A remaster of a good old one.

I asked the Theory II class for which I'm a GTA for a poem, phrase, word, or topic for today's song. The first one I heard clearly was "cats."

What is it about asking for Prompts that sometimes gets me ones that are... outside of what I think I'll be able to do?

But that was the challenge, to find the place of truth that this had for me. I wasn't going to channel Queen's "Delilah," nor do I want to go too deep into Stray Cats territory. But this is what it is today.

Today. Of all days. Hail to the chief, and all that.

It doesn't thrill me, it doesn't. The song. It has issues.

What DOES thrill me is that I did it from my tiny office at school, that my Composition prof thinks that I should keep this up, and that I'm staying on top of it.

Enjoy.

I didn't name the track until after I listened back to it. And then, I discovered that there's only one name that this song could possibly go by.

Enjoy. Oh, enjoy!

The joy of getting back to what you're supposed to be doing.

Might be same key and same tempo as a song I did called "Kidding Around" or "Just Kidding" or something. This is almost as playful and a little less kid-stuff. Not much.

's'funny how I never seem to notice when it's a Friday the 13th.

Two challenges I'm addressing today and for the nonce.

First, what kind of chromaticism and "non-vocal friendly" things can I pull off with my voice alone? Is my mental model of the music strong enough that I can do non-diatonic things?

Second, once the musical material has been made, do I come to a full enough grasp of "what's it for," what the point of the song is and how I use the material in service of that point?

So many false starts today that it almost constitutes cheating. On an early take, I basically got the end, brought a part in, and said "naw that doesn't work." Instead of "yes-and"-ing that decision, I pulled the plug. Fine. I learned more this way.

Enjoy.

Play on words. Let's find out what, if anything, atrophied from neglect of this daily process. Let's re-discover lost things.

Play onward.

My task this week: to make sure that my return to academia is a step forward, not a regression to 20 years ago. To make sure it is a step toward what I want, and not merely a step away from things I don't like.

The title—and the image—are much darker than the song. "Move chords," I'm told, "a piece of music is an event that flows, and without harmonic motion it doesn't seem to go anywhere." Okay, I see that, as far as it goes. But I went to a weird other chord this time. Because all the other ones were taken.

I did, though, remember my guiding edict for the month: "do it because it's fun!"

This bit where I sing exactly what I want to—and tell the voices in my head that are telling me how to be—this is turning out to be fun.