English 2-Final Project Jun Lee
As I was pondering about the
project and surveying through the different previous iterations of the previous
projects, I tried to imagine what might be a challenge, something interesting
and ambitious, yet something I could manage to put together realistically and
practically. Naturally, there are millions of things that I have never made
before but I wanted it to be something I was drawn to, but remote from anything
I had endeavored to create or be involved in before. Since I was a child, I
loved music, but I never learned how to sing, or write a song, or play an
instrument for that matter. Ergo, the object that I have chosen to create for
the final project is a song.
Because I don’t have an unlimited amount of time, nor do I have access to something like “Pro Tools” or an orchestra or a band to play with, I have decided to create a folk/blues type song with the bare essentials (a lyric that is sung and some kind of music played on a guitar). Mind you, I do not know even the slightest bit about playing guitar, writing lyrics or a melody, or singing. Thus, the first part of my project will involve me listening to a huge amount of blues and folk music to get my ear and my mind acquainted with the genre and the tradition. So far, I have been especially drawn to the likes of Hank Williams, Leadbelly, Johnny Cash, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Patsy Cline, Wanda Jackson, and Mississippi Fred McDowell, but there are many other wonderful examples.
This week, I am meeting with a
family friend who is going to begin to teach me the basic chords on a guitar. I
am also going to study guitar tablature and notation online. Moreover, I have
downloaded countless pages of blues/folk lyrics online to study the themes,
tropes, narratives, and structures of the songs. After learning the basic
chords and notes on the guitar, my family friend is going to introduce me to
some basic blues melodies, chords, and scales on the guitar. In terms of
singing, I have taken to recently singing along with the abovementioned artists
(and many others), and I hope that I can slowly absorb the tone and the pitch
of their singing.
As far as the lyrics are
concerned, I am starting to jot down rough ideas and jot points that I might
perhaps be able to transform in the future into fully-formed song lyrics. I
also am fascinated by how in the folk and blues traditions songs and lyrics and
borrowed and shared. In fact, the whole folk/blues tradition/genre is much like
a proverbial patchwork quilt; lines, melodies, and pieces of songs are
routinely used and borrowed as new songs are made, played, and performed. The
processes of assimilation and secretion are crucial in the form. I might, with
this in mind, use a word, a line maybe, or a fragment of a simple melody in my
own song.
The idea of creating a song as
impressive or as beautiful and awe-inspiring as a song by Howlin’ Wolf or Wanda
Jackson seems virtually impossible, but I am tenacious and I am thrilled by the
idea of endeavoring to do something that is so completely out of my wheelhouse,
comfort zone, and my area of expertise that I am committed to seeing this
project, no matter how impossible it seems now, into fruition.
The three iterations of the
project will consist of researching the forms (listening to large amounts of
folk/blues music, reading lyrics, and studying the musical chord/melody/notes
that constitute these songs and the genres of folk and blues music), the
learning phase with regards to the guitar playing, writing lyrics, and singing,
and, ultimately, recording a version of my originally composed song in the
folk/blues strain of music.
As I have listened to, studied,
and tried to assimilate the various facets of folk/blues music, I have noticed
certain patterns; for example, Picasso’s famous line that “Good artists borrow.
Great artists steal” is perfectly applied to the tradition of folk/blues music.
Artists steal melodies, riffs, lines of lyrics, and make it their own. For my
proposed song, I have decided to steal a line from a famous, traditional folk
song about a railroad worker turned murderer from West Virginia. “John Hardy”
has been covered, produced, and released by hundreds, if not thousands, of
different artists (the first known rendition of it dates back to the early
1920s).
“Railroad workers
have been given quite the life in song. Take the case of John Hardy – often
mixed up with John Henry who was a lovely fellow - Hardy was a rail
worker in West Virginia who killed a man during a craps game and was found
guilty of murder and was ultimately hanged. Such is the stuff of the classic
murder ballad.
It
seems everyone with an ability to vocalize has had a crack at this one.
Leadbelly, the Carter Family, Dylan, Woody Guthrie, The Kingston Trio and
Doc Bogs have all told the tale in a song that has been going around since at
least 1924.”
(http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-murder-ballads-based-on-real-events.php)
