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Restraint: 6. On Paper

One of my keyboards -- a Kurzweil PC-88 -- has an acoustic guitar sound that I really like. At the time I hammered out the main motif for this song, I had very rudimentary guitar skills. So it's really more of a keyboard hook than a guitar hook.

I sketched out two ideas back in 1999 and fooled myself into thinking I needed something for a chorus and a middle section. So the ideas stayed in my notebook untouched for five years before I came back to them. At that point, I realized I didn't need much else, just one more idea, and the song was finished.

I wish I knew that back in 1999.

As usual, I set the first phrase of the melody to the first line of lyrics I felt fit. Then I let that line dictate everything else. By the end, I had a song about memories and histories.

The instrumentation of this song is sparse, but the tempo is pretty quick. So I don't really consider it a slow song. Quiet, maybe, but not slow.

-- Posted: 2009-06-29 07:46:00