exploring songwriting as a storytelling device. It’s all very new, but over the weekend, I had my first super informal recording session with a friend. We are both learning! It was so much fun to play around with all this, and I made it through playing the accompaniment and singing, for the first time, without making a ginormous mistake. Breakthrough!
Not that I expect this to happen consistently or that it matters at all whether or not it does. The point is not perfection (see previous post re: working with the inner perfectionist). The point is playing, having loads of fun, basking in the sheer joy of it, and most importantly, sharing these parts of my journey that might speak to others.
This is my first (ever) recording of the first song I wrote. I wrote this in May of 2022, inspired by Rita Wilson’s TED Talk in which she shares that when she realized she was interested in songwriting, she felt she could not do it because she did not know enough about music. “Do you have something to say?” asked the songwriter to whom she was speaking. And the rest is herstory.
So there it is–the reason I decided to start writing songs and was inspired to do so. I’ve experienced some stuff in my life. And now I have something to say.
I share credit for these song-like creations with my brilliant music instructor, whose name I will insert here if I have her permission to do so. Her guidance helped me to determine and craft accompaniments for many of the songs I’ve written, and her instruction is the foundation for all the music I am capable of making.
Many thanks as well to my partner in crime for the weekend recording sesh. (As you’ll hear if you have a listen, “my producer” likes the reverb :)
By way of a brief intro to the song, shadow work is part of my approach as a life purpose guide. All my modalities are based in lived experience. This song represents that experience and is called “The Way You Know.”
P.S. The working title for this one was “Note to Self.”
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