How can I write a simple song about something from my everyday life?

Good morning and happy Monday, everyone. This week’s song and post is from my pseudo musical I’ve been working on and is a song about something I love; coffee.

Let’s give it a listen right away. This track is aptly called “Coffee”.

Listen here:

This track is actually partnered with one that comes right before about waking up, however, it works perfectly fine as its own standalone and also lends itself well to “jingle” territory (think songs on commercials/ads).

How did I write this?

I started out by finding a software instrument – played with my MIDI keyboard – and then constructing a chord progression I liked. I ended up landing on the instrument patch “Woodwind Ensemble” and I playing the following chords: Fmaj Bbmaj Amin Cmaj (or I – IV – iii – V if you want to easily transpose it). I just recorded that progression once and then looped it throughout and wrote the vocals/music overtop of it.

I wanted this to kind of be a non-traditional love-song and decided it should be about coffee; so I set out to write some lyrics that were related to the feelings that coffee gives me that was combined with the theme of my little pseudo musical as presented in this previous blog post.

In addition to wanting this to be a non-traditional love-song, this was a continuation on another track, so I already had some material and ideas to go from. As I said, the other track is about waking up, so I just had to think, “What do many/most people do after they wake up and before they head to work?” and then proceeded to improvise and work out the lyrics for this song that was a combination of the above mentioned ideas. Speaking of the lyrics, let’s check them out now.

Lyrics

Now that I’m up (COFFEE)
I have to drink (COFFEE)
This is a must (COFFEE)
The one that I trust (COFFEE)

To help help me to be (COFFEE)
Lighter indeed (COFFEE)
To give me the urge (COFFEE)
To help me to purge (COFFEE)

This is a win (COFFEE)
I am so light (COFFEE)
Now I can start (COFFEE)
On with the week (COFFEE)

Until I have to drive (COFFEE)
And then I must arrive (COFFEE)
At a place that I hate (COFFEE)
This is not my fate (COFFEE)

I will find my way
COFFEE

When I was working on the construction of this piece I started out just improvising some lyrics and melodies and landed on the opening “Now that I’m up… I have to drink… This is a must…. The one that I trust…” and used that as a theme for the rest of the song. After I recorded a few lines I decided it was missing something; enter the “COFFEE” chants!

Adding the coffee chants allowed me to stretch out a little bit with some vocal harmonies and apply an ongoing anchor to the entire song. The chant follows the chord progression and also continues all the way through the song, underpinning the melody at all points.

The final section – with the extremely long single breath of “I will find my way” from the lead vocals – is still full of the coffee chants while floating the words “I will find my way” above in various voices and harmonies before finally joining together for one last “COFFEE” at the end with all of the voices in all of the ranges presented in that section.

Parting thoughts

This song is simultaneously about the shared love of coffee and hatred of forcing ourselves to wake up to go and make somebody else money while getting yelled at for existing – something far too many of us experience or have experienced. It is directly in line with the theme of my pseudo musical as presented in my previous post with the song “Misunderstood” because of the nature of this being part of the same larger set of music. It’s also in line with being an outside of the box love-song about coffee and how it can help us get going with our day(s).

I hope this has been a fun little experience for you. If you’re interested in learning more about making your own music or learning about different aspects of theory, guitar playing, singing, or general musicianship then, please, feel free to check out my services and either email me at [email protected] or contact me on my website to book your lesson or package of lessons today.

Thanks for your time, have an amazing week, and keep up the amazing work you’re doing in your life and the practice room.

All the best,

– Matt

 

PS: Bach wrote a piece about coffee a few years back called the “Coffee Cantata”.