MAKING A LIST

I got my guitar out last night and went through my song book. I’m out of practice; been a long time since I gave it any serious attention. There are so many songs there, I’ll never revisit most of them. So my task is to make a play list that I can work on. I am predisposed to playing with the music rather than working at it. Not a musician, I tend to tell my songs. Music is calibrated, with a rhythm; you should be in sync with it. I don’t do at that very well. I change tempo, pause for effect like a storyteller and I think it’s too late to change that. So I don’t play with other musicians. They get frustrated when I lose track of the meter. 

If I don’t set a limit the list will be too long and I’ll end up playing with all my toys rather than working on the ones I want to do in front of people. I’ll set an arbitrary number and the final cut will be plus or minus a song or two;15 sounds right. The first four or five will be easy. By the time I get to ten and eleven, it will be increasingly more difficult. I want two of my own songs, they would be ‘Angels’ and ‘Catch A Dream’. Then my fall-back standards: ‘Summertime’, ‘Saint James Infirmary’ and ‘Wonderful World’.  Each one now gets tougher because you start sensing songs you love that won’t make the cut. No.#6 has to be Don Mclean’s ‘And I Love You So’, probably the best love song ever. The lyrics are so tight and so profound they never get old. Tempo is just right and I can handle the guitar part. No-brainer. 

I’ll agonize over the rest. Holiday season we need to finish with a Christmas song. I like ‘Silver Bells’. Then I have to put my homework in a thin notebook and be faithful to it. If I got paid to play and sing, then I’d have to please an audience. This way I sing for myself. If it doesn’t sound great, it feels wonderful. Some songs, the lines are perfect, you can’t mess them up. “Light up your face with gladness. Hide every trace of sadness; although a tear . . . may be ever so near . . .” Natalie Cole. When she sings it you can find yourself not breathing. I’ll play with it until it feels right. It’s all I can do but it’s enough.