Here I Stand
An Original NobbinSong™
Background
I’m not a singer. I’m an ill-rhyme slinger. Actually, I’m a storyteller, and this is how this story goes. I’m not switching to amateur musician, but I love music and enjoy making it. Writing songs was an early inspiration to start writing.
I wrote this seven years ago, in happier times. 1/11/17 15:57 to be exact. It took less than half an hour to write, but seven years to record.
I wanted to record it. First, I would have to make a beat. I’ve made beats before, but for an amateur like me, it is very time-consuming. At some point in the past seven years, my theatrical side insisted that there be a heartbeat as part of the beat. No, the entire beat. This is a guy who has nothing to give but his heart, which is everything to him. For years, I planned to fade it out and give way to an a cappella ending. It wasn’t until I was mixing it that I realized the heartbeat has to speed up as the tension builds. Will she accept the greatest gift any of us has to give, our love?
I added some “dum dums” in the background. That was a shower thought. I considered and even played with other rhythms that a cappella groups might add, beatboxing (?). You know, the “oop-bop-shoo-bops,” “ooh ahh ooh ahhs” and “rama lama ding dongs” to make a vocal “beat.” I love Doo Wop, but it didn’t fit. Maybe a more experienced vocal arranger could have created something brilliant. Who put the bop in the beebity beepity bop? Maybe if I continue to record songs, I’ll learn better techniques. I opted for vocal texturing and layering, instead. The heartbeat is a slower tempo than I had in mind. That mixed with the short lines left a lot of space that was just “dum dum dum… dum” over “thump-thump, thump-thump,” even when I carried out words longer than I planned. I realized as I was typing this that I could have sped up the heartbeat’s tempo. Oh well. Anyway, to quote myself in a later song, “Lines are only half a bar,” so I added a lot of background vocals and ad-libs to fill in the gaps. I didn’t realize how much I added until I watched YouTube try to align the lyrics I pasted into its subtitles. My adlibs made it chaos. I hadn’t added anything to the lyrics since the original writing session. Everything else was in my head.
This was originally going to be a three-minute song, but my theatrical side took over again. As I was working on it for seven years new ideas came along. I added an a cappella intro that lasted a minute, a bridge, a repeated line, a breakdown, an alternate ending, and a nod to The Notorious B.I.G. or three.
I tried to record it off and on over seven years without ever getting it right. This was a time-waster hobby that I tried not to let eat into too much of my writing time. I’d sing it and think it was good, but my entire body tightened when I recorded it. I recently saw an interview with Knoc-Turn’Al in which he talks about Dr. Dre referring to that issue as “mic shyness.” I don’t know how many takes I did over the years before I was brave enough to mix it and share it with friends who agreed it was good enough to share with the world or at least the five people who will listen to it, despite initial reviews like “I didn’t like it at first,” because there’s no music, “It’s not my kind of music,” “Can you make it like 3:30?” and “Why are you making songs?” (Those quotes are from memory and may be paraphrased.) There were also mentions of my “awesome voice,” and surprise at the quality. Thank you to all my beta testers. I appreciate the time you took to help me refine this. Tannille made a suggestion that vastly improved the opening. All vocals are mine, except a secret guest appearance by Troy that I only left in because it is barely audible, and it amused me.
That all leads up to unveiling the first ever NobbinSong™, a minimalist, avant-garde, doo-wop, soul, a cappella, acoustic (Does a heartbeat make it acoustic? It has to count as percussion, right? It’s the rhythm of the song.), story of a man clinging to hope by the strings of his heart.
Sights & Sounds
~Charlie vs. The Backup Camera courtesy of Charlie
~Beating Heart Video by Orpheline courtesy of Pixabay
~Heartbeat flatline sound HD (Video & Audio) by Just Enough Keys
~Heartbeat sound effect courtesy of Pixabay
