Cold, Scansion and The Baker's Girl, A Question
 I have a cold. For this reason I didn't record this Tuesday - sounding like a bad advert for throat sweets is not the effect I'm after, even in scratch tracks. I also wimped out of my voice lesson for the same reason - didn't fancy the drive, head full of ick, etc. But I am delighted to have found my old voice teacher who has moved to a nearby village, rather than Brighton (which she had planned) so before long I'll be reporting on Making Strange Noises of a Thursday Morning.

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Isn't scansion a strange thing? I've just had a proto-song completely change itself around as a result of a little change in the first line. I was struggling with making a tune really carry the words - lots of things fit, but they didn't let the syllables rest easy on the notes in a way that still felt like human speech. You try singing 'Livia worked at the bakery' and you'll see what I mean. In a nice lazy three time you end up swallowing the end of bakery and there's absolutely no springboard for the next line. In a more martial four time you end up with the last syllable of bakery either being overstressed or ignored, and again, no easy lead-in for the following line. I've tried all sorts of things, melodies all over the place, and the lyrics just weren't having it. 

I finally realised that the problems was the word 'bakery' itself, and so I changed the first line, which felt odd as that's usually the original 'seed' of the song. 

Now try with 'Livia, the baker's girl' and it's so much more fluid. I get a lilting four-time out of it with the lyric coming in on the second beat. 

Is better, yes?

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The lovely and deeply talented Seanan McGuire refers to my song 'Still Catch the Tide' in her comic strip, 'With Friends like these...' and as of today I have her artwork on my wall. When she gets back from her current performing trip, I'm hoping she'll pop in here and point you at her work...  Seanan, Girl Genius, thank you!