Here’s a song I wrote, inspired by all I’ve learned from ITC, especially recent dialogs here about dreams. (Thanks for that, John, George, Ringo… er, Ricky… and other readers.)

Regina said the song might be popular at some funerals. When I mentioned that to friend Clyde, he stifled a laugh… getting the mental image of people actually swaying happily and toe-tapping instead of sitting somber and grieving. It’s not the kind of mood we normally equate with funerals.

Maybe it should be?… or is it important to feel the grief in a somber funeral setting?

Frankly, I’m not sure what’s best for most people (since most of us have a pretty serious fear of death).

Me? I’ll definitely want a celebration when I move on. 🙂

Technical notes:

• I came up with the chords and arpeggios while tinkering on the piano over the years. The lyrics came very recently.
• I wrote it originally in the key of C, but had to transpose and polish everything in the key of G to optimize Debbie’s voice.
• I’ve got sound files and sheet music for all the instruments, including guitar chords in either key, in case someone ever needs them for performing the song.
• It might actually sound better in C (as shown below), but you’d have to drop the chorus an octave.
• I used the MuseScore and Audacity programs, and borrowed the angelic voice of our friend Debbie Blanco, who’s had classical training.
• Then I used Visio to create slides from public domain pictures, moved them to Powerpoint to put it all together… saved it to video, added the pictures and music together with the Movie Maker program. whew
• Oh yeah, I also bought a new high-quality, low-cost microphone (Rockville) that plugs right into the laptop’s microphone input without the need for a preamp. (Just adjust the computer’s recording levels by right-clicking the speaker icon at the bottom of the screen.)
• The song is currently at the copyright office being processed….

Hope you like it!

Mark

I also posted an instrumental version of the song in the original key of C. It’s the skeleton of the song… how I envisioned it from the start. If the song is ever produced professionally, this might be the better key, and the intro and chorus would probably drop down an octave, maybe sung by a nice tenor or alto voice.