I presented a total of three new songs at Friday’s Songcraft session…two of them piano songs, one of them guitar.

I am particularly pleased with the two piano songs. The guitar one was…well, so-so only lah!

For the longest time, I’ve been having difficulty trying to come up with songs on the piano, even though the piano is my “first love” (in terms of instruments). Hence, I was extremely glad that I managed to come up with these two piano songs for last Friday’s session.

Extremely glad.

And I have a really good feeling about these two piano songs. (Sometimes you can just tell.)

I love both these songs equally. I really can’t decide which one I like better. It’s like if you own a Ferrari and a Lamborghini…you can’t decide which car is your favourite. (Not that I’m comparing my songs to such a high level lah, but y’know.) I think both these songs are special (to me) in their own way. I like certain things about “It’s In The Morning”, and I like other things about “Dear Emily”.

So without further ado, I shall share these songs to you, the listener, and I hope you’ll enjoy them…

…

It’s In The Morning

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/17206303/view]

It’s In The Morning
Music & Lyrics by Jeremy Yew
Vocals by Betty

Dawn breaks in the morning as I wake
It’s a brand new day I sit and wait
For what lies ahead
Thinking back to all the words we said

Birds sing in the morning as I wake
Wipe the sleepy eyes I turn to take
A moment to see
What I mean to you, what you mean to me

Chorus:
It’s in the morning, it’s in the morning
It’s in the look in your eyes when you tell me everything new
It’s in the morning, it’s in the morning
It’s in the look in your eyes when you tell me everything new
It’s in the morning when I say that I love you

Love freshens the morning air inside
Dries up all of the painful tears we cried
For no one to hear
Hear the words we’ve always wanted to hear

All is quiet and distant as the skies
Words were spoken between us never dies
I know you’d be here
Right here by my side, ever to hold me dear

Writer’s Note: I was busily rushing to complete this song last week, as I wanted to ask Betty to sing it for me. I felt it was a song which she could carry very well (which she did), and it would have been wise for me to let her deliver the song for me, rather than attempting to deliver it myself.

Even though the song was largely completed last week, the very first two lines of the song (“Dawn breaks in the morning as I wake, it’s a brand new day I sit and wait…”) have been haunting me for the last five months. They came to me one day while I was banging away at the piano, and I couldn’t get myself to forget them no matter how hard I tried…and neither did I know what to do with them. I really didn’t know where to go after those two lines. I felt they were really elegant, but I didn’t know how to continue. But thankfully, thanks to some serious hard work last week, I finally managed to find the resolve to turn those two lines into a complete song.

Most people kindly commented that they found the song beautiful. Someone commented that she liked the 3rd and 4th verses. (I like them a lot too. They’re my favourite lines in the song!) Someone also commented that she liked the extended line in the chorus (“It’s in the look in your eye when you tell me everything new”). I kinda deliberately crafted the song in that way as I wanted to “surprise” the listener slightly with an extended line in the chorus that actually went high. (If you note, that line is the highest point in the entire song.)

Basically, this song is about capturing the mood of the morning, and the feelings & perspectives that come along with it.

…

Dear Emily

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/17206283/view]

Dear Emily
Music & Lyrics by Jeremy Yew

Dear Emily, thanks for all the memories through the years
Through the good and bad times
Through the laughter and tears

Dear Emily, rest assured that things will turn out right
As I write this letter
I’m sending my love tonight

For I know you’re standing somewhere far away
And I know there isn’t much for me to say

Chorus:
So I’ll make a wish, I’ll send a prayer
Together with love, together with care
For I know wherever life takes you
That His love will find you there
Dear Emily

Dear Emily, can you recall the moments that we shared
And how we always used to think
It was the best we’d ever had

Dear Emily, time has not been kind to you and I
Maybe you weren’t meant for me
Or maybe I was the wrong guy

Writer’s Note: Firstly, I just realised I sang a wrong line during my presentation! What you see printed in the 4th verse above is the correct one. It was only after last Friday’s session that I realised I sang the old line during the presentation (“Dear Emily, I never thought we’d ever say goodbye…”). How silly of me.

This song probably might not come across as being that fantastic, cos it was me who did the singing, haha…but personally I’m quite fond of the chorus, and the way it extends with the “For I know wherever life takes you…” part. And I was rather pleased with the pre-chorus too.

I wrote this song based on an idea of a farewell letter. It’s those kind of mushy, sentimental, we’re-parting-but-please-don’t-cry type of songs. Maybe it’s because I’ve experienced a number of farewells this year, hence I was thinking of putting my thoughts & feeling into a song like this.

(Disclaimer – “Emily” is a fictitious character! Any semblance to real-life characters in my life is purely coincidental.)