Looking back on the first time I did this project, I remembered how much administrative work this project involved in 2010.

I was only recording audio, but I had to upload everything to this blog, which meant writing a post about the music every day and sending an email message to my subscriber’s EVERY day. (Of course, many of those emails simply said, “Here’s today’s song,” but still …) Social media and smart phones have wildly simplified sharing for me, but I am posting here on my blog and emailing a weekly update because I know not all of the folks who follow me hang out on social media.

Due to the nature of social media, however, I realized that I haven’t been sharing as much about how the songs came to be and when I looked back to the 2010 project, that information was really interesting and useful to me. With this in mind, I decided to make some notes about song experiences this week.

And in this post, I want to talk about the song from Day 8.

Day 8 is the “Yeah” song. (It’s the first excerpt in the video above.) I think the video I posted was the 4th or 5th song I recorded on Monday. I kept hitting record and singing for 3 minutes, but I wasn’t happy with what was coming out.

Now the earlier songs weren’t bad, (but it didn’t feel like they were good, either *wink*) I simply knew I hadn’t landed on what I wanted to do or say. That might make it sound like I have plan for these songs; I don’t.

Most of the time, I click the little record button on my phone and open my mouth to see and sing what comes out. But as I’m singing, I can usually feel that the song has a narrative or a shape that feels cohesive (most of the time) and/or complete. (That’s how I knew the one and only song I recorded on Day 9 was the one to share.)

I heard Toshi Reagon say in a live stream I watched this weekend that author Jacqueline Woodson told her that “When you have a writer’s block, it’s because you’re not writing about the right things. … Anytime I’ve stopped writing, I’m like let me kick myself in the right gear because there must be something I want to say and I’m just not looking in the right directions.”

Honestly, I can’t say what sparked the shift I made on Monday, but I knew about 3 seconds in that this was the direction in which I wanted to go. *smile* And if I hadn’t record the 3 or 4 other songs, I might not have cleared the path for this song to find its way through.

…

The video above is a peak at the songs from week 2.

You can watch each song in its entirety on my Facebook music page (you don’t need a FB account to access) or on IGTV and follow me at one of those places to watch the project unfold.

More Bloggity Goodness

• Working with the Broken Pieces
• Songtaneous – 11/09/24
• Songtaneous – 11/09/24