The court case I’m on the jury for got a continuance to next week, and tonight I could work on my music again in preparation for trying to lay down some demos. My first demo is going to be of my song Somewhere Someone Cares, which featured prominently in my short story He’s With the Band, but I had never managed to work out the chord progression for the chorus or the bridge.
I was a piano player when I first wrote the song, but it really needs a band to play it, especially since the main theme works better on guitars than on a piano. I’ve never had a band of my own, so the song has never been performed. Since it’s never been performed, I’ve never worked out the chords for the whole song. The verse chords are pretty much locked down, although may I need to change one of the B-section chords. I had an idea of what the chords would be for the chorus, but they never felt quite right.
Tonight I pulled out my guitar and folding keyboard and worked out what the chords should be for the chorus. Having all the chords written out, I ran through the solo section and got to work on the bridge. Amazingly enough, the bridge looks like it’s just two chords repeated. I looked at changing the chords for the second line of the bridge, but it ended up just trying to be more complex than it really needs to be. Of course, being a good proggish song, the key changes a bit. Am for the A-section of the verse, Dm for the B-section, straight A major for the chorus, and Dm for the bridge. I guess my love for progressive rock came out a bit for this song.
Now all I need to do is get my computer ready to lay down some tracks and learn how to play it well enough to record them. And, Goddess help me, I need to work on the vocals as I come up with a way to lay them down. I haven’t done any proper singing in over 20 years. Yipes!
And I still need to work on the other song I want to make a demo for. That tune needs a ton of prep work, especially since it may be a hard rock song with a Hammond B3-ish track and some synth tracks to try and pass for a good R&B horn section. Why on earth can I not write simple songs that are easy to do demos of? (laughter)
If you want to get updates on the songs and be able to find out where to hear them, watch this space. I hope to have a demo of Somewhere Someone Cares finished by the time Ncuti Gatwa’s first full season of Doctor Who drops in May.