S.A.C. Challenge – Week 6 – Choice No. 2 – Issued by Vincent Degiorgio –
Write a Holiday Hit:
I wrote "Christmas Land"
Listen to “Christmas Land” an original song by Shira Katz & with vox: Laura Burns
Written by Shira Katz
This week’s challenge is to write a Holiday Hit, no longer than 3:30 in length, “either the next deliver the next great Christmas song, or one to be celebrated during the holidays” (details below, after my comments on the songwriting process) and the challenge is being issues by Vincent Degiorgio.
I was happy to receive the challenge, as this genre of music seems to be right up my alley! It’s because I am in a group of holiday singers called “Caroling for a Cause” and we sing in hospitals during the holiday season. I know tons of Christmas songs.
I also was in a group of singers such that we recorded a Christmas album (at an event called Caroloke), and I have them available upon request to anyone in a .zip file.
Therefore, I know tons of holiday songs and have sung them over and over again.
To create a new Christmas song, I was thinking about all those patients in hospitals, e.g. what type of music would they like to hear? A personal story came to mind. As our group sang to a bunch of patients, we asked if anyone had any special requests. There was a quiet man attached to a dialysis machine who could barely speak, but I noticed he was trying to say something. He was brave enough to ask if we could play “the little drummer boy” song. I thought about the words in the song, “e.g. ba rap pap pap pum, peace on earth, pa rap pap pup pum”. I found an amazing and inspiring version of this song for inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_MGWio-vc
I decided to try to write from the point of view of what would someone suffering in a hospital setting at holiday time want to hear? I decided to write a song about being in a land where there is peace. It was also important for me to include some French words, living in the province of Quebec, with a majority of our population having French as a native language.
For my keyboard composition, I started to play a few Christmas songs, and then I decided to use the song “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” as a blueprint to help write the structure for my song “Christmas Land.” I did not copy the structure identically, I modified it to suit the song. Basically, I came up with three thematic musical themes, and also used the idea of replaying one of those themes in a higher voice (tone), later on in the song. I played around with keys and beats to find one that sounded quite lyrical. I noticed a lot of sixths and sevenths in some songs, so I thought, why not go for an 8th (full octave) interval? I thought it would be neat because the song “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” does that by changing the octave of an entire verse. Also, it was important to stay in the major key of C for a happy-sounding song.
Next, problems with my voice. I got laryngitis. Everything happens for a reason, and I felt that this was happening to give me even more strength to learn about the music-making process, e.g. seeing what it might be like to work with another vocalist. I recorded the song, with my terribly laryngitis-voice and provided lyrics. I found an amazing person, Laura Burns, who has an incredible voice. She took my song, sang it the way I suggested, but also removed a few words and added a few words, and it sounded so much better. It was so cool to hear someone else hear a song I made! It was a great learning experience.
I learned from this experience that I created music for a singer’s voice to sing in parallel to the melody I created. It made me learn that it would be so great to redo the song on keyboards, but this time to create the harmony in the tenor/bass voices to accompany her mezzo soprano voice, which is the melody. I would recreate the harmony part in the lower registers of tenor and some bass voices on the keyboard.
It was helpful for me to realize that a keyboard melody can be created as a separate track specifically geared for a singer’s voice such that the singer can be asked to sing in parallel to copy it, after then the keyboardist can focus on creating the accompanying harmony on another track. This will result in counterpoint, very nice.
Due to only having one week to complete the song, this would be my project if the song was to be redone. I also learned that the fewer words, the better! It’s so true what they say about “Trim the fat”. I realized that the song would sound way better if I cut out more words, and lucky for me that Laura Burns did exactly that, very cleverly when she interpreted how to sing the song based on my raspy laryngitis version of it. She made the song sound a lot better than my initial version.
In addition to this song, at the same time, I made a few other keyboard instrumentals for more holiday songs, with rough starting lyric ideas, and sent them out to some people that were interested in potential collaborations, should there be time left over for them. I brainstormed keywords and looked at Christmas imagery on the Internet to come up with my ideas and even to get into the spirit of music creation. I am still waiting to find out if one of those tracks will be used by a potential collaborator. I may post those instrumentals at a later date, or complete them on my own to make more holiday music! Yay!
I also had the experience of making a full keyboard instrumentation backtrack for a different song about “Christmas Eve” that was created by Laura Burns. She sent me a track of herself singing with a few background notes. That was fun because I listened to her track with headphones while getting creative with the music, trying to find chords and timing that would fit well with her lyrics while throwing in musical ideas that fit within the scale of the song to help lengthen the song! She may or may not use the track, but we both can learn from this wonderful experience!
Christmas Land
© music and lyrics by Shira Katz March 20, 2015, voice and voice interpretation by Laura Burns
Take me to
Christmas land
Snow flakes
shine peace
Take me to
Christmas land
All
children eat
Run, hear
the bells ring
All trees
bright, sway, sing
Take me to
Christmas land
Snow flakes
shine peace
All fights
will end
Everyone’s
friends
Pray one
little moment of peace
At
Christmas land
Joyeux noel
les enfants
Paix yeah
yeah Peace
Joyeux noel
les enfants
Paix yeah
yeah Peace
Run, hear
the bells ring
All trees
bright, sway, sing
Joyeux noel
les enfants
Paix yeah
yeah Peace
All fights
will end
Everyone’s
friends
Pray one
little gift of peace
At
Christmas land
Take me to
Christmas land
Snow flakes
shine peace
Take me to
Christmas land
All
children eat
Run, hear
the bells ring
All trees
bright, sway, sing
Joyeux noel
les enfants
Paix yeah
yeah Peace
Paix Rings,
Peace Sings,
Take me to
Christmas land
Snow flakes
shine peace
Take me to
Christmas land
All
children eat
Fun, hear
the bells ring
All trees
will sway, sing
Take me to
Christmas land
Snow flakes
shine peace
Paix.
Peace.
S.A.C. Challenge – Week 6 – Choice No. 2 – Issued by Vincent Degiorgio – Write a Holiday Hit
“Vincent Degiorgio is a
multi million selling songwriter who owns and operates Chapter 2 Productions.
His global reach and career has included many facets, from writing for European
superstar Caro Emerald to being the man who signed N Sync in America. He
continues to write for artists around the world, with dozens of gold and
platinum records to show for his work for artists ranging from Japanese pop
stars Lead to Canadians Meaghan Smith and Julie Crochitiere. His Cymba
Music Publishing company houses hitmakers like Aileen de la Cruz, Ian
Smith, Davor Vulama and his newest signing, Edmonton’s Olivia Wik.
Here is Vince’s songwriting
challenge:
Write the
next great holiday song.
The timing is perfect for
your quest to deliver the next great Christmas song, or one to be
celebrated during the holidays. Aside one new song on the globally loved
Michael Buble Christmas album, new songs that have transcend the holidays are
few and far between. Songs that challenge the system like Mariah
Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” and N Sync’s “Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays” are few and far between. Your challenge is to
lyrically and melodically enter the creative stratosphere of great songs
like “The Christmas Song”, a timeless masterpiece, and songs
like “Let It Snow”, both of which were written in a California
heatwave. While the former speaks of the setting of the perfect Christmas, the
latter evokes all of the settings of a holiday celebration without
mentioning Christmas itself. Remember, “I’ll Be Home For
Christmas” was a fisherman’s lament.
What I am looking for is a
song of any tempo in any style, that speaks of your personal imagery and
memories of the holiday season. Pour yourself into the idea that you do not
have to be culturally specific, but you do have to deliver the message
what this December past time means to you. Songs should be no longer than 3:30
long.
Many of the most beloved
holiday classics were once written for movies. Use that imagery when you write
your song. Rather than be jealous of yet another cover version
of “White Christmas”, change the landscape for me and
anyone listening with your song.
When I was the A&R
person for N Sync, I put together an album I am very proud of for five great
singers. It was tailored after the Johnny Mathis album “Merry Christmas” –
to provide a timeless, or timely representation of the talent at the time.
Today, one is considered “The King Of Pop”. The other a timeless icon, who
is the undisputed king of holiday albums.
Show me your talent with
your song. Because for music supervisors and publishers, the holiday season for
movies actually starts in April, not November.
Good luck,
Vince Degiorgio
Vince Degiorgio
