I have asked Olivia if I can transpose her song she’s been playing on the piano onto sheet music. It’s a melody she’s been playing for quite some time that seems somewhat random but has a consistent feel about it. She is excited about the opportunity.
Quickly, my well thought-out plan was thrown away. It is not feasible to just sit down beside her and start writing down the notes. What happens is that when I do this and play it back she’s quick to respond: “No, it’s not like that, it’s like this!” She proceeds to play a different set of notes and chords that are similar, but not the same.
Clearly, she has a concept in her mind that when applied to the piano has a sort of feeling about it, but it is not static. So I need to change my approach.
My new plan is to sit with her over the next couple of weeks and get an understanding of what she’s trying to play. There is a consistent structure that she works around that if I can get a picture of it, I can write an interpretation of it on sheet music. I plan to do this ‘in private’ and then play it back to her at a later date. If I can get something that she approves of, even if there are parts she thinks are wrong, we at least have a starting point that we can modify over time.
I suspect this will be a work in progress for quite some time. But the goal is to find some endpoint that has a structured time signature and a fleshed out bass to accompany the melody.
We’ll see what we end up with! I’m hoping this perks up my motivation to then pick up the guitar and learn to write an accompaniment to the piece.