A Little Hobby Music

I have a confession to make: I suggested the theme of hobbies for this week so that I could show you all what I've been working on recently. Mwa ha ha! I'm good.

Ahem, anyway. My two biggest hobbies are basically the same as Caitlin's: writing and music. As for writing, I used to write lots of stories (and I still have a few unfinished novels lying around), but eventually realized that what I really love to write is poetry. As for music, well, you all know that I plan to pursue a career in music (as an educator), because it's basically the best thing ever.

About a year ago, I finally successfully combined the two. And thus my love for songwriting was born! And that, I would say, is my biggest hobby. At least, it's what eats up my time when I should be doing other things.

Although I haven't written very much music yet, I really love doing it. Every once in a while I get these flashes of inspiration and a song will pour out of me. It won't necessarily be a very good song, but it's still a great feeling.

Usually it starts with me sitting at the piano. I'm not a great pianist, but I love improvising, and I know enough music theory to improvise decently. I improvise whenever I'm angry, sad, happy, lonely, or just bored. Eventually, some melody or chord progression or something will pop out at me, and I'll remember it-- tuck it away in my mind somewhere for later. Then, a day, or a week, or even several months later, I'll feel the urge to write a song on a particular subject, and pull out whatever musical idea most matches that theme. And gradually, a song is born.

It's not a particularly productive process, but of course I only write music for fun. I absolutely love the feeling of being lost in sound, in expression, in the creative process. I may not be the greatest songwriter in the world (in fact, I'm not even very good... yet, at least), but it's definitely my favorite hobby.

Here is my latest big project, which is a Kyrie created with several vocal, synth, and piano tracks in GarageBand. (For those who don't know, "kyrie eleison" means "Lord have mercy"; it's commonly used text in choral music and great for when you're too lazy to write your own lyrics.)

If you're not already bored out of your mind, here's an older project from several months ago. I had written a sonnet about the moon and wanted to set it to music. However, instead of singing it, I decided to speak the poem and create a sort of ambient, synthesized soundtrack for it. (I'd seen/heard other artists do similar things, but with slam and free verse poetry-- never something so structured as a sonnet.) This one was also created in GarageBand. Listen with headphones if you can. Apologies for the melodramatic reading.

So there you go! Now you all know what I do in my free time (and also when I should be doing something productive).  This stuff keeps me sane, and sometimes drives me insane. It's a pretty fun hobby.

Looking forward to seeing what you all write about this week!

DFTBA,
Emily

P.S. Everyone, but especially Caitlin-- I have some old finished and unfinished stories lying around. Want to exchange writings?