SONGWRITER’s NOTEBOOK

Lisa’s songs, behind the scenes: How, why, and when were they written? What’s the story, the inspiration, the process? Get the inside scoop.

And, what is YOUR reaction or relationship to this song? Your comments are welcome.

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13 responses to “SONGWRITER’s NOTEBOOK”

  1. Cort Ensign's avatar Cort Ensign | October 26, 2009 at 12:34 am | Reply

    Lisa ~

    I have the few pieces of Christmas music that you posted on Guitartricks. I love your Christmas arrangements.

    Are there any others that I can access somewhere?

    Thank you.

    • Lisa McCormick's avatar Lisa McCormick | October 26, 2009 at 5:34 pm | Reply

      Hi Cort,

      Thanks for your kind note! This year I have prepared a slightly different Christmas project for Guitar Tricks, called Christmas Classics for Beginners. It teaches 17 classic holiday songs, using only three chords and a simple strumming pattern.
      I’m thinking this my be too beginner-ish for you if you’ve already worked on the fingerstyle arrangements – but here’s an idea: It is possible to take the chordal and the melody arrangements in this new series and combine them to create an instrumental solo. A bit of a fun project for you, maybe?
      Are you still with Guitar Tricks? If so, my Celtic series might interest you as it is similar in skill level and style to the Christmas instrumentals. Here’s the link to that: CELTIC INSTUMENTALS FOR FINGERSTYLE GUITAR
      http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=371
      You’ll need an account with Guitar Tricks to access these lessons. If you need to re-join, here’s a link: http://tiny.cc/GuitarTricksWelcome
      Also, the new Christmas series I mentioned is still in the cyber-pipeline. It has not yet gone live, but will soon.
      Are you on my mailing list? I can keep you posted as new things come along.
      (join mailing list here: http://tiny.cc/JoinLisaList)

      Sorry to be so long-winded! Best wishes, Lisa

  2. Heidi Fischbach's avatar Heidi Fischbach | October 30, 2009 at 8:30 am | Reply

    Do you ever set other people’s words to music?

    • Lisa McCormick's avatar Lisa McCormick | October 30, 2009 at 8:37 am | Reply

      Hi Heidi,

      Not much, probably because I’ve got so many millions of my own words to deal with. I see that you have some lovely words on your site. Do you ever put them in front of a composer to see what would happen?
      My quirky habit is to create a “temporary song” out of my to-do list, so that I can sing it in my head and simultaneously remind myself what it is I need to get done.
      Something like, “Pharmacy, Car Wash, Post Office, Fish Market”, all set to some catchy little tune.
      Maybe someday I’ll record a CD of to-do lists.

  3. Heidi Fischbach's avatar Heidi Fischbach | October 30, 2009 at 8:48 am | Reply

    “Do you ever put them in front of a composer to see what would happen?”–> hunh?! (And thank you 😉

  4. Heidi Fischbach's avatar Heidi Fischbach | November 1, 2009 at 8:12 am | Reply

    Lisa, what is “a composer”? Is this some kind of technology? Do you write about it on your blog somewhere? Thanks– Heidi

    • Lisa McCormick's avatar Lisa McCormick | November 1, 2009 at 9:58 am | Reply

      A composer is a person who writes music. I mentioned it in reference to your question about my writing music for words written by other people. I know many people who co-write songs by this system: one person creates the lyrics, the other person creates the music. That person is the “composer”.

  5. Heidi Fischbach's avatar Heidi Fischbach | November 2, 2009 at 7:42 am | Reply

    haha! I was complicating it. Here I was thinking is there now a computer program EVEN for composing music?! Well of course. Now I need to find me a composer-person-body! thank you 😉

  6. Ernie's avatar Ernie | December 13, 2009 at 9:57 pm | Reply

    Lisa, I’m curious about the name of your latest album. Where did “Talisman Groove” come from?

  7. Ernie's avatar Ernie | December 14, 2009 at 6:07 pm | Reply

    Must be the mystical gem that you found while panning in the steam bed.

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