3-22-02, Sunday Journal
WHERE'S THE SONG?
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
In
one of my songwriter notebooks I wrote, "The black marks on the white paper
are not the song."
I cannot write sheet music but I have written hundreds of songs. I am amazed
when I look at the sheet music to them. But one day it dawned on me that neither
the sheet music nor the words themselves – which are also black marks on white
paper – are the songs.
So what is the song? Where is the song?
More than anything, it is a feeling. Or a composite of feelings. Even if it is
an instrumental, it survives as a song because of the feelings it evokes.
It is an energy field and when you enter it, it changes your own energy field.
They interact. As quantum physics shows, the listener affects that which is
listened to. The viewer impacts that which is seen.
So the best way to write a song is to first decide on the feelings you wish to
bring to life. Then seek words and a melody that carry it straight to the heart.
Start with what it does to your heart. If it doesn't impact your heart, it is
not likely to stir feelings in the hearts of others.
BE A SILVER LINING
In the 80s I saw where soul singer Millie Jackson was donating the royalties to
one of her hit songs to victims of domestic violence. How I loved what she had
to say about it!
She said, "I'm gonna get involved in something that already has a dark
cloud and maybe then I can be a silver lining."
No matter how poor anyone may be, they can find someone or some good cause where
they can be the silver lining. Just to be a hero to a poor little boy in a
housing project would be such a powerful high! Just to make some lonely old
person feel young again by listening to their stories, what a sweet gift.
Just to dry one tear on the cheek of a grieving soul, God what a blessing!
And all of these things, and millions more, are possible to each of us this very
day.
No "maybe" to it Millie. You are a silver lining and have shown that
all of us can be one, too.
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