Collaborating

One of my brothers called me one day and said he had written a poem and wanted me to put music to it.  He had an idea for a tune for part of the chorus so I held the cassette recorder up to the phone and taped while he whistled.  That was our first collaboration.  Since that day we have written several songs together.  He writes the lyrics and I write the music.

My oldest brother came by one day and had a song he had written but he didn't know how to put it on staff paper.  We sat at the piano and he strummed his guitar and sang while I got the melody and chords written down for him.

While we are all planning our parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration, my next to the oldest brother called and said he wanted us to take turns telling Mom and Dad why we felt lucky to have them as our parents.  There were seven of us at that time (one had passed away) and he wanted us to sing a little ditty between our stories.  He hummed the tune he wanted and I taped it.  He also had four lines of words to sing with it.  We had a lot of fun when we all got together and sang the song and recorded some memories of growing up.

I've also worked on many songs and stories with friends of mine.  Sometimes when you hit a dry spot, call a fellow writer and maybe the two of you can come up with a good piece.  I think collaborating is fun and it's exciting to see what you and someone else can come up with.

Karen Sperra