Butterfly Bush

Ok here in the first song I am going to discuss, "Butterfly Bush". First here are the words and chords for the song.

Butterfly Bush

Am Am11 Asus4 Am11
Sits and watches the butterfly bush
Am Am11 Asus4 - Am11 Am
A cat sits and waits for his prey
Am Am11 Asus4 Am11
Watch the flowers bob up and down
Am Am11 Asus4 - Am11 Am
In the breeze the blossoms play

Chorus
A D
I wish that my life could be that easy
Bm E
That a plant could provide such fun
A D
Simple pleasures that nature can bring
Bm E
Are bountiful if you can see

Bees and butterflies come on in
The cat tenses and waits to pounce
He jumps but they are out of reach
And safely float away with the wind


D Cadd9
A nearby pond and chirping birds
G Bm A
Are of no interest to him... to him
D Cadd9
He has his spot and does not move
G Bm A
Golden eyes focused on the plant.. focused on the plant

G Bm
Filled with all of natures toys
Am D
Permeated with so much joy
G Bm
he looks out at his new kingdom
Am D
creatures all around, he just wants to play


Sits and watches the butterfly bush
A man sits and waits for his day
Watch the flowers bob up and down
In the breeze the blossoms play

The demo of the song is here.

Butterfly Bush by rdlipps

I started writing this song while sitting on the porch and watching my cat CJ chase butterflies that were flying around a butterfly bush in the yard. CJ would hide underneath the bush and leap out at the unsuspecting butterflies. The beginning of a song came in to my head and I started writing down some lyrics (shown below). I wanted the song to have a light feel so I used open chords and used the Am, Am11, Asus4, Am11 progression. This chord progression moves up and down the neck and has a playful sound. That is one of the things you want to do when writing a song, have the feel of the lyrics match the music. The first version had a slightly syncopated but even rhythm but that was changed in the final version. I will discuss the changes later.

For the chorus, I use a technique that I find effective in adding a little tension and interest to a song and that is moving from the minor chord to the major chord. You will see this in other song I will discuss. The chord progression stays in the key of A throughout the chorus. The rhythm changes to a regular beat in the chorus.

The bridge brings yet another key change (This is a thing I also do frequently). This was not something I did consciously but when I looked at what key the chords fit into it tuned out to be in the key of G. When I write the bridge I first try to start with the chord that is either a fourth or a fifth above the root chord for the song. In this case there is also a change from minor to major Am -> D (Dm is the fourth above Am). So the chord progression for the first part of the bridge is D - C9 - G - Bm - A and this repeats once. In the key of G the scale degree for this progression is V - IV9 - I - iii - II. One thing to note is the A chord is major instead of minor. I wish there was some cool musical reason for this but that is just how it came out. Originally the last part of the bridge went like this after I wrote the chord progression and a first try at the melody.

G Bm A
Golden eyes focused on the plant.. on the plant
G Bm
Filled with so many of natures toys
Am D
He plays with so much joy

As you can see this is already different from my original handwritten lyrics. The only thing that completed the song was a slightly modified repeat of the first verse. That finishes the discussion of the first cut of Butterfly Bush. The next post on this song will describe how I changed the song to get to the final version.

Enjoy,

-Ron-