Over the holidays this last year, I finally got around to picking up a new instrument I’ve wanted in my toolkit for as long as I can remember: A classical (nylon-stringed) student guitar.
I bought one for my son, too. I had not a single dime, nothing but a few raggedy clothes just a couple of years ago. But now I can buy Christmas gifts again. What a life!
The year before, my ex and the kids had bought me a new instrument for Christmas that I didn’t necessarily know I wanted, but that I had been eagerly hoping to put to good use ever since: A kalimba, otherwise known as a “thumb piano,” a lovely instrument with a tone somewhere between a plucked harp string, a tiny piano, and a steel drum.
This recording started out as my first experiment with recording the new classical guitar and the not quite so new kalimba.
Halfway through recording the guitar takes, the steel wound nylon of the upper (lower) strings started coming unraveled, causing voicing and fret buzz issues.
These were still the stock strings from the music store. I’d done so many takes, they were fraying.
So I had to carefully trim away the loose threads with needle nose pliers to eliminate the buzz just long enough to finish the recordings.
It all came together as a recording and arrangement without much effort, once I incorporated some lyrics for the verses that I’d originally written for a different chord progression.
I came up with the chorus on the fly, picking up on some common themes from other lyrics I’d recently been working on. And it seemed to fit well with some other material for the album, so I was happy with it.
The kalimba part provided a nice counterpoint to the chorus and helped it pop as a hook. And it was fun to experiment with mic placement and mixing technique to try to capture a decent sounding take of it, not having had that experience before.
The meaning of the lyrics here is straightforward: It’s a love song to Wisdom– known as “Sophia,” God’s sibling and childhood playmate in Greek mythology–and a prayer for brighter days ahead for everyone.
INSTRUMENTATION
Nylon string acoustic
Steel string acoustic
Kalimba
Organ/Keyboard
Voice
LYRICS
Oh my dear Sophia, how I long to see all
Your lovely flowers come into bloom
Oh my dear Sophia, how I’d love to see ya
Rising up from your ashes
To dance the night through
Rising up from the shadows
To chase away the gloom
There’s no more time or space
For any fall from grace
It’s time to take your place
Among the stars and moons
And now we’re almost there
No reason to be scared
There’s a beautiful day
Coming soon, for me and you