“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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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!
