Contemplations for the New Year - Part 2: Music
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Naomi |
As I allueded to yesterday, when painting the somewhat fantasical image I have of 60's cocktail hours, music was definitely playing during this glamorous drinking experience.
Music is, actually, almost always playing in my head - and perhaps that isn't unique to me. But from a young age I recognised that what my brain was doing with music, how it was reacting, was different from how my friends' brains were reacting.
I was also made to learn music as a child (thank goodness) and I dipped my toe into many instruments - piano, guitar, saxophone, flute, xylophone...and at university I studied music, learning a little of bass and drums, as well as my first formal songwriting lessons. Little did I know just how much learning I would end up doing on that topic. And there was always, of course, singing.
But in recent years, thanks to my own boredom with my musical inclinations, losing my songwriting partner to a full-time job, and a pandemic that stopped all live music (and all my music-based live get togethers), not much has been happening musically.
I figured perhaps the muse had left to find more fertile pastures and it was my time to move on to new creative ideas. Dry soil will never produce lush crop, and perhaps the universe had something it would rather I be doing.
But that seems to be not the case.
What does seem to be brewing in me is the desire to return to performing. And that will require some work - both singing and performing are muscles that need to be worked up again.
And then there's songs. I've begun to be inspired again, by the craft of songwriting, but also some new forms and approaches to it. I'm an acoustic guitar girl, I love folk and country and harmonies and the truth sung low, in a quiet bar.
But I've been feeling the call of electronic tracks lately - not dance or full on electronic music, but simple production, clean yet clever and powerful. Think Taylor Swift's Folklore.
So my next intention for 2023 is to sing again, to get on a stage again, and maybe even to write some songs again. But it all starts with playing more music, revisiting my favourite albums, remembering the songs that have left a powerful and deep imprint on me.
I'm listening to Fleetwood Mac, and Springsteen, U2 and Madonna, I'm listening to Ani Difranco, Indigo Girls and Tori Amos. I am exploring the hits of this summer, like Lizzo and Dua Lipa. I am studying the current trends in songwriting and production, while figuring out what I might want to say, as a middle aged woman artist.
And that's the beauty of art - we all can say something, we all can access our artistic expression, regardless of age and stage and experience. It's one thing that sets us apart from animals. We have the need and ability to express something meaningful in an artistic way.
What form of artistic expression is calling you toward it for 2023?
How are you exploring the form for inspiration and muses?
Music is, actually, almost always playing in my head - and perhaps that isn't unique to me. But from a young age I recognised that what my brain was doing with music, how it was reacting, was different from how my friends' brains were reacting.
I was also made to learn music as a child (thank goodness) and I dipped my toe into many instruments - piano, guitar, saxophone, flute, xylophone...and at university I studied music, learning a little of bass and drums, as well as my first formal songwriting lessons. Little did I know just how much learning I would end up doing on that topic. And there was always, of course, singing.
But in recent years, thanks to my own boredom with my musical inclinations, losing my songwriting partner to a full-time job, and a pandemic that stopped all live music (and all my music-based live get togethers), not much has been happening musically.
I figured perhaps the muse had left to find more fertile pastures and it was my time to move on to new creative ideas. Dry soil will never produce lush crop, and perhaps the universe had something it would rather I be doing.
But that seems to be not the case.
What does seem to be brewing in me is the desire to return to performing. And that will require some work - both singing and performing are muscles that need to be worked up again.
And then there's songs. I've begun to be inspired again, by the craft of songwriting, but also some new forms and approaches to it. I'm an acoustic guitar girl, I love folk and country and harmonies and the truth sung low, in a quiet bar.
But I've been feeling the call of electronic tracks lately - not dance or full on electronic music, but simple production, clean yet clever and powerful. Think Taylor Swift's Folklore.
So my next intention for 2023 is to sing again, to get on a stage again, and maybe even to write some songs again. But it all starts with playing more music, revisiting my favourite albums, remembering the songs that have left a powerful and deep imprint on me.
I'm listening to Fleetwood Mac, and Springsteen, U2 and Madonna, I'm listening to Ani Difranco, Indigo Girls and Tori Amos. I am exploring the hits of this summer, like Lizzo and Dua Lipa. I am studying the current trends in songwriting and production, while figuring out what I might want to say, as a middle aged woman artist.
And that's the beauty of art - we all can say something, we all can access our artistic expression, regardless of age and stage and experience. It's one thing that sets us apart from animals. We have the need and ability to express something meaningful in an artistic way.
What form of artistic expression is calling you toward it for 2023?
How are you exploring the form for inspiration and muses?
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