Singing, Songwriting and the Melody That Keeps Moving On . . .

“Trust in yourself and in the process to keep going.”

– David Hooper

Call me consumed with obsession for loving the art of singing so much but, I don’t remember a time in my life when I did not love vocalizing.

I guess you can say that I was fueled by motivation when people used to say they thought I was good. I spent most of my life juggling life, work, my education and singing to keep the excitement and energy present.

At Six years old in the yard

It started as a love of songs. I heard Deniece Williams singing and would try to imitate her voice and sing “Let’s Hear it For the Boy” from my backyard to all my neighbors. Stacey Lattisaw would suddenly pop up on the radio and I would sing out loud “I Found Love on A Two Way Street,“ to anyone who was willing to listen. Songs became committed to memory and then singing them became a part of who I am.

At every turning point, there was an artist and then a song that resonated. Michael Jackson did it with “Thriller,” and then I was consumed with love for him. My neighbors heard me singing his songs so much that for Christmas one year, they so humbly gave to me a Michael Jackson jacket. I even had one of his dolls which I thought was the coolest toy ever.

Whitney Houston did it for me with “How Will I Know,” and then she became the artist that I was imitating all the time. Then it was Mariah Carey and her song, “Vision of Love.” Over the years, so many others have connected with me on a deeper level making me want to sing; Chaka Khan, Amel Larrieux, Sarah Vaughan.  Music and singing became a truth lodged in me so deeply that I couldn’t deny that I really and truly, loved to sing.

Songwriting

Songwriting was no different. I am a songwriter because by sheer coincidence, I am a poet and have been writing poetry since the fourth grade. It became adventurous trying to put melody to mere words on a paper.

Photo from the video for my song "Harmony" 

My students are always telling me about their issues with writing songs and how difficult they find putting melodies to their words. When I was young, I would take any instrumental and try to apply my lyrics to them and then they became singable and then they became songs. Doing that helped me to build a strong connection with the art of songwriting and then it became using my Korg Triton keyboard to build chords and save them to a new Cakewalk Sonar project. And so, writing songs slowly turned into more than just writing lyrics, but the music behind them too; I do not, however, write the music to every song that I write lyrics to.

I will admit that writing songs are not always a simple walk in the park. Under the strangest circumstances, there are times that I am writing and lose control; tears fall down my face because the lyrics come from a deep well in my soul. It takes a lot of faith, strength and maturity to share them because it is almost like sharing your nakedness to the world. But, we are meant to make many leaps with faith in life.

“Faith is the external elixir which gives

life, power and action to the impulse of thought.”

 – Sharon Lechter

From live performance in Arkhangelsk, Russia

I feel so very blessed when I have the opportunity to spice things up on stage with a song that I was fortunate enough to write, so I am always jumping at the chance to perform them live. 

Sometimes I feel like dancing under the silver moon with excitement when someone tells me they liked my song. It feels like a sun-drenched day when I receive a great review from someone I did not expect to hear a good word from; especially family.

In short, I want to thank you for your continued support and hope that in all this maybe you will find a peg of inspiration and feel motivated to keep pressing on. And to close, I want to share with you one of the many songs that I have written all the lyrics and all the music to. It is entitled “Keep Moving On” and can be found on Soundcloud here:  https://soundcloud.com/stephanay-jnote/keep-moving-on

Thank you again everybody. Have a motivated and prosperous day!