Over the last few weeks I have put effort into creating a narrative into which we can place our songs. Its a bit corny in places but it holds together as a contemporary story. At our first rehearsal we managed to identify over 20 songs that G had written that could be adapted (with appropriate words) to songs for our musical project.
I shared my initial attempts at a narrative with my daughter who made some useful suggestions all of which I incorporated and placed the songs into the narrative. It was nice to discover that we have about 2 hours of material which is enough for the sort of musical we want to produce. Having got an overall story line we now start the process of systematically going through the songs one by one and re-writing the words so that the song reflects the story. G took the first song and I took the second which tells the story of boy meets girl at an illegal eagles concert - the musical is called return to hotel california!. Here's a rehearsal room recording (warts and all) of the first time we tried it out G on guitar me on drums.
Song 2 Its a natural thing
I shared my initial attempts at a narrative with my daughter who made some useful suggestions all of which I incorporated and placed the songs into the narrative. It was nice to discover that we have about 2 hours of material which is enough for the sort of musical we want to produce. Having got an overall story line we now start the process of systematically going through the songs one by one and re-writing the words so that the song reflects the story. G took the first song and I took the second which tells the story of boy meets girl at an illegal eagles concert - the musical is called return to hotel california!. Here's a rehearsal room recording (warts and all) of the first time we tried it out G on guitar me on drums.
Song 2 Its a natural thing
As I was doing this I was also thinking about the idea of 'exploration' which is the theme for our January Lifewide Magazine. I am writing about the ecology of exploration - how we build ecologies in order to explore something and I can relate this idea to this musical project. as we are both exploring the creative possibilities in our ideas and at the same time we are exploring the potential in our relationship for producing this musical.
Our ecology is being co-created.... we are both bringing our past experiences to bear (we have a long history of playing in a band together, being in a band and feeling we are not developing much as musicians simply playing the same music over and over).
Our shared context - we are both retired, have time to play and do things we have always wanted to do, and we enjoy making music, and our purpose are intertwinned -G has had the idea of a musical for many years and I am encouraging him to commit time and creative effort to bring this to fruition. I am making his purpose my purpose.
We are both driven by the idea of performing this musical at some point in the future - probably 6 to 9 months from now. We have already talked about where we might perform it and who we might involve (eg musical theatre groups and other singers and musicians). In other words we are using a vision of this completed work as a motivational force to deepen our commitment and engagement with this project. Affordance is in the fact that we have time and interest, we can both play instruments and our talents are complementary, we have access to appropriate spaces, tools and other resources - a rehearsal room, our instruments and recording equipment (which we have yet to learn to use properly - another driver for the project). We have resources (G's songs which we can adapt) and our own ingenuity. And we will, in due course develop new relationships with people to enable this project to come to fruition. The project is achievement focused - we want to produce and record a musical - but it requires us to adopt a mode of 'working' which is explorational and developmentally oriented - there is a lot of experimentation - trying something out to see what it sounds / feels like and asking does it fit? We anticipate that everyone who gets involved will also shape the eventual outcome as they interpret and make their own suggestions. Exploring and developing this musical is an iterative process.. Its has begun with forming a vision of the end product or the whole story and then working down into the detail of the components (individual songs) that make up that story, which in turn help refine the individual parts of the narrative. Its very much a case of two minds are better than one even something as simple as coming up with the title of a song eg we changed a songe from 'Riding on the Back of Giants' to 'Climbing up the Corporate Ladder' with me suggesting climbing up the ladder and G adding corporate - and that is the way this thing evolves.
Our ecology is being co-created.... we are both bringing our past experiences to bear (we have a long history of playing in a band together, being in a band and feeling we are not developing much as musicians simply playing the same music over and over).
Our shared context - we are both retired, have time to play and do things we have always wanted to do, and we enjoy making music, and our purpose are intertwinned -G has had the idea of a musical for many years and I am encouraging him to commit time and creative effort to bring this to fruition. I am making his purpose my purpose.
We are both driven by the idea of performing this musical at some point in the future - probably 6 to 9 months from now. We have already talked about where we might perform it and who we might involve (eg musical theatre groups and other singers and musicians). In other words we are using a vision of this completed work as a motivational force to deepen our commitment and engagement with this project. Affordance is in the fact that we have time and interest, we can both play instruments and our talents are complementary, we have access to appropriate spaces, tools and other resources - a rehearsal room, our instruments and recording equipment (which we have yet to learn to use properly - another driver for the project). We have resources (G's songs which we can adapt) and our own ingenuity. And we will, in due course develop new relationships with people to enable this project to come to fruition. The project is achievement focused - we want to produce and record a musical - but it requires us to adopt a mode of 'working' which is explorational and developmentally oriented - there is a lot of experimentation - trying something out to see what it sounds / feels like and asking does it fit? We anticipate that everyone who gets involved will also shape the eventual outcome as they interpret and make their own suggestions. Exploring and developing this musical is an iterative process.. Its has begun with forming a vision of the end product or the whole story and then working down into the detail of the components (individual songs) that make up that story, which in turn help refine the individual parts of the narrative. Its very much a case of two minds are better than one even something as simple as coming up with the title of a song eg we changed a songe from 'Riding on the Back of Giants' to 'Climbing up the Corporate Ladder' with me suggesting climbing up the ladder and G adding corporate - and that is the way this thing evolves.
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