CRAIG’S BRAINSTORMING DRAFT

The first time that I started to play music was in the 7th grade. My real motivation to take up an instrument was from my mom because not only did she play guitar back in her teen years; she thought that playing an instrument would be a great extra activity for me to do. My first guitar was an electric Ibanez and it was a starter kit so it came with everything that I needed to start playing. I first started just playing around with the guitar not really knowing how to play at all. However, a couple of my brother’s friends played guitar and I started to take lessons with one of them. Greg showed me how to play simple chords and songs and, eventually, one day it all came together. The first song learned to play was “Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)” by Green Day. I was able to play chord progressions fluently. That summer the lessons stopped because I had progressed so much that Greg had taught me everything that he already knew. At the beginning of 8th grade my mom decided that I should take music lessons from a real guitar teacher. Jim from Norwalk Music taught me all the scales of the guitar, key signatures and how to write great solos and lead guitar parts. At about that time, I auditioned for a band comprised of musicians from four different towns, New Canaan, Darien, Greenwich, and Pennsylvania… I played with them for about a year and we recorded some of the songs that they had already written. Overall, my knowledge of the guitar kept growing and I began to start writing my own songs. The first song I wrote was basic bar chords in a simple song structure. In about 10th grade, I started to experiment with recording with one of my friends who also played guitar, Jason. He had written a couple of songs before this so when we started to record we already had a few songs. I learned a few simple recording tricks such as doubling the guitar track in a recording and making one come out of the left speaker and the other out of the right speaker gave the guitar part a fuller sound. However, as we started to write different stuff, our music transitioned into great songs that we put a lot of thought and time into making. Our music interests turned from forming a four-man electric group to a two-person acoustic team. Components of writing a good song would be experimentation, motivation, and some basic structure.

The way that I write a song is that I first start with a hook or an introduction which transitions into the first verse. The first verse then transitions into a chorus that is louder and more powerful than the verse. After the chorus, the song then goes back into the verse where it transitions into the bridge. The bridge is really the turning point of the song. Usually, I play another chorus after the bridge and then lead the chorus into the ending part of the song. Most of the time the music part is written first. This way, it’s easier to match up lyrics to the right tempo of the song. The type of song that I write comes from what mood that I am currently in or what music is currently influencing me. The band Dispatch has influenced the way that I write music. The words usually have personal meaning to them and the songs themselves express a sense of individuality. I feel that, through the songs that I write, I have developed my own personal style of writing music. I’m not afraid to try different techniques that most people don’t use or use chords that some people don’t. “Sleigh Ride,” my latest song, uses the time signature of 3:4 and the chords used in the song are abstract. I can’t think of any song that really uses the same blend and feel that my song does.

Teamwork is especially important in writing a song. The vocal parts have to coincide with the guitar parts even if that means that you have to change a word or change the way that a chord is played. Making suggestions to strengthen each other’s songs only helps and we have yet to disagree.

The first time that we performed our songs in front of a live audience was at the New Canaan Teen Center. Only about 20 people came to watch but the crowd was big enough for our first performance. The most recent time that we have played together was at the New Canaan High School “Battle of the Bands.” In the future I don’t really see myself so much as a performer, yet I do plan on continuing to play both electric and acoustic guitar and compose my own music for each. Whatever style I choose to play, the common thread is the personal satisfaction that comes with playing. I plan on taking my guitars to college and hopefully find more band-mates. (860 words)