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Friday, November 03, 2006
Trouble with a capital H
My youngest daughter, Hannah is six years old. She's in kindergarten, has no front teeth at the moment, and is equal parts bellylaugh and heartache, causing me, her mom, equal parts worry and unbounding joy. This summer, she became a songwriter. I mean it. For real. She came to me in the kitchen one day holding her childsize guitar (which up to this point has mainly served as an object to trip over or sit on) telling me that she wanted to learn to play. That day. Right that second. So I sat her down and told her I'd teach her a chord. I taught her an E minor. An easy two finger chord. I left her in the living room to master it and ten minutes later she hollered at me and said she'd written a song. And she had. Well a verse anyway. A rhyming four line verse with a catchy melody. I asked her if I could video her singing it so she wouldn't forget the words. Normally, I'd get a resounding "NO!" to such a request. But this time she said, "Sure. But I have some things I need to say about it before I sing it." Her intro went something like this: "I wrote this song when I was learning how to play the guitar... (five minutes ago) when... I didn't really know how...and I really wanted to know how...and that's why I wrote it!" I asked her what chord she learned and she said, "E Minus". Close enough. And then she belted out this little four line song. Three times. With alternating melody lines and a very dramatic retard at the end. Here are the four lines: Up and down the ladder It always gets away-hey-hey Up and down the ladder Seems like you want to see me today It rhymes. It has pop sensibilities (you'd have to hear the away-hey-hey). It repeats the first and third line. The kid has promise! After I praised her for her efforts she asked, "Do you think it's a good song, mom?" "I think it's a great song", I said. Then she asked, "Well what do you think it means?". She'll figure it out. I have no doubt. Over the past couple of weeks, Tom and I have been working on recording two Christmas songs for a compilation album our friend Erik Balkey is producing for a group of artists he does radio promo for. Tom was in the living room working on the guitar part for his song, when I noticed Hannah singing a melody to the part. It wasn't THE melody, it was HER melody - a melody she created that went perfectly with the part Tom was playing. I asked Tom to come listen to her and when he heard her part, he asked her to write some words to go with it. So about five minutes later, she had another four line song. Tom then recorded her singing it and it's now a descant at the end of his song. I wish I had a video of her recording her part. She was completely in her element with the headphones and the microphone, just singing out loud, unashamed or afraid. Made me wanna cry my heart felt so full watching her. Last week, I had lunch with her on Tuesday at her school. As I stood outside her classroom door waiting for her class to leave for lunch, I studied the bulletin board in the hall that was up for Red Ribbon Week - a drug awareness program...The bulletin board had individual pictures of all the children in Hannah's class with "thinking expressions" on their faces. The caption at the top read, Because I'm drug free, I can be anything I want to be. Beside each child's photograph were the words, "I want to be a _________ when I grow up". Most of the girls wanted to be moms and teachers. One little girl wanted to be a cheerleader. Hannah wants to be a songwriter and a guitar player. I'll pray for her future (while secretly busting at the seams with pride). On Friday, she and Caroline were getting ready to go to their dad's house for the weekend. Hannah asked if she could take her guitar with her. I tried hard to dissuade her from taking it, knowing that it might be weeks before it would make its way back to our house...She'd ask, I'd give her the reasons for my NO, then she'd ask again. And I'd say NO again. Then she said, "But mom, what if I get a big gig while I'm at Dad's house???" "Well, then call me and I'll bring you the guitar", I said trying hard not to laugh out loud. Trouble. You mark my words. :-D P.S. You can hear Tom's song, Angel Wings, with Hannah's part at Tom's myspace site. posted by Cary Cooper @ 12:05 PM 0 Comments: |
