Category Archives: Original music

Tunes on Tuesday: On the 10:17

Why this tune? For the third year in a row, I’m taking a January song-a-day challenge organized by Kat and Sarah from Songwriting For Music Educators, which offers courses and resources for music educators who want to include songwriting in their work. I’m also taking a couple of online lyric writing workshops. I wrote today’sContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: On the 10:17”

Tunes on Tuesday: Let’s Resolve (2026)

Why this tune? For Tunes on Tuesday this week, I went back to the New Year’s song I wrote originally at the end of 2022, making some changes to the lyrics to clean up the rhymes and make it a bit easier to sing. By “clean up” I mean trying to ensure that all ofContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Let’s Resolve (2026)”

Tunes on Tuesday: Curious Weather

Why this tune? This week’s tune started in a lyric writing class with Marcy Heisler, an award-winning writer and performer. She and her writing partner Zina Goldrich are responsible for many musical theater and cabaret works including “Taylor, The Latte Boy,” which you’re likely to hear at cabaret revues across the country. We all cameContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Curious Weather”

Tunes on Tuesday: Lost In the Words

Why this tune? This week’s tune is the first draft of a new song,
inspired by a songwriting session with Peter Eldridge
hosted by JazzVoice.com. Peter suggested using a rhythm track as a starting
point for a new song, recommending the
fine selections in the Drumgenius app. I found the phrase “lost in the words” on my song ideasContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Lost In the Words”

Tunes on Tuesday: Bend Don’t Break

Why this tune? Our hearts go out to the people of the Caribbean recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Melissa, the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica and one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record. After the storm, we came across this Facebook post from Josh Morgerman, describing how he found inspiration from aContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Bend Don’t Break”

Tunes on Tuesday: Pot Luck

Why this tune? This week’s tune is an obscure bebop head written by Johnny Mandel for Stan Getz in the 1950s, that I came across while searching for some Mandel songs to suggest to singers I work with. It’s nothing like “The Shadow of Your Smile” and other more famous works, but still a funContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Pot Luck”

Tunes on Tuesday: Conversation (duet)

Why this tune? I first shared “Conversation” on Tunes on Tuesday
in June, performing the second version of a song
that I started to write back in February. I shared the post with the team at the “Switched On Pop” podcast and was delighted to get a supportive comment 
from them: “Small talk is so hard. ThisContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Conversation (duet)”

Tunes on Tuesday: These Are The Words

Why this tune? Tunes On Tuesday returns to my Torah Tunes project with a song for the first portion of Deuteronomy, D’varim (דְּבָרִ֗ים) in Hebrew. The first verse of this fifth book starts “אֵ֣לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֗ים” “eleh ha-d’varim,” usually translated as “These are the words.” The “words” here refer to the laws and practices conveyed byContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: These Are The Words”

Tunes on Tuesday: Are You Out Of Your Mind?

Why this tune? This week’s song is also the title of a cabaret revue I’m presenting at the new District Fringe festival this month
in Washington, DC. I put together a bunch of my songs (and two covers) to
create a narrative that explores our relationships with our 
friends, our partners and ourselves. I invited Barbara PapendorpContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Are You Out Of Your Mind?”

Tunes on Tuesday: Nothing To Say

Why this tune? This week’s tune comes from another rehearsal,
for a show on June 26, 2025 at the Lamond-Riggs
public library in Washington, DC. Vicki Golding, Percy White and I are playing 
”Nothing To Say,” which I wrote first in 2021 as a
way out of writer’s block. I wrote one verse then, turning a story aboutContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Nothing To Say”