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Writing Tuneful Songs

4/28/2022

Many composers out there have been offering workshops and training classes online to help people learn to write music. I get the occasional request to help someone write songs. For me, the best "help" I ever got was from my Aunt Janie Thompson. Over the miles on one cross country road trip, she took the time to clue me in on many tips to writing clever lyrics to tuneful songs. She didn't write very many songs herself from scratch (words, melody, and arrangement). She was too busy producing and performing in shows to dedicate time to just songwriting. But, no one who knew her work could say it was less than amazing.

For me, writing tuneful, clever songs is sort of a game of chance. Inspiration plays a huge part for me. Sure, I have had a lot of training, mostly in classical singing and composition. But my true love has always been Musical Theater. I grew up singing the songs of theater greats like Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and many others. Because of having classical training, practical "on the job training" in a musical family, and growing up performing a lot of great songs, it helped me understand what goes into creating a good song. That is key. Education comes in many ways, and none should be discounted!

Some songs seem to drop out of the blue for me. Almost like taking dictation, I find it hard when writing to get it all down quick enough while the inspiration lasts. Other times, I just can't seem to get the juices flowing enough to write anything satisfactory. And still other times, I struggle with just a tiny spark of an idea, trying to develop it using all of the tools I have at my command, only to go back and rewrite it a hundred or more times to try to get it right! You just do what you have to do. Having a deadline actually helps me.

Over the years I have written hundreds of songs and arrangements of songs. Some have done very well in context of a show or served their purpose to suit the situation for which they were written. But in my heart of hearts, I always aspired to write a "stand alone" song, one that could live its own life away from the show or situation where it had its beginning. I wonder if I have accomplished that goal in some small way.

Here are a few of my original songs that might fit that aspiration. Please let me know what you think.

"A View from the Highest Mountain" from "Never Cry Wolf"
"As the French Say" from "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"
"Let Kindness Begin with Me" from "The Adventures of Dick Whittington"
"Over Yonder" from "Stone Soup"
"I Love the City Life" from "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"
"Good Morning Sunshine" from "The Tale of Chicken Licken"
"Worthy to Admire" from "A Successor to the Throne"

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Children's Musical Done by a Large Cast

4/22/2022

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Last night I went to see yet another production of "Seussical, the Musical." I have seen many productions of this show and, I admit, that I usually come away very disappointed. I think the problem has been that the Elementary School shows, even doing the Junior version, just don't have the singing, dancing and acting capability to do it justice. The songs are pitched way too low or require too wide of singing ranges for most young children's voices. And the Community Theater shows done by mostly adults may have the singing, dancing, and acting chops, but just lack the believability factor.

But the show I saw last night was actually the most enjoyable production of this show I have seen yet. They had enough trained singers and dancers to pull this show off in clever ways. The cast was incredibly large, probably close to 100 young children and teenagers, from ages 5-15!

The company that produced the show offers year-round training classes in dancing, singing, and acting. The Musical is the culmination of a year's worth of training activities. It also helped that the show was presented in a professional theater with state-of-the-art lighting and sound. Each of the characters speaking or singing solos had their own dedicated lavalier mic. That ensured that the lines and songs were heard clearly. The lighting effects on the whimsical sets were magical. But it was the costuming that blew me away. I am sure that over the years, this company has collected costumes for every shape and size of body imaginable. They were colorful and bright, even sparkly, and quite believable as Dr. Seuss characters. (Really! What Elementary school production could possibly afford fanciful colored wigs for 50+ actors?)

My granddaughter and I came to the show as invited by my young friend who had a lead role. We were very impressed with how enjoyable the production was. This was the first time I actually got choked up by the sweet ending. It was so nice to finally see a version that had a range of characters that were believable. Sometimes it is hard to feel the innocence of a children's story when done strictly by adults or older kids. Because this production had the "littles" and the "bigs," the play between the Who's that live on the speck of dust and the larger animals living in the Jungle of Nool was actually believable.

Kudos to this cast and crew!

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Toddler Tantrums and Truths

4/18/2022

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Living with toddlers can be so fun, though exhausting, and may sometimes point blame back directly at you!

My little 2 year old granddaughter loves to have Grandma's storybooks read to her. Nearly everyday, she insists that they be read to her. Sometimes she sits and "reads" them to herself. She particularly likes "Spin-Around Dresses and Click Shoes." Yesterday was Easter. Her "Grandmama" (not me, she calls me Grandma) sent her a beautiful new dress to wear for Easter.

The trouble was that she had only hot pink polka dotted Sunday shoes, and her mother thought she should have shoes to wear that matched her new dress. They went to the store and eventually found some shoes that would match her dress. But when Easter morning came, she adamantly demanded that she wear her pink polka-dotted "click shoes" to Church. She cried and fussed and flatly refused to wear the new shoes that matched the dress in favor of the hot pink polka-dotted shoes. After some major convincing, her mother finally convinced her to wear the new shoes. But they are not her true "click shoes."

Earlier this year, their family was visiting at Grandmama's house when another funny incident happened for which I am partly to blame. Another of my picture books Camilla likes is titled "Is This Cowboy Food ." One line happens at the end of the story when the whole trouble starts happening all over again. Well, Camilla was watching a marathon of "Mulan" movies. When the Huns started attacking in "Mulan II," Camilla shook her head, put her hand to her forehead and wailed, "It's happening again!"

I have to admit, it's nice having Camilla as my most loyal fan!

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You Had to Audition to Get Into This Family

4/12/2022

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Whenever my siblings and I complained about rehearsing or getting ready to do a show with my mother, she just said, "Singing is what we do." And then she added, "Don't you know you had to audition to get into this family?"

I think that was what her mother said to her when she was little, too. (My grandparents were excellent singers and were carrying on that singing tradition from generations before them!) My mother was the fifth child in a family of seven singing siblings. They grew up singing together for fun and to entertain others. Many became professional musicians, educators and entertainers.

My mother started training her children to sing practically from birth. She put me in my first show when I was just two weeks old. Anyway, all six of us learned to sing together in harmony from our very early ages. Her line was that when we were in heaven, we made sure to stand in the "singing talent" line. And then we had to go through an audition process before we got assigned to come to earth into our family. "Singing is what you were born to do." So, we did.

When my children came along, I knew what I had to do. My kids grew up knowing that they also had to audition to get into our family. We sang a lot as a family while they still lived at home. They all learned to hold their own parts and play different instruments. We enjoyed singing together.

Now, it is harder to gather from so many different places in order to sing together, but whenever we can, we still love singing together.

Megan and Melanie singing

My daughter Kathryn shared an experience she had with her kids from the other day. They had had a long day of Church meetings and choir practice and visiting other wards. Then, after a quick dinner, Mom and the older kids needed to go practice again for Stake Conference Choir. Kathryn needed their help because she was the choir director.

Eleven-year-old Megan started to complain and drag her feet, but her voice was needed in the Soprano section with her two older sisters and just a few older women. Kathryn said, "Singing is what we do in this family. Don't you remember you had to audition to even get to be in this family?"

Confused, Megan said, "Wait. What?"

Kathryn shook her head and muttered as they got into the van, "Where have you been all these years?"

Megan and Melanie have lovely voices, and here's the proof. "As the French Say" song from the play "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse."

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Friend or Just Entertainment?

4/5/2022

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We moved around a lot through my youth. I often felt like I never stayed in one place long enough to really bond with friends. But, I guess I had friends enough, at least I had plenty of invitations to birthday parties. We did the things other kids in that time did --- dancing to pop hits, building crazy ice cream concoctions, skating at the roller rink, swinging on the Tarzan rope over the canal, having sleep-over parties, etc.

What I remember most about going to sleep-over birthday parties is that my friends always asked me to sing them to sleep. I don't know if that was because I had a voice that would instantly put them to sleep or that they honestly liked how or what I sang. Guess I will never know for sure.

I remember the parents at the party house insisting that after a certain time, no more television or playing records would be allowed. They insisted we all go to sleep. So, I was elected to quietly sing to them. My repertoire at that time was fairly vast. I could sing Movie and Broadway tunes ad infinitum. And it felt like I indeed sang all night long. Every time I stopped, thinking the girls were all asleep, someone would pipe up and say, "No, don't stop." So on I sang from the scores of "My Fair Lady," "The Sound of Music," "Mary Poppins," "Funny Girl," almost any Rodgers and Hammerstein show or Disney show, and so on.

Providing the entertainment is something I was called on to do a lot in my life. One thing I've noticed through the years is that the entertainer doesn't actually get to mix with the audience. So, I think a lot of kids thought they knew me, but I didn't really get to know anybody.

Thank goodness I had built-in friends having a tight-knit family. They were my best friends then and still are. We sang as a family in our growing up years. And we still like singing together. And my kids sing with me and and with each other, as well.

If I had only had my sisters or daughters with me at those sleep-over parties, we could have sung in parts!

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Writing Tuneful Songs

Children's Musical Done by a Large Cast

Toddler Tantrums and Truths

You Had to Audition to Get Into This Family

Friend or Just Entertainment?

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