On the night of November 24, 2006, for some reason, I decided to become a songwriter. I suppose there were many events leading to that moment, but I had not put them together until that night. At 11:26 p.m. I emailed a friend and told him my crazy idea. I thought if I really told someone—that would make me accountable and compel me to follow through with this decision.
After November of 2006 I worked steadily on writing songs. It was frustrating as well as fulfilling. I was learning a lot, but still had a long way to go. Just before starting songwriting, I had spent my time composing introits and benedictions for choir.
I am a classically trained musician with a degree in organ performance and a master’s degree in music composition. I have spent my life as a church musician. In 2006 I decided to try songwriting. It has been the most wonderful adventure of my life.
Grain of Sand
Music encapsulates objects, thoughts, emotions, ideas, and even entire worlds into a smaller, understandable, viewable—through the mind’s eye or psyche—experience. Music can also encapsulate the transcendent . . . those things which are not contained in words or images.
After I made my first Christmas CD in 2013, I was eager to make another in 2015. At this point, I was working a full-time office job, came home tired every evening, and did not know if my sophomore effort could be as good as the first.
As a young person I could not wait until Thanksgiving arrived each year. That signaled the day I would pull out all my Christmas carol books and play through them every day. I would arrange the music into a program and imagine I was performing in some great Christmas concert.
Begin with Baby Steps
The idea behind the phrase is to take small steps with an eye toward a bigger goal. I like the phrase because simply taking one small step seems easy. The problem usually occurs in actually continuing to take baby steps. I tend to want everything now.
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Peg Thompson
I am a composer, singer-songwriter, church musician, and writer.
I share my compositions, songs, stories, and essays — as well as tidbits and trivia about all kinds of music.
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