Revisiting Older and Orchestrated Songs

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Judy

When I first began my rediscovery of the music I loved as a young girl, I hired an arranger to orchestrate my songs. It was a joyous and truly educational experience for me, as I had no idea about all the music programs available. My talented arranger created lush arrangements and later on instrumentals of my songs.

The authenticity of these tracks came into question for me – as I wanted to embrace music where I was much more closely involved in the creation. Since 2015 when I separated from this arranger, I’ve created mostly guitar and piano music. (I did work with a few other talented musicians briefly).

At the end of 2022, I decided to expand the existing arrangement and instrumental medleys that were already on Insight Timer. I could have created a new medley, but decided the songs were more likely to be played if I revised my existing tracks.

I am excited to share some of my newest paintings. My “Water Lilies” and “Hummingbird and Hydrangea” adorn two of these medleys.

Wishing everyone a magical year ahead in 2023!

Love, Judy

CLICKING ON THE IMAGES ARE LINKS TO HEAR THE INDIVIDUAL SONGS.

EVERY SEASON ARRANGEMENT MEDLEY

YOU ARE MY WINGS INSTRUMENTAL MEDLEY

MUSIC SAVED ME INSTRUMENTAL MEDLEY

PEACEFUL ARRANGEMENT MEDLEY

My finished paintings are below:

Guitar Tides

Posted on October 6, 2022 by Judy

Clicking on this image is a link to hear my piece on Insight Timer.

The 4-chord melody for Guitar Tides was composed last year. I put it aside when I couldn’t seem to expand it beyond those chords. Instead, I found myself energized to work on “Autumn Hope” so I discarded those 4 chords in the key of A.

Once “Autumn Hope” was finished, I wondered whether I had another guitar instrumental in me. I went back to play those 4 chords and felt inspired to add a few more bars. As more and more passages were revealed, the song expanded beautifully. I didn’t have any idea what to name it, so for 6 months, I called it my “new piece in the key of A.”

It took patience for me to decide when my song was truly finished. Eventually, it felt complete and I recorded the main guitar part in August. But it still wasn’t done. I wanted to explore guitar additions. In the past, my other guitar part usually consisted of light finger-picking and an occasional soft strum.

I went ahead and recorded those additions by transposing and using a capo, but then I improvised and came up with some catchy lead guitar melodies. With my last piece “Autumn Hope,” I had discovered the beauty of adding harmonics, so I recorded lots of tracks with those, as well.

Culling the best parts from all the additional guitar recordings was a monumental editing task. But I loved it! The finished piece even benefited from a creative introduction, which had the guitar additions playing first without the main guitar. I faded it in and the result was fun. And of course, once I chose the name “Guitar Tides” – I thought adding some ocean sounds for the intro and the outtro would be soothing.

I had a lovely beach outing this past summer, which inspired me to take some pictures of my guitar on the sand. My good friend, Joni, accompanied me and also took some pictures of me. Everything came together and I’m so happy that I have finished and released my latest guitar creation.

I am planning to add a portion of Guitar Tides to an existing track named “Healing Guitar Dreams.” The moon on my song cover is very dreamy. I’m going to use a different view and change the name of that track to “Guitar Dreams.” It will consist of 5 guitar songs. That will be coming soon.

Music Inspires

Posted on May 14, 2022 by Judy

The process of working on piano songs has been musical glue in my life. I love exploring the beauty of each song’s melody. The creative versions (that come before the melody) are fun to create. They utilize my songs’ chords and the vibe is unique for every single clip.

Credit has to be given to the wonderful pianist I work with – Devin Farney.

My next Magical Piano Medley is almost there. After this medley, I have no plans to do any more piano songs. I am wondering what music I will create next!

I am posting songs here that I haven’t yet shared. Please enjoy them.

HANG ON

MY SHINING STAR

THE KEY

SOMEWHERE I CAN’T SEE

Door To My Heart – Vocal Medleys

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Judy

I recently shared my vocals for the “Door to My Heart Medley” on Insight Timer. There is a Part 1 and Part 2 and each one holds five songs each. I have a song page for these medleys that lists more about the songs. Links to lyrics, stories and other recordings can be found on this page:

https://myjourneysinsight.com/door-to-my-heart-vocal-medleys/

To hear these tracks on Insight Timer, click on the images below:

Healing Piano Melodies

Posted on December 28, 2021 by Judy

For the past three years, I have been creating piano solos for all 50 of my acoustic songs. Translating a vocal melody line to piano has held challenges, but I have happily enjoyed solving them. The last few songs had busy finger-picking that I wasn’t even sure would work – but somehow they did. I have just finished my third medley.

When I created “Healing Piano Melodies #1,” it was in order for me to create short clips to end each one of my course lessons on Insight Timer. I had no idea that the clips would become more complex as I went along. For that reason, my first medley has 20 songs while the other two have 15 songs each.

Now that I’ve finished all 50 of my songs, what is next for me? I am actually going to go back to redo 10 of my earlier songs. And after that I have some ideas. I love growing my song garden!

You can hear the individual song melodies with these links below:

HEALING PIANO MELODIES – PART 1

HEALING PIANO MELODIES – PART 2

HEALING PIANO MELODIES – PART 3

Clicking on the images will play these Healing Piano Melody tracks on Insight Timer:

Piano Magic Continues. . .

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Judy

Clicking on this image, plays my track on Insight Timer.

With so many lovely melodies, I have just released a track named “Healing Piano Melodies – Part 2.” My first one has been very popular. Working on Zoom with my pianist arranger, Devin, has yielded many more intricate recordings. In the beginning, my piano solo songs averaged a minute and a half. Now they are twice that long.

Last week, I completed “Rainbow Through My Tears.” The melody just soars and brings me joy.

I still have over a dozen songs left. I might even go back to those shorter piano songs and enhance them. So much to work on and I am loving every minute of it!

Feel free to check back, as I might add more videos here later on.

The Magic of Piano

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Judy

https://wp.me/aOH49-7PX

I begin this musical update with one of my recent solo piano songs named “Misunderstood.” It wasn’t on my radar to work on earlier, but it has some of the most beautiful melodic passages of any of my songs.

I recently commented to a friend that I am always in love with whatever I am currently working on (and that applies to my paintings, too). Her observation was that this was an incredibly mindful approach – of being “in the moment.” I like that!

I don’t understand how I can love a song so much, and then a week later I’ve moved on and am in love with my next song. Two weeks ago, it was “Alabaster Seashell.” Then it was “More Than You Know.”

And right at this moment, it is “Misunderstood!”

More about this song: MISUNDERSTOOD.

https://wp.me/aOH49-7PW

There was a brief period of my life when I studied classical guitar. I even took a piano class, but I don’t remember any of it.

I’m a guitarist. I’m a passionate singer/songwriter. I’m a musician healer. I’m an Insight Timer teacher. I’m a meditation music creator. These are all ways I’ve described myself and pianist is not one of them.

I often mention during my live performances that I’m not a trained musician. To be honest, I’m ambivalent about it. More musical training might have been nice and certainly helpful. Yet part of me revels in the fact that I am self-taught and perhaps a little unconventional.

The most important part of creating music for me is to keep it magical. Magical is such an inspiring word. Alternate meanings are: enchanted, mysterious, and fairytale-like. When I am in love with the music I’m working on, that’s exactly what infuses my life.

And working on music is work. Not in the sense that I’m slaving over it or even getting paid. It just requires many hours of time and concentration.

That leads me to talk about “magical piano” and the solo piano tracks I am creating for many of my songs. I have gone down a rabbit hole of editing complex piano compositions. That actually doesn’t seem negative to me if I’m conjuring up Alice in Wonderland.

I work with computer files that are midi. With midi, every note can be completely adjusted in a myriad of ways. The tempo, key, attack, sustain – every part of my song is affected by my editing decisions.

This is an example of something I was working on recently. The gray track in the center shows sustain areas. I adjust them for most every chord change.

I started creating solo clips of songs when I created my first course on Insight Timer named “Healing Grief Through Music.” I continued with my second course “Songs of Healing and Hope.”

Every one of my lessons was named for a song and would end with a short piano solo. I appreciated how the simplicity of piano captured my song’s chords and melody in such a sweet way. But I also like hearing the creative versions of my songs. Those creative clips worked well for dramatic moments behind my spoken audio.

At first, I worked with a wonderful pianist named Bobby, but during the pandemic he wasn’t available to me.

I turned to another musician, Devin Farney, who has added lovely piano to my many of my guitar tracks. Solo piano songs with him didn’t work well remotely, and after a few tries I gave up. But then a few months ago, we decided to try using Zoom. It was fantastic!

Now every week, Devin and I have a routine. I send him a song with chords, vocal and guitar tracks. He transcribes it and prepares for our session.

At our live sessions, Devin plays my song as many times as I need him to. He gives me many choices and I can directly share feedback in real time. Later on, I stitch everything together on Pro-tools, which requires a lot of patience.

Devin occasionally lets loose on the creative versions – he can get very jazzy. Sometimes I chuckle when he goes a bit far. Recently as a joke he started playing a Disney song for the ending of one of my songs. My chords were just too reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast!

I have been working on ten songs for a third course, which I plan to name “Door to My Heart.” Last week, he and I finished the tenth song. Even though my course hasn’t been recorded yet, I have released several medleys of those ten songs on Insight Timer. There is a solo guitar medley, guitar and piano medley, and now there is a “Magical Piano” medley.

Click on this image to hear the track on Insight Timer.

I have tried to keep organized links for all of my Insight Timer medleys, which can be accessed using that menu on top. The piano clips for all ten songs can be listened to separately at this link: DOOR TO MY HEART – MAGICAL PIANO MEDLEY

It seems to me that the intricate piano work Devin and I are collaborating on has added a lot of magic to my life. I thought I was going to stop with the ten songs for my next course, but I’ve decided to forge ahead and do all of my songs. I might even revisit some of the overly simple piano songs created when I first started this process.

Week by week, I move forward with a new piano song. It does seem a bit funny because I’m a guitarist, but it’s all part of the magic that music adds to my life.

A recent portrait, courtesy of my amazing daughter.

Never Gone Away & With Me – Magical Piano

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Judy

I apologize for not sharing more about my music. Performing live sessions on Insight Timer has been really wonderful for me. I’ve been practicing all of my songs, which has been time consuming.

I’ve continued to slowly write another course for Insight Timer. Just choosing the songs has been so sweet. There are many stories I could tell about every one of my songs!

For this post, I am sharing two song lessons I’ve recently completed.

Both my songs “Never Gone Away” and “With Me” have lovely melodies. My piano arranger did a great job with both of them. I share a clip for each song. They start with a creative ambient version that is followed by the more faithful melody.

To read my lessons, I am attaching the main song story links where there are also performances and older recordings.

WITH ME

NEVER GONE AWAY

You Were There – Magical Piano

Posted on January 2, 2021 by Judy

I was choosing songs to write about for another course on Insight Timer and this was my first song choice. I wrote my lesson and contacted my piano arranger to create beautiful piano for “You Were There.” He did not disappoint. Above, are the melody and ambient versions of his work. I did considerable editing to bring the music into my heart.

Both the ambient clips, (which followed the chords and feeling of my song) and melody clips were so gorgeous – that I decided to release them as part of a meditation track on Insight Timer.

My course is underway and for this post I am sharing these two sweet piano clips, as well as my updated slideshow with a vocal.

To read my lesson, here is the main song link for “You Were There.” There are also many stories I wrote while composing my song, as well as recordings.

YOU WERE THERE

Songs of Healing & Hope – Magical Piano

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Judy

Below are three of my most recent releases on Insight Timer. (The most recent one is a combination of melodies from both my courses on Insight Timer.) They can be accessed by clicking on the image:

HEALING PIANO MELODIES

MAGICAL PIANO – SONGS OF HEALING & HOPE PART 2

SONGS OF HEALING & HOPE MAGICAL PIANO COMPLETE

My magical piano tracks are related to a new course that is not yet available on Insight Timer. It is named “Songs of Healing & Hope.” More about my course can be found on the second menu for “Courses” at the top of this site.

It is interesting for me how much I’ve enjoyed creating solo piano. I am a guitarist and don’t even know how to play piano!

But I have found the world of editing piano to be magical. Every single midi note on the computer makes a difference – whether it’s sustained or it’s velocity is soothed.

I asked my talented piano arranger to give me two different types of piano styles for each of the 10 songs associated with my course. One was a melody clip, which had an intro, verse, chorus and tag. I planned to use that clip at the end of each song lesson for my course. The second, was a creative “ambient” version. I used those clips as sweet notes that floated in the background of my lessons.

Whenever I received my arranger’s rough recordings, I immediately immersed myself within the notes. For melody clips, I attempted to make them as faithful to my guitar version as possible. I’d sing the melody aloud, and when words caused notes to repeat, I would simplify it. I’d also change chords if they didn’t quite match the guitar notes I wanted.

Every melody clip I worked on quickly became my favorite. If I had to pick my top three, they would be: Music Saved Me, Angel in the Sky, and The Unknown. To hear those melodies, as well as clips from my first course, go to this link about my recent track release of “Healing Piano Melodies.”

The ambient/creative clips were incredibly unique. I fell in love with them, even though they weren’t always reminiscent of my song. But with careful listening I could usually find subtle chords and melodies hiding in them.

Piano editing was a lot like working on a jigsaw puzzle. I condensed 15 minutes of piano into five minutes or less. I listened to multiple motifs and excised sections that I liked. Connecting all the pieces required different tempos, ritards and great patience. Below are my three favorites for Take Me Away, My Dream and The Unknown.

Once my course was finished, I wanted to put the clips together to form a meditation track. There were 20 clips and I entertained different possibilities for combining them. I could have a track of only melodies and another one comprised of ambient clips. But after a lot of listening, I decided that I liked a mixture. Many people appreciated longer tracks for meditation; all the clips together would have been over an hour. I decided instead, to create two tracks with five songs/10 clips each.

Being a professional illustrator has some advantages. I hardly paint anymore, and prefer playing around with Photoshop. Just for fun, I’ll share some of my cover designs I fooled around with.

Below is an earlier release of solo piano with the same format for my first Insight Timer Course: “Healing Grief Through Music.” Clicking on the image accesses the meditation track.

This has been a challenging time for so many people, myself included. I am grateful for having healing music in my life. I picked the word magical because it evoked joy and lifted my spirits. I love sharing the music that soothes and comforts me.