SCP #36: A Pin On A Map

Written & performed live 13th February 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. Composed by Erica Bramham as part of the Song-Chain Project. The Song-Chain Project is a year-long creative mission that commences January 9 2017 and will run until January 9 2018. Each day for 365 days a new piece of music will be written, recorded and posted online, and the process documented. For more information visit ericabramham.com/songchain-project

I have two younger sisters, and we are close in age and in friendship.  My middle sister moved to New York last year, and although the internet makes it easy for us to send little messages back and forth throughout our respective days, it's not the same as having her here in Melbourne.  I worked with the theme of distance from yesterday's piece, and wrote this for her.  Recording it made me a little emotional, because I miss her, and reminds me of the power music has to move and change us, and make us think.  Songwriting, for me it seems, is a balancing act between keeping unhelpful emotions out of the process, while allowing helpful emotions to flow freely through the composition and the performance.

This piece didn't take very long to develop. A Google image search for distance showed a map with pins, and from there the text came easily.  The guitar part was built on an interval of a 13th, a nod to today's theme.