I pictured myself sitting in my garden with a cup of coffee writing in my journal, except instead of words, I was writing music notes one note at a time. This is why I called my album Notes  From My Secret Garden. Every word and feeling translated into a note, then became a rhythm, a chord progression, a melody, and eventually the whole vibe of a song. The emotions I was feeling at the time or an obstacle I wanted to overcome, was turned into a melody, a silent form of words, but purely musical. 

This process felt very therapeutic and cathartic. I have always been an emotional player, so it made sense to write an album dedicated to healing my heart by venting melodically. 

My process to create a song is to begin by discovering the main elements, the key, the chord progression, the melody. From there, the first step is to design the sheet music score note by note. It’s a lengthy process.

I like the idea behind writing in classical music form, creating many movements, breaking free from contemporary song structures, and rhythms, yet finding simplicity and composing with an old traditional method that’s been around for hundreds of years. This style of writing music reminds me of what Beethoven would’ve done, but instead of composing with a pen and ink by candlelight I’m using headphones, a keyboard, and a glaring computer screen with my finale software, a program I have learned to love. 

When I was in college at SDSU, my professor encouraged me to compose songs by scoring the sheet music first. I actually laughed at the idea. I thought it was lame. I cut corners writing the score for my final exam song by playing it on a midi keyboard and translating it in finale. The teacher totally knew and told me to try harder and that one day I would be able to appreciate the gift of scoring music. At the time I laughed and went back to my improvisation recording of hip-hop beats. But over the years, my professor’s advice resonated, and I realized he was right. There are so many magnificent benefits to scoring a song first when songwriting. 

I have found three major benefits that completely outweigh writing a song just by ear and improve. The first is that when I score my songs I can remember what I wrote for any song. Once you start writing hundreds of songs having a score is important to remember on the fly. The score can also be shared with other musicians so they can instantly play your song, especially when they are a great site reader.

The second major benefit to writing a score first is that I can see the bigger picture of the song visually from the harmony to the key, to key changes, building rhythms. There’s so much more that my eyes can see that my composing ear never could. I notate songs at a higher level than I can actually play so I’m designing a higher quality song when I notate it first. It’s fun to take a riff  that I play by ear and heart, and then write it down on the staff and expand harmonizing it measure by measure, note by note. There’s more to play around with. 

The last major benefit to scoring a song first is that sheet music is a product that has a higher monetary value than the actual song product itself, since most poeple don't download or buy music anymore. Players will download sheetmusic. I personally really enjoy collecting sheet music and have built quite the collection. Plus as mentioned above, it’s such a benefit to be able to give the sheet music score to band mates and studio musicians to instantly play. I hope other pianists will really enjoy downloading my songs and playing them just as much as I love it. 

I’ve been listening to the Tom Petty radio station a lot lately, and I heard him mention that he worked with Bob Dylan and that Bob would write several verses when composing a song, and by the time he got to like the ninth verse he would discover the catchiest most iconic part of the song. This idea resonated with me, so I decided to give myself that space when I compose this album. Create outside of the modern structure, use classical structure with several parts, movements, motives, ultimately the songs have a feel to them of a multi part journey. 

What I’m doing for my next album, the sequel to Notes From My Secret Garden, is simplifying the journey of each classical song, focusing on my favorite, most catchy parts, transforming it into a pop songs structure, and adding the lyrics. Which, putting to words what I was feeling when I poured all those notes out is really profound and a healing part of the process. I have to face the words, and not just hide behind the notes. I'm really excited for my next album that’s transforming from this, called Joyride.  The first single for Joyride to udnergo the transformation is Fireflies. It has been renamed Fireflies & Waterfalls. There is an acoustic version and a remix. 

Mountain Tops is a song that’s about climbing my mountain of struggles. To overcome the obstacles and reach the top, can I believe in myself? Once I finished composing this song, the epiphany for me was that I realized it’s not just about how you climb that mountain and reaching the goal of getting to the top but it’s about finishing the mountain and realizing there are more mountains to climb. It doesn’t stop there. But it does feel good to take a moment to look around at all the mountains I have climbed. 

This song has a lot of upward momentum written into it, the ascending fifth intervals in the beginning that carries though out the entire song as a musical motif, especially since 5 is a number that symbolizes chabge and growth. There's an overall theme of growth as the notes ascending upwards and getting higher throughout the entire piece in a repetitive motif (musical idea). I created this as an imagery to symbolize climbing up a mountain, hiking day and night to reach the peak. 

It would be a secret garden, luscious flowers, everywhere, and even a vegetable garden for nutritious foods, to symbolize healing and love. The garden would be gated off with a lock, truly a secret, like the beautiful garden from the movie A Secret Garden from 1993. This is one of my favorite childhood movies, I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of a secret garden and having a secret place to turn to. I thought it would be the perfect place to musically bury all of my secrets and watch them flourish, like a garden. 

There are a lot of secrets and feelings I wrote into this album that I’ve never said out loud. It’s something special like a telepathic connection, twin flame energy, a love that’s connected with a red string. These ideas came to mind when I wrote my songs. Some of these secrets will be revealed in my next album when I release these songs with lyrics. But some of the secrets and fantasies will stay with me until my grave. There are certain secrets that are sacred and aren’t meant to ever be shared. This album is passionate, intimate, secretive. Motivated by a curious desire of fantasy and love. Exploring all the layers and depths of true love that will do anything to survive and cultivate healing.

Myself, I’m a self motivated music boss. This was a zero budget album and one person team. I composed, produced, even recorded all of my songs in the studio and edited the tracks. The only thing I had to spend money on for this album was the mix and master from a professional recording engineer, the copyrights, and distribution. I am proud of myself for keeping it simple and letting the music speak for itself. I even designed the album cover. 

This album cover symbolizes healing and love. I wanted to create passionate masculine and feminine energy, so I chose a red pepper and a flower, vibrant in color and wet.  

Fall Forever. In my opinion, this is the prettiest and my favorite song from the album. It’s about divine timing and divine love. The song is very sensual right from the start, dropping in with a compelling energy rhythmically yet a simple mysterious melody that feels warm. Yet the song is surprisingly hollow like a cold autumn night, love keeps us warm in a fragile strange way. The song feels uncomfortable yet safe. I love the combination of dissonant notes relieved by sweet tones, this song has a lot of that push pull feel, similar to a romantic relationship. Sometimes it takes being uncomfortable to break new boundaries. 

I’m really excited to play around with all the different layers of this song for the remix and dive into the sensual infinite meaning behind it. It also has a seasonal feel being set in the autumn time, which I think is one of the most magical season to experience.

The first thing I do when I start a songwriting session is light a candle, and I like to do a chakra meditation. I begin with my midi keyboard and finale to design the sheet music. I established the main elements, the key, time signature, chord progression, then I use my ear to design the melody and flow of the song. As I’m doing this I note by note compose the score for the sheet music. This process takes time and intense editing, a lot of flow energy.  

I write much more challenging songs than I can actually play so I have to take the time to practice the songs before I record them. Then once I’m ready I record the songs. This also takes time. I like to play the entire song from the beginning to the end when I record because I love a perfect clean take that does not have splicing or punching. I like the authentic flow of a song from start to finish. Once the songs are done with recording, and any final editing then they get sent to a recording engineer to mix and master. I have the patience to record my own piano, but I like to have the second year when it comes to a final mix and master. 

In the meantime, when the music is being finalized, I get the music copyrights and take care of the technicalities to distribute the music. When I receive my copyrights in the mail, it feels like opening an award for the album for finishing it. It is also a similar feeling when I hear my whole album for the first time on my favorite music platform, Pandora. It’s an incredible feeling to reach the finish line and know the project is done and I can release it to everyone to enjoy. It’s something that will last forever.

It’s quite simple, My Love 💘. He is not just a chapter, he’s the whole book and my heart will never put our book down or abandon My Love 💘. He means so much to me that I dedicate this album to him, as he is the source that inspired the fire in my heart and the one who encouraged me to heal and prioritize self love. I’m forever grateful.