Although it is quite impossible to lift a song off the page until it has instrumental parts and is then performed or recorded, it is still possible to get a flavour of a song and explore it thematically and think into the lyrics. I do not have the luxury of having musicians or performance venues near me or the means to record regularly so this is my medium currently for showcasing songs I have been writing. So, I am going to share with you several of the songs that have bubbled out of the song cauldron in my head these past few months.
This first one is called “Mirror in our Souls”. It was inspired by two disparate things! I had been reading some quotes from Plato ( as you do!) and came across a fascinating idea of twin souls and soulmates and the difference between them. Twin souls are actually two parts of the same soul having different human experiences. They mirror each other and are often each others opposites but are drawn inextricably together because of their soul bond. When they meet there is a sense of recognition, magnetism and understanding and an instant feeling of deep love. This can be in a romantic context but not always. Their connection is to make each other’s soul grow and so the dynamic between them can be stretching and triggering for they show each other where their souls need to grow, as well as a sense of deep connection and sometimes picking up of each others thoughts and emotions. There is a yearning for connection and togetherness, which both parties feel. It can be a non sexual thing but often it is as there is that yearning in the polarity that is created between man and woman…or in the same sex if that is the expression of sexuality in those beings. It is a deep and profound bond which is otherwise somewhat inexplicable. There is often a dance of coming together and departing until they have both grown to the point where union is healthy and the right cadence for that harmonic combination, but it can take time or lifetimes to reach that point.
A soulmate on the other hand is someone who is largely cut from the same cloth as yourself; there is ease and comfort and they bring each other happiness. To have a soulmate as your life partner is a wonderful thing as the creation of ease and happiness in a troubled world is a beautiful and precious thing. Both are based on accepting the idea of soul and reincarnation for these connections, patterns and growths and working out of difficulties, knots and karma are a patterning beyond the simple chapter of one incarnation.
In this song I have made the twin flames live in a paradigm of feeling the connection but unable to access it as they are both with soulmates, making a dynamic emotional tension that is part of their soul journeys to navigate with grace, kindliness and honour.
The second inspiration for the song was a blues song I had been listening to; she, the singer had such beautiful range and improvised so beautifully creating a sense of raw emotion on her ooh, ah bits that I decided to build a repeating section of improvised ooh and ah bits into this song for the same purpose. My song has a faint nod to her bluesy inspiration, although it is largely folky in style and has been interesting harmonic intervals to create that sense of taut troubled tension( in Solfa the combination of MI to SI and then high SI down to low LA). The ooh and aah bit plays with these intervals as well as the chorus and is designed for me to self harmonise over if recorded. It is in D minor and has quite a range from low to higher in my voice. I would like it simply to have guitar and some harmonica giving it that blues accent as well as the more obvious folky one.
MIRROR IN OUR SOULS
Instrumental and some oohs and aah s
1
Electrical charge- ten fathoms deep, caught between our souls
Invisible thread ‘tween you and me
Frisson of energy I can’t explain
It throbs like a live heartbeat.
Chorus
I’ll never have your honey baby
I’ll never have your love
I’ll never have your sweetness baby
Or your mouth meld with mine.
Oooh, Aaah, OOh, Ahh ( for. as long as is right).
V2
I saw you and you saw me, a mirror in our souls
T’Is ever so and ever thus
A strange bond beyond bone deep
It throbs like a live heartbeat.
Repeat Chorus.
V3
I can’t say your name or let my heart escape
Just regard you from a distance
A stranger’s dear held face
It hurts like a live heartbeat.
Repeat chorus and small instrumental
V4
I wish you all the warmth and tenderness,
nobility of deep love.
And your soul, and your soul and your soul- to know an abiding ease
that feeds you, that feeds you that feeds you, like a live heartbeat.
OOh,Aah, OOh Ah.
I have a feeling about this song……it might be one that would appeal to a larger audience than some of the other songs I write……
I realised I have already written quite a bit about this song so I will only choose one other song and do a few more in another blog.The next song is called “My Wildly Improbable Dream!”. It is actually autobiographical and it is about my song writing journey….which is unexpected, but sincere and true and a bit off the usual track of life’s activities. it is not an easy path and this is reflected in the lyrics. it also has a slightly tongue on check element to it even though it is sincere, because it is best to try at least, to not take oneself too, too seriously. It needs more work on it than the one above and hasn’t settled yet into my singing body. I have been too busy rekindling my music teaching business and applying for grant forms. It uses all the black piano keys and is thus in a more complex key, and has a slightly music theatre feel to it.
My Wildly Improbable Dream
1
A road less travelled
A path unknown
away from nine to five
And suburban mellow lights
And cosy TV nights
I want to follow my wildly improbable dream.
Chorus
I have this dream
An improbable dream
To touch and mend and touch and mend
the hearts and souls of others
T’is my wildly improbable dream.
V2
The safety of knowing
what to do next
the comforting contours
of a domestic safety net
Is not, in my wildly improbable dream.
Repeat chorus
V3
I’m the bird in a bush
with no home to my back
My flight is a wandering path as I seek to receive and just give back.
Give back, give back, give back, give back.
Oh my wildly Improbable dream……
There are a few more songs, but that is enough for now. I hope I can lift them off the page properly sometime with instrumentals and performance and recording…..but this is my road less travelled which is also dependent on the involvement of others, for a song writer is not an island unto herself….
Abi's World of Music 