Capstone:The Making of "The Queen", an original song by Teddy Bair and Kylie Young

The Queen Podcast


This is my Capstone project for English IV AP, I chose to do a podcast on the making of this original song. Essentially, this podcast is my version of Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same" or Pink Floyd's "Live at Pompeii."

Songwriting is an art that has been around forever and over time has been found to be more and more of a human instinct and impulse. Song is a human phenomenon; whales may have whale songs and the bird may sing but humans are the only species to really use music to tell story and make it such an integral part of society. We have even reached the point where we use songwriting as a treatment for mental illness and a coping strategy for those who have been psychologically traumatized. Songwriting is an inexplicable, unfathomable, but extremely important and complex art. In this podcast I show you the process and thought that goes into one song from the instrumentation, to the melody and lyrics.

This song started out as a simple guitar track sent to me by email while my boyfriend, Teddy Bair, was in New York on business. Listening to it, I hummed along and found a melody I could work with. We picked up the song again while relaxing in my room and within 20 minutes had a melody with lyrics to work with. We then decided to make this simple song a "trip-hop" symphony and to really capture the essence of what the song is about. Ted spent hours and hours putting in the right groove, bassline, string line, and properly mix it all to create the "sound" we envision in our minds. This podcast takes you through that experience with some interesting facts and testimonials on the songwriting artistic process.


References:

Bair, Teddy. "Your Approach to Songwriting." Personal interview. 21 Feb. 2013.

Freed, Brenda S. "Music Therapy Perspectives." Songwriting with the Chemically Dependent.                           National Association for Music Therapy, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.

 Lieberman, Lowell. "Once Upon a Time: Storytelling." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

"My Approach to Songwriting." Personal interview. 22 Feb. 2013.

"The Power of Music." The Power of Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

Watson, CJ. "Songwriting." Ancient Music -n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

            Watson, CJ. "Songwriting." Origins of Music - n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

            Williams, Cal, Jr. "The Creative Mind." Songwritingzen.com. Songwritingzen.com, n.d.