I chose to name my portfolio “Stars”, not because it is my best song in my opinion, but because I feel like I’ve done pretty well this year. Everyone always says “shoot for the stars”, and that’s what I did this year. I recorded my first song, which was really exciting. I worked with other people, and together we created something that sounds pretty good! I was able to work with another songwriter on lyrics for her song, and I was able to be part of that whole experience. In the end, I don’t think I’ve reached the stars quite yet, (actually, I’m nowhere close) but I do like to think that I’m getting there.

     I made the cover purple because purple is so close to blue, but it’s not quite there yet. The sky is blue, so I used this as a symbol of how my career as a songwriter is just hitting off.

Cello and Bass:

     To be totally honest, I wrote this song by just fooling around on the keyboard. I liked the idea of playing a higher C over a lower A, and that’s where this song stemmed from. The right hand, or the cello, is just moving up and down the C-scale while the left hand, or the bass does the same thing. The bass always has the same rhythms throughout the song, while the cello is kind of all over the place. One thing I do a lot in this song is repeating the same three notes with the cello while the bass moves up the scale. Honestly, this song is through-composed; it has no real structure, and the two instruments basically do whatever they want, although with some structure. This song is just one giant game of leapfrog.

     The song has no real climax either-- the song kind of just happens. The song has some moments of tension that aren’t ever formally resolved. Both instruments do their own thing, and if that means creating tension then they create tension. I wouldn’t go so far to call this song jagged, but I wouldn’t exactly call it smooth either. “Cello and Bass” has lots of motion, and in a way that makes it unstable. Both instruments kind of just wander around, until they meet at the end, one on an A and the other on C. This makes the ending pretty ambiguous. Yes, the song sounds like it’s done, but which note is “home”? Is it both? Is it one or the other? If you ask me, it really depends on my mood. Is this song in A minor or C major? Again, it depends on my mood. The song doesn’t sound that sad, and I would also like to argue that it sounds quite hopeful. So depending which way you look at it, home could be either note.

Stars:

     Can I just take this time to thank everyone that helped on this project? There were so many people; Jesse wrote the guitar solo, Juliette helped me write some of the lyrics, Cameron shot the video for it, and Connor wrote the piano part for this song. You guys are the real MVPs.

     For me, this song has pretty sad connotations. I wrote it about my aunt’s divorce, which is why the video is about a couple fighting. But I also wrote the lyrics so that they could be ambiguous. This way, the song would have a different meaning for everyone.

     The goes chorus, verse, chorus, verse, solo, and final chorus. The piano for all the verses, as well as the guitar solo are all the same, and the chorus is different. Another thing I did was add a flute during the chorus, because it just sounded too empty without it. When I sing “the sun rises” the flute goes up the scale. I thought this was kind of cool. Now that I think about it, there aren’t many dynamics in this song, and that’s definitely something I would change if I could re-record the song. Since there are hardly any dynamics, I think that it’s hard to tell what the climax of the song should be. If you ask me, it’s the last chorus. If I could re-record the song, I would probably start out that last chorus quietly and then crescendo, getting louder at the end. Also, one thing that really annoys me about the song is that the guitar solo doesn’t end on home. This causes people to expect a last note, because it’s just so close to home, but it never gets there. This whole “staying on edge” thing annoys me a bit, to be totally honest.

     Unlike “cello and Bass”, “Stars” is much more grounded and doesn’t have as much tension. The song has a clear structure, and the ending isn’t ambiguous.

I Am Afraid:

     I based this song off of the poem by Shakespeare. It goes like this:

You say you love the rain

But you open your umbrella

You say you love the sun

But you find a shadow spot

You say you love the wind

But you close all your windows

This is why I am afraid

You say you love me too.

     This was a project for chorus, and it is then that I realized that I can write a song in twenty minutes.

     No, but seriously. This song is pretty basic. My chord progression is I, V, and IV. I change it a little bit in the middle of the first verse by going to the vi, then V and IV, then go back to the I, V, IV. The little musical interlude between the first and second verse is just vi, V, IV, then vi, V, iii, IV, and finally vi, V, IV, V. The second verse is a little bit more interesting. It goes I, ii, iii, V, IV. The last two lines in the verse go vi, V, IV, ii, vi. Then I have a little interlude, which goes vi, IV, iii, IV, vi, V, iii, IV. The last verse is the same as the first, but instead of ending on the V, it ends on the vi. So, this means that instead of ending on F, it ends on Am, with a high-C. This causes a deceptive cadence.

Spring:

     Whenever I write lyrics, I generally don’t base them off of something that’s actually happened in my life. This song, as well as “Stars” are the two only two songs I’ve written so far that are.

     In eighth grade, during the spring my friends and I would always go and hang out at this special tree at Robbins Park. When I wrote this song, my two best friends were fighting. I didn’t know what to do, because both of them would talk to me about the other, and it was just a terrible experience. So anyways, I wrote this song. In the chorus, I talk about how I’m waiting for spring. This symbolizes my desire for everything to go back to the way it was before in eighth grade, when we would just sit in a tree and play truth or dare.

     This song is in F major. It goes verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, and then a half-chorus at the end. So it’s a pretty basic song structure. To be totally honest, there’s nothing really interesting or surprising that I did in this song. If you take a look at my lead sheet, you can see that I just used the basic chords in the key of F. I often go back and forth between Gm and Dm. Then, in the chorus, I start at Bb and go down the scale, skipping over Gm, and then getting back to it after I’ve played F. Finally, at the very end of the song, I play Edim, which then goes to F. The reason I did this was because Edim sounds weird there, and creates some tension, which finally resolves when I go up a half-step to the F chord.

Hummingbird:

Like all my other songs, Hummingbird doesn’t have particularly interesting chord progressions. And honestly, I don’t think the song needs complicated instrumentals. This song is very lyric-driven, and I think that the minimalist instrumentals really contrast the vocals well.

     For me, this song symbolizes hope. In the first verse, the narrator talks about a hummingbird with a broken that tries to fly, while they are drowning in their fears and worries. Then in the second verse, we get a little bit more insight on the bird: its wings have been clipped, so that’s another obstacle that the bird has to face in its journey of being able to fly again. The bird has all these going against it, and yet it tries to fly. Finally, in the third verse, the narrator realizes that they don’t want to give up. They want to be able to fly, like the bird. (Or, in this case, they want to swim.) This is the best song that I’ve written this year, I think, because the song is emotional yet tells a story, and the instrumentals work nicely to contrast the vocals.

     You know, many people tell me that I only write sad songs, but I want to say that “Hummingbird” is not a sad song. It’s a song of hope, and of wanting to improve and get better, and knowing that things will start to look up.

My Favorite Song at the Moment

4 O’Clock by Taehyung and Namjoon:

This song is just so beautiful! It has everything that I like in a song: a slower beat, minimalist instrumentals, soulful voices, and meaningful lyrics. The drum picks up a little bit of speed during the rap part, and everything just fits so well together.

Songs that inspire me:

My Light Is On by Brendan Friel:

     This song just has a guitar and violin in the background, which leaves lots of room for lyrics to take over. Speaking of lyrics, these ones are beautiful. I love how they tell a whole story, and how it is kind of ambiguous. (Is the person he’s singing about dead? Are they just gone? What’s happening?) The guitar in the background isn’t boring, and the violin adds depth to the song. This has actually inspired me to write two songs, both of which just have an acoustic guitar for instrumentals.  

Saturn by Sleeping at Last:

     The first two minutes or so of this song are just instrumentals, yet they are so beautiful. Before I encountered this song, I always thought “well, I couldn’t possibly write a song that has a lot of instrumentals.” Don’t ask me why, but it’s true. When I write music, I always start with the lyrics first, and the instrumentals are almost like an afterthought. This song taught me that that doesn’t have to be the case. At the beginning of the year, I really enjoyed writing instrumental songs with strings, but I could never find a way to put lyrics to it, or two write lyrics and then put in really soulful instrumentals. For me, my voice is my biggest weapon, so that’s what I always focus on. “Saturn” has shown me that I can have a balance of both in my music, and although I haven’t had the chance to do it yet, I would love to try to write a song in this same manner.

Egoist by Roy Kim:

     To be totally honest, I never checked a translation of the lyrics, so I’m not exactly 100% sure what the song is about, but it inspires me for a different reason. If you guys couldn’t tell yet, I really like songs with minimalistic instrumentals in the background, because I feel like this leaves more room for lyrics. This song has just that- minimalistic instrumentals.      Also, I just really love Roy Kim in general, and I think that his voice is amazing, so being able to hear it without really intricate stuff going on in the background was great. This song has caused me to want to write a minimalistic song as well, but I haven’t gotten to that yet.

Guerriero by Marco Mengoni:

     Y’all, these lyrics are so good. “Guerriero” means warrior in Italian, and this song talks about just that- being a warrior for the one you love, and defending them from all harm. The lyrics are just so inspiring in general, but they also inspire me to one day create something that is hopefully just as emotional as this.

Some Words of Wisdom Before I go:

Y'all, write in your journals AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! Sing in your shower! Hum at the dinner table! I can't stress this enough, honestly. I know it probably sounds like a hassle, but basically all of the songs I have written this year were born in the shower. Do it, you'll thank me later.