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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
 Posted - 11/07/2007 : 04:30:31 AM
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For those of you so gifted, please share with us how you go about writing a song. Please share with us how you get your ideas, your inspiration. Does it just come to you or do you sit down and tell yourself, "Today I shall write a song about my pet donkey." Do you write words first and then melody or does a melody come into your head and you find words to fit it? I've read about folks who had a dream and get up and write down a song. I've also figured that guys like Barry Manilow who write the jingles for fast food places obviously do not get struck by some great mystic inspiration.
Once you write a song, then what? Do you record it yourself, do you try to "sell" it to someone else? When you do write a song, how do you get it published? How do you make any money from it? Does everyone who wants to record your song ask YOUR permission? Those of you who do write songs, do you read and write musical notations? If not, how do you document your songs?
Must one be born with the muse or can it be developed?
Yes, I am niele, but I wonder how the songwriters come up with the beautiful mele which so enrich our lives.
(And thank you so much for doing so. What a bleak world it would be without).
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Hula Rider
Lokahi
USA
215 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 01:20:56 AM
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Aloha -
Probably the answer(s) is different for everyone. I personally would check "all of the above."
When I used to write jingles, songwriting was pretty easy. You have X seconds to fill, and you have a topic handed to you. In such a case, for me, the lyrics come first. Since human language is generally pretty musical, I would just let the tune emphasize the natural rhythm of the words. My jingles all were work-for-hire, so I got one (small) check, and that was that. I figure I got the best of the deal, as I never heard the songs again.
For "my" music, words may come first, music may come first, or they may come together. Ideas, inspiration come from the world around me. Maybe I'll hear a phrase that sounds particularly musical, or has nice imagery. It will "stick" and I'll work with it until it turns into a song - or until it dosen't.
Situations also can generate songs - I wrote a LOT of songs about the evil men in my life. When I was performing out a lot, I would intro them by saying, "It's really dangerous to date a musician. If you mess up, you just may find yourself on the hit parade." Then I'd sing a song about the latest XBF.
But then I finally met this really sweet guy who generated a bunch of songs that were exactly the opposite!
On one of our early dates, two `iwa were flying over Kohe Lepelepe, a very sacred area. The pattern of their flight was very musical, so I tried to capture that with my guitar. The lyrics came from both the visual imagery and the sound of the guitar.
Another song in which the melody came first is "Hilo Rain." It was a rainy night and I was missing my sweetie. I started trying to duplicate the sound of the rain with my guitar. The lyrics were what I wanted to tell him.
Other songs started as poems, or even e-mails describing something to a friend, and the music evolved from the rise and fall of the language.
Basically, I'm a story-teller, not a musician. So whichever comes first, the story is where I put my emphasis.
I'm a total newby at recording songs - only one so far, and that was under the kindly guiding hand of Keoki K. I've been back-up/ornamentation on a few things, but all that "perfessunal" stuff was handled by people lots smarter and more experienced than me. So other than doing work-for-hire jingles, I know nothing about the money end of the music business.
A lot of people will tell you "never do work for hire! You lose all the rights to your work!" Well, I will tell you it is a calculated risk. If you can afford to sit on your music and wait for someone to give you what you want, by all means do so. But when I was writing jingles, I was taking my dogs out into the Ola`a forest reserve to get meat for the table. Writing jingles at $25 each kept gas in my car and the electric bill paid. Work for hire let me take care of my daughter. When the mortgage guy is calling you regularly, you find that there is great inspiration in used cars, Church 25th anniversaries, and many other things!
I've only recently had the financial resources to even think about recording a song myself, though I am vain enough that it has been a desire for a long time.
I've been very blessed that what recording I have done has been paid for by others.
I've notice that the people who make a living at their music are very focused and treat their musical profession with the same respect that professionals in other fields treat theirs.
I do read and write music notation, but I also use a little cassette recorder. There are many scraps of bar napkins hiding in various corners of my office on which are scribbled musical staves and a garbled shorthand of lyrics.
The muse? Hmmmmm - I think people have been wondering that for many centuries.
I tried to go point-by-point. Hope it helps!
Leilehua |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 04:33:43 AM
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Leileihua - thank you so much for sharing how songwriting has been for you. And I admire you for doing what you needed to do to take care of your daughter and the responsibilities that go along with being a mother.
I'm glad Keoki and you got together to record Saddle Road. I love that CD and the variety of music on it. And it is for a good cause as well, yeah?
I do believe those who make a living from their music SHOULD treat it as a business. Too many musicians (and in particular, Hawaiian musicians)have gotten "ripped off" by the business people in the business and it makes for bitterness and frustration and much lost revenue.
I have always dreamed of writing songs, but have stopped short of doing anything but writing poetry, since I am not so musically inclined as my husband is. I just found an old spiral notebook of poetry and journaling that I started writing while Paul and I were dating back in 1972. It is amazing how love colors your world.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences with us. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Hula Rider
Lokahi
USA
215 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 08:24:10 AM
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| You are most welcome. Maybe you and Paul can collaborate - your poetry, his music? |
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alika207
Ha`aha`a
USA
1260 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 5:28:22 PM
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I am different from others, probably, as melodies come to me first. Then I try to come up with words that fit them.
What I am very nervous about is if "Pua Lokelani" has a tune that sounds too much like an existing Hawaiian song. E kokua! |
He kehau ho'oma'ema'e ke aloha.
'Alika / Polinahe |
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Hula Rider
Lokahi
USA
215 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 6:25:53 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by hawaiianmusicfan138
I am different from others, probably, as melodies come to me first. Then I try to come up with words that fit them.
What I am very nervous about is if "Pua Lokelani" has a tune that sounds too much like an existing Hawaiian song. E kokua!
Oh, I run in to that, too! I sing the melody "La LAAAA, lalalala!" to several different friends who are knowledgable in Hawaiian music and say, "This song keeps going around and around in my head - what IS it?" If no one knows, I figure it's MINE!
Leilehua |
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alika207
Ha`aha`a
USA
1260 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2007 : 5:09:41 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Hula Rider
quote:
Originally posted by hawaiianmusicfan138
I am different from others, probably, as melodies come to me first. Then I try to come up with words that fit them.
What I am very nervous about is if "Pua Lokelani" has a tune that sounds too much like an existing Hawaiian song. E kokua!
Oh, I run in to that, too! I sing the melody "La LAAAA, lalalala!" to several different friends who are knowledgable in Hawaiian music and say, "This song keeps going around and around in my head - what IS it?" If no one knows, I figure it's MINE!
Leilehua
Lol.
Anybody want to help me somehow with this one? I want to make sure it doesn't sound like something else. |
He kehau ho'oma'ema'e ke aloha.
'Alika / Polinahe |
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Hula Rider
Lokahi
USA
215 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2007 : 6:13:33 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by hawaiianmusicfan138
quote:
Originally posted by Hula Rider
quote:
Originally posted by hawaiianmusicfan138
I am different from others, probably, as melodies come to me first. Then I try to come up with words that fit them.
What I am very nervous about is if "Pua Lokelani" has a tune that sounds too much like an existing Hawaiian song. E kokua!
Oh, I run in to that, too! I sing the melody "La LAAAA, lalalala!" to several different friends who are knowledgable in Hawaiian music and say, "This song keeps going around and around in my head - what IS it?" If no one knows, I figure it's MINE!
Leilehua
Lol.
Anybody want to help me somehow with this one? I want to make sure it doesn't sound like something else.
Aloha e `Alika,
Just had an idea - if you have a webcam you could record yourself humming the melody and put it on Youtube, then post the link.
Otherwise, you could record it to a cassette tape and mail it around.
Malama pono,
Leilehua |
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keoladonaghy
Lokahi
257 Posts |
Posted - 11/16/2007 : 8:36:30 PM
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There was a wonderful panel discussion on 'Olelo Channel 53 here last night on Hawaiian composers last night. Kenneth Makuakane moderated and guests were Lehua Kalima-Heine, Henry Kapono Ka'aihue and Aaron Mahi. It will be rerun on Thursday, 11/22 and it is streaming via the Internet as well. It was an outstanding program. Details here:
http://mauicast.net/nahenahe/?p=2608
KD |
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keoladonaghy
Lokahi
257 Posts |
Posted - 11/16/2007 : 8:53:07 PM
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Wanda, on your orginal topic, I wrote a reflection piece on my collaboration with Kenneth after we completed work on his solo CD. I shared it with him and he asked if he could put it on his site, and I allowed him to do so. It is found here:
http://makuakane.com/content/?q=node/190
One song that I didn't document there, as Kenneth didn't record it, was Ke Aloha Kalikimaka. Keali'i told a bit of the story of that song in the liner notes of Maluhia, but not the whole story...
I first met Keali'i through Hokulani Holt-Padilla, shortly after she took over as director of the Punana Leo o Maui, back in 1991 or 92 I think. Sometime while I was in either first or second year Hawaiian, I had a germ of an idea to do a song about the snow that falls on Haleakala, and asked Keali'i if there was any Hawaiian thought that explained it. He explained to me that the snow was a sign that Poli'ahu was visiting her sister Lilinoe, and that the snow was her shawl spread out on the mountain. I commented something like "hmmm, that's not much to build a song around." Stupid comment, a pretty good indication that I wasn't ready to write something to that thought at that time. Ke Aloha Kalikimaka came to me in just before Christmas 2005. By that time I had completely forgotten the conversation with Keali'i some 12 or 13 years before, but the seed was planted back then and bloomed a dozen years later. A few months later I heard he was working on a Christmas CD so I sent it to him. It was only after I sent him the mele and he decided to record it that I recalled and reminded him about that conversation all those years ago. The song appeared when it was ready, and found its way back to him.
I hope that document and the above story give you some background into my process. Every one of them was a bit different, some dramatically different. |
Edited by - keoladonaghy on 11/16/2007 10:08:10 PM |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 11/16/2007 : 9:55:40 PM
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Keola - thank you for sharing your song writing process and inspirations in that document on Kenneth's web site. It seems to me that the songs came to you of their own free will, like they were "out there" already and you and Kenneth were the ones to breathe life into them. You know, it also amazes me to see that you had other language experts looking over your mele. It surprised me to hear you say that because, as many of our Taro Patch `ohana do, I look to you as an avowed expert on the `olelo.
I am also looking forward to the rerun of thepanel discussion. I'd love to hear what Aaron has to say, especially. He is an amazing learned talent. It is amazing to think of him as directing the Royal Hawaiian band and then sitting down with Martin Pahinui anbd George Kuo to make great music at the Marriott.
Thank you for sharing your mana`o and for you and Kenneth sharing your musical talents with us. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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keoladonaghy
Lokahi
257 Posts |
Posted - 11/16/2007 : 10:14:54 PM
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Mahalo for the kind thoughts, Wanda. I don't consider myself and expert on the language, I'm still a student, and will be until the day I pass. I've had many people provide me incredibly valuable information and advice over the years, so try to share it as best I can with the folks here.
The paka process is very important. Even Larry Kimura shares his compositions with some of our other faculty members. Sometimes because we are so close to the compositions and the thoughts behind them it can be difficult to see what other unintended meanings might be lurking in there. Not everyone does, but I'm not so proud that I will not seek out advice and guidance from those who have been doing this much longer than I. I've taken songs that I thought were excellent and had many suggestions made for them. I've taken songs to people with serious personal reservations, and been told they were very good. I'm getting better at it, but still far from where I'd like to be. |
Edited by - keoladonaghy on 11/16/2007 10:16:53 PM |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 11/17/2007 : 04:13:34 AM
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| Not Retro???? |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
Posted - 11/17/2007 : 08:29:07 AM
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| A-hem! No, not I. I was coming home from my Audio Production class when it aired, and will also miss it this week, pfah! |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 11/17/2007 : 09:42:53 AM
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Pfah???? I like expanding my vocabulary. I shall strive to use that word in conversation today.
Den mus' be No`eau. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2169 Posts |
Posted - 11/17/2007 : 09:51:22 AM
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| Because I usually have the words clearly in mind but not in mouth, I usually write instrumentals. I usually start with a phrase and then the tune falls off the guitar, so I usually try to have a drop cloth handy. For "Nupepa Slack Key", I started with a Blues turnaround, then added chords, presto- I had the bridge. Then I fooled around to make the main melody. The bridge reminded me of reaching a deadline, made me think of Aunty Rochelle of "The NW Hawai'i Times" and her flurry of activity and that gave me the title. I'm going to work with Noeau for words, but til then, we sing it instrumentally. |
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