Want to write the next great…

 

Can you read? Can you think? Can you imagine? Can you write?

The next Great American Novel is waiting for you to write. If you can make words rhyme you could conceive the next Pulitzer Prize winning poetry. Got a tune in your head? The #1 Billboard Chart is waiting for you.

Being creative is expressing yourself in whatever means, but this is about writing.

There are hundreds of books and websites and videos telling you the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of writing, but this is not one of them. If you have read any of the previous post and are half way well read, you know I don’t know jack chit about writing. Though I took English up to my final year in education, I never learned it. Grammar and proper pronunciation has never been my forte. I don’t even know if that is a word.

Yet, we talk (in whatever language we speak) to one another and some how relay thoughts. The same is with writing, except on paper.

A novel, poem, song are nothing but words put together by the writer to convey a thought or idea. The words can be descriptive, educational, fun or thought provoking. The critics make the rules, but no one listens to them.

If you just want to write your thoughts for yourself, a journal is a scrapbook of the mind. It can be a diary locked away from any other eyes as an encyclopedia of your life.

If you want to write your thoughts but not go through the process of getting your ideas published and promoted, you can create a Blog. You can put restrictions on who can read the words and if or if not the reader can comment. If you don’t type well, you can create a video podcast or a YouTube channel?

If you want to play an instrument with your words check out the most popular songs in any genre. Many songs were written by women and performed by men and purchased by women. Love songs are popular and can be interpretive by any gender. Get a hook everyone can sing along with or maybe even a good beat to dance to.

Using familiar words of recognizable cites like New York or Chicago but avoid Fayetteville or Wichita Falls, thought Clarksville did well for the Monkees. Names of people are immediately associated with certain people. If you want to use other names to get attention, try Jesus.

If you handwrite you ideas, you can always tear up the paper and start over again. If you write on the computer, there are all sorts of grammar corrections and spell-checks that can speed you along.

It is probably a good idea for someone else to proofread since you will skip over your own errors. Just like a movie, a publisher will have editors to add comments and maybe suggest a new approach to interpret your thoughts and feelings. Would you consider changing the lead character’s gender? Would you be offended by the request to add more detail or delete characters? Do you need footnotes?

Good luck and start writing.

12-Notes

 

That is all there is. Twelve notes. One octave. All music that we are familiar with and hum along to is created with twelve notes.

If you want to get technical…

In music, an octave (Latin: octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the “basic miracle of music”, the use of which is “common in most musical systems”. The interval between the first and second harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave.

In Western music notation, notes separated by an octave (or multiple octaves) have the same letter name and are of the same pitch class.

To emphasize that it is one of the perfect intervals (including unison, perfect fourth, and perfect fifth), the octave is designated P8. Other interval qualities are also possible, though rare. The octave above or below an indicated note is sometimes abbreviated 8a or 8va (Italian: all’ottava), 8va bassa (Italian: all’ottava bassa, sometimes also 8vb), or simply 8 for the octave in the direction indicated by placing this mark above or below the staff.

An Octave, in music, is an interval whose higher note has a sound-wave frequency of vibration twice that of its lower note. Thus the international standard pitch A above middle C vibrates at 440 hertz (cycles per second); the octave above this A vibrates at 880 hertz, while the octave below it vibrates at 220 hertz.

A standard, full-sized piano has 52 white keys and 36 black keys, 88 keys total, which give us seven full octaves. While playing an octave means playing the white notes, or major keys, it also includes five black keys, which are the minor notes within an octave.

I could delve down into all that musical theory and technical definition of sound and pitch and all that stuff, but the point is all the songs you like are done with 12-notes.

I’m not disregarding the # and ♭ notes but know that an A# is a B♭.

So the next time you sit down to play some music, remember it is just 12-notes.