Well, my compositions are making me crazy, again. I can’t sleep for the notes flying through my brain. It’s exhausting. It’s exciting. It’s inspiring. But, it makes me feel so out of control. I have no reins over these waves of insistence that come from inside of my head, my heart, my soul… The latest are classical guitar instrumentals, flooding my every waking minute, stealing my attention from the moments of the day, capturing my sleep as they perfect themselves. Of course these compositions begin as things that I can’t possibly perform to begin with. The actual pieces as I hear them in my brain come quickly, almost to the point of absolute inspiration. I couldn’t possibly come up with this stuff all on my own! But, I chase the tune like chasing butterflies. Elusive as it seems at first, it begins to gel on the guitar, and the bass and other accompaniment come flying through my fingers. I’ve learned from experience to begin writing on tablature paper soon or this treasure will quickly flutter away and be lost forever. I’ve also learned that it takes at least 600 times of playing the piece before it begins to really sound like the thing pin-balling in my brain.
All of this is moving and emotional in itself. But, then the worst is to come. After I can finally play it, at least to the point of hearing what each note should be and the time of it all, it needs to be completely written down!! **SCREAM**!@#$% The next new and wonderful piece is trying to force its way into my brain, as I’m finding the focus to take my notes from the tab paper and transfer them into Sebelius, the wonderful computer program that my husband purchased for me to use. I wonder what Fernando Sor or Bach would have thought of the computer programs?? In some ways, it makes musical life simple. All you have to do is point and click to create your manuscript. But, I’m a hands-on kind of girl with troubles keeping my eyes straight on a page. They’ve had rumblings of mild dyslexia. So, even after enlarging the screen, the lines of the staff and tab are floating oddly in front of my eye and it’s difficult to point and click to the correct position! JUST GIVE ME A PIECE OF PAPER AND A PENCIL!!!
So, this is my struggle, today…trying to transfer this new composition, Under the Bridge the second of the suite I’m writing called The River. The first was Lazy River. The audio is not perfection, and the tempo is slower than it should be. It’s at 100 and sounds more like the river under the bridge at about 116. But, it’s good enough to take the notes from, and maybe you’ll get a rush out of being one of the first to actually hear this inspired piece. Happy Fourth of July!!