Diamond Of A Moment

Episode #152: Diamond Of A Moment  (Song plays at 3:15) Before I recorded this episode, I had a fairly raucous, loud band practice for a couple of hours, In contrast, Diamond Of A Moment is a very gentle ballad. This turned out to be a very relaxed episode. It was pleasure to sing and play the song. I hadn’t sung it for years.  I decided to add a vocal harmony, a cello/bass string sound and another string part. Song #466, Diamond Of A Moment was written back in 1998.  I enjoyed rediscovering this song, delving into the lyrics and music, recalling what inspired it. When I wrote the lyrics, initially I let my pen have it's say. Just whatever pops into mind/whatever comes through my pen is where I start. In this case: ‘Some of my favourite diamonds are the dew drops on leaves. They last but a few moments, or hours, depending on the day.’ Sure it’s a little ‘woofy’, perhaps,  but I didn’t dismiss my work and it lead on to something more substantial. There’s a risk you might never finish anything when you’re a creative person. The key is to put aside the judgement, just enjoy the process. Usually when I do this I end up looking back at my work, perhaps waking up the next day, sitting at the piano and rediscovering the song and generally I think “Well, I’m glad I took the time to do this.” These are the moments. We have the option whether or not to catch thoughts, the melodies. No one’s making me do this. I’ve composed 800 songs purely because of the joy it gives me (and of course for the pleasure it gives others). I have a blog. Like this podcast, I publish a post weekly. This week’s blog post is called ‘Those Little Moments’ (www.petepascoe.wordpress.com) So I thought that was a nice ‘tie-in’ with the essence of what this song is about: sort of distilling all the complicated twists and turns of life down into an observation that eventually our tears become the dewdrops. As I look into how the music came together, I demonstrate on the piano and I interject with spoken word observations in between singing the lines. It’s fun to go between the analytical thinking and the creative thinking, It’s a very gentle process, songwriting - at least it is for me. It’s complicated..all the music theory is like a support network underlying every musical idea. But I go about intuitively, in a very quick, free manner. Where do melodies come from? It sure is a mystery, which I’m sure not looking to take away..as if I could. Chords dictate which notes are good to sing, and a melody can dictate which harmonic options are going to work, in terms of accompaniment. It’s like in the moment you’re the director of the whole band. At least that’s the way I think. I can hear the strings, the bass guitar, the guitars, the backing vocals, the drums, the whole arrangement. It comes in ‘fully arranged' sounding phrases to me, as I build the sections of songs and put them together. It’s a bit like you’re waiting for a story to come through and I’m telling my version. Ok, here we go, hear how the song came together, some anecdotes, etc. and of course you’ll get to hear a new song. Also on my blog you can read the lyrics, view my painting of the week which I mentioned on this episode. My writing, art and music are an evolving interrelated series of processes. It’s all a joy to me and it’s great to share some spoken word, singing and piano playing here on this podcast. If you’re tuning in to listen each week, thank you so much. I hope you’re enjoying the podcast as much as I enjoy recording the episodes. Enjoy!