Revisiting Older and Orchestrated Songs

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

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

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

 

Every Season Magical Piano

Even though it was gray outside when I took the picture above, I still marveled at the beautiful shapes of leaves holding on. I walked while listening to my latest instrumental “Autumn Hope.” Music continues to inspire me!

Every week, I perform 8-10 songs live on Insight TImer. Although I am not feeling confident about singing much these days, opening my heart to such a warm and loving audience has been a blessing to my life. It’s also wonderful that I am playing my songs regularly so that I don’t forget them.

I am still in the process of finishing my latest guitar instrumental to release soon. It consists of almost 30 minutes of solo guitar, which I gleaned from over 4 hours of recording. My last post has been updated to share a better recording of this new song. I’ve decided to name it “Autumn Hope.”

Although I finished solo piano renditions for all 50 of my songs, I’ve decided to redo 10 of them. My first 20 songs were created working with another pianist. They were much simpler and I am eager to hear them fleshed out with my current piano arranger, Devin Farney.

I will have 10 songs with creative and faithful versions. I plan to name the entire medley “Every Season Magical Piano.”

I really enjoy the process of creating piano songs for this new medley. The songs I’ve chosen are very special ones. Two are already finished and I am sharing them here: So Real Magical Piano and Set You Free Magical Piano. Please enjoy them!

My Hopeful Heart

My newest painting above is named “Autumn Hope.” I have included close ups of it with a slide show at the end of this post.

I am excited to share that last month I heard a new song forming! Exquisite guitar passages enveloped me and my heart swelled with joy. Just when I needed something to uplift me, this new music appeared!

It has been at least three years since I last composed anything new. I plan to record my new song, but am still exploring the multitude of passages and combinations.

I played my new guitar instrumental live on Insight Timer and tentatively named it “My Hopeful Heart.”  It felt like a perfect title to describe my optimism about the New Year.

I share a solo guitar recording excerpt of the meditation that will soon be released on Insight Timer.  My final decision for the song’s title was “Autumn Hope.” It seems that title for my painting was lurking in my subconscious. I share also an introduction for my song during a live session when I was composing it.

This is another version that I’m sharing, which was recorded a week before my Insight Timer performance. It’s much faster and I haven’t decided the speed for my new composition yet.

Door To My Heart – Vocal Medleys

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:

Rainbow Through My Tears – Magical Piano

I begin this post with a slideshow of my autumn leaf paintings paired with the piano clips for my song “Autumn Recollections,” which is one of the songs included in this medley.

Rainbow Through My Tears – Magical Piano is comprised of ten of my original songs. For each one, Devin (my piano arranger), and I have collaborated to create two different solo piano clips. One is more creative and the other one is faithful to my song’s melody. When both are combined together, I have named the resulting track “Magical Piano.”

To hear the individual songs that comprise this medley, click the image below:

Click the image below to hear this track on Insight Timer:

Below are links to more about the ten songs:

MUSIC FROM MY HEART

LAUGHTER AND TEARS

RAINBOW THROUGH MY TEARS

SONG OF JOY

YOU’RE NOT THE ONE

ONLY TEARS

MEANT TO ME

ANOTHER YOU

AUTUMN RECOLLECTIONS

ALONE

Healing Piano Melodies

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:

Peaceful and Inspired – Magical Piano

The clip above is for the individual song “Peaceful and Inspired.”

To hear all of the individual songs that comprise this medley: https://myjourneysinsight.com/peaceful-inspired-magical-piano/

To hear “Peaceful and Inspired Magical Piano” on Insight Timer:PEACEFUL & INSPIRED – MAGICAL PIANO is comprised of ten of my original songs. For each one, Devin (my piano arranger), and I have collaborated to create two different solo piano clips. One is more creative and the other one is faithful to my song’s melody. When both are combined together, I have named the resulting track “Magical Piano.”

Below are links to more about the ten songs:

PEACEFUL AND INSPIRED

THROUGH MY MUSIC

MY SONG UNSUNG

MISUNDERSTOOD

WATCHING YOU GROW

I’VE ALWAYS CARED

JUST A TUNE

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

SAYING GOODBYE

SOMEONE TO LOVE YOU

Piano Magic Continues. . .

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.