write a song, bleed some hearts.

Just a ramble about songwriting really.

So for Christmas my sister got me a sheet music for Adele and a chord booklet for practically all of Angus & Julia's songs which I love to bits. It also gave me a kick in the bum to get some more of the stuff and I managed to nab a Norah Jones one as well. While going through these songs, I noticed that there were many kinds of chords that I saw which I had no idea how to play - mostly sus, min7th and addx chords. After some scouring on the net, I'd learnt the basic theory behind them, and a new section of music seemed to open itself to me (as corny as it sounds).

Lately I've been integrating these chords into the recent songs I've tried to write. The process as a whole is slow and painstaking at times, grasping for words as to what exactly I want to say or how I want to say it. Of the songs that I have managed to complete, looking at them now I'm only happy with two of them. The rest either came out weak in the lyric department (the wording came out weird), sounding like a song I'd heard before or the whole song itself was too specific with raw emotion that it would come out too angsty and not really make sense to other people.

On the upside, the whole process has been a great way to deal with myself and emotions. While the reject songs will never be heard by anyone but me, they exist because I worked something out or came to terms with that something. One of them kind of worked as a slow-release type thing and about a month after it was finished, it was only then that I could play the song and say to myself, "I agree with that".

The song I'm making now is the first of its kind in my collection, a 'story-song'. It's one of those that tells a story between characters that reflect the experiences of the composer, and it's very difficult. I have no idea what's going to happen to my three characters after the first chorus...hum. Suggestions? See you all soon!

-- //restart.

It's been quite awhile since I've done this, so bear with me.

High school is over.

HSC is done with.

University and the rest of my life is ahead.

It's really funny looking back at how much every Year 12er was freaking out about HSC over a 12-month period and that failing it would be the end of the world. It could be said this is an exaggeration, but I remember feeling emotions akin to those words in the week before waiting for results.

Ironically, those results don't matter anymore. Now I'm taking it easy and doing what I want (mostly). I'm getting on with the rest of my life. I only keep in contact with a handful of people from school, which saddens me - I know there are many good people I won't see again for a long time.

But in the mean time, I've accustomed myself to become more introverted, if not slightly reclusive, keeping to my own devices on some days. Learning to cook this and that has been a frightful challenge - frying has its payoffs but potentially painful at the same time. Gaming (especially with Sebastian) has taken up the customary third of a day most days, whether playing fighting games or going through an adventure/RPG together.

Funnily however, something that monopolises a great part of my time and energy has been songwriting; putting out feelings in a "poetic" way, if it can be called poetic. I guess it's a kind of journal-keeping, though I'm lucky enough to have a family that doesn't snoop around for personal information of that kind. The privacy that comes every morning when they leave for work allows me the freedom to explore composition in a way I don't dare in front of other people. It's becoming a hobby, albeit a vexing one. Of the various songs I have written, I'm only happy with two or three of them.

Life after high school (or at least the months immediately following) has been very...educational, from a personal sense. I feel I know more of myself, spent more time alone and away from others everyday. Not to say that I don't go out - mum complains I go out too much - simply the fact that I have 'me-time'.

Will this blog continue? Of course - if not sporadically. We'll see how this goes.