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MY SUNDAY JOURNAL
By Dalton Roberts
An IPSFeature
3-24-02
WHERE'S THE SONG?
In one of my songwriter notebooks I wrote, "The black marks on the
white paper are not the song."
I cannot write sheet music but I have written hundreds of songs. I am
amazed when I look at the sheet music to them. But one day it dawned on
me that neither the sheet music nor the words themselves – which are
also black marks on white paper – are the songs.
So what is the song? Where is the song?
More than anything, it is a feeling. Or a composite of feelings. Even if
it is an instrumental, it survives as a song because of the feelings it
evokes.
It is an energy field and when you enter it, it changes your own energy
field. They interact. As quantum physics shows, the listener affects
that which is listened to. The viewer impacts that which is seen.
So the best way to write a song is to first decide on the feelings you
wish to bring to life. Then seek words and a melody that carry it
straight to the heart.
Start with what it does to your heart. If it doesn't impact your heart,
it is not likely to stir feelings in the hearts of others.
BE A SILVER LINING
In the 80s I saw where soul singer Millie Jackson was donating the
royalties to one of her hit songs to victims of domestic violence. How I
loved what she had to say about it!
She said, "I'm gonna get involved in something that already has a
dark cloud and maybe then I can be a silver lining."
No matter how poor anyone may be, they can find someone or some good
cause where they can be the silver lining. Just to be a hero to a poor
little boy in a housing project would be such a powerful high! Just to
make some lonely old person feel young again by listening to their
stories, what a sweet gift.
Just to dry one tear on the cheek of a grieving soul, God what a
blessing!
And all of these things, and millions more, are possible to each of us
this very day.
No "maybe" to it Millie. You are a silver lining and have
shown that all of us can be one, too.
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