How to Create Aesthetic Playlists for Books.

Hello!

This post will be a little different compared to my book reviews and the monthly playlists, as I am taking my process to create aesthetically pleasing playlists for your current or favorite book(s).

I have been making mixes of music for YEARS! It started while I was in middle school, I would create CDs of my favorite songs of that time and/or mood. I had party, sad, happy, etc CDs in my collection, literally I have more burn CDs than actual artist/band albums. Back then, it was fun to arrange these two-to-three-minute songs in a way that would mimic a soundtrack.

When I was ending my last semester of freshman year, my English teacher made up a hefty final for us. He told us that we were to pick out a book, read it and do at least projects that would feature certain things that take place within the book. We were given a list of different projects we were allowed to do and I was pulled into creating a playlist of songs that I thought would fit the book itself. However, I did one better, I was using a CD-Rom that was called, “Jam Trax” and it was a kid version of what actual music producers use Pro Tools. This was made for children, so it provided you with an array of beats and instruments, but you were allowed to add your own sounds and vocals too. I didn’t just create a soundtrack, I made a score based on the events happening in the book, which was “Sister Spy (Alias #4)” by Laura Peyton Roberts.

Another element to the final was we were also allowed to grade ourselves and I remember giving myself a B-, I didn’t want to be cocky and give myself an A but I also didn’t want to barely pass either, so that’s why I went with a B- because it felt like a fair grade to me. What surprised me was the note I got on the whole thing, “You should have had an A.”

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Last year, I just had the need to go back to when I created that final project. I was busy reading Melanie Karsak’s first Viking series, “The Road to Valhalla” and I was thinking of various songs that would be aesthetically pleasing; my intention was to do something simple because I was weary whether or not I would continue reading the series, but when I finished the first book, I had a whole playlist that reminded me of certain characters and scenes. I was curious to see what this would be like with the rest of the books and I can tell you, I have 114 songs on it based on all six books.

Here are some advice in creating your own aesthetic playlist based on your current read or maybe a favorite series in the past.

Find the main character’s theme first.

In “The Road to Valhalla” series, we follow Hervor’s quest into finding who her father was and discover the secrets hidden among her family.

One of the things that is important to Hervor is for her love of Odin, who is the main deity, he is like father to all of the Vikings as he represents knowledge and power. He is the Allfather of the Norse mythology.

While I was in the throes of the book, I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the right song that felt Hervor’s theme. It wasn’t until I found like five Vikings playlists on Spotify that I decided to listen to these Old Norse styled songs, and there was one that finally spoke to me. It was Foresaga’s “Allfather” and this has a hauntingly calm about it. I felt a sense of self the first time I listened to it, and I knew this was the way I wanted to start Hervor’s playlist.

I ended up finding a theme for the majority of the characters in the first book. Hervor’s mother Svafa is dealing with what we would call amnesia and I gave her “Imaginary” by Evanescence. For Hervor’s best friend and thrall to the family Eydis, I found “Volva” by Vinnie Camaileri. It is an instrumental of a bunch of shamanism vibes and it fits well with her. Eydis is a devotee of the trickster God Loki, and been known to receive visions from the Gods, and the Vikings word for these types of people are called Volvas.

Focus on key words to help inspire you.

We live in a world where we hashtag a lot of random words, sometimes we include them in ways that will create traffic on that post. Let’s say you are advertising a book you really enjoyed, and oddly enough it’s about the Vikings and their culture and beliefs. You want it to be accessible to certain demographic groups, not just your audience, You need to think about the words to include in the actual post. Here are some easy key words to keep in mind.

• Historical fiction – it is important to include the words “historical fiction” as that category is a very popular type of fiction. You need to remember the terminology as well, because that will definitely help you out too!
  • Vikings
  • Norse Mythology
  • Old Norse
  • Gods & Goddesses: Odin, Freyja, Freyr, Loki, Thor, etc.
  • Scandinavia – Denmark, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and Sweden. They all have their own Viking stories, but it is easier to say “Scandinavia” to keep it simple for you and others.
• Warrior terms – Within the Viking world, you hear a lot about them raiding various cities around the world. They will include both male and female along for the ride. The women that were apart of the scrimmage were called “shield maidens” and they will train their children very early on, They use a mix of different weapons, some are lengendary and others are ordinary to everyday life.
  • Tyrfing – it was a cursed dwarven sword and used amongst Hervor and her father, uncles and grandfather.
  • Steel swords
  • Decoerated shields
  • Bow & arrows
  • Fiire – you have to remember they did have guns, but they knew fire was a handy element, and something else they used was whale oil. They would hunt whales to collect various bones, blubber, and oil for everyday usage.

When it comes to create an aesthetic playlist, it might also be helpful to search for fantasy and medieval playlists on Spotify. This is definitely an easier resource in case you don’t have enough material to work with in the beginning. People have also created their own bookish playlists so don’t deny yourself to have a look on their stuff too. It might also draw out the genre of music you want to use for the entire thing. For the first series, I went with a mixture of cinematic pop artists like Ruelle, FJØRA, Hidden Citizens, but I also included a lot of hard rock bands too, such as Within Temptation, Papa Roach, and Halestorm. However, for the second series “The Shadows of Valhalla” has more artists like Gealdyr, Danheim, Peyton Parrish as they make music in the same way as Foresaga.

Okay, I think I am officially done with this post. I know I gave more than enough of ideas to stir around in your head to probably give you a major headache but go slowly with it. Once you start though, it can be difficult to stop, so that’s my final piece of advice there. If you’d like to check out both of my aesthetic playlists here are the links. The Road to Valhalla and The Shadows of Valhalla. I hope everyone enjoyed learning a bit more about the Viking world past and present.

Have you made an aesthetic playlist before? If so, what was it inspired by and what kind of music did you use for it?

Music Monday | Linda Perry

Hello!

This series is suppose to be about my favorite music producers, people who basically inspired me to study become one in college ten years ago. What I didn’t plan on was second guessing myself on whether or not Linda Perry is a producer. I knew she was a songwriter and musician in her own right, but I wasn’t so sure about the other part. Just before I started writing this post, I finally broke down and checked online to see if she is and everything says she is in face a producer.

Although I wanted everyone to be an established producer in these posts, I felt that in the end, it really didn’t matter if she was or wasn’t. I mostly knew her as a songwriter to artists such as P!nk and Christina Aguilera.

I didn’t write my first song until probably fifth grade, I didn’t even keep it because the words just kind of came at me all of a sudden and I wrote them on a small piece of paper. Some people would think they were poems, but I always found myself correcting everyone that they were songs, but then they would come back and ask if I had any music with it, and I’d say no. As most songwriters, they like to come up with the melody and music before figuring out the lyrics. I was the total opposite, but only by default, I can’t play any instruments and never really wanted to, so maybe they are poems after all!

For most of my middle school years, I was writing songs about what was feeling and going through during my preteen years. I still have folders upon folders of songs I wrote in classes and even at home too. I hardly ever look through them even though I want to keep them safe for later. I don’t quite know what or why I would want to do that because I was more abstract in my words back then; I hardly ever made a song specifically for one person and I definitely never put the person’s name I had in my mind while coming up with the lyrics. I was smart that way I guess!

I remember the first time I ever listened to “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera. I always wished I could be that brave to release all of my emotions into creating something as wonderful as that song. I watched a documentary where Linda was discussing when she worked with her on second album “Stripped” back in 2002, and how she was teaching her how to let go and give herself up to the world and exposing feelings that we all feel at one point or another, and that obviously meant a lot to me in my teen years, leading up to high school. By the time, I became a freshman, I think I stopped writing them, and turned my attention to books. The last one I ever wrote was published on my old blog at the end of 2009 I think.

I do tend to like a person’s music better if they are the lead songwriter. I generally love what Linda has created for other artists, especially female singers. I have a slight obsession with singer-songwriters like Natasha Bedingfield, Halsey, Banks, Phoebe Ryan, Alessia Cara, Charlie Puth and Julia Michaels because I know they all have written songs. I hope one day I can help make my nephew understand why it’s important to start writing in a different platform; whether it’s blogging, bullet journaling, poetry, or songwriting. It’s a important habit to keep.

Have you ever written a song before? If you have, do you remember any specifics about the first one you wrote? Did you keep it? 

 

A-Z Disability Challenge | K : Why Kids Should Be Educated About The Various Types Of Disabilities

When I was busy coming up with the letters and their themes, I was a little worried whether it would be a good idea to basically talk about children and how they view people with disabilities twice. After discussing it with my mom, she pretty much convinced me that it would be interesting to speak up on different ages, because as I’ve found out over the years, children under the ages of 5 are curious of their surroundings but they want to learn about everything! Kids in that are higher in age and in school may hang out with friends that can influence them to bully other kids. So, this is what we will be talking about on today’s post!

I remember when I was in grade school, we were all in separate classes for all of our subjects. The only time you basically got to see the other students was at lunch and recess. I knew at the time that there was one other kid with a disability, we never saw each other but only on the occasional field trips and grandparent’s programs. That was it! So, I was hardly ever around somebody that was remotely like me, until I had my surgeries in 2002.

The reason why I bring this up is because throughout my entire time in elementary school, I was basically taught to be like everyone else. I never really experienced any bullying although there was one girl who didn’t like me, but we were at least civil with each other. Anyways, I grew up actually hating to be around other kids with disabilities, because they acted differently than me and my friends–now of course, I feel horrible thinking that way but that was my mindset back then; I wasn’t like them but yet I was!

You can never really tell what a kid thinks about things unless they tell you, but when they don’t ask you questions, they will almost go through life not knowing the real answers. They will begin to seek them through their friends, and you hope that everything those kids have been taught are saying good things but unfortunately not all children are being told that having a disability of any kind can be a beautiful thing. Instead they are fearful by what they don’t understand and relying on that information to others.

I always wished that there were more motivational speakers that came to schools with a variety of disabilities. Unfortunately, I also worry if this were to happen, if they would appericate it because I know everytime we had people come in and talk with us, it would literally go in one ear and out in the other. However, there is that small chance that a few kids that enjoy learning about everything, so it could be a positive experience as well!

I think it would be useful for these youngsters to see a plethora of differences in their bodies, we are not going to look like athletes or supermodels, and it’s important to remember that at any age!

I had a thought the other night about this subject. For some reason, all of the speakers that came to talk to us were all adults. What if kids saw teenagers or someone in their early 20’s? If I saw more women and talking about her disability, I wonder if that would have made a difference because I didn’t learn how to love myself until two years after I graduated from high school altogether. It really sucks to know that not only .did I have to be away from my classmates and watch X-Men: First Class to feel like I can love being the way that I am!

When you were in school, how did you view the speakers that came to talk about the aftermath of drunk-driving or their disabilities? Do you think there should be more people talking about other topics that could be helpful to children as they continue to get older?

The Embarrassment Of The Past

It’s a lazy but relaxing Saturday for me. After using the crap out of my legs and toes, they’re not really getting much of a break, considering I’m typing this out right now. Everytime I think as much energy I used up yesterday doing all that work, I might get a full night’s sleep. Nope, if anything it’s rare if I get a full five hours of sleep at night. I got up twice last night and the first round, I somehow went back to sleep, but that second round took me until 10am this morning to go back to sleep. So I’ve been very tired and lazy today, but I’m in good spirits as I have sugar running through my body at the moment. It’s just one of those days where it’s best to watch movies all day long. However, I’m only in the mood for one movie today. Last night, one of my dad’s friend sent over Thor: The Dark World for me to watch as I still hadn’t seen it. I finished it probably an hour ago and it was so nice the first hour I watched it, the look of Asgard and the majestic vibe of it is just amazing. Is it weird that I’m actually listening to the score as we speak? I’ve been trying to “calm down” in a sense so maybe I can get enough material that I can use it for inspiration for this week’s FSF.

Yesterday, I told you about this drawing I did on the computer when I was in middle school, right? Well, my nana was nice enough to take a picture of it and sent it to me on Facebook. Out of the kindness of me and shedding the embarrassment of what it says, now in my defense. Back then, I basically thought I was the shit in school. I can admit now only because everything about my attitude back then is embarrassing and awkward. One of the two papers I didn’t want to share from yesterday is a paragraph of words that make up my little “diva” attitude. It’s so sad honestly! I’m so glad I’ve been getting better with my attitude and I’m not that way anymore, or at least I hope I’m not like that anymore. Anyways, I feel like I’m more aware of the people around me, granted it might be from me being so damn paranoid too! I’ve gotten better about the little things and taking the big things and somehow turning them into small worries instead. So to conclude this post, here is my infamous drawing I did over nine years ago. Something that puzzles me, why in the world am I a blonde? I must’ve liked a hairstyle or different color back then and I just decided to make myself a blonde. I would never do that now though! I did want to become a singer back then, now singing is just a hobby and I haven’t performed in front of anybody since my senior year of high school. I’m a little afraid to do it again. Obviously I had more faith in myself back then, then I do now.

From Almost Injuries To Old Memories

This has been a long week, but it’s also been very good too. Spring is definitely here, but it’ll be short-lived as it’s supposed to get down in the 40’s tomorrow. I got to get out of the house three times this week. My papaw is the one that has been having the rough week. He went to the hospital Monday morning. He’s been having issues with his heart, but he’s at home, but he’s got this heart monitor attached to him that he has to wear for two weeks so they can keep track of what is going on. Apparently when it beats, it means something is going on with his heart. I found out today by my nana that he has named it “Albert” and according to her, the last thing he had to wear was named “Clarence.” Some reason I have never given my wheelchairs or any of my old braces for my back ever had names. You would think I would for as much as I love names! My nana has had me cleaning her office. On Monday and yesterday (Thursday) we’ve been cleaning out all of the stuff that is underneath her computer desk. I’ve been really looking to the positive sides of having feet as my hands this week. For a normal person, you have to get on the floor or bend over to reach for something like this, I hardly leaned over. I just let my toes feel their way through that area. Granted, I am not as strong as I could be and I almost pulled out a few toes here and there and I almost broke my ankle in the process. You can’t necessarily tell me to stop, because once I get going and I have a mindset, I can’t go back on it and stop. I don’t care, I just keep going on.

We finally finished cleaning that area yesterday, and she decided to have me start organizing files. Which normally I’m pretty good at, I like to do that sort of thing. We were doing a lot of talking and I mean, a LOT of talking! When we finally got around to organizing that part, we were both hurting and groaning at the same time. I think doing things two days in a row was catching up to us because our bodies weren’t having it today. I tried to do some of it, but as we kept finding things, I kept getting sidetracked. So she ended up doing most of the work. I came in with good intentions, just kept getting distracted once I found two folders with my name on it after that it was downhill from there. What’s funny about it, is the fact I had ice cream there and it took my dad a bit to come get me, I still didn’t have any while I was there. That NEVER happens and I’m betting it’ll never happen again. I found four papers, but two just need to be burned. You know those memories that like to creep behind the shadows in your mind? Yeah, two came out of mine today. I’m pretty sure they were from either 6th or 7th grade. Because one says I was 13 years old. I love how I put the date and the day on EVERYTHING back then and now too! The other two things are pretty interesting to me at least.

One of the things was my freshman year of high school class schedule. It is weird to think all of them were long gone, except for this one. It has all of my classes for both semesters too! After seven years since my first year in high school, I just thought I was losing my mind about what classes were placed where and I have most of them in the same place. For first semester, I had my English and English Lab back-to-back in the morning. English Lab wasn’t as bad as the actual class, that’s where I got most of my reading done especially on Fridays. I think my two favorite classes for both semesters were P.E. (only because my crush was in that class) and Fashion & Textiles from second semester. I actually had to borrow a peer tutor because my aide at the time was sick a lot and at that time the boys were in their important classes, so their aides couldn’t go with me so I got to have this poor senior BOY go with me to my FASHION class with a bunch of girls, even two girls he actually knew. I always felt bad for him but he was always so good and really helped me with my stuff, I even had to use the sewing machine with him in there and he actually helped me a bit too, but was also like everybody else, wowed at the fact I could work a sewing machine with my feet. So we basically surprised each other through that experience. The other paper I found today was this little drawing I did on the computer when I was in 6th grade. We had to make something on paint to be basically ironed on a white T-Shirt. I had some issues with the microphone I was doing and I can remember my teacher telling me to keep working on it, but if I didn’t get it then to think of something else to make. Well, I finally figured it out and it turned out better than I expected it and now every year (we have proof of this, when my sister was in her class three years afterwards) she uses my project as her example. It has a good outcome out of it and I kept working at it, so she can continue with that. I don’t mind it one bit.