Peterik Chapter 2: Coming Up with That Solid-Gold Idea
Introduction
Yes, I know, that was fast -- I decided to do Chapter 2 just a couple days after Chapter 1. Well, I admit that I do want to hurry up and get to my first new song of the summer.
Peterik Chapter 2: Coming Up with That Solid-Gold Idea
Chapter 2 of Jim Peterik's Songwriting for Dummies is "Coming Up with That Solid-Gold Idea." Here's how it begins:
"Unless you're lucky enough to have songs come to you fully finished in your deepest dreams, or to somehow take dictation from the ghosts of Tin Pin Alley (the publishing area located in New York City in the 1930s and 1940s), most of us need to summon the forces, sources, reasons, seasons, events, causes, passions, hobbies, and relationships that give us the necessary motivation to draw a song from our heart of hearts."
As the title implies, this chapter is all about the ideas behind the lyrics of the songs we wish to write. We need to pay attention -- to be more specific, to stop, look, and listen:
"We'll also demonstrate the importance of brainstorming ideas with others and provide simple exercises to show you the way. Living life actively everyday is as good a place to start as any when writing a song: being observant to all that all swirling around you, making note of your own reactions to situations, taking notice of other people's reactions in similar situations, and trying to put yourself in the other guy's shows to better empathize with what he might be feeling."
Peterik tells us how he talks about and comes up with concepts for songs with a partner -- a co-writer:
"At least then we stand a fighting chance of writing a decent song. Here are just a few of the subjects that have provided concepts for songwriters since the day the very first song was written -- the headings are general, but the emotions you harness and the situations you create around these subjects is what will set your song apart from the others."
Of course I won't list all of the author's ideas here, so let me post just some of them:
Winning: The winning spirit has long provided inspiration to countless songwriters. Refer to "Eye of the Tiger" (written by [our author] Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan; performed by Survivor), "While You See a Chance" (written by Steve Winwood and Will Jennings; sung by Steve Winwood), and "We Are the Champions" (written by Freddie Mercury; performed by Queen).
[And I suspect that last song is being played a lot around the Bay Area after the Warriors' championship last night. Oh, and while we're on this same topic...]
Sports: Whether you're writing about a specific sport or about the feeling you get from it or the formula you've come up with to do well at it, if sports is your passion, thee are countless ways of harnessing your enthusiasm into a song. Refer to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (written and performed by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer), "Center Field" (written and sung by John Fogerty), and "Surfin' Safari" (written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love; performed by the Beach Boys).
States of Mind: This ever-popular subject, which ranges from sanity to insanity, elation to depression, and all stops in between has always provided some good therapy for writer and audience alike. Refer to "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin; sung by Elton John), "Soak Up the Sun" (written by Sheryl Crow and Jeff Trott; sung by Sheryl Crow), "Crazy" (written by Willie Nelson; sung by Patsy Cline), and "Walking on Sunshine" (written by Kimberley Rew; performed by Katrina and the Waves).
The author continues:
"We have, of course, only touched the surface of the subjects that may inspire you to create a song. Anything in life is fair game to write about."
Peterik tells us that we should always be listening for lyrics, as he and a friend once did:
"As the blond girl was listening to the brunette recount the wonders of her current beau, the other one sighed and said, 'Now that's true love.'"
And that became the name of his next song. He also describes songs he came up when watching TV:
"This song, which ended up on Survivor's Eye of the Tiger album, is based on the realization that each life is just a piece of the puzzle of this 'wonderful life,' and how one life touches the other in ways people may never realize. The song title "The Search is Over" (written by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan, performed by Survivor) was a phrase that Jim Peterik jotted down in his notebook after he heard a newsman say it one day on the evening news program."
The author moves on to making up music -- the tune of the song. He often uses "The Columbus Method" -- just putting his fingers on the keyboard and discovering a new melody. Here he quotes Jeff Jacobs, the keyboardist for Foreigner:
"'Facility is not a prerequisite for writing a song, but it sure can help the process along." Practically anyone can write or co-write a song."
Now Peterik describes why we should record and organize our ideas, using a tape recorder:
"With all of the time you'll spend searching for the song in question, it's probably easier to start a new song. You can create any organization system that works for you, but a basic system is to date a particular cassette (month, day, and year), and then label each idea on the J-card (the official term for that flimsy cardboard insert inside the plastic tape cases) immediately after you record the idea."
He tells us that we can also jot down our ideas in a notebook. We can purchase a three-section notebook and organize it as follows:
- Miscellaneous ideas, phrases, titles, concepts, observations, rhymes, and pieces of lyrics
- "Songs in progress" -- the ones where you have have a verse but no chorus, a chorus with no verse, a rhyme with no reason or a reason with no rhyme.
- Finished lyrics
- (if there are five sections) Songs to be finished, songs already finished, projects in progress
- Just doodle your brains out until inspiration strikes
And as the authors warns us:
"Always put your name, address and contact number somewhere near the front of the notebook (perhaps on the first page or on the cover) with the words, 'If found, please return to....' Also make note of the date the book was started and the date of your last entry."
This takes us to the first "Practice Makes Perfect" section -- it's time for me to write a song now.
A Song for September
The songs I wish to write this summer are ones that I should have performed for my Math 8 class during the year that I spent at the old charter school. By the way, this is based on the ideal class that I wrote about back in my August 31st post (ten months ago) -- one where there's plenty of time for both math and science. And it's enforced with the students having interactive notebooks where one side is for math and the other side for science.
This post isn't about how the grades work out, or how many points the notebook is worth. We only want to focus on what lessons to teach in order to determine what songs correspond to these lessons. Suffice it to say that the school year is divided into four-week units, and then I collect the notebooks at the end of each unit.
Some of the songs that I've already written and performed during my real year at the charter school can also fit this ideal year. Let's look at the ideal Unit 1, spanning the first four weeks of school:
Here the ideal year (based on my August 31st post) almost matches the real year, except that here I've switched "Mousetrap Cars." On the original timeline we played Fraction Fever during Week 2, but in the August 31st post we wait until Week 3 to play it.
Again, we're trying to fit these songs to science as well as math. In my August 31st post, I suggested having a science project that fits all three Grades 6-8 -- technically speaking, "Mousetrap Cars" is not a true science project as it came from the math "STEM text." But in this post, I don't wish to take the time to figure out what the science project would have been that week, especially since "Mousetrap Cars" is one of the songs I'm already satisfied with anyway. So let's just assume that the mousetrap cars would have been the Week 2 project anyway.
In last post, I did say that I wanted to perform only Square One TV songs through the end of August -- note that September 1st here is Thursday Week 3. Indeed, "Benchmark Tests" and "Mousetrap Cars" (or an alternate science song) can be replaced with "That's Math" and "Wanna Be," which are great Square One TV songs for Week 2.
Technically, the first original song should be performed on Thursday, September 1st. But this is the last day before the big four-day Labor Day weekend on September 2nd-5th. Besides, I usually perform some songs twice anyway, and September 1st is the day that we do the actual Fraction Fever activity anyway (according to the schedule). So it makes more sense to perform Fraction Fever on Tuesday, August 30th and Thursday, September 1st, come up with a new song over Labor Day weekend, and then perform the new song on September 6th (Tuesday Week 4).
According to the schedule, the eighth graders study Common Core Standard NS2 during that week:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.NS.A.2
Use rational approximations of irrational numbers to compare the size of irrational numbers, locate them approximately on a number line diagram, and estimate the value of expressions (e.g., π2). For example, by truncating the decimal expansion of √2, show that √2 is between 1 and 2, then between 1.4 and 1.5, and explain how to continue on to get better approximations.
And so this is what the new song should be about. (Notice that NS1 introduces irrational numbers but is also about fractions and repeating decimals -- the song "Fraction Fever" is indirectly related.)
How will we compose our song? Well, it's now time for us to use Mocha. But as we keep Peterik's tips in mind, this is one time that I had the actual computer that Mocha is based on (as opposed to just the Mocha emulator). That's because back in the 1980's (when the Mocha computer was invented), we were able to save our songs on cassette tape (just as Peterik himself suggests).
Indeed, we could write a Mocha program that actually creates a file in which all of the data (the note Sounds/Degrees and lengths) are stored. The files can then be stored on the 1980's cassettes, and then we could have the computer open and play them. The program that creates the files would be more complex than any of the programs we've seen so far, so that code could itself be saved on cassette.
Actually, I believe Mocha is based on a 1990's version of the computer, when floppy disks were used in addition to cassettes -- and we see some (simulated) disk files for us to load into Mocha. But we can't create our own disk files -- it all disappears as soon as we exit the browser in which we run Mocha. So instead, we must have Mocha create the songs and then just keep track of them ourselves -- say in a notebook similar to the one suggested by Peterik.
Also, recall that I did once have a songbook similar to the one suggested by the author. But sadly, I lost it in a classroom I was subbing in -- the very last day before schools closed for COVID. It took almost a year before I could retrieve the book. (Of course, I didn't write down my name and contact information as Peterik suggests above.)
On the old blog (in my July 15th, 2020 post), I wrote a program on the TI that allows us to compose songs in the EDL scales that Mocha uses. So I'll use it to compose today's song. For this tune, I decide to use EDL = 18, 2/4 time (which often sounds better than 4/4 with this program), and 7 measures (so that I can add in the eighth bar -- a long note on the tonic -- myself). Here is the resulting Mocha code:
10 N=8
20 FOR V=1 TO 1
30 FOR X=1 TO 28
40 READ A,T
50 SOUND 261-N*A,T*2
60 NEXT X
70 RESTORE
80 NEXT V
As usual, press Sound before you RUN the program.
My TI program produced a tune with many fast sixteenth notes -- so many indeed that I slowed it down by adding *2 to the end of Line 50. Also, I wrote about what EDL scales are on the old blog, but not yet on the new blog. I'll save a deeper discussion about rhythm and melody for when we reach those respective chapters in Peterik.
Now let's get add some lyrics to this song. Again, we look at the standard:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.NS.A.2
Use rational approximations of irrational numbers to compare the size of irrational numbers, locate them approximately on a number line diagram, and estimate the value of expressions (e.g., π2). For example, by truncating the decimal expansion of √2, show that √2 is between 1 and 2, then between 1.4 and 1.5, and explain how to continue on to get better approximations.
Irrational numbers -- well, there are already too many songs about pi (as well as e and phi), but there aren't too many square root songs yet. The standard specifically mentions sqrt(2) -- well, the first two bars of the tune sound like "square root of 2." Repeating the first three bars, we get the following:
30 FOR X=1 TO 8
This might be fine as an opening act. We can extend this further, and perhaps use some of those extra sixteenth notes to include more decimal places (the approximations mentioned in the standard):
The first line should end with "one point" to emphasize that sqrt(2) isn't exactly one (that is, instead of "one rational"). This version of the song is easy to sing, but difficult to code in Mocha (especially if we want to include rests to fill out the bars in each line).
There are other ways to make an irrational song. Inspired by the pi songs, we might take the digits of sqrt(2) and assign them to the notes of a scale -- the major/minor scale, an EDL scale, or whatever. The square root of two is an interesting choice as there are 13 non-zero digits before the first zero (as some mathemusicians disagree on whether 0 should be below 1, above 9, or a rest):
sqrt(2) = 1.414213562373...
Of the simplest square roots, only sqrt(6) goes farther without a zero -- 16 non-zero digits:
sqrt(6) = 2.4494897427831780...
These might be used for melodies in subsequent lessons. Returning to Week 4 at the old charter school, we can round out Unit 1 with a science project -- MS-PS1-1, the Edible Molecule Project. So the song for that Thursday could be either a science song or another math song on irrational numbers.
Rapoport Question of the Day
Today on her Daily Epsilon of Math, Rebecca Rapoport writes:
Find the number of integer solutions of z^2 - y^2 = 225.
To solve this problem, first we notice that if (z, y) is a solution, then so are (-z, y), (-z, -y), and (z, -y) -- so often as soon as we have one solution, we know four of them.
It helps if we factor z^2 - y^2 = (z + y)(z - y). Thus if we factor 225, one of the factors could be z + y, and the other could be z - y. The factors of 225 are:
225 = (225)(1)
225 = (75)(3)
225 = (45)(5)
225 = (25)(9)
225 = (15)(15)
For each of these factorizations, we can solve a system to find (z, y) -- for example, the first row gives us z + y = 225, z - y = 1 with solution (113, 112). Once again, there are four solutions when we play around with the signs.
The first four rows thus produce 16 solutions. The last factorization, (15)(15), leads to (15, 0), as well as (-15, 0) via sign changes, so there are only two more solutions. Therefore our Diophantine equation has 18 solutions -- and of course, today's date is the eighteenth.
Conclusion
This weekend marks both Father's Day and the newest federal holiday, Juneteenth -- the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in this country. (Somehow, June 18th has become a day on which I always post, so I'm always wishing everyone a happy Juneteenth here on the blog.)
While Father's Day is always on a Sunday, Juneteenth is always on the 19th -- so they coincide whenever the nineteenth is on a Sunday. Then again, whenever a federal holiday falls on a Sunday (like the Fourth of July last year), the day it's observed, with banks and post offices closed, will be on Monday. I hope you enjoy whatever holidays you're celebrating!
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