songwriting – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com author | illustrator | digital designer Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:42:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://shepline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-shepline-white-on-green-square_512-32x32.jpg songwriting – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com 32 32 Bifrost (The end of the bridge) https://shepline.com/2006/03/13/bifrost-the-end-of-the-bridge/ https://shepline.com/2006/03/13/bifrost-the-end-of-the-bridge/#respond Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:29:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=1308 The end of the bridge
and you’re on the way home.
The end of the bridge
and you’re half way there.

It’s in your world
not mine.
It’s dark
and it’s cold
it’s breaking apart
Join me
Come with me
and make the bridge like new.

The end of the bridge
and you’re on the way home.
…

]]> https://shepline.com/2006/03/13/bifrost-the-end-of-the-bridge/feed/ 0 Of Saturdays and Songwriting https://shepline.com/2005/09/10/of-saturdays-and-songwriting/ https://shepline.com/2005/09/10/of-saturdays-and-songwriting/#respond Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:02:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=1144 On 2 March 2004 I wrote a song. Well, I say I, but it was more Hanna Katla’s song from my novel Blood & Fire. I later recorded the vocals, on veeb‘s insistance, and the results can still be found here.

Since then Hanna Katla/T Shepherd has a few songs, or bits of songs, and I’ve been wondering whether I could play the guitar and further this songwriting pursuit. Shamelessly egged on by veeb, and after encountering the elephant and spiderweb song this summer in Romania, today I went down to the my local Bicester Music Centre and bought a beginners classical accoustic guitar for a little over £40.

The guitar came with a 52 week online guitar lessons. Between lesson one, and a beginners book, I have learnt the chords of A, D, and E major, and played a simple treble string tune on open strings.

Possibly getting a little ahead of myself, I tried to add some music to Earth In Me. I really, really, don’t know what made me do this, and I have even less idea why it is that I’m sharing this with you…??!!!

Earth In Me (after first guitar lesson – key of Eb)

]]> https://shepline.com/2005/09/10/of-saturdays-and-songwriting/feed/ 0 Hurting https://shepline.com/2004/12/14/hurting/ https://shepline.com/2004/12/14/hurting/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:35:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=860

Hurting

Hurting in my heart
Restless in my soul.
Your voice in my ears
Your face inmy vision.
I am hurting;
Hurting for You.

Last night,
when you said goodnight to me.
Light night,
when you danced with me.
You stole through my senses
You broke the lock from my heart, and—
Now I’m hurting;
Hurting for You.

Questions in my heart
Wrestle with my mind
Reasons for; reasons against
Tustle inside of me
I am am hurting;
Hurting for You.

Last night,
you never said you love me.
Last night,
you never said you didn’t
I spoke; You spoke; We shared
I left; We parted.
Now I’m left stupid;
Stupid and in love with You.

Now I’m hurting;
Hurting for you.

Hurting in my heart
Tortured in my love
Aching to talk with You
Aching to love with You
I am hurting;
Hurting and in love with You.

]]> https://shepline.com/2004/12/14/hurting/feed/ 1 [song in my head] https://shepline.com/2004/04/12/song-in-my-head/ https://shepline.com/2004/04/12/song-in-my-head/#respond Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:09:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=509 River waters tumbling through my veins
Cool—
not cold.

]]> https://shepline.com/2004/04/12/song-in-my-head/feed/ 0 Just too damn embarrassing for words… https://shepline.com/2004/03/03/just-too-damn-embarrassing-for-words/ https://shepline.com/2004/03/03/just-too-damn-embarrassing-for-words/#respond Wed, 03 Mar 2004 18:06:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=438 …and Pepper didn’t seem to like it either.

Just tried recording myself singing Earth In Me – I had thought of posting the results here – but I figure it’s just too damn embarrassing. It’s hilarious! You’d all laugh at me! So I think I’m going to have to disappoint you all, sorry! ^__^

]]> https://shepline.com/2004/03/03/just-too-damn-embarrassing-for-words/feed/ 0 And by way of comparison… https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/and-by-way-of-comparison/ https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/and-by-way-of-comparison/#respond Tue, 02 Mar 2004 23:07:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=437 …this is the one of the songs that has inspired the character of Hanna Katla.

Edit: Listen to Open Your Heart (Ogg File Format)
[ Download and unzip the file, you will also need to have a music player that can play Ogg files – you can get one one free here: XmPlay ]

Song: Open Your Heart
Performer: Birgitta Haukdal
Music: Hallgrímur Óskarsson
Lyric: Sveinbjörn I. Baldvinsson & Birgitta Haukdal

Every time you close your eyes
I can see the light that you’re hiding.
Like a shadow in the sky
Of an eagle’s wing when it’s gliding.

Don’t be afraid, I’m not gonna run away
Don’t let it wait, until it’s too late
For what you have to say.

Open your heart
Show me the pain
It’s all part of who you are.
Tell me your dreams
Your hopes and your fears
Just open your beating heart to me

Everything you share with me
Turns a little darkness into light
and that is how we’re meant to be
Truth will keep the light shining brighter

Open your heart…

Reach out, I’m right by your side
Exactly where I want to be.
The sum, of you and me, is we

Open your heart…

Let go and just show me who you are…
Yeahee yeah yeea
Heyeyah… your heart

Let go and just show me who you are.

]]> https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/and-by-way-of-comparison/feed/ 0 Hanna’s song… https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/hannas-song/ https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/hannas-song/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2004 22:42:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=436 Okay, here’s for the real test. It sounded good with chlorine filled ears earlier tonight in the swimming pool – and I’m saying it’s finished, but here it is. The question is, am I learning anything?

Song: Earth In Me
Performer: Hanna Katla Baldursdottir
Lyric: Thomas Shepherd & Hanna Katla

I put my hand out
I feel the pulse
The mountain stirs
Beneath my feet
Stillness; moonrise.

The Earth in me
The Fire in my soul
The mountain, it erupts, the
Volcano of my life
Of my life

Magma melts through me
My soul awakened
Rupturing below
The world beneath
Fissures; rock falls

The Earth in me…

In wake in sleep – dream
I feel the people move.
To me, they speak
Those people of–
Hidden halls; of old.

The Earth in me…

]]> https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/hannas-song/feed/ 2 Song lyrics? Help needed… https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/song-lyrics-help-needed/ https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/song-lyrics-help-needed/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2004 14:41:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=434 Okay, I’m trying to write Hanna Katla’s songs – she’s Icelandic, she sings in English and Icelandic, in a guitar rock-pop band a bit like these guys: ( Írafár ) – but I’m crap at writing songs! I need help! Is it like writing poetry but with music, or what?! What do you think of these attempts? Please comment honestly and as usefully as you can…

Open Your Eyes
Open your eyes
Listen to your senses
See. The journey you take.
Cast out your inhibitions
See what you’re meant to see

Open your eyes
Listen to the inner you
Open your eyes.
See the truth around you
See the lives, See the loves
That touch you.
Open yourself
To the world out there—a

Highland Wind
Highland, Dark
A light in the night
The wind that blows
Standing; cold on your face.
Sensing—
Seeking; The warmth of home

]]> https://shepline.com/2004/03/02/song-lyrics-help-needed/feed/ 6 Update: Blood & Fire https://shepline.com/2004/02/06/update-blood-fire-2/ https://shepline.com/2004/02/06/update-blood-fire-2/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2004 22:32:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=395 currently writing: chapter two (of six)
current page: 106
current wordcount: 28,404

Hanna lingers in the dimly lit hallway in her sandals – her thick woollen jumper pulled over her bikini – chatting enthusiastically with the student ranger as she files paperwork in the single living, bed and office room.

A cold wind blows across the open landscape between the mountains. As Hanna pushes closed the hut doorway, there are a handful of people using the open washing facilities built on concrete stilts in the middle of the car park, between the two isolated huts.

Highland, Dark
A light in the night
The wind that blows
Standing; cold on your face.
Sensing—
Seeking; The warmth of home

Hanna sings the words softly, in the grey dusk of the Icelandic night. Working the tune in her mind she steps across the car park, and takes a path round the side of the other hut to where sulphurous water steams and rises. At the edge of the pool she slips out of her sandals, and pulls off her jumper – leaving them on the winter-weathered decking, before stepping down into the water.

The heat rushes through her body as she sinks slowly into the water, stretching her arms out and flexing her muscles.

]]> https://shepline.com/2004/02/06/update-blood-fire-2/feed/ 0 Songwriting… https://shepline.com/2003/06/02/songwriting/ https://shepline.com/2003/06/02/songwriting/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2003 10:16:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=106 No. Don’t worry, I’m not about to make an asault on the next eurovision competition … I’m just trying to get inside the creative head of Hanna Katla and write some of the lyrics that she is to write in Blood & Fire. And it’s not easy. Poetry is one of those things that I’ve sometimes been able to do very successfully, but it’s very much the stuff of *chance inspiration* – 500 steps up a tower, alone with views across a medieval french town, or stuck waiting for the local PMT bus service on a street corner in the middle of a Cheshire field – and I’m even worse at songwriting.

Tell me of your feelings,
Listen to your grief/dreams
When you are lost
When you are searching
Remember where you’re from.

What is it about songwriting? that some folks can do it, and some folks can’t?! I just find it, very, very hard…

]]> https://shepline.com/2003/06/02/songwriting/feed/ 3 Songwriting… https://shepline.com/2003/06/02/songwriting-2/ https://shepline.com/2003/06/02/songwriting-2/#respond Mon, 02 Jun 2003 10:16:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/songwriting-2/ No. Don’t worry, I’m not about to make an asault on the next eurovision competition … I’m just trying to get inside the creative head of Hanna Katla and write some of the lyrics that she is to write in Blood & Fire. And it’s not easy. Poetry is one of those things that I’ve sometimes been able to do very successfully, but it’s very much the stuff of *chance inspiration* – 500 steps up a tower, alone with views across a medieval french town, or stuck waiting for the local PMT bus service on a street corner in the middle of a Cheshire field – and I’m even worse at songwriting.

Tell me of your feelings,
Listen to your grief/dreams
When you are lost
When you are searching
Remember where you’re from.

What is it about songwriting? that some folks can do it, and some folks can’t?! I just find it, very, very hard…

]]> https://shepline.com/2003/06/02/songwriting-2/feed/ 0