"The Elephant Diet" Day 29

This can be such an up and down journey.

Yesterday was such a high, meeting with the orchestra conductor and dreaming about what could be. I went home with so much information and inspiration. So many questions. So many options. Which would be best?

Should I hire him to do all the arranging and orchestrating with the live show in mind and then take the score to Nashville and have them record what he arranged? I might have more input that way.

Or do I have the producer in Nashville do all the arranging and recording, then come home with a score that the conductor oversees for the live show?

This morning things seemed a bit more clear....seems to make sense to do it all in Nashville and then hire the conductor for the show. But I will know better after my trip to Nashville next week. This is the information gathering stage. I gather all the prices for all the options and then begin to make a plan.

I listened to the Christmas demo CD again this morning while I did my house cleaning. I was so inspired and charged by it all the other night. This morning I was struck with fear.

Taking your music to others for their listening and evaluating is very hard sometimes. I feel completely vulnerable at this stage of the journey.

How can someone feel so inspired to dream and conceive one moment and terrified another moment? Do they hear all the little nuances I hear - both good and bad? Can they catch my vision for what can be as they listen?

Too many thoughts......it's time for bed!

"The Elephant Diet" Day 28

Another amazing day.

Started out early having breakfast with a new found friend.  What a rich conversation.  I am continually amazed at the people God brings into my life and how He seems to order our steps, even when we're not sure He is.

This afternoon I met with the orchestra conductor and his wife in their home.  I heard him conduct an orchestra at an event back in the beginning of December and have been in touch via e-mail ever since.

He is going to orchestrate an arrangement of "Joy To The World" that I posted weeks ago.  I will be anxious to hear what he does with the song.   I decided, after meeting with him for a couple of hours and feeling quite comfortable, that I would hire him to do this song.

Though I arranged it on the piano, I envision playing it with other instruments.  I am not attached to what I've done on the piano, (at least I think I'm not) so I gave him complete freedom to run with it and will see (or hear) what happens.  I am learning that letting other people do what they do best can only bring about good things.

It was so inspiring to think that I've come this far in my musical journey. Approach a conductor???  Are you kidding? Some days I think "of course this is the next step!"  Other days I think "who on earth do I think I am......what am I thinking?"

This is a fun stage.   I feel like a toddler.  One minute I march forward with confidence, next minute I bump into a table and fall down and cry, wondering what I'm trying to do here.  Then I hear from some of you and am so glad to know that I am not going this alone!

I will be excited to hear what he does.  "Does he hear what I hear?".....oh....that's a christmas tune isn't it.

CELEBRATION TIME!!!! Day # 27 Big Milestone!!

I'm soooo excited.

I have reached a major milestone in this project.

I have only been able to give small portions of time to this on a daily basis, but all in one night it has paid off.

I attended a christmas concert tonight and was it ever delightful.

I turned off all the lights in my studio, turned up the volume and listened to all my hard work for the past 13 years and more recently, the last 26 days.

It was a concert of my own Christmas music with visions of a 'celebration show' dancing in my head as I listened.

One major hurdle/goal was to have a CD ready to take to Nashville next week to give to producers to evaluate. As of tonight, I have it ready to print to CD.

The magic I have tested by writing and rewriting is still there in the songs and I can hardly wait for the next phase.

So I celebrate.

A cup of hot chocolate, some peanut m&ms and a whole lot of cheering!

I think I just ate a big elephant.

"The Elephant Diet" Day # 26

Oh boy. It's really late.

After a full day at my day job, I raced home, made supper, drank some hot tea for the caffeine and began work on my elephant.

I really want to have a demo CD of my Christmas songs ready to take along to Nashville next week to give to a couple of producers. Plus I'm getting ready to record a different song while I'm there.

Rush, cram, relax and hurry.

Made good progress though tonight.

Time for bed!!!

"The Elephant Diet" Day # 25

Happy New Year!

I was going to take the day off from blogging....almost did, but something my husband said inspired me.

"Any old fool can shovel dirt. It takes someone special to dig for a treasure." Tom Drost

Though he was referring to something completely different, my mind wandered to my goals. I could just slap down some words and be done with a song, but there's a treasure I'm trying to find here, so though the digging is long and sometimes tiresome, I intend to keep digging. I may have a lot of dirt to shovel before I find the treasure, but so be it.

Thanks for the inspiration Tom!

"The Elephant Blog" Day # 24

Another busy day. Though I worked on one of my songs, I had very little time because of work at the church to be done and a New Year's Eve service to do. So I'm blogging a day late, but I guess better late than never.

I tried my song on the guitar again and began to become distracted by the fact that I can't quite play on the guitar what I hear in my head. I'm much more proficient on the piano, so that's rarely a distraction when writing on the piano. I just feel like so much more comes alive on this song with the guitar. I should just find a better guitar player and stay focused on rewriting lyrics.

I put down the guitar because I was out of time and was feeling frustrated. The temptation is to practice the guitar and lose focus on the writing of the lyrics.

It's amazing how easy it is to lose focus on the goal. Right now the goal is to get my song lyrics as great as they can be. I have to keep reminding myself of that!

"The Elephant Diet" Day # 23

Today I played around with my new lyrics I've been rewriting but played the song with acoustic guitar instead of piano. With the new lyrics, it seemed to call for guitar, not piano. It's amazing the difference that can make in a song.

Anxious to work on it more.....but I rested the remainder of the day and it was wonderful.