So I just listened back through the four songs I've recorded so far, and I realized that I'm feeling sort of lukewarm about all of them. Lunch Hour is tedious, While You Can doesn't feel exciting enough, PIPT is long, and While You Can (Reprise) is a little bit uninteresting.
I know they're all first drafts, and I know, in many cases, where specifically I can improve them, but overall I'm just feeling sort of frustrated about it all right now. Lunch Hour most of all, I think, because it was my first and it's my weakest (as a result) and the first song of the show is supposed to be exciting but it's just sort of tedious. Tem suggests I change the bridge, to make it upbeat and exciting rather than also slow and tedious, and I'll likely do that. I also think it'll help when I have stronger singers (or, even, if I were to re-record it now - I hadn't really sung in at least a month when I recorded it, and I've definitely improved). But it's still not super fast-paced. Perhaps, if I do end up writing an a cappella version of the opening theme, it'll be okay, since that IS upbeat and interesting and will act as a nice substitute. We'll see.
While You Can's biggest issue, I think, also lies a lot with the quality of the recording. That isn't to take all of the blame off my songwriting; I just think that a lot of the issues I have with it could be remedied in a better recording. In my head, her voice is strong, and the orchestration is fuller and more interesting. Also, it's better-developed. Right now, I have a very roughly-developed version, with me singing weakly, with piano I'd just written. I like the ideas, but I'm not crazy about the song itself. Also something to come back to.
PIPT I think will be saved when the dialogue kicks in, and also maybe when I make the other two more interesting - its strength is in its contrast to them, and right now, that contrast is only sort of there. Also, I have long stretches of the same piano, which will be slightly less tedious when there's dialogue over them. I'll probably also vary the piano up a bit as I work on it more.
The last one, WYC2 (this is how I'm referring to it from now on), is actually not terrible - I think it just comes at the end of a long line of songs that could be more interesting. My biggest concern right now actually revolves around the big love song, which I imagined to be sort of slow and romantic. Since all of the other songs are ALSO very slow and emotional, I feel like something major needs to change - either I need to make those more interesting, or I have to completely rethink the love song.
I do have a third option, which is to write a song between Norman and Arbogast. Maybe I'll try this in a different draft, but right now I really want to get to the love song. It feels like the most challenging, and I'd rather tackle it and be done with it before rethinking other parts of the show. Then again, if I'm still having trouble with the love song in a few days, I might try a different piece. I've been writing in chronological order, but I don't have to be.
In other news, today is my birthday (I didn't end up bringing in my computer yesterday), and I had the weirdest night/morning ever - I fell asleep before 2, woke up just after 4 because my room had turned into a furnace, and couldn't get back to sleep for another 3 hours. So things are feeling a little bit off right now. I ended up on 6 hours of sleep, but I'm still not feeling awesome. I'm still super behind on writing, though, so I don't think I can give myself a napping break before dinner. Also, I'm terrible at napping.
As a related side note, I feel like long stories about my sleeping problems are becoming too frequent - that I tell them too often, when people ask me how I am (or even when they don't). Maybe I should stop.
Meh. I'm glad to be having my birthday, but I'm definitely feeling sort of off today. I do tend to be more of a night person, though, so maybe things'll get better as it gets later. I guess we'll see.
Oh, well. Back to work.
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