I had decided to use the 12-step program for recovery from addictions
as my theme for "Inspirations."
Thus, there should be one song representative of each step. Song
titles and music should be created appropriately.
I wanted this song to have a tentative beginning and then buildup
to a strong middle and then finish silently but gracefully, more
reassured. I started by playing around with some chords that I
had picked up from listening to a David Foster song. I reorganized
the chords into a different pattern, adding a bit here, taking
away a bit there. It was a slow process working on the piano sound.
I found that I ran out of ideas after an hour or so. Also, it
was a struggle to remember what I had made up. Fortunately, using
my workstation, I could record a passage that I thought was particularly
good without having to spend lots of time on writing it down.
After about ten days of development, the theme was in finished
form. (Or so I thought.) I brought the music, essentially a piano
solo, to Marianne. She wanted to add high strings, a cello, and
a string bass to it. Also, she wanted a middle section to break
the monotony of the repeated theme. I spent take after take trying
to perfect each part. Marianne was relentless. Everything had
to fit exactly and still sound fresh. Also, I have a tendency
to get exited and overplay my parts. We had to edit out many parts
that sounded great on their own but did not fit the overall mix.
This started out as a simple harp prelude modeled after Prokofieff,
Op. 12, No.7. This one took a lot less time than "Confession
1" because I had more of a preconceived idea of what I wanted
to do. "Confession 1" had been created from scratch
by playing around with chords at a keyboard.
Again, Marianne was relentless. More sounds and yet a sparse texture.
I strained to my limits adding strings, cello, bass, French horn,
and several other things. The Pro X workstation lived up to the
challenge providing a palette of realistic instrumental sounds.
"Faith" is probably the most orchestrated song on the
CD. It helped greatly that I worked out the chord structure ahead
of time before recording a single note. It made it much easier
to add more parts to it later.
I found a great combination sound on the Pro X workstation. With
it, I could play keyboards and strings at the same time. There
was even an echo space-like effect on it. One afternoon, I started
playing around with this sound. I came up with a brief theme which
I liked and decided to record it. As I was recording it, I felt
it was going very well. I decided to repeat the theme with a slight
variation and then I started to make up new stuff. Before I knew
it, I had been playing for more than five minutes. I stopped recording
and listened to what I played. So this is what a creative flash
feels like. I had heard about guys writing songs in ten minutes
but I always thought they were just made-up stories. The song
was almost complete as is. I added a pan flute solo on top of
it and edited out some of the ending because it was starting to
sound really weird about the last five seconds or so.
I wish I knew where sudden inspiration comes from. I wish I could
duplicate it at will. All I know is that sometimes its there and
I try to take advantage of it when I can. Because sometimes it
doesn't hit and it can be extremely painful to create anything
decent.
Following on the pattern of "Surrender," I thought I
had found a winning formula. Play around with the sounds on the
workstation, modifying them if necessary, until I found something
I liked. Improvise off the top of my head to look for an original
theme trying not to think about chords and keys, etc...just do
it by ear. Then, when I felt comfortable, go for a full improvisation
of the whole song. "Search," "Confession 2,"
and "Cleansing" were all done in this manner and together,
the three songs took an hour to write. I couldn't believe my luck.
"Search" and "Cleansing" were also quite easy
at the production stage. The chords and harmony used were familiar
and it was not too bad adding sounds to the keyboard base. "Confession
2" was another matter. I had tried to be very original with
the bell part. It was very hard to find a string part that would
fit in well with the bell because I was playing around with chords
I had never used before. It took days to finish.
Of all the songs on "Inspirations," I wanted this one
to be the most classical in style. I started by working out a
theme that was part Pachelbel and part 50s pop music. The end
result may not sound like that to most people but trust me, that's
how I created the theme.
I came up with the harpsichord part and then Marianne decided
to add a whole host of string sounds. She chose the sounds while
I performed the parts. It took a very long time to put this one
together because again, the parts had to match perfectly. A lot
of effort went into making the final piece sound simple and refreshing.
By Song 8, I had run out of the wild inspiration that created
Songs 4 through 6. I was tapped out. I could not think of any
theme. So, I just started with chord progressions instead. I slowly
worked out a set of chords that I liked the sound of. I then created
a melody which would work with those chords. Finally, I found
the perfect sound in 'Desert Dawn' which created a powerful exotic
string effect. The piano part was a set of fast arpeggios that
fit the chords. For this song, Marianne did very little work.
It was one of the few pieces that I brought to her completely
finished.
I had really run dry. I wasn't pleased with anything I was making
up. I needed help. I needed a break.
The Beatles are one of my favorite rock bands. They were big before
I was even born but I still love their music. Just to goof around
a bit, I started playing and singing various songs of theirs.
As I was learning some of their songs off the early LPs, I began
playing around with some of the chord progressions that they used
repeatedly. I slowed them down and rearranged them for the keyboard.
I wrote down the chords and worked out a piano part. Then, later,
with Marianne's assistance, I figured out an oboe part to solo
over it, finishing it with an acoustic bass sound on the bottom.
This was the toughest song of all. I was originally inspired by
"Meditation" by Massenet but I wanted to give it more
of a somber Medieval Church quality. I worked hard on my original
idea for days but there was no life to it. Finally, late in the
recording process after all the other songs were completely finished,
Marianne and I decided to scrap the song and write another one.
Once again, I turned to my beloved chord progressions for a solution.
The process was painful. Every bar seemed to eke out very slowly.
I was burned out on coffee and Coke® by this point. Through
the headache, I put this piece together. This is the only song
on the CD that I wasn't completely sure about. However, I knew
that, collectively, these 12 songs were the very best I could
do at that point in time. I had to be happy with that.
In the show "Les Miserables," there's a part near the
end where the main character, Valjean, sings a beautiful solo
called "Bring Him Home." It sounded to me like a prayer.
I wanted my song "Prayer" to have the same simple magnificence.
I listened to the song over and over again to get a feel of it.
I was looking for something that was not a copy but that would
evoke the same effect, only a little softer.
I played around with chord progressions until I was blue in the
face. I played day and night and this time, I wrote down the progressions
on paper using chord symbols (a kind of musical shorthand). I
gave the song a break for a couple of days.
When I was ready, I recorded the piano part. Then, I used the
pedal steel sound to come up with a melody. On Marianne's suggestion,
a high string part was added midway through the song. This song
is my personal favorite on the CD.
For Song 12, I had an ace up my sleeve. I was a young teen when
I first started to realize that you could improvise on an instrument
instead of always playing what someone else had already written.
I thought that it must then be an easy step from there to write
your own song (ah, youth!). I started playing with that idea right
away. I based a little rhythmic figure around two chords (Gmaj7
and Fmaj7 to those of you who care about such things). Over the
next ten years or so, I toyed with the idea. I added a phrases
and ideas and eventually the piece grew into a complete song.
Actually, it grew into a complete framework around which an improvisation
could take place. I didn't have a name for the piece but I stowed
it away into my repertoire.
It was such a perfect fit for what I wanted to do on "Communication."
The improvised nature fit into my idea of what a conversation
was like. Finally, the last song was complete.
