September 14, 2012

Getting started/ Songwriting foundation



excerpt from my book coming out soon --

DIVING IN

It’s time to get our feet wet now.  If you’ve stayed with me this long I will assume you’re serious, and have already decided to dive into the one thing without which there would be no music business – SONGWRITING.  So let’s get started.
First, what is a song? Song:
1. set of words sung
2. art of singing
3. instrumental work in vocal style
4. animal call
5. Same as poetry
6. poem
Now we know the definition of a song , let’s learn a little history.
Clay tablets relating to music, containing the cuneiform signs of the "Hurrian" language, had been excavated in the early 1950s at the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit in what is now modern Ras Shamra. One text contained a complete hymn, both words and music and is the oldest known preserved music notation in the world.
Prof. Kilmer transcribed this piece of music into modern music notation. Other individuals have also attempted to transcribe this music, with differing interpretations.
The tablets date back to approximately 1400 B.C. and contain a hymn to the moon god's wife, Nikal. Remarkably, the tablets also contain detailed performance instructions for a singer accompanied by a harpist as well as instructions on how to tune the harp. From this evidence, Prof. Kilmer and other musicologists have created realizations of the 
hymn.

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