Haley’s Blog

I was having serious issues trying to find a song for this round (Semifinals) of Valley Idol, and I was up until 11:00 last night trying to find one with my dad. I finally found “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles! I am so excited for the performance this weekend! I was origianlly doing “Don’t You Wish It Was True” by John Fogerty, but the Valley Idol administrators couldn’t find the backtrack, since the music when you sing at the performances is kareoke. I was a little dissapointed but I found something I liked and that’s “Love Song”! The performance is this weekend, and along with Rebecca, Catie, and my friends Emily and Avery, I perform on Saturday!

Photo credits-S o u n d s by unlimited

New song idea!

Dad was teaching himself some song on the guitar using a guitar chord wedsite, I jumped on the matresses that was behind him while he was playing, and got a great idea in my head! I ran upstairs and grabbed my pink songbook. I sat down on my bed and suddenly went quiet. I just listened to the lines rolling around in my head…

My hand wrote faster than my mind wrote the words. It was going to be the best song ever! It was perfect…

Oh great, I thought. I was jsut missing this one last verse. I couldn’t think of the right words to put in the song, and I was trying and trying to coem up with the verse, but it was very difficult. Right then and there, while I was thinking hard, A-HA! I got it! All I neded was the right inspiration!

Now, where to get it?

I have new favourite songs already! There’s a lot of them, so be prepared! They’re not in order, though.

• My Favourite Mistake by Sheryl Crow                          
• Coming For You by JoJo
• Let’s Do This by Hannah Montana
• 7 Things by Miley Cyrus
• Fly On The Wall by Miley Cyrus
• Good Ol’ by JoJo
• Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae
• Red High Heels by Kellie Pickler
• Paper Cut by Vanessa Hudgens
• Rather Be With You by Vanessa Hudgens
• Vulnerable by Vanessa Hudgens
• Pieces of Me by Ashlee Simpson
• Love Song by Sara Barielles
• Did It Ever Cross Your Mind by Vanessa Hudgens
• What I’ve Become by Ashlee Simpson
•  Breathe by Taylor Swift
• Goin’ Crazy by Ashley Tisdale
• Too Cool by Meagan Jette Martin (from Camp Rock)
• Trainwreck by Demi Lovato
• Blue Skies by Diana DeGarmo
• Bullseye by Aly & AJ
• Number One by Skye Sweetam
• I Don’t Care by Skye Sweetnam
• So Bring It On by The Cheetah Girls
• Fuego by The Cheetah Girls
• Breathe by Casey & JC
• Sunshine by Casey & JC
• Believed by Casey & JC
• Don’t Care by Casey & JC
• Goodbye  by Casey & JC

Photo Credit: Gratzer

Okay, this time it’s all about you!

My friend Sophie did a survey on “Total Randomness” and it is pretty cool. I am going to do one on songs! What kinds of music do you like? Who is your favourite artist/band? What’s your favourite song? Are you interested in writing your own songs, or do you just like listening to music? (Sample questions; just a test) Check back soon to see the results!

Click Here to take survey

Survey is closed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Here are 10 of my favourite songs:

1. 7 Things: Miley Cyrus
2. Cry: Rihanna
3. Whatever Will Be: Vanessa Hudgens
4. Cry: The Veronicas
5. Driveway: Miley Cyrus
6. Too Little Too Late: JoJo
7. Take a Bow  Rihanna
8. (Leave) get Out: JoJo
9. G Slide: Lil’ Mama
10. Follow You Wherever You Go: Ashlee Simpson

That’s only a few of them! If you have any songs you like, feel free to comment and tell me yours!

Last year, I was in a contest called Valley Idol. It is a singing contest, like Canadian Idol or American Idol. It was a hard contest, and I had competition; a whole lot of it!

I knew four people in it. My friends Rebecca, Avery, Mukrada, and Katelyn. I knew a couple of other people, but none that I could name.

The first part was getting through the auditions. I sang I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack. It showed in the newspaper that I then had been accepted into the second round. There I sang in Comox, and there were so many people that the contestants were split into three random groups. The groups performed on different days. I sang Born to Fly by Sara Evans. It was a bit tougher because people were watching me. It wasn’t that hard, though, since I’d done performances in front of bigger crowds. Once again in the newspaper the results came out.

My favourite round was the semifinals. The semifinals were right before the finals. I sang my audition song. I was much more comfortable once I got into the song. After the performances, there were prizes for people with tickets. One ticket that we had won a CD and my mom got all confused because she thought it wasn’t the number on the ticket, and it was really funny.

I didn’t make it to the finals, but this year, I will try to push myself with my singing and aim for the finals, and maybe get onto the CD. I am trying to become a stronger and louder singer.

Is there anything I can do to improve my voice (besides taking singing lessons…)?

I guess you’d probably want to get to the actual writing part of the song, so, this time it’s…

Category #2: (which is talking about the actual writing part…)

1. When you’ve done all the webs and lists, you always start with the easiest part of the song. Usually songs are formed like this: Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, End. I find the Chorus easy to start with, but I can’t talk for you.
2. When you start, be careful not to over-rhyme. Over-rhyming is when you use a song like rhyming couplets. Like a poem. I know this because my friend Avery is a really good songwriter and she showed me how symmetrical my song looked.
3. The best part of the song (or the part that you think you did your best on) is probably that piece you started with. For me it’s the chorus. For you it may be, or maybe not.
4. My last tip is to make sure you try to keep with the theme of the song. If the song starts out to be happy; talking about being with your friends, don’t end it saying that one of your friends is mean or you had an argument. It is really easy to do, and trust me, I do it ALL the time.

Thank you for reading this…

So when you sit down with your notebook and a pencil, try to remember these tips. One last thing, do YOU think these tips will help?

As I have mentioned before, I write A LOT of songs. I know a couple of great ways to come up with ideas and how to stick with them.

This is category #1: Starting out with good ideas…

1. When you first sit down to write a song, you should have many pieces of paper in front of you.
2. Make a web or some sort of list of words, lines or phrases you want in your song. (Try not to copy someone else’s work.)
3. Come up with an interesting title.
4. Plan what it’s going to be about, or the main idea of the song.
5. When you have done all that, go over it to make sure you haven’t left anything out.

I’ll have the next set of tips in my up-coming post!

Sam was at my house one day and she suddenly had the best idea.

“Let’s write songs!” she said. I agreed, but I had to make sure we could use my brother’s drum set. We hooked it up, and I took my dad’s (non-expensive) electric guitar and the other smaller amp. I got two sheets of paper, knowing we’d both have different ideas, and two pencils. As soon as she started messing around with the drums, I had inspiration strike me! I started writing a very slow, slow beginning to a chorus. I started to hum.

“You’ve got an idea yet?” asked Sam. I answered, “Yeah, but it’s not that good.”

“Let’s see it,” she said. I started singing it.

“Wow,” Sam said. “I can add on; this is going to be great!” She then told me to get my acoustic guitar, since the first chorus was slow, then it would get faster as it repeats after the verses. We got pretty far into the chords and beats that day, while my brother watched us.

I am a very big fan of Miley Cyrus, and I know alot about her. My favourite songs by her are 7 Things, These 4 walls, Goodbye, Simple Song, and See You Again. I also like Rihanna and my favouite songs by her are Take a Bow, Disturbia, Unfaithful, Umbrella (and the remix), We Ride, Breaking Dishes, and SOS.

When I first found out about this video contest Miley Cyrus and Mitchel Musso are setting up, I asked my dad if I could enter right away. The contest is a video of yourself singing your favourite song. I have a strategy to impress her, and I am going to do a song I wrote. I still haven’t decided which song to do, but I might do the one me and Sam wrote, or me and Avery wrote.  My friend Emily and I write songs too. The only thing that bothers me about writing songs is that you can only put the words down, and you can’t think of a tune until you have the words memorized. Or else you forget them. It is a very long process. But at least the song is good when it’s done!