A New Musical - Part 5 - A Chase!

When it comes to writing a musical, I don't have a formula, but I do have a method.

But when it comes to writing a song, I don't even have a method. I start with whatever inspires me the most, whether it's a lyric, a melody, or an image.

Still, sometimes you just get stuck.

If you've read the story of Peter Rabbit, you know that Farmer McGregor chases Peter all around the garden. But how to show this on stage without it getting boring? 

Add music, of course!

My choices were to either write a song to be sung by Peter and Farmer McGregor as they run around, or write incidental music (also known as underscore.) I chose the latter, so I really needed to think about the feel I wanted to convey in this scene. Frantic? A little. Scary? No. Silly and fun? Maybe.

But how to convey this with music?

I was stuck.

Then... an idea. (You really never know from where inspiration will arise!)

I had written a ragtime piece earlier and it sat on my piano without a name. Or at least, I thought it was on my piano. I looked for it, and was almost in a panic when I thought to look behind the piano. Ah, there it was.

And it was the exact feel I needed! I could picture the chase in my mind, like I was watching a black-and-white Charlie Chaplin film–sped up, goofy, exciting. I looked up when ragtime music was popular, and it was right around the time when Beatrix Potter wrote Peter Rabbit–even better!

So the piano piece finally got a name, "Rabbit Chase," and it became the underscore for the chase scene in my musical. And, what's even more amazing is that that little piece of music, initially not written with the musical in mind, has inspired more music in the musical! I'll share more about that in my next posts!

My New Book!

 A year ago, I wrote about writing my "memoir of sorts".

I felt prompted to write a memoir of sorts, but without knowing what I would do with it. I just wanted to put my memories down on paper, to sort through some details and record them before I forgot.

But I still wasn't sure what I would do with it once it was done. Writing a memoir is scary. It's my life on paper. But at the same time, it feels pointless. I'm no one special. This isn't going to the autobiography of Julie Andrews or Ghandi or something. Who would read it?

MAYBE YOU! 

What started as a collection of memories became something much more meaningful to me. It is most definitely a way to understand me, but it is also a way to understand other people, especially people of other cultures.

So if you'd like to read my book, you can purchase it here:

On Belonging - A Memoir of an Immigrant

A New Musical - Part 4 - The Opening Number

This post is more video than writing. I feel that the video covers everything I want to say, plus cover musical things that are easier to show on a video than to describe in a paragraph. Here is the explanation video:

My little daughter interrupted me as I was filming, so here is take 2 (actually take 3 or 4) of the end of the video:

And finally, here is the song itself:

A New Musical - Part 3 - Putting It All Down

One of the most important steps in writing a musical is putting everything down in a legible form. You've seen my scribbly notes (in a previous blog post). No one is able to interpret that except me. 

So once I have the script and music in a state that I'm happy with, I start typing up the words and entering the music on Musescore. This is not very exciting (believe me) but doing this also helps me see with better clarity and make decisions on the details, like the piano part and harmonies. (Sometimes, my favorite thing to do is to just sit at a piano and sing and play, and not worry about every little note!)

To show you what this all looks like...

On AI and Art

Our children are growing up in a world where AI cannot be avoided (well, if you lived completely off the grid, maybe you could...) People argue that AI has its uses, but the problem I see is that we can no longer trust what we see, read, or hear on the internet. I would be watching a video of an animal, and my son walks by, takes one look, and says, "That's AI."

As an artist, I lament that people are relying more and more on AI to generate art, music, and even the written word. Again, AI has its uses, but what AI cannot ever do is replace human interaction.

Which is why the antidote to AI is COMMUNITY and COLLABORATION. 

You can "observe" animals on websites. Or you can go to the park or the zoo.

You can "travel" the world thru the internet. Or you can get out and experience the world around you.

You can "make" art by yourself at the computer. Or you can collaborate with other artists and go see live performances.

The more we do with other people, the more we are rooted in what is real.

This all hit me yesterday, as my family went from one activity to another.

We started off with rehearsal for my kids who are involved in the CYT Tri-Valley production of Frozen. I am on the set committee for this show (I get to paint!) and so I joined other set parents at our rented warehouse space and organized the paint supplies and old cans of paint while the kids sang, danced, and acted.

Meanwhile, my husband went to a café near us to meet with local artists. They chatted and shared their art and ideas, and one painter invited my husband to an art show and reception that afternoon at the library.

So in the afternoon, my husband and I took our youngest child to the library and admired the beautiful floral art done in glass, textiles, watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, acrylic, and oil. The artists were present and shared a bit about their processes and their inspirations. Then they held a raffle and I won a set of cards from one of the artists!

But we were still not done. In the evening, I took two of my girls to see my friend's professional ballet company perform in town. My other friend had choreographed one of the dances. As I watched, I marveled at their graceful movements set to the music. That night, I worked on a piano piece that I hope will be part of their performance someday.

Sprinkled in between all this activity was a guitar lesson between my husband and son, kids making birthday presents, and baking in the kitchen.

It was a full day, and I loved all the artistic things my family got to experience. My husband and I want to work more on "getting out there" and interacting with our community. That might be as simple as going downtown and listening to a band perform at the park. It might be as elaborate as becoming a part of the art association and helping with the next Comic Con in our town. Or in my case, workshopping a musical and performing it at the local theater!

Your family may or may not be artistic, but that's not what matters. Keep putting in the effort to connect with people, whether at home, at school, at work, or beyond!