Weekly Wish: Oscar-Nominated Songs

Why I am not learning a song a day this year, even though I miss it:
because I'm writing about learning a song a day, a book which is turning out to contain barely any material from last year's blog posts. 

Because I'm learning audition material and working and looking for more work and doing stuff that is higher priority than learning a song every day just for the heck of it. 

And!

Because I'm wishing.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride: so goes the proverb.  I have a beggar, and she is saying, "Please please please let me go back to learning a song every day, just for a little while."  So this week, she will ride on a horse that says, "I wish I could still learn a song a day.  I wish I paid more attention to the movies.  I wish I knew this year's Oscar-nominated songs."

So, I'm going to learn the four songs that are nominated for Best Original Song:
"Coming Home" from Country Strong
"I See the Light" from Tangled
"If I Rise" from 127 Hours
"We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3
 and I am going to make a little medley for solo piano. 

Target date for starting to post videos: on or before Valentine's Day.  Hold me to it, readers!

When You Wish Upon a Song:

Ok, I confess: I miss learning my song a day.

I could keep doing it.  I have half-ass learned a song about once a week this year ("I Say a Little Prayer", "Janie's Got a Gun", "Money, Money, Money", "But Not For Me").  But it's time to move on to new things.

And it's time to tell my gentle readers what those new things are, so I feel guilt-tripped into making them happen:

I don't have a clever name for this year's project, so I'm just calling it the Wish Project.  At the beginning of each week I complete the sentence "I wish I could..." with something specific that I'd like to be able to do musically, for instance, "I wish I could play the accordion so I can record a xote tune with my friends who play Brazilian music" (which was my first wish, much to my neighbors' chagrin!).  Then I spend whatever time I am able that week working toward that goal. 

With the weekly project, I have time to get in deeper, leave something overnight and come back to it, approach things a little differently.

The rules (always with the rules!) are:
1. I have to want to do what I choose to do (no fake wishes! no "shoulds"!).

2. I can come back to the same wish later, but not the following week - I have to let it go and move onto something else for at least a week. 

3. I will post videos of the wishes when they are ready to present to the public.  Gonna aim for about once a month, give or take a little since most of my projects are going to involve collaboration. 

Here are my wishes so far this year:
Jan 9: I wish I could play accordion so I can record a xote song with my friends who play Brazilian music. 

Jan 16: I wish I could play a Gershwin solo transcription (I chose "Swanee" because that was one of the songs in the book and on the Gershwin plays Gershwin piano rolls album, even though they're not the same version.

Jan 23: I wish I could play the piano for a singer the way Paul Smith played for Ella Fitzgerald (working on "Black Coffee" from the Intimate Ella album). 

Stay tuned, and feel free to suggest wishes!

The List

Ok folks, here's the final list.  Any weirdness (like the fact that there are actually 367 songs on the list, and I'm pretty sure I didn't learn two extra) can be attributed to the fact that I suck at keeping records, as my mom can attest.

Thank you for reading and commenting both here and through other channels, and watch this space - there may be evidence of my continued existence sometime in the next few weeks.

(I Just) Died In Your Arms
21 Questions
A Case of You
A Change is gonna Come
A Child is Born
A Foggy Day
A Thousand Miles
ABC
Across the Universe
Addicted
Adelaide's Lament
Against All Odds
Ain't No Sunshine
All I Wanna Do
All I Want For Christmas
All You Need Is Love
Alone
Amanda
And I am telling You...
And So It Goes
Any Way You Want It
Anyway
As Time Goes By
At Last
Autumn Leaves
Baby, it's cold outside
Bad Day
Bad influence
Bad Romance
Beat It
Beautiful
Beauty and the Beast
Because
Because of You
Bennie and the Jets
Bette Davis Eyes
Bewitched
Big in Japan
Billie Jean
Billionaire
Black Velvet
Bleeding Love
Blowin' in the Wind
Born in the USA
Born to Be Wild
Brick
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Build Me Up, Buttercup
California Gurls
Can't Help Falling in Love
Candle in the Wind
Careless Whisper
Carolina In My Mind
Carry that Weight
Castle on a Cloud
Centerfold
Change the World
Chasing Cars
Cherry Bomb
Cigarette
Clocks
Come Together
Crazy (Patsy Cline/Willie Nelson)
Crazy (Aerosmith)
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Crazy For You
Crazy On You
Creep
Crocodile Rock
Crystal Ball
Desperado
Do Ya Think I'm Sexy
Don't Know Why
Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me
Don't Stop Believin'
Don't Worry, Be Happy
Downtown
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Ease on Down the Road
Easy to Be Hard
Ebony and Ivory
Edelweiss
Eleanor Rigby
Embraceable You
Empire State of Mind
End of the Road
Endless Love
Ev'ry Time We Say Good-Bye
Every Breath You Take
Everyday is a Winding Road
Evil Ways
Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
Faithfully
Falling Slowly
Far From the Home I Love
Feel
Fever
Fire and Rain
Flashdance - What a Feeling
Foolish
For now
Free Fallin'
Friends In Low Places
F*** Her Gently
Funhouse
Georgia on my Mind
Glitter In the Air
Go Your Own Way
God Bless the Child
Golden Slumbers
Good Riddance
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Gravity (John Mayer)
Gravity (Sara Bareilles)
Great Balls of Fire
Hallelujah
Halo
Hand In My Pocket
Hard Day's Night
Hard Times
Have a Heart
Have a Little Faith
Have You EVer Really Loved a Woman?
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Heaven
heaven help my heart
Help!
Here Comes the Sun
Here for the Party
Here I Go Again
Hey Jude
Higher Ground
Holding Back the Years
Home
Honesty
Honky Cat
Hotel California
How to Save a Life
Human Nature
Hurt
I Ain't Got Nobody
I Am What I Am
I can't Get no Satisfaction
I Can't Make You Love Me
I Don't Believe You
I Don't Care Much
I Dreamed a Dream
I Got You (I Feel Good)
I Got You Babe
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
I heard it through the Grapevine
I Hope You Dance
I know the Truth
I Love Rock & Roll
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I Swear
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
I Want to Hold Your Hand
I Want You Back
I Was Made For You
I Will Always Love You
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
I Will Survive
I Wish
I'd Like to Hate Myself in the Morning
I'll Be Home for Christmas
I'll Be Seeing You
I'll Be There
I'll Cover You
i'm not that girl
If I Ain't Got You
If I Could Turn Back time
If I Loved You
If It's MAgic
If You Don't KNow Me By Now
Imagine
Impossible
Isn't She Lovely
It Don't Mean a Thing
It Must've Been Love
It Takes Two
it won't be long now
Jack & Diane
Joanna
Just the Way You Are
Kate
King of Anything
King of the World
Lady Madonna
Lady Marmalade
Last Night on Earth
Lean on Me
Learnin' the Blues
Leaving on a Jet PLane
Let It Be
Let it Snow
Let's Stay Together
Letterbomb
Life of the Party
Like a Rolling Stone
Listen
Look Away
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
Love Song
Love You i do
Lovefool
Low Rider
Lullabye
Lullabye
Mack the Knife
Magic
Man in the Mirror
Many the Miles
Maria Maria
Maybe This Time
Memory
Monster Mash
Moondance
My Favorite Things
My Girl
My Guy
My Heart Will Go On
My Way (Los Lonely Boys)
My Way (Sinatra and everyone else)
New York State of Mind
New York, New York
Nick of Time
No Woman, No Cry
Not Ready to Make Nice
Nothing Compares 2 u
oh Darling
On My Own
One (Singular Sensation)
One Night ONly
One Song Glory
Open Arms
Orange-Colored Sky
Ordinary People
Out Tonight
Paparazzi
Part-Time Lover
Piano Man
Pick Yourself Up
Piece of My Heart
Please Don't Leave Me
Poker Face
Popular
Possession
Proud Mary
Put Your Records On
Rainy Days and Mondays
Raise Your Glass
Respect
Ribbon in the Sky
River
Rocket Man
Rush, Rush
Sacrifice
Seasons of Love
September Song
Shadowboxer
Shadowman
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
She's Always A Woman
She's Got A Way
Should've Been a Cowboy
Signed, sealed Delivered
Sir Duke
Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay
Sleigh Ride
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smooth Criminal
So In Love
So What
Sober
Someone To Watch Over Me
Somethin' to Talk About
Something
Somewhere
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Song for the Dumped
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
Stand By Me
Strawberry Fields Forever
Strong Enough
Summer, Highland Falls
Sunny Came Home
Superstar
Superwoman
Surfin' USA
Sweet Dreams (are made of this)
Sweet Home Alabama
Take It To The Limit
Take Me Home, Country Roads
Take Me or Leave Me
Take the A train
Takin' Care of Business
Taking Chances
Tears in Heaven
Tempted
Thank You For the Music
That's All
That's the Way Love Goes
The Best Is Yet To Come
The Best of My Love
The Boy Is Mine
The Christmas Song
The Closest Thing To Crazy
The Crossroads
The End of the Innocence
The Lady is a Tramp
The Long and Winding Road
The Lucky One
The Man That Got Away
The Search Is Over
The Show Must Go On
The Story
The Stranger
the wizard and I
Theme from Rocky (Gonna Fly Now)
there are worse things i could do
There's a Fine, Fine Line
These Dreams
They Can't Take That Away From Me
Thriller
ticket to ride
TIme after Time
Tiny Dancer
To Make You Feel My Love
Together Forever
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Trouble
Try Again
Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart
Un-Break My Heart
Undone (the Sweater song)
Vanilla Ice Cream
Vegas
Vienna
Virtual Insanity
Wake Me Up When September Ends
We Belong Together
We Will Rock you
What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
What's Going On?
What's Up
When I Fall In Love
When I'm Sixty-Four
When You Say Nothing At All
When You're Good to Mama
When You're Home
White Christmas
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
Winter Wonderland
With a Little Help From my Friends
Wonderful Tonight
Yesterday
You
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
you can't stop the beat
You Go To My Head
You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman
You May Be Right
You've Got a Friend
You've Got Possibilities
Your Song