New song – Falling into Heaven

songwriting

Here’s another experimental song I’m working on. With this one, I started with a rhythm and chord progression on my Fender strat electric guitar, then started humming a melody, and during the musical refrain section, the words “falling into heaven” just came out. I didn’t know what that meant, but I liked the phrase, since we normally think of “rising” into heaven, not “falling”.

Later, while walking, driving, and hiking–especially while hiking–I had the music in my head, and allowed myself to just open my mind and allow anything to come out, no matter how absurd, and wrote them down. Later I arranged these weird phrases into loose verses. My “editor” tried to get involved and give the song a meaning, but I tried not to let him. I wanted to keep it open to different interpretations by different people.

It’s still a rough draft, I’ll almost certainly add and change some of the lines. I recorded a rough acoustic version and put it on my myspace site.

Falling into Heaven
by Rob Roper September 1, 2008

Lost and found and lost again
That’s the way you’ve always been
Running naked with the wind
Fall down, get up, fall down again

You’re falling…
into heaven.

Go outside, talk to the trees
Hear the wisdom in the breeze
Read a story to your cat
Walk around in a silly hat

You’re falling…
into heaven.

Hitch a ride, don’t ask where
Go to work in your underwear
Lay your head down on the ground
Listen to that pretty sound

You’re falling…
into heaven.

Give your spare change to a bum
Don’t ask what he spends it on
Take a hike, go off the trail
Get too drunk and land in jail

You’re falling…
into heaven.

Lost and found and lost again
That’s the way I’ve always been
You don’t have to rescue me
It’s the way I like to be

I’m falling…
into heaven.
I’m falling, falling…
into heaven.

New song in progress – I Believe

"Rob Roper", songwriting

Lately I’ve been experimenting with unconventional lyrical and musical styles. At least their unconventional for me. Unconventional in the sense of the song structure, rhyme or lack of rhyme, and so forth. I’m also striving for lyrics where the meaning isn’t completely obvious, and could be open to different interpretations. Here’s a draft of one tentatively titled “I Believe”. The music is also somewhat unconventional, and composed on electric piano, which I haven’t done before. Another thing I like about this one is that some of the lines are very short; there’s a lot of space between lines. I’ll record it soon and post it on my myspace site.

I Believe
by Rob Roper August 31, 2008

I believe
because I need to
It exists
because it must
Don’t bring logic into this
Don’t ask me for the proof
Don’t bring logic into this
I won’t think about it
I won’t think about it
I won’t
think

I believe
we have a choice
That one’s bad
so this one must be good
Don’t say anything bad about him
Don’t say anything bad at all
Don’t say anything bad about him
I won’t hear it
I won’t hear it
I won’t
hear

I believe
because I need to

Josh Ritter’s songwriting tips

Josh Ritter, songwriting

I attended the Song School in Lyons, Colorado August 10-14. One of the instructors was Josh Ritter. Here are some points he made in his workshop, taken from my notes. In some cases, I’ve also expanded on his comments from my own experiences.

1. Why do you write? If you’re not writing obsessively and for pleasure, then why are you doing it? You should be writing because you love it, you should be compulsive and obsessive about it.

2. There’s no such thing as “Writer’s Block”. If you can’t write, then don’t. When you have something to say, you write. If you write all the time, eventually you’ll run out of ideas. So you need to take some time off. If you force it, you’ll write songs that you won’t be happy with.

My comment: I need to start recognizing when I get to this point. When it doesn’t flow, rather than try to force it, I should use my music time to improve my musicianship–learn new things on the guitar, piano or mandolin, learn songs written by others, take a singing lesson– do some of the things that I never seem to have time for. All those things will help my songwriting and performance.

3. Originality: don’t worry about it. Nothing is 100% original.

4. Cliches: never allow cliches in your songs. Our goal is to create new cliches. If you allow cliches, you’re not pushing yourself.

5. Don’t be afraid to kill your song. If it’s not working, put it in the compost, let other songs cannilabize it. If you force it, it won’t be a good song.

Another songwriter, John Common, uses the analogy of the junkyard for this. I like that analogy, too. If a song needs a carburator, go to the junkyard and take one off a discarded song.

My comment: I started learning this last Spring. My songs, “Me” and “Like a Child” used both lyrical and musical elements taken from other songs-in-progress.

6. Always keep a journal. Always record lines, ideas.

7. You don’t have to be crazy to be a songwriter. Take care of the problems in your life.

My comment: for a long time, I didn’t try to write lyrics because I thought I wasn’t weird enough. I thought songwriters were born, and they wrote songs without effort. This prejudice held me back; kept me from becoming a songwriter. Or perhaps I didn’t realize that I was weird enough to be a songwriter. 🙂 And flowing from that concept…

8. Songwriting is a craft; it’s hard work. To view yourself as an “artist” rather than a craftsman may take you down the wrong road. Songwriting is a craft, and occasionally we will make great art. Not everything you write can be great.

Josh mentioned that he typically goes through 8 or 9 drafts of a song. Then he plays it for people, and edits it some more.

To hear Josh’s music, see joshritter.com or myspace.com/joshritter

-Rob

Boston trip

"Rob Roper", Boston, songwriting

I took a little vacation July 17-23 in Boston. I have some songwriter friends there that I met at the Lyons, Colorado Song School over the last few years. I had heard that Boston was a great city, with a great music scene, so I decided to go visit my friends there. Charlene DiCalogero was nice enough to offer me a place to stay, so I didn’t have to pay for lodging.

I played at The Lily Pad in Cambridge on Friday, July 18, along with Boston-area singer-writers Rob Mattson, Charlene DiCalogero and Tim Riordan. Charlene organized that show, and Tim and Rob helped with the publicity. It was a great little hall, and the crowd was small but appreciative. I used my handheld recorder, the Edirol R09, to record the show at the Lily Pad. I posted two of the songs on my myspace site, myspace.com/rroper, “Like a Child”, a song I wrote last Spring, and “The Screwup Song”.

I also played two open mics. Monday July 21, I played The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, hosted by Tom Bianchi. What a great open mic! It’s a contest, with a $50 prize for the winner, selected by a judge appointed by Tom. You play two songs. Tom always has something positive to say about every performer, and jokes around between acts. Tom also insures that the sound is good. There were some very good songwriters there; the talent pool there is very large.

The next night I played the open mic at The Burren, a great Irish pub in Somerville. The front room is the bar, and the music room is in the rear. Here you got to play 4 songs, which is nice. (One reason I generally don’t like open mics is that I like to play for an hour. After two songs I’m just warming up!).

On Sunday night, July 20, I attended Charlene and Tim’s songwriter group, at the home of Chris and Esther (forgot their last names, dammit) in Reading. Great people. Earlier that day, we visited Charlene’s future home, a co-housing development on the outer edge of the metro area. And we went to Walden Pond. What a beautiful place; now I understand why Thoreau was so inspired.

Of course I walked around the old Boston and saw the Boston Common and the historical revolutionary war sites, and ate some good seafood. But it was mainly a music vacation. One afternoon Tim Riordan and I started writing a song. Tim came up with some cool chords and a lyrical theme, I wrote some lines, who knows if we’ll finish it. And I ran into Theresa Storch, another Boston songwriter whom I met at the Lyons Song School.

The only negative was that I came down with a cold the week before, and was suffering from that the whole trip. But all in all a good little vacation. I hope to get back there before too long.

-Rob

My songwriting room

hiking, songwriting


I get the impression that most songwriters just need a small room, a guitar, a pen and paper. I wish that was true for me. But I seem to get most of my ideas when I’m outside, and moving. I went hiking today in some mountains just outside of Denver. This photo is where I stopped for lunch. I bring my songwriting notebooks and handheld digital recorder with me. I’ll walk around and come up with lines, rhymes, melodies and such. I realized a few years ago that I’m an outdoors person; I’m happier when I’m outside, especially in the woods. I don’t know why.