THE CHALLENGE

A friend of mine from Richmond, Virginia, challenged me to write a song! O_O

I wasn't O_O at the prospect, but I did o_O for awhile. I am video logging throughout the month of October in response to the Major League Baseball Postseason tournament. I am a lower case novice at this, unlike the Novice I was about six months ago.

The plan, originally, was to become a competent piano player. My music background, which I acquired in high school, helps because I understand the difference between major 7th chords and minor 6th chords, bass line progressions, cat crawls, and crescendos. I did have a follower on Twitter who provided a lot of inspiration for me, and convinced me it wasn't too late to return to playing the piano after twenty years away from the keyboard:

I discovered Diane Birch on the online show "Live From Daryl Hall's House", in which the Hall & Oates frontman rocks out with various, and talented musicians singing old favourites, songs written by visiting artists, Daryl Hall standards, and other music. ^_^ I enjoyed her music so much, I bought all her albums and downloaded them onto my iPod.


I enjoy music very much, and played trombone in high school. Unfortunately, being lazy and not very good meant I didn't really have a future in music, so I dropped it when I graduated and entered university. My problem was I always had excuses, and I didn't want to push the limits to see how far I would go. Not because I might fail, but because I might succeed, and not have time for the things I liked doing (at that time, I like watching television, eating, and playing video games o_O).

It bothered me I didn't push the limits and see how good I could really be, so I picked up the piano again. As I began, Momzo quickly reminded me, "I BOUGHT YOU A GUITAR FOR CHRISTMAS TWO YEARS AGO! HOW COME I DON'T HEAR THAT PLAYING?!" So, now I'm practicing how to play two instruments: Piano and Guitar. The latter is taking off, and I am quick to remember my fingerings with every passing week. The former, however, is slowly moving along; I started practicing by chords first, and then working in individual fingers and would throw in riffs. I went from terrible to not so terrible in six months o_O A good start...?


Which brings us to THE CHALLENGE? I wasn't thinking at the time, so when Jessica challenged me to not only play, but WRITE AN ORIGINAL SONG the macho EXTREME persona inside me said "I would do it". The small rational voice in my head also said, "Are you crazy?" o_O The task is more daunting than it looks; I don't even have music sheets!


The goal is to write something original, practice the song, play the song in front of a working camera, post it on YouTube, and tag it so my friend can see it. I don't think there is a timeframe, but the sooner the better because after this blog entry EVERYONE, who reads this, will hold me accountable...including Momzo. I don't know if I will play piano, guitar, or both (one instrument accompanying on audio feed in a Movie file). This should be fun, and if I can parley this into another online gimmick then everyone will win! What do you think? Do you think I can do it?

Oh yeah, who is Jessica, you ask? She is a "Youtube peasant" who I met via Twitter a few months back ^_^ She is really sweet, and I find her videos enjoyable to watch. Here is one of them...