Donna Abraham

Songwriting for me has been a journey of self discovery. I began writing songs as a child making up words and melodies to describe what I was thinking or feeling at the time. As I got older, I accompanied these words with guitar which I was given as a Christmas present from my dad when I was six.

I learnt to play melodies and didn’t attempt chords until I was twelve and Dad taught me how to read Guitar tablature. From there I taught myself chords and increased my song repertoire until I reached a point where I couldn’t learn just on my own anymore, and Dad got me onto a teacher.

This opened a whole new chapter to my song writing. Up until that point I had always separated writing music and lyrics to writing poetry. Early songwriting attempts consisted of a four chord structure with basic vocal melody and lyrics which were naive and basic.

My first teacher helped me develop my songwriting skills, introducing me to finger picking styles and was my first introduction to the blues. He encouraged me to write without rhyming lyrics as I did with my poetry and perform my songs publicly.

I next wrote a song called ‘To the Sea’ which shows my development as a musician as I drop tuned the guitar down to D, I also use a claw and hammer finger style for the first time in my writing while I sing a melody over the top showing off my ability to coordinate singing and playing together. I played solo for a few years and then joined a band when I was 17. The band was my introduction to eastern sounding music and it was the first time I was working with other instruments other that my guitar and vocals.
I worked with a sitar, a hand percussionist, 12 string guitar, Cello, drums, bass and mandolin. We worked for 5 years writing songs eastern influenced, my vocals I pushed into lower scales as I had always sung high and didn’t realize at this stage how easy it was to transpose music to sing comfortably. At the time it was a good learning experience as it ultimately improved my vocal range, and I wrote songs that were more in tune with who I was. I also studied music at Tafe but dropped out due to lack of money just when the music theory started to turn to jazz.

Jazz for me was the next logical step. The band broke up, as bands do and I concentrated on writing songs solo, delving into my early blues roots. Then I fell into jazz with help from another amazing teacher. He taught me how to connect the islands of theory knowledge I had learnt from my time at Tafe, and showed me how to apply it practically to the guitar.

Developing a new understanding and appreciation for the instrument, I delved into the rich and tantalizing world of jazz which as a basic principle was to find the rules of music and then break them down with illustrious sounds and warm undertones. My vocals which I had always worked on showy vibrato, was toned down to a warm smooth sound and with controlling the vibrato, selectively using it as an embellishment over the ends of notes.

My guitar technique took on a form of its own; I couldn’t keep up physically with what I now understood mentally. I had to go away and rethink my song writing. In order to do that, I had to finish some song projects that had been left unfinished. I did just that and wrote the album ‘Tendency to Daydream’ consisting of 10 original tracks

My time away from Jazz has made me realize my potential, with deciding to go back to formal study. It is with this interest I have decided to finish my diploma at Tafe and then study Jazz at university. My main goal is becoming an accomplished performer, composer and teacher.