Encuentros y Despedidas

Pienso mucho en estos días en que no se puede llegar sin despedirse. "Llegar y partir son solo estaciones de un mismo viaje"  dice la canción de María Rita en las que busco pistas para este momento de la vida.

Cambiamos irremediablemente, se nos junta el polvo de los años, a veces caminamos tanto que creemos estar pisando nuestras huellas en caminos que - si vemos bien- han dejado de ser aquellos que un día nos vieron pasar.

Encontrar  un nuevo amor, una nueva presencia es también una despedida de los fantasmas que traemos colgados de la ropa, a los que nos aferramos con miedo de que si los dejamos al lado quedaremos desnudos. Y al final los encuentros se tratan de recuperar esa desnudez de no saber y no esperar.

La constante sorpresa de desconocernos en los ojos de otro que nos mira nuevos y aunque no nos guste siempre lo que ve, nos ofrece la oportunidad de escribirnos otra vez, de volver a nombrarnos.

Basta quitarse las ropas del pasado y por un momento atreverse a que esos ojos nuevos nos lean en voz alta lo que nuestros ojos están diciendo y tantas veces no alcanzamos a escuchar. Las despedidas son también encuentros, estaciones de un mismo viaje.

Una costra en el alma

El poeta Jaime Sabines acuńó esta pesada frase, completo el verso reza: "Los días inútiles son como una costra en el alma."

Pesada y caliente como un hierro la frase ha de recordarnos que no hay día que deba pasar sin nuestro empeño por darle sentido al continuo del tiempo, que solo por nuestra decisión podrá - al final del día - llamarse vida y ser una rosa en el alma. Con todo y espinas pero rosa al fin.

- Posted at some point in the road

A box into a box in a box

Where the songs come from? I dare to say that every song is in our eyes before it makes the trip from the waves of our brain to the waves in the air. Songs are there happening, not in the people or scenes that surround us, but in the invisible lines between them, and then the lines connecting all that with my own feelings. A box in a box, in a box, and also a mandala.

Rhythm is a physic, visual and acoustic phenomena. When you are reading music, you recognize - visually - a rhythm pattern which is associated to a form and the mechanics that let you make the rhythm reveals in the world. If you are a painter it will be made of color and form, if you got a guitar it will be made of sounds and silence.
Can you recognize the rhythm around you?
Observation is one of the main abilities to develop for a song writer. I think it demands some kind of a contemplation state of mind. Passively perceiving events, catching little details, gestures all of them fragments of a story to be told. It implies that everything we see is a metaphor, accepting that reality is merely an illusion strongly connected to other kind of images, the inner ones. Perception is therefore the form of reality. A box in a box.
So -sometimes- I can see the box and perceive the other ones inside. The relation between a face, a landscape, a certain word at a specific context, all happening this morning at the park. All that in "reality" looks unconnected, except if you can see the rhythm figure that makes them one.
I use to carry a little notebook with me and write down what I see. Many songs I've done come from this little red notebook.
When nothing seems to catch my attention, I practice this little game: to represent in an image my actual feelings. Even when I'm really distracted (what is usually called blocked) some material come up.
For example this morning, after an hour trying to get something out of my guitar - and got nothing- I was feeling like a box inside a box. And the I wrote this.

Three boxes, one with a secret inside. The grey is my soul, the white is my mind , and the other on the left is my hearth.
Three boxes each with another in. On Water is one, ice covered outside, and secret into it feeding fire hands.


- Posted at some point in the road

Hooks and hugs

Some Songs are like a house. The intro invites you to come in. The verses show you the living room, the chorus is a celebration of intimacy and sharing. A way to say - as a popular expression in México do - my house is yours.

My favorite intros set the mood as the initial credits on a film do, but in pop music and some rock and roll tunes the idea of a "hook" is more relevant, a catchy easy to remember short musical phrase to capture the attention of the listener in the first seconds. That kind of thinking implies a tough competition for the attention and is quite related to the idea of mass distribution of music trough traditional media like Radio and TV

But in a concert situation ( and I dare to affirm that also happens on a web search situation) also , of course in the streaming concert scenario, there is no that kind of competition, There are no duration limits nor preconceptions about It. We are telling our story and we command our way to do it. So traditional structure approach can be defied. The intro is not that important as the road it promise. The intro can be as elaborated as a house front and not only a welcome carpet.

There are a lot of nice intro riffs and short phrases or rhythmic patterns I like. But in bossa, for example the intros are quite long. They have a little "bonsai" kind of structure, a little song before the song . They announce the song, give us clues about what we are going to listen and warmly welcome us.

My favorite "intros" are not exactly a Hook rather than a welcome Hug. Wich Are your favorite ones?

Departure point: A song DNA

I have the constant feeling that what i call "my songs" actually have chosen me to exist, i don´t write them, they inscribe in me words and notes revealing something i can´t think about, but i´m able to feel.

Departure point is always very simple, but is hard to keep it that way. So i take the guitar and just repeat and repeat this line in order to let it be clearer, more defined. The "less is more" rule guide me. Usually it has rhythmic pattern, a few words, a basic melodic line, but  also contains a full story, a clear subject, a vivid image. 

This very brief initial segment contains all the essential elements i need to build a song. Keeping it simple and pure, released of any preconception is my main focus. When i can do it , I have a song "DNA" to work with.

Everything else is just work and more work. A rational process of:  this works, that don´t. I work very hard on the melody line after i write the first verse or the chorus (whatever comes first)  I use the piano then, cause i can have a better visual sense of variations and possibilities.

Before building the whole structure i trust in these little piece of information. An idea for a song - as far as i have read in other songwriters experience - have a very syncretic form, developing the little elements that comes form initial inspiration is, off course, 99% of the process, but i find in these little "gens" a valuable point of departure in the always unpredictable journey of a new song.

How does it start for you?