New Songs/New Album

I'm so excited. Here is number 4 station/song for "Jesus meets his mother." It's called "She was There" It is soooooo gorgeous. I will have clips in a few months to share as I go along and keep everyone in the loop. I go to NY in Nov. and while there will be recording vocals for the first 4 stations. This is a very powerful devotion. I keep finding myself in tears as I write/sing/record/listen. I wonder what the Lord has in store for this project. It is so much fun to work with Him.

To share my songwriting process for those interested:

1. I brainstorm related lines from anywhere: I write down all the scriptures related to the station from Old and New testament, read meditations written by St. Alphonsus Liguori mainly and others and write sentences and sentences similar to fill a whole page or two.

2. I try to find one short phrase that jumps out and "catches" me and start singing it in many, many ways until I find one I like and then I keep adding phrases around it. I usually write the chorus first because if I can't come up with a GREAT chorus, then it's not worth continuing. (This is the step I usually do in the car or shower)

3. Craft verses over and over, exchanging words and phrases til it's just right.

4. Write down the words in the decided order and the numbers for the notes over them so I can remember the melody when I want.

5. (This is the hard part.) FIND UNINTERRUPTED TIME to sit in front of the keyboard and hammer out the chords I was hearing in my head behind the melody. (This is why I'm so slow in writing anything. Lot's of noisy kids and midnight is not good for this kind of thing. I just have to get them out of the house for the day or evening.)

6. Program the song in my electronic keyboard and record it with my singing to cassette to mail to my producer (sometimes with a snippet of another recorded song for what I'd like it to sound like, but not always.)

7. Write out the finished lead sheet by hand to include with the cassette for the producer.

"Behold the Man" (first station) and this song are going out in tomorrow's mail. I'm so relieved. Now to start on the next four stations...