"The One"

[johnny-boy]

Here's a song I composed with my lyricist Cal. Hope you enjoy. Why do I love sad songs? Hmm...

"The One"
https://www.artistcollaboration.com/~johnny-boy/MP3-The%20One%20Mix.mp3

Best, John

[quasimodo]

Wow.
Got to love that composition.
And the lady singing is awesome. If not too indiscrete, who is she ? She reminds me of Mehldau's wife...

[johnny-boy]

Wow.
Got to love that composition.
And the lady singing is awesome. If not too indiscrete, who is she ? She reminds me of Mehldau's wife...

Thanks Quasi! I appreciate your comment. Her name is Kerie. I met her online.

Best, John

[alessandro]

Dear Johnny-boy,

Sweet and nice.  Very well-done, indeed.
I think about composing but never come to something concrete.  Some chords, combination of chords appeal to me and then I think about working them out, dig in them.  But again, I have, except a very few texts, nothing written down myself.  What's your 'working-procedure' ?  First the music then the text, or everything mixed - not a fix starting-point ? Do you write everything down ? Do you write a lot ? If there's writing for the music, how much time do you spend approximately ? 15 hours ? 50 hours ? Is there a part of cheating to let the lyrics match with the music or vice-versus.  My inspiration is just other one's  music (Schubert, Chopin).  Do you have the feeling to create something totally new or do you also feel that there's a part of repeating, remoulding, reshaping, combining other one's creations ?

Great job and I wish you other compositions and, if you like, success.

Kindly

[johnny-boy]

Dear Johnny-boy,

Sweet and nice.  Very well-done, indeed.
I think about composing but never come to something concrete.  Some chords, combination of chords appeal to me and then I think about working them out, dig in them.  But again, I have, except a very few texts, nothing written down myself.  What's your 'working-procedure' ?  First the music then the text, or everything mixed - not a fix starting-point ? Do you write everything down ? Do you write a lot ? If there's writing for the music, how much time do you spend approximately ? 15 hours ? 50 hours ? Is there a part of cheating to let the lyrics match with the music or vice-versus.  My inspiration is just other one's  music (Schubert, Chopin).  Do you have the feeling to create something totally new or do you also feel that there's a part of repeating, remoulding, reshaping, combining other one's creations ?

Great job and I wish you other compositions and, if you like, success.

Kindly

Thanks for your kind words Alessandro.

There's no set working procedure for me except for composing everyday.

Lately I've been working from lyrics. My lyricist will send me a set of lyrics. If it's something that moves me I’ll sit at the piano and just start playing while trying to capture the mood. When I have the right mood I’ll start singing the lyrics along with my playing.

When I feel I’m on to something I’ll start writing the melody line down (with chord symbols). I use two staves one for lyrics, melody, and chords. The other one for specific piano parts such as piano runs, mocking melodies, special chord inversions, etc. (I notate anything I play on the piano that I want to remember when recording).

When I’m finished up to this point, I’ll walk away from it for an hour or two. Then I’ll come back to it later and fine tune everything.

When I’m finished with the fine tuning, and if I don’t have any doubts that this is the best way to interpret the lyrics, I’ll record it using my voice as a reference (I can’t sing well). Then my lyricist and I start looking for a singing that can really bring the song home.

An average song takes me 3 hours till I fine tune it – then another two hours recording it. So it’s about a 5 hour process (more or less) from the time I receive the lyrics till I have a recording of it (using my vocal reference). Finding the right singer can take weeks.

I hope I answered all your questions. I wish you all the best in your songwriting endeavors. It’s a lot of fun.

Best, John

[Derek]

Whoa...this is really good...thanks for posting. I love desperately sad minor key things like this... funny thing is i'm not really a sad person. I think this is definitely best as a song for accompaniment + voice... anyway great job...that melody is amazing. What style is this anyway...sounds like Frank Sinatra's chick partner only with even less jazz/blues influence

was that a digital piano?

[johnny-boy]

Whoa...this is really good...thanks for posting. I love desperately sad minor key things like this... funny thing is i'm not really a sad person. I think this is definitely best as a song for accompaniment + voice... anyway great job...that melody is amazing. What style is this anyway...sounds like Frank Sinatra's chick partner only with even less jazz/blues influence

was that a digital piano?

Thanks Derek,

I'm with you on sad minor key things. I think this would probably fit into the jazz ballad genre.

I used a Motif ES8 for the piano.

Best, John