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YAMS Is Written!

Folks, I have finished writing my You Are My Sunshine (YAMS) arrangement! Is it ready for performance? No. Will it be ready for the PWJ Student Recital on March 19? Probably not. But are the uncertainties of “I’m not sure what I’ll do in this section” and “I eventually need to figure out an outro” finally behind me? Yes.

Do I have every note picked out? Not exactly. But the structure is there—and if the structure is there, the notes will follow. It’s like when I was in college and graduate school, writing papers. The hard part was always the outline. I would spend hours shaping it, developing my thesis, moving pieces around, deciding what belonged where. Once the outline held, the fun began, and I could write a brilliant paper.

I don't know how brilliant YAMS will be, but I have to admit that I'm pretty darn proud of it.

These two videos are very rough, as I was still working out the structural details, along with a few stylistic ones.

In the “Solo” video, I’m experimenting with different note combinations, always drawing from the 6 chord (for example, F6: F, A, C, and D), except over C7, where I use C9 (D, E, G, and B♭). I start high on the keyboard and work my way down the octave so that I land where I need to be for the final ragtime rendition of the theme.


In the “Outro” video, I stretch out the ending of that final ragtime statement, then launch into the rousing final interlude. After that, I move into a chromatic walkdown for yet another extended ending of the theme—this time with the left hand playing walk-up octaves—before finishing with a “button”: a single F chord, with the octave very low on the keyboard and the chord voiced high above it.


I'm so excited about this! It's not easy to play, but it isn't especially difficult either. It simply needs to settle time to settle into my hands so I can play it cleanly at tempo. And there are still other sections that need attention.

I don’t know whether it will be ready for the recital. Time is short, and there’s a real possibility that next week will include four or five days with very little practice. For now, I’ll take each day as it comes and keep working.
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