If you can write a song
and sing for your supper
you can write novels, plays
sell makeup, water, wine, perfume
perhaps even the air in the room?
(but then there’d be a vacuum).

When your name becomes a brand
which the market understands
built on your real voice
it gives you a wide productisation choice…

And so following this thesis
my songs have led me along
to write the musical “Songbirds”
and my treatise “Camino”
teaching you how to versify
so you can diversify
like me now.

Songbirds

Logline

The story of a musical diva, Stella, as she negotiates her escape from stardom, co-created by her ex Matt, to start a new life, off the grid. We see her unconsciously seductive impact on the family of her best friend, Charlotte, an academic author, married to poet Julie, and mother of an autistic daughter researching a PhD on the sun’s gravity. The nature of virtuosic song performance and the musical and psychological qualities of divas are a focus in the dramatic action. The #metoo issues in theatre are addressed through the shaping of Eve, partner to Sarah, a young wannabee in the chorus line, embarking on a career, seeking fame. She is mentored by Stella and preyed on by Jonny, the director of the musical she and Stella are in. Musical form is experimented with by showing the inner workings of each main protagonist in a series of soliloquies in Act 2. This is preceded by a virtuosic masterclass from Stella, ranging in its revelation of a very British secret weapon – the national resource of diva.

Dramatis personae

Stella Fortune – diva
Charlotte Adams – professor and author
Julie Browning – poet
Matt Braun – backer of musicals
Michael Angel – literary (and divine) agent
Sarah Adams – phd researcher
Eve Garland – singer
Jonny Diamond – musical director

Camino: Take a line for a walk

Introduction

Paul Klee, the visual artist, (1879-1940), said that a line was a dot that went for a walk. This is my simple borrowed thesis. His observation applies to music too: a musical line starts from a dot. But not necessarily a notation dot, as I go on to say in ‘Walk 3 – Whistle in the wind’. The gentle amble frees us to express ourselves. A forced process is off-putting. The classic melody does not have to be wrought painfully. It emerges like a line of sight when you go for a walk.

I write the lyric first which also follows the same dot to line principle. Then I absorb the arc of the lyric, pick up my guitar and as I touch it I am all ears for musical clues. The sound of a string humming, a buzz, the slightest vibration can be the dot which takes the line forward.
.
The muse is hovering around…you can hear her wings beating. The annunciating angel. The dot is the egg about to be rounded in pregnancy. From the zap of the muse.

You need to attend to the process of song-writing with reverence. The air is thick with the potential purpose and chance.

Have I whetted your appetite? Are you tuning into the mystery? The song lyric is brief and suggestive. So are the lessons in this book. We don’t need things spelt out. This book proposes to teach the art of songwriting in gentle walks, building into a camino.