From writing music to writing novels was my first transition. And although I don't aspire to have any music published, I have found it to be just as rewarding as writing novels. Yes, I've had all five of my novels published. And no, I don't expect to write any more novels. Because it just takes too long. After several years of writing and revising, and then editing, and then more revising, the return is just not worthwhile. Sure I like rereading the novels now and then. And sure every time I do it's just as entertaining as the first time. Just as much fun as writing them even.
But writing a song takes far less time. Even writing an entire album takes far less time. About twenty years ago, or so, before I entered my novel writing phase, I was into writing music. Since my early teens I had been writing music, really. I had always played the piano, and I was in a rock band in my teenage years. And it was then I had started to write my first original songs. Not many. But eventually I had written enough songs to comprise an album.
By that time my band had disbanded, and I never entered into another band. I was giving my artwork priority, by going to college and graduating with a B.A. in Art from SJSU. And even though I never became a professional artist, I did get a teaching credential and an M.A. and became an art teacher in the California public school system, thus enabling a career to support a wife and family.
And so it went. But I had untapped creative resources bubbling within me. And soon after my first son was born, I went back to writing music. The first thing I did was put together all of those songs I had written in my youth and put them on a cassette tape. I had remembered them only because I would play them now and again on my family piano which I had inherited. But I bought some new electronic pianos and recorded the songs using synthesized instrumentation.
I called this first effort Volume 1 and I wasn't particularly enthralled with it. I was, at heart, a hard rocker, and these songs were anything but that. Mostly they were slow love songs, since I was an over-the-top romantic, being the kind of kid who would fall in love with the pretty girl in my life at the time. So I wrote a song about each of them. By the time I was 20 I had written near a dozen love songs for as many different girls. But that wasn't all. I had written a theme song for the story had begun to illustrate. And a few other songs as well. I think 16 total on this first album.
But then I began to rock. It was something that just flowed from me. I hit a phase and for the next two or three years, I wrote another 120 plus songs. One after another. I mean the songs just flowed out of me. I put together Volume 2 with 11 more songs, then Volume 3, then Volume 4, then 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and more.
Each album averages 10 songs per album. To be exact, Volume 1 has 16 songs, Volume 2 has 11, Volume 7 has 9, and all other volumes have 10 each. It was two songs past Volume 13 when I stopped writing music because that's when I got the crazy idea to start writing books. And I wrote four novels in the next four years and one more soon thereafter.
And this blog chronicles the time I spent in that endeavor. But now, I have gone back to my music. I found upon my return to music that I had to do with my songs the same thing novelists have to do with their novels. Which is REVISE them.
Most of the songs were too long, so I had to edit them, as in cutting them down in length and making them much better just like a writer does with his/her books.
One of the biggest problems I had was vocals, as I am no singer. And I cannot pay a singer to sing my songs. So I became the vocalist. At first I was horrid as anyone who's listened to my Volume 12 can attest. It's posted right here on the blog. But with practice I'm getting better. Make no mistake, I'm not fooling myself. I know I will never be a singer. My best hope is that one day a real singer will want to sing the songs. One day. Who knows when that will be.
The good news is that I have discovered new recording devices; like the Zoom H2n, which is far superior to the old-fashioned cassette recorder I used to record Volume 12 and is currently on SoundCloud and can be accessed right here on the blog. I'm proud of the music, and not proud of the vocals. At this point in time I have revised and re-recorded Volumes 2 through 9. Volumes 2 - 8 are now CDs. (Thanks to King Tet Productions in San Diego.)
Right now I'm in the middle of revising Volume 10. And when I put the vocals on 9 and 10 I'll make them into CDs also. When I'm finished with all 13 volumes, I may or may not put together a complete Volume 14, but my plan is to put all of them on SoundCloud like I did for Volume 12. My ultimate plan is to delete the Volume 12 that's on SoundCloud now and replace it with a new and revised Volume 12. (I expect the vocals to be much better by then.)
So that's what I've been up to for the last couple years. Soon I will post my albums on this blog too; the music, the covers and the lyrics as well. All thirteen of them. Maybe more. Stay tuned.
