"Something To Remember You By"

This song is not unpleasant. The melody on its own is unremarkable, but nice, the text is ok. With the piano part the harmonies are richer. I’m not sure if it’s these arrangements, or the original pieces, but this book is sure unafraid to use accidentals. Sharps and flats all over the place, every measure, and that’s typical for most of the things I’ve sung so far.

My posts still aren’t posting, very frustrating, but I’m still writing, and hoping that I hear back from someone soon about what’s going wrong. The point is to write for an audience, and this isn’t quite working. I’ve been explaining this blog to more people lately, people who have no idea, or little idea, what a ‘blog’ even is. And heck, I don’t have much of an idea, either. That was part of the point: to do something with discipline that I didn’t have too many preconceived notions about. If I read too many other blogs at the start, would I have been unduly influenced?

I think about that with song writing, too, and from the other side of things, since I’m not abstaining from listening to songs. When I hear a great song I want very badly to be writing my own, but so far not enough to actually do it. And I do wonder, how much will I be influenced, in a less than creative way, by what I’ve heard? How much influence is inspirational, and how much just leads to derivative work? Does it matter, as long as it’s not outright plagiarism? Maybe that’s just the whole trick of it, write something original, period, and let the critics sort out the influences. Most of us will not be asked by Rolling Stone or Esquire to spell them out. And how conscious are we of our own influences, anyway? Is everyone, or anyone, that perfectly self aware of their process?

Ok, my husband, and perhaps his spiritual colleagues, might say they are relatively self aware, and I’m sure they haven’t cornered the market on it.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m clever, or just clever enough to think I’m clever without realizing that I’m not that clever. Too much thinking about self consciousness too late at night makes Kathryn a foggy-minded girl.