1.) Cradled

The first piece of this project is entitled “Cradled”. The experience of getting something new down on paper and into the air felt wonderful. I could direct you to several older pieces of mine that share similarities to “Cradled”, but that’s not too problematic to me. I don’t want to write the same tune over and over again, but some similarities might just be my style coming through. And the nature of a project such as this - publishing a new song every week - allows for that kind of thing in my opinion. Not all the songs that come out are going to be unique or great. But hopefully a handful of them will be.

The moment I got a couple melodic ideas down on the page felt great. After filling it out a bit, I had essentially a melody with a lot of repeated quarter note chords, mostly major triads. Then the idea of creating some moving voices in those chords came to mind. I think the moving voice adds a lot. Also, there were some chord qualities that I added that were not my first instinct. They felt a little forced and unclear in the process. But after returning to the piece the next day, I really liked them. One thing I’ve enjoyed recently is unusual phrase length, and the opportunity arose for some of that in this piece. The sections of the song are 8 bars (typical) 5 bars (less typical), and 8 bars again. The coda may be a familiar progression to you, except it’s a 3 bar version. I enjoy how some the odd phrase lengths might obscure the form a little upon first hearing the song.

The titling of instrumental pieces is a bit subjective. You might get a different feeling from the piece than I do. However, titles do help me in connecting to the piece myself. If I connect emotionally to the piece, I believe it will be easier for a listener to as well, despite the fact that we may get different feelings from it. This title came to me almost immediately as I got the first few measures down on paper, and from that moment on this piece became an expression of what this title refers to for me. I’ll enjoy sharing what this title means:

In January this year, I decided that my heart could use some exercise. I started with jumping rope. It was fun, but I didn’t like being inside. So I tried jogging, but that also wasn’t the right fit. It stressed my joints, and I didn’t like running next to traffic. My parents suggested I walk hills in Beacon, and the idea occurred to me to starting hiking a nearby trail that goes up Mount Beacon. In March I began a routine of briskly hiking this trail 3 times a week. It’s a good heart work out! I usually set a timer at the start of the trail for 20 minutes. I ascend as fast as I can. I’m usually climbing about 700 feet. I take a short break at the top, then descend down. It started as a workout routine. But quickly I started noticing things, naming places along the trial, identifying plants, and feeling a deep connection to the trail. I’ve now experienced the trail for about 6 months. I’m excited to continue observing for an entire year, although I’m sure snow and ice will interrupt me a little. We’re due for a snowy winter. Imagine what I’ll have learned by observing for a whole year. What if I continued for 10 years, or 20 years?!

Occasionally I devote a little more time to my hike and visit the Mount Beacon Reservoir. The reservoir occupies a natural hollow near the top of the mountain. It was dammed in 1922 and I believe it’s the main municipal water source for the city of Beacon. There is a strange silence around the reservoir. There’s not much wind there on an average day and you can hear hikers approaching from far away - I think you can hear footsteps crunching the gravel road from about 100 meters away and voices from 200 meters or more. It’s a very peaceful and serene place. When I sit by the shore, or lay on the rocks I get the feeling of being cradled by two giant hands. Often when I’m falling asleep I put myself back in that place. I feel very nurtured there. It’s wonderful. I wanted to capture a photo of the spot for this post, so I went there today and found the reservoir shrouded in fog. I captured some nice photos as the fog was lifting.

What a special place. “Cradled” is my song of gratitude for this place and the support I feel from it. I hope you enjoy the song and get some feelings from it too.

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Introducing Plant Songs

Dear listeners.  I’d like to introduce to you my latest project which I’m calling Plant Songs.  It will be much like the Weekly Composition Project that I did from May 2012 to May 2013, but with a couple caveats.  

Essentially, I’ll be composing and recording one short composition each week and sharing the process on this blog and on YouTube.   

The original Weekly Composition Project was done at a simpler time in my life, and I successfully uploaded every week for an entire year; fifty-two pieces.  

My life is less simple now.  I am a father now, I work a little more now, and I’m a homesteader.   The homesteading lifestyle boils down to spending time providing some of the basic needs for myself and my family, rather than spending money to meet those needs.  In the last 9 years I’ve gotten really into growing fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants.  I keep chickens, build some furniture, bake bread, preserve the harvest in many ways, keep several active fermentations going, and do the regular homeowner upkeep tasks.  I’ve followed my passion for this kind of stuff and really learned a lot over the last decade.  I love it.  I’ve developed a deeper connection with the basics of being a human being on planet Earth.  I believe that many of the world’s problems are solved in the garden.  

The last project I completed was called 24 Standards which happened from 2016 to 2019.  Because I was getting deep into the homesteading at that time, I decided that rather than publish on a schedule, I'd just commit to completing 24 arrangments however long it took.  I thought maybe I’d average posting every two weeks or so and the project would last around one year.  Well, it ended up taking three years to complete. 

For Plant Songs I considered a similar format, committing to a certian number of compositions and publishing whenever I got them done.  However I ultimately decided that the weekly publishing requirement was a key piece of getting the writing flow happening.   Without that I thought perhaps this project would also drag on too long.   

The challenge is that many things in parenting and the homesteading arts are pressing.   If you’re trying to grow your year’s supply of tomatoes, you can’t put off picking them and preserving them when they’re ripe.  If you do, you miss the opportunity, and the time and energy you spent all year growing them is wasted.  

With my daughter in school now, I think I'll be able to pull off a piece each week while keeping up with everything else. This time around, I’m giving myself a vacation during the week of Thanksgiving, and the two weeks around the holidays.  If time seems available during those weeks, I may choose to publish, but I’m not requiring it of myself.   And rather than commit to a year, I’m committing to publishing through the end of March 2025.   When April comes around, there’s so much to be done in the garden.  I’ll give myself permission to stop then if I want.  Who knows, perhaps the flow will be so nice at that point that I’ll be able to continue.  Time will tell.  

I’m hoping you’ll join me on this journey.  Plant Songs will be another look at my process of composing.  I have other project ideas in mind also, but composing has been calling out to me.  I wrote somewhere around two hundred fifty pieces from 2002 to 2015.   Since 2015 I think I’ve written four.  I’ve changed since 2015.  I’m feeling much more open than I did years ago.  I’ve had a lot of time away from it. It’s time to get some new music out of me.  

If you’re interested in following along, I suggest you subscribe to get email notifications of posts in special subscription field at the very top of this page, and subscribe to my YouTube channel.  I avoid social media these days, so I’m not sure how consistent I'll be in sharing on those platforms, and I’ll only occaissionally send an email to my list about the project.  I don’t care about algorythms or making money from this project.  I care about making art.  It’s helpful for me to think that at least a few people are listening.  Thanks for being here with me at the end of this long introduction.  May the music and the rain flow abundantly!