Tonight was our Friday night jam session. For those who've kept up this week, I put together song lyrics I'm pretty proud of (Link ), and when I went in to the jam session, I pulled a couple of friend aside. I've never really written music before and needed a little help.

As I sang the song a capella, we decided that it works best in the key of "G". We put together some rough tablature, with a little trial and error. The chorus begins in "C", and the arrangement is pretty simple. I decided to go ahead and put it out there. I had hoped to do "ripple" by the Grateful Dead (one of my all time favs), but I wanted to throw this one out for an audience response. Even in its rough form, it was VERY well received.

I got to do two songs tonight (we had a lot of pickers and I couldn't stay long), so I closed with "Roll on Columbia", a song I know well. For a few weeks, musician friends and I have been going back and forth over whether I should sing it in D or G, but I have tried to stick with G because I know the chord arrangements in G better than in D. The problem is, nervousness often makes it a struggle to keep my voice down in G for the song. I ALWAYS sing it in G at home, but it doesn't always come out there in public. Tonight, I nailed it. I think because it's familiar enough territory that I don't need to think about my fingering and can concentrate on my voice, but at any rate, it worked VERY well.

I'm most proud, though, of the reception of the first serious song effort I've set to music. I may have to try to record it and upload for y'all once I get the music down.