Page 9 of Sing Your Heart Out

My eyes are so blurred

He may hate me

But I’m yet undeterred…”

When she finishes,Sarah looks up to gauge my response. I’m a little awestruck. She’s actually got the song right there, she just needs a backing track to really bring the words to life.

“What do you think?” she asks, blushing furiously.

“It’s amazing,” I tell her honestly. “When you were singing, I actually heard the song in my head. It was very clear.”

Her eyes widen. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, really.” I make a face. “It’s almost too bad that we signed those contracts, because I can think of like five labels that would love to listen to a demo.”

Sarah’s jaw drops. “I… I… really? I just came up with those lyrics off the top of my head!”

I can’t help but smile. “The best lyrics usually are. I’ll tell you what, though… this is going to blow the rest of the house of the water. It’ll put you on the map in a big way.”

“Don’t you mean us? I mean, the only way that my lyrics are going to blow anyone away is if you set them to music.”

“Yeah. I was thinking… something like this, maybe…” I start playing a few chords, keeping things simple. No insane progressions, no fancy (blahs).

She listens for a minute, nodding her head along to the beat. “That sounds pretty good. What if you just finished the very last line with something like this?”

She plays it exactly like I did, but finishes with the notes flowing up. I catch on immediately, feeling my heart lift.

There is absolutely nothing in this world that is quite like when music flows from inside your brain and out into the world. And doing it with another person, being in sync like that…

It’s some kind of magic.

“Okay. How about I drop all my notes half a bar? Then you’ll get this…”

Shifting my playing to play every note slightly lower, I nod my head in time to the music. “That sounds good. Do you want to give it a try? Sing the lyrics on top of the music.”

“Okay, one second…” She stops playing for long enough to pull the lyrics close. “Okay. Ready? One, two, three…”

We play in perfect rhythm, neither rushing the other. She starts to sing, her voice almost sounding throaty. Always through the song though, she pauses.

“Do you mind singing along with me? It sounds good, but not perfect yet.”

“Of course.” I get up, switching seats so that the lyrics are between us on the couch. “Ready?”

So we sing and play for another hour, tweaking a thing or two. And by the end, Sarah and I both grinning from ear to ear.

“We should just leave this house and do it on our own,” Sarah says. “I mean, it won’t always be this easy to write, but— “

I put my guitar down. “Uh, I don’t think so. I’m more of a one man army these days.”

She scrunches her nose. “What? What does that mean?”

“It means I’m here to win. Me, and no one else. Having someone win your Grammy with you because they’re the other half of your songwriting duo is definitely not in the cards for me.”

I stand up. Sarah bites her lip.

“Don’t you think we were good?”

I shrug. “Yeah, we were. But that’s not really why I came here. I came to be a solo songwriter. I’m tired of being tied to someone else. I’m sure you’re great, but everything tied around my neck looks like an albatross. You get me?”

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