Quiet Day

When I am coming up with ideas for compositions I sit at the piano and play freely, whatever comes out.  I tend to come up with 8 bar ideas and I call these ideas "sketches".  Some sketches join together, mature and become released pieces.  Others stay alone and do not progress any further.  This week I have come up with many sketches and this one "escaped", was joined by cello and became fully grown.

I am dedicating this piece to a dear friend from my past, Sanya Ozic.  Sanya was a beautiful and loving soul who sadly passed away earlier this year.  Taken too soon, aged just 53, she was an extremely talented classical guitarist and hugely creative person who touched the lives of all who knew her with kindness and unique spirit.  Since her passing I have experienced an increase in my own creativity.  Perhaps this is borne from the realisation that life is too short and temporary to allow fear to restrict us....or maybe Sanya is influencing me from beyond.

Artwork used with kind permission from Victoria Akvarel https://t.me/vika_watercolor

Escaping the sketch

Escaping The Sketch

This is where it all started.

Original recording, captured in one take on my mobile phone at home, of a piece that I wrote and recorded in July 2022.  It comes complete with the background noises of home! 

For all the amazing music software that I am currently learning and the sounds that I am experimenting with as I learn, the simplicity of this piece has always ensured that it has remained a favourite of mine.  At the end of the day, I am just a person who enjoys playing her piano and creating music quietly at home.

This piece expressed a deep realisation in myself that it is OK to be me, to embrace and love all that is me.  The whole package.  We are all individuals and we should love and not be afraid to express ourselves. 

Like me, this performance is not perfect. It just is what it is.

I hope you enjoy it.

I Am Me (original, live recording)

Graceful and elegant on the surface.......but lots of work going on underneath.

Artwork used with kind permission from Gordon Johnson
https://pixabay.com/users/gdj-1086657/

Swans

Wanting something so badly, it aches.

Artwork used with kind permission from Mystic Art Design
https://pixabay.com/users/mysticsartdesign-322497/

The Ache

Claude Debussy: "Music is the space between the notes".

It is hard to define what he meant by "the Space".  When I listen to some music, there is usually something subtle that grabs me and evokes an emotional response.  It can make me physically tingle. It can make tears well up or cause a wave of pure joy.  Music is more than just notes.  

With The Space Between I am laying down my commitment to find "the Space" myself and communicate it to you.  I don't know if I have found it yet, I suspect not but maybe I am getting closer. Only you can decide. But one thing is for sure, I will keep looking.

In this piece, I start to explore combining modern sounds with more classical ones.  I am drawn to exploring this type of fusion more.

The Space Between

Composition and piano - Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixing and mastering - Chris Adams

I love looking at old photographs, especially portraits.  Moments of peoples' lives captured in time.  In this piece I use a repetitive arpeggio to symbolise that idea of being suspended forever in time.

This is most memorable piece of music I have written.  Well, to me it is because it caused me to meet someone wonderful and fall in love. ❤️ 

Sepia

Composition and piano - Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mastering - Chris Adams

Someone very close to me has been working very hard to become a calmer person.  This has meant years of work : making peace with his late father, observing his emotional reactions, transcending them and letting go.

Recently he told me of a vivid dream about his father and I said that I felt that was an indication of the continuation of his journey, a journey to "calmer waters".  It inspired this piece of music.

You know who you are.  This piece is for you.  I hope it will add to your own feelings of peace and contentment and to those of all who listen to it. x

I decided to leave this piece as purely piano.  No other sounds, just the simplicity of the music shining through.  Calm waters have no ripples.

Now some important words on mixing and mastering. I have been lucky enough to meet someone recently with a lot more experience than I have with mixing and mastering. A professional with many year's experience, Chris Adams has kindly begun to mentor me in this area and has quickly become a good friend who is not afraid to give me creative direction, keep me grounded and disciplined and give me a lot of laughter along the way.  Chris has shown great patience as I try to improve the technical side of my music production skills.  He quickly discovered that I had a sub optimal recording set up and he has given me valuable advice and direction to improve my source recordings.  I am still learning and experimenting with this, doing my best to follow instructions because Chris and I live on opposite sides of the world.  He has mastered this piece for me and has offered to mentor me further so that I can improve my technical abilities with music software and production.  Exciting times!

To Chris, thank you.

Calmer Waters

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis.

Mastered by Chris Adams

I wanted to share this short piece with you that I composed and recorded a while ago.  I am a Kate Bush fan.  I am so inspired by her unbridled creativity.  

This piece was borne from my desire to allow my own creativity to flow from the inside, effortlessly and naturally.  This is one such piece.  I sat down at the piano, took a breath and relaxed.  This is what came out.

Oh Kate

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis

Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

The thought that I had in mind when I wrote this piece was about allowing my music to flow out, uninhibited and uncontrolled.  From inside me straight to the outside world......as if I were "translucent".

Translucent

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis

Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams


Naked

She stands a’mid the field
They are hiding
She can not see
But she hears their laughter

Are you a boy?
Are you a girl?
What an ugly girl!

She is crimson

Spinning now
Round and round
Naked and exposed
Where to turn?

She runs home
Runs home

Oh, the inner world
Mud pies and leaf whales
Rag dolls coming to tea

She runs home

Naked

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

"You hold my hand from 12,000 miles."

When I wrote this piece I was thinking of someone close to me.....who is on the other side of the world.

12,000 Miles

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

You are enough x

Enough

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

For all those people who are separated from their loved ones by circumstances.  Those who want to hold and be held.

Hold

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

I think of music as being an expression of love and I love the peace that it brings me.  That peace is my constant.

Constant

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

I wrote this in November 2023 and was too disturbed by what I had created to release it.  But I feel the time is right and necessary.  Please, no more war.

Hope in the Cold

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

There is someone very special in my life who will be visiting me soon.  Seven weeks and counting.  He is coming from the other side of the world.  I feel that I want his visit to go on forever….relaxing together by the sea.  This piece of music was borne with that thought in mind.

Forever Sunday

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

Last night I sat down at the piano and this came straight out.  It is composed and played on the fly.  No pre-planning.  This is my music at its most raw and natural.....there are imperfections because I was feeling my way as I played.
I hope it is the first of series of pieces captured in the same way.  This is the bud that is about to bloom. 
I do hope you enjoy it and forgive any small slips of the fingers. x

Impromptu #I

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

I walk my dog every day through a field which is full of meadow flowers at the moment.  It is so peaceful and beautiful there, it seems far removed from all the troubles of the world.  I imagine heaven to be such a place.

Meadows

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

I miss someone very much....my heart yearns for him.  We are Oceans Apart.

Oceans Apart

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

When I was a little girl I used to find dandelion seed heads, blow on them and imagine the seeds escaping and flying to the other side of the world.  Set free in just one breath.

I yearn for that freedom now.

Dandelion

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

I don’t feel in control of my destiny, I am restricted by responsibility for others.  And after a day of over exposure to the News, and all the bad things in the world that are happening, or might be happening, I felt low.  

So I wrote this piece of music.  I felt intense and sad, I wanted to see what music would flow from me.

Intensity

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

I imagine an escape where I can be at one with nature, swimming with whales.

Swimming with Whales

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and mastered by Chris Adams

After a bit of an emotional time, I found myself beginning to come back to "me" and what I love to do....A Return to Centre.

Return to Centre

Composed, performed and mixed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mastered by Chris Adams

Big questions have been on my mind recently.  I have been giving thought to what may lie beyond myself, creation, the possibility of eternal life.  I have been questioning, reading, seeking.  This piece of music has been borne from this state of mind and I am so pleased that it has emerged sounding so joyful.  It is both a realisation and a proclamation of belief.  I didn’t know what to expect when I started.  It came From the Blue.

Thanks as always to Chris Adams for mastering this piece, your love and support along the way and for opening my mind to possibilities that I would not have otherwise imagined.

From the Blue

Composed, performed and mixed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixing “guidance” and mastering by Chris Adams

I started with an arpeggio, which is often the way with my music.  The arpeggio that I created in this collection of pieces seemed to take on a character all of its own very quickly.  I had not come up with a name when I set out but as soon as the arpeggio came to life I thought to myself….this arpeggio is called Audrey!

I imagined Audrey to be a lead character in a romantic comedy film.  I decided there and then to challenge myself to write 3 pieces in an “Audrey” style, reflecting different moods as if accompanying the film where we follow a little bit of Audrey’s life.

The result is this trilogy:  Meeting Audrey, Sad Times and Overcoming.  

Meeting Audrey
This is the first piece in the trilogy.  It establishes the arpeggio theme that I think sums up Audrey.  She is fun, quirky…..maybe a little bit scatty.  Life is busy and she muddles through, like many of us do these days.

Sad Times
In this, the second piece in the Audrey trilogy, our heroine experiences some sad times in her life.  The music has similar melodic themes to “Meeting Audrey” but the arpeggio, her “spirit”, is absent.  Sad times in our life can make us feel like our spirits are temporarily dampened.

Overcoming
In this, the third piece in the Audrey Trilogy, Audrey picks herself back up after the sad time in her life.  She gathers the strength to carry on and finds happiness…..and her spirit….once again.


A special thank you once again to Chris Adams who has given so much of his time to help develop my mixing skills and start to show me mastering.

Audrey

Composed, performed and mixed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mastered by Chris Adams

The inspiration for this piece simply came from my own musical journey and learning to overlap "scenes" within my musical project to ensure smooth transitions.  However I often find my musical journey encourages me to reflect more widely on life in general.

With this composition I found myself contemplating how different stages of my life have, in hindsight, constantly been overlapping.  

Life is full of endings and beginnings.  When one thing ends, another has already started.

Overlap

Composed, performed and mixed by Megan Jennifer
Mastered by Chris Adams
Mixing guidance by Chris Adams

I love learning and trying new things.  In this composition I have started to experiment with a new piano sound, combined with more traditional elements.   I hope you enjoy listening and find it relaxing.

Spheres

Composed and performed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mixed and Mastered by Chris Adams

I am continuing to experiment with sound.  In this piece I have combined the piano with various mallets - glockenspiel, vibraphone, celesta, xylophone and marimba - to add a magical and percussive quality.

Symmetry

Composed, performed and mixed by Megan Jennifer Lewis
Mastered by Chris Adams

A seagull flies across the ocean.

Seagull

Nothing makes me happier than composing and producing music.  I hope that you enjoy my creations. 

I am grateful for my musical ability.  It gives me a sense of purpose, serves as an emotional anchor and is a constant companion.  It also enables me to express my creativity, something that I find very necessary to my overall well-being.

I also enjoy finding beautiful music by other artists and creating playlists to share.  If you are on my playlist, it means that your music has profoundly affected me, and I sincerely thank you.  By creating and sharing playlists, I hope, in a small part, to help other artists to get the recognition they deserve as well as enabling me to share the beauty I have found with others.

Thank you for listening.

Megan Jennifer

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