Posts in Both Sides Of Love
SCP #179: The Cause Of Your Calluses
SCP #179: The Cause Of Your Calluses

Hands was my starting point for this piece, and I found it quite meditative to both compose and perform.  This is only the second piece I have performed on electric mandolin.  The other attempt was interrupted by flooding, which was about the time this project really started to challenge me.  I haven't even thought about what to do when it all ends, but I suppose I should watch everything back through from start to finish.  Although each piece of music is not exactly a journal entry, they will certainly reflect my mind and life in that particular moment.  If I can bear to sit through twelve months worth of videos I am curious to see how the music I have made has been shaped by the life I have lived alongside it.

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Song-Chain Project, Anatomy, Night Songs, Domestic Songs, The Warm Side Of Love, Both Sides Of LoveErica Bramhamvoice, mandolin, modal, folk song, domestic, domestic life, electric mandolin
SCP #135: Thingamajig
SCP #135: Thingamajig

Here's a proper song, rather than me making light fun of my irritation at this project.  I started with nothing as a theme, and used the word to generate some melodic ideas.  The lyrics come from the word "thing", and the themes of "stretch of time" and "thingamajig" suggested by the etymological dictionary.  My clock theme of early in this project makes a reappearance.

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Song-Chain Project, Clocks & Time, Anatomy, The Warm Side Of Love, Both Sides Of LoveErica Bramhamvoice, piano, time, clocks
SCP #124: Drawer Diving
SCP #124: Drawer Diving

In my chat with Lucy Roleff for Mind Over Myth we talked about being addicted to newness. When I was young my favourite Barbie doll was always the newest one I'd acquired.  I adored that newest doll, dressed it in all the best outfits, devoted hours to creating stories and scenes for it to play in, and then discarded it on the next birthday or Christmas when a new one arrived to take its place.  

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Song-Chain Project, Both Sides Of Love, The Other Side Of Love, Domestic SongsErica Bramhamvoice, bass, surrealist, imagination
SCP #118: Your Shape Like Coloured Glass
SCP #118: Your Shape Like Coloured Glass

About a week before I started my music degree I met someone at a party who had studied a similar degree overseas.  He told me to just do the first year, learn the essentials, and then quit.  This is what he and his friends had done, and he said they were more successful and making "better" music than the people who stuck it out until the end.  In his opinion everyone who finished the degree was brainwashed by the jazz education, and the music they were making was either boring, complicated or weird.

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Song-Chain Project, Light & Shadow, The Warm Side Of Love, Both Sides Of LoveErica Bramhamvoice, guitar, folk song, music study, self-criticism, confidence
SCP #106: The Bite Of Your Love
SCP #106: The Bite Of Your Love

A proper update on this project is well overdue.  I think I have quite seriously contemplated giving up every day for the past couple of weeks.  I've been trying to put my finger on what the real issue is, and it seems to be a number of things compounding.  The most perplexing problem seems to be a loss of confidence in myself.  I have managed to make over 100 pieces of music in as many days, and many of them I'm really proud of, yet I have lost faith in my ability to continue.  What if I've exhausted all I had in me?  What if I've just proved my mediocrity 100 times over?  What if I just repeat the same ideas for the next 100 and become a broken record?  These fears are ridiculous, but I'm finding it hard to switch them off.

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Song-Chain Project, Both Sides Of Love, The Warm Side Of LoveErica Bramhamvoice, guitar, insects, freelance, Song-Chain Project, challenges, self-criticism, negativity
SCP #92: New Year's Eve Aquarium
SCP #92: New Year's Eve Aquarium

I started with the word draught from the previous piece, and then opened the book The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (highly recommended by the way) to random pages and chose the first word on the pages starting with each letter of draught.  The words led me here, and I let myself just hit random keys on the piano for part of the accompaniment as I'd run out of energy to nut out something more functional.

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Song-Chain Project, Water Songs, Free Improvisations, The Warm Side Of Love, Both Sides Of LoveErica Bramhamvoice, piano, writing exercises, lyric writing, celebrations
SCP #86: Apple Cider
SCP #86: Apple Cider

It's school holidays and my teaching load has lightened up, so I spent a leisurely amount of time on this song.  I have found through this project that I often run out of steam half way through a composition, particularly when it comes to writing second verses of lyrics.  All my best ideas from writing exercises usually end up in the first verse or section of lyrics, and then there is pressure for the second part to equal the first in quality, and also move the song along somehow.  I find a more traditional pop song structure much harder to write in a day, but these less traditionally structured songs come much easier.  I treated this one a little like a painting, with both verses adding new layers to the picture.

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Song-Chain Project, Autumn Songs, Flora, The Warm Side Of Love, Both Sides Of LoveErica Bramhamvoice, guitar, love song, jazz, ballad, folk song
SCP #83: A Torrent, A Flood
SCP #83: A Torrent, A Flood

My first song of April, and I decided to take flood as my theme from the previous day.  I did quite a lot of writing exercises but they were all ending up very serious and depressing, and I didn't really feel in the mood for a serious or depressing song. I gave myself happy flood as a new prompt and ended up writing about the moment someone tells you they love you. Perhaps it's the cheerful and simple diatonic harmony, or the swing feel, or the repetition of the phrase "I love you", but it absolutely lifted my mood after the emotional ups and downs of the past week and the chaos of Friday's flood.  

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Song-Chain Project, Both Sides Of Love, The Warm Side Of Love, Domestic Songs, Water SongsErica Bramhamvoice, mandolin, pop song, happy song, love song
SCP #78: Lullaby For Adam
SCP #78: Lullaby For Adam

I owe it to this project to be honest, and I am still struggling to find enjoyment in the writing process at the moment.  What I really want is time to sit down and work on some of the music I've already written, arranging and practicing it ready for gigs on April 9 and 16.  Instead my time and creative energy is going into writing new music, and I am procrastinating quite badly at the moment.

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Song-Chain Project, Night Songs, Domestic Songs, The Warm Side Of Love, Both Sides Of LoveErica Bramhamvoice, piano, folk song, lullaby