Vacancy by Ascent
'Vacancy' is one several acoustic songs from the upcoming 'Secrets of Flight' CD. Song by song, we're getting closer to being finished!
Vacancy by Ascent Music Online
Christina wrote the words to Vacancy a couple of years ago. She tells me it comes from the same place as "Hiding From Reality' comes for me. In other words, a dark, personal place. With that in mind, I tried to give it a relatively stark arrangement that would support the words.
The final song nearly didn't come into existence at all. When she first gave me the lyrics, a melody came to me pretty much right away. As I've probably mentioned before, my brain has been trained (through repetition) to come up with melodies without any conscious effort. All I need is the words in front of me, and at least one chord. And once the melody is in my head, it's nearly impossible to think of anything else when I look at the words. As wonderful a 'gift' as this may sound, it can be a detriment, since that initial melody is not always the best one for the lyrics.
So, with 'Vacancy,' I had a melody that worked with the first verse, but just wouldn't work with the rest of the song! Christina doesn't think in beats and measures like I do, which often leads to more interesting melodies, but sometimes the rhythm I think exists in the first few lines doesn't really exist throughout the rest of it. The words just wouldn't fit.
I tried and tried to come up with something different, but it wouldn't happen. So, the words sat in a pile of papers for a long, long time. I found them again around the time I was working on "Ascension." Fortunately, the spectre of that old melody had finally flown away. The new music felt right for the big picture of the song.
We've played the song live more than a few times during the last year or so. Christina really gets 'in the zone' for this one, and you can hear it in the recording.
The recording was relatively easy for me, although I struggled with whether or not to leave the piano and keyboard parts in. The little piano bits were improvised off-the-cuff, and I didn't plan to leave them in the song. I tried to put lead acoustic guitar in their place, but n the end, nothing else complimented the mood of the song like the piano.
(photo by Christina Baldwin, (c)2011 ChristinaBaldwinPhotography.com)
Vacancy by Ascent Music Online
Christina wrote the words to Vacancy a couple of years ago. She tells me it comes from the same place as "Hiding From Reality' comes for me. In other words, a dark, personal place. With that in mind, I tried to give it a relatively stark arrangement that would support the words.
The final song nearly didn't come into existence at all. When she first gave me the lyrics, a melody came to me pretty much right away. As I've probably mentioned before, my brain has been trained (through repetition) to come up with melodies without any conscious effort. All I need is the words in front of me, and at least one chord. And once the melody is in my head, it's nearly impossible to think of anything else when I look at the words. As wonderful a 'gift' as this may sound, it can be a detriment, since that initial melody is not always the best one for the lyrics.
So, with 'Vacancy,' I had a melody that worked with the first verse, but just wouldn't work with the rest of the song! Christina doesn't think in beats and measures like I do, which often leads to more interesting melodies, but sometimes the rhythm I think exists in the first few lines doesn't really exist throughout the rest of it. The words just wouldn't fit.
I tried and tried to come up with something different, but it wouldn't happen. So, the words sat in a pile of papers for a long, long time. I found them again around the time I was working on "Ascension." Fortunately, the spectre of that old melody had finally flown away. The new music felt right for the big picture of the song.
We've played the song live more than a few times during the last year or so. Christina really gets 'in the zone' for this one, and you can hear it in the recording.
The recording was relatively easy for me, although I struggled with whether or not to leave the piano and keyboard parts in. The little piano bits were improvised off-the-cuff, and I didn't plan to leave them in the song. I tried to put lead acoustic guitar in their place, but n the end, nothing else complimented the mood of the song like the piano.
(photo by Christina Baldwin, (c)2011 ChristinaBaldwinPhotography.com)
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