Daughter of the Sea (Cordelia)

July 16, 2016

SAC 4×4 Songwriting & Blogging Challenge – Part deux!

This week’s challenge was issued by Bryan Potvin to write a story song with characters and conflict and resolution.

My go to songwriting style is usually to write the lyrics and melody together as one and then find the harmonic structure that matches my melody. For this challenge I decided to write the story first – lyrics only so I could focus on the story I was writing and then put them to a melody and chords. I won’t lie I had a hard time not singing my lyrics as I wrote them but I had my kids running/crawling around at my feet so they were a fantastic distraction. 😉

My story is about a girl named Cordelia – which means “daughter of the sea”. She has a dream to be a sailor, but was born in the prairies so she has to improvise to satisfy her longing to be on the water. So she sets out on the North Saskatchewan River for an adventure and fulfills her dreams. It’s funny because Cordelia obviously isn’t real, but I kind of love her. She has a dream and she makes it happen and she finds happiness. I hope you like the story and the song!

Thank you Bryan for issuing the challenge and for North Easton, RBT and all the other songwriters that are being so encouraging and inspiring! I love listening to everyone’s songs and chatting with everyone on the facebook group. I look forward to Challenge #3 and #4!

You can listen here: Daughter of the Sea (Cordelia)

Lyrics:

Verse one
She was named daughter of the sea
Born in the middle of the prairie
She always dreamed one day she’d be
A sailor in the navy

Chorus
Oh Cordelia
Standing on dry land
Sweet Cordelia
Dream as big as you can

Verse two
With no open water anywhere around
She tracked the north saskatchewan down
Built a boat with whatever she found
Setting sail in the middle of town

Chorus
Oh Cordelia
Abandoning dry land
Sweet Cordelia
Dream as big as you can

Bridge
She laughed as she chased down the sun
She and the river and the wind were one
She passed under bridges and trees
Feeling just like the daughter of the sea

Chorus
Oh Cordelia
Saying goodbye to dry land
Sweet Cordelia
Dream as big as you can (x 2)

Verse one reprise
She was named daughter of the sea
Born in the middle of the prairie
She always dreamed one day she’d be
A sailor in the navy