A Short Note On The New Song "Chin Up High" by Noonish Moon

About a week after my accident in early July, Wolfgang was attending an outdoor camp, so we would get up early to help him get ready. I would usually go back to bed for a bit afterwards, but some morning in the middle of the week I went to the piano and started working on a little tune. I remember Susan asking me, "Are you working on a song?" - and I said, "I think so." It was a baby step back to things I liked to do.

I started working on it a bit more, and I didn't like it that much at first - but after tinkering quite a bit, I got the melody to a point I liked. The triplet in the third measure made it work, along with the chord progression towards the end. It was slightly more straightforward than my usual style, but it had one slight twist in it that I've always wanted to do. Almost every song is in a key - it has a main note or chord that it returns to, and this one is definitely in a key as well - but this tune never returns to the "tonic" (main note/chord). I love it when songs do that. They can be really simple songs, but that little twist can make the tune interesting. The tune "Magnet and Steel" by Walter Egan does this - as does "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry (I think, I need to relisten). I think Nathan Siler pointed this out to me? Anyhow, there is an unsettled energy to a song that never resolves.

I added lyrics. I imagined peaceful, strong, determined protesters standing up for justice. I imagined people working to make the world a more equitable place for all. I imagined their hard work in the face of forces that are more interested in maintaining the status quo. It became a song of encouragement and conviction - even though that was about the opposite of how I was feeling. But that's how things work sometimes right? Brian Wilson wrote songs about surfing, but he didn't surf. Leroy Anderson wrote "Sleighride" in July. Music goes deep, to a different place from our current reality, and hopefully brings things to the surface. We hope that works of imagination and craft, on all levels, help to create the manifestation of actual, concrete change for the better. We'll hope anyway.