Open mic

 I've also started playing open mics.  Well, I've done two so far, at the same place (the local "3@3 Real Ale and Craft Beer Cafe") which is very casual indeed -- just ten or so people in the upstairs loft, taking turns, with no amplification of any sort.

Me being me, I have a spreadsheet of songs that I'm considering, ranked according to how ready I am to play them.  Marjorie wants to join me at some point on vocals, so there's a separate tab for songs we're considering for that.

In forty years of playing guitar, I know my limitations pretty well, and so stay confined to songs that are built around strumming and chords.  The songs I've performed so far are:

• The Price I Pay (Billy Bragg)
• American Without Tears (Elvis Costello)
• Red Shoes (Elvis Costello)
• Strawberry Blonde (Ron Sexsmith)
• Up The Junction (Squeeze)

There's kind of a summer break happening (for some dumb reason, like people are spending their time vacationing with their families) and so when I'm not songwriting I've just been learning new songs.  There's certainly some I've worked on that I think are beyond my ability, but the best ones are always ones that tax my abilities a bit.  I quickly get sick of playing songs that don't, but it's probably best to go into an open mic night with songs that you're just a little bit sick of playing.  It's also worth noting that, unlike a lot of other performers these days, I decided I was going to only play songs from memory -- too often people play their songs just staring at their phones or IPads!

Over the last couple of days I've been excited to learn Nick Lowe's Cruel To Be Kind, which I had tried a few times in the past without success, but now is pretty much ready to go I think.  It's a perfect little pop song I think.  I also have another Nick song, two Kinks songs, an Aztec Camera one, one by Fountains Of Wayne, and a smattering of Elvis Costello songs.  I find it's a good thing to go in with a repertoire so you can try to fit the mood of the night!

Songwriting

 I will talk now about songwriting.

When my engineering tendency to take thing things apart combined with my love of music, it was only natural that I would try to figure out a thing or two about songwriting.  And so from the moment I knew two or three guitar chords, I've been trying to compose melodies over chords, and the to fit some words over them (the usual order of things, but not always).

I wrote some songs with my band back in the early nineties, but I didn't know a lot about the process.  Still I thought I had some melodic ability, but my weak singing voice and clumsy musicianship didn't help matters.

Now, thirty-five (!) years have passed, and I've played pretty much daily since then.  So you'd think I'd be a lot better, but it's been all on my own, and to be honest...  No false immodesty, but I haven't improved all that much.  I know a lot more songs, and a fair few tricks, but I'm basically the same guitarist I was then.

I find myself still fascinated by songwriting, though, and have amassed a collection of three hundred or so snippets -- recorded onto a cassette tape initially, but now onto my phone -- of little melodic bits that occur to me, in various stages of completeness.  Most have me singing nonsense words over chords, but the point is to preserve them so I can develop them later.  Early on it was all about finding some sensible chords, then finding a melody that fits over them.  In recent years, it's far more common to devise a melody first, then figure out the chords that fit under it.

But to what end? I asked myself a few years back.  I knew that nothing would ever come of the half-hearted efforts I had put together thus far.  So I sought out and eventually found a forum that would force me to put more effort into writing complete songs.  I came across a songwriting group that has a monthly theme where everyone submits their songs and has a listening party at the end of the month.  

I won't link their name just now, but they are limited to the UK only and I submitted my first song in June of 2023.  I don't submit every month (due to lack of free time, motivation, or ideas), but still I've managed to submit around fifteen different songs, which kind of amazes me.

The songwriting process follows a predictable pattern.  I start with a flush of excitement, and bounce ideas around, often with the help of Marjorie.  I come up with a theme and a song title, then comb my collection of snippets for one where I can work the title in and which has the right feel for the theme.  I block out a structure for the song -- how the intro, verses, prehooks, choruses, and bridges all fit together, on my guitar.  Then I start it with the recording, usually drums first (note by note using Hydrogen) and then a bass part (usually using TuxGuitar, though we own a bass now so I'm trying to use that instead).  Then I record the guitar and add whatever other bits I want to add (piano, strings, trumpet, etc.) using TuxGuitar.  Lyrics, sadly, I leave until the very last, as it turns out I hate that part.  Often I record the vocals on the day the song is due as I've put it off so long.  It also probably doesn't help that like everyone else, I don't like my voice.

I'm trying to break out of this mould this month by completing the song, lyrics and everything, before I start in with any programming or recording.  I only have a vague idea going so far (the theme is "Don't do that") so I really need to get to work.  I'm thinking of following the advice I just saw John Lennon give George Harrison in the 'Get Back' documentary -- if you sit down to write a song, don't stop until you finish it.  That's marginally easier said than done.