Okay, maybe "pretty" is overkill. Regardless, I began collecting what printouts I have, three-hole-punching, labeling, indexing.
Observations:
- Of the roughly 86 documented songs I've written, 10 are instrumental, 5 are retired. I've got 51 sets of lyrics written down, and 20 still unaccounted for.
- 58 songs were written as a direct result of FAWM or 50/90, songwriting challenges.
- The list doesn't include any of my electronic compositions or compositions from college.
- My earliest songs from middle school and high school have almost all been completely lost. I had songs I'd written for friends as presents, etc. that I have forgotten. I may be able to find them in some of my old notebooks, but for the most part, it seems that I wasn't interested in preserving them at all. In fact, the interest in self-preservation only extends back maybe 3 to 4 years. And, y'know, let's be honest, probably they weren't that good anyhow. The only ones I really remember were the ones I continued to perform, which were instrumental ones like the Banana Peel Rag, because I didn't like to sing then.
- Songs apparently are retired on a basis of wanting to move away from whatever the song was about. Songs written specifically for then-boyfriends were all retired when the subjects became ex-boyfriends. Subsequently I moved away from writing specifically for people. (And let's be honest, I haven't had a beau in a hot minute, which makes it difficult to write for one.) There are also retired songs that were just an emotional blab of whatever, and I eventually made a conscious decision not to play them anymore. I can remember at least one case of finishing performing a song and thinking to myself, "Wow. I don't actually agree with what this song says anymore. I'm not going to play it for an audience ever again." I don't miss the songs I retire, though - they're not forced into retirement :) If I hadn't been compiling, I would hardly have remembered they existed.
- Collaborations have increased exponentially in the last three years. Mostly because of a conscious effort to learn to play nicely with others. It's been a wild and awesome ride.
- All these songs and yes, still, no album. And yes, it now seems more ridiculous than ever. But, y'know, the number of songs is not really the key here, the key is having songs that move. It's nice that I have such a wide pool to choose from.
That's awesome work--organizing all your songs like that. What a great and special archive to literally be able to hold and leaf through.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it'll be hard to narrow down the songs to record for a first album?
Exciting stuff, Em.
Thanks :)
DeleteI actually had narrowed down a list of 12 songs last fall and had recorded 5 of them before I had to quit for various reasons. Now I've got so many new songs thanks to this year's FAWM that I need to re-evaluate and pray over the whole list again. Which ain't a bad place to be :)
Nope, sometimes a "setback" is actually the best thing for the project--it'll happen in the right time, I know. And how exciting to craft this album--happy for you!
ReplyDeleteBINDERS YAY! YOU SHOULD'VE AXED ME FIRST!
ReplyDeleteI would have recommended that you go with clear sheet protectors, since in less than a year you will flip those hole punches right through the edges of their pages and then your songs will not stay in the binder ):
But yay for organization. I haven't done a song count in a while, but I have binders full of covers and originals and Jesus, and also one for "retired" songs (the ones that I hate now yay).
Your songs are amazing you should release at least two albums simultaneously. Yay ^_^
you know... i actually DID purchase clear sheet protectors. Like, a bunch of them. And then just plain decided not to use them. For no logical reason that I can discern immediately. Anyway, I have them and I guess I'll use them when I start to get annoyed by the pages all tearing.
DeleteAnd thank you thank you, sir, I doubt I can release 2 albums at once. I have recently been thinking of releasing just an instrumental album or ep for starters... but then again I also have a lot of ideas and not all of them can come to fruition...
omg... I can't imagine what a task it will be when I finally decide to sit down and to the same. I have notebooks upon notebooks, random sheets of paper, POST IT NOTES... word documents... rtxt files... emails... texts...
ReplyDelete...you see where I'm going? And most of these are lyrics with no music but not quite poetry. haha.
Good luck in your ventures ;)
Thank you! :D And to you, too!
DeleteBetter to start sooner rather than later! But also, it's never too late. You could start one song at a time!