What's a musician to do when he's got a sweet melody in his head but no piano or keyboard readily available to pluck it out? The answer: search Google for "java piano".
At five weeks and counting, this is the longest I have gone without touching a piano/keyboard since I started playing piano in second grade at age seven (surpassing the previous high of four weeks). I try not to be as melodramatic about my need to play piano as some of the people I met at Berklee College of Music ("I can't live without music, bro!"), but I'm honestly beginning to hanker for the opportunity to lay my fingers on ivorite (fake ivory - the ethical way to go!) keys once again. Making music just makes life more fun.
Patrick and I have begun co-writing a song that I am going to finish when I get back to the States. I first had the idea when I was in Kenya in 2007, but I never followed up on it, but Patrick has helped breathe some new life into it. It's going to be called, "How Are You, Mzungu?" You may recall from a previous blog post that "mzungu" is the Swahili word for "white person," which I hear regularly around here being shouted by surprised children as they take notice of me. But I failed to mention in that previous post that the word is also inevitably accompanied by the greeting "How are you?", which seems to be the first bit of English that every Kenyan child learns (and I have reason to believe that most of them don't even know what the phrase means, based on my attempts at returning the question to them).
But what is most interesting about their greeting is the way they say it. The kids - all of them, meaning I literally haven't heard a kid here stray from this rule - put the three words to separate pitches, making a little melody out of it. They say it very quickly, putting a little dip in the "are," sandwiched in between two higher pitches for "how," and "you" (for my musician friends out there, the solfège is Mi-Do-Re for How-Are-You).
So seeing how they have naturally constructed a melody out of the line, I'm really just pilfering it to make a song out of the only two things they say to me as I pass by them: "How are you?" and "mzungu." And isn't it convenient that these two things rhyme?
Here's the vision for the song - a typical African pop sound with beautiful, clean electric guitar, simple harmony, and groove-inducing drums/percussion. Patrick helped round out the lyrics in the chorus, which will be sung by some kijanas (kids): "How are you, mzungu? / I hope you're having a very nice day / How are you, mzungu? / I know you came from so far away."
A future Kenyan pop hit? Bill on sax?
4 comments:
Oh my God! I can hear the song now! I definitely knew exactly the pitch of the phrase "How are you?" as soon as I read that part of your post. In fact, that's how I read it to myself, as the little melody that comes out of (as you said) EVERY child's mouth.
Question: Are children in Kenya big on telling you "Good morning?" Cuz they're really big on telling you "Good morning" here in Rwanda... usually around 5:00 in the afternoon. At first I tried to correct them with "Oya, 'Good morning' is like 'Mwaramutse' (the Kinyarwanda phrase for 'Good morning'). You should say 'Good afternoon'... like 'Mirewe,'" but that wasn't getting through at all. Now I just smile and say "Good morning" right back to them, even if I know it will be dark an hour later.
Can't wait to hear it!
Cory - I can't even begin to explain how awesome I think it is that this phrase and melody is ubiquitous throughout East African children! It really makes you wonder how in the world something like that spreads so far. The Kenyan kids do NOT know "good morning." The Rwandans must be doing a better job of teaching English!
"How are you, mzungu" should be the title of your first album which will no double go platinum in a matter of weeks. I can hear the hit single on the top billboard countdown already!!!
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