Counting Cookies

12/12/24

Just a little ditty to practice songwriting skills. This is how I feel after baking holiday cookies, and the song helped me stop eating them all! Truly just talking to myself here. Now put guitar chords on it to practice melody writing, just throw A E D on it and keep going on to the next song. Kind of hard writing stuff that I know I will be so embarrassed about later when I have experience and knowledge, but if I stop now I will never have experience and knowledge. So here it goes anyway.

Don’t Eat the Cookies

I want to be skinny
but I ate the cookies
why did I eat them all?
so many calories

sugar, flour, butter
from my cookie cutter
why can’t I eat just one?
one leads to another

[chorus]
I am tired of the human calculator
add up calories that I ain’t burning
when can I stop counting and live proudly
I don’t want to think about cookie counting

Sugar use disorder
there’s no control over
why I eat the cookies?
when I know it’s torture

my stomach surrenders
body needs a cleanser
Can I be admitted?
Betty’s sugar center

[chorus]

Found my higher power
turn down sugar and flour
how is life now better?
finally fit my trousers

A C# E F# AA
D E D A C# A
E G# B C# B C#
A E F# A C# A

12/13/24

decided the 3rd line in chorus was too weak, so replaced with “sugar drowning” and that is a more interesting title. Oops, change chorus line A to go ahead and rhyme all, oh just repeat sugar drowning in the chorus since it’s now the title.

Sugar Drowning [A]

[A]I want to be [D]skin[A]ny
but I ate the [E]co[E]o[A]kies
why did I eat them [D]all?
so many [E]cal[E]or[A]ies

sugar, flour, butter
from my cookie cutter
why can’t I eat just one?
one leads to another

A C# E F# AA
D E D A G# A
E G# B C# C# D
A E F# A C# A

[chorus]
[E]Help! I am sugar [A]drowning
[A]addin’ up calories [E]I ain’t even burning
[A]I don’t want to be [D]cookie [A]counting
[A]how to stop this [E]sugar [A]drowning?

B BC# A EE
A B A F E B B C# E F# EE
A A C# C# A A A E E
B B C# A E E

Sugar use disorder
I have no control over
why’d I eat the cookies?
when I know it’s torture

my stomach surrenders
body needs a cleanser
Can I be admitted?
Betty’s sugar center

[chorus]

Found my higher power
turn down sugar and flour
how is life now better?
finally fit my trousers

(types chords into songz0
Okay, you typed the chords into the song, now make yesterday’s pseudo melody harmonize with today’s simple chords.
verse chords (yuck, everything starts on A, but keep going)

yesterday’s pseudo melody:
A C# E F# AA
D E D A C# A
E G# B C# B C#
A E F# A C# A

today’s chord progression verse:
A D A
A E A
A D A
A E A
chord progression chorus:
E A
A E
A DA
A EA

Keep the cord progression, change a few melody notes to make sure they are harmonic 1,3, or 5 of the chord being simultaneously played.
melody changes.
A C# E F# AA
D E D A G# A
E G# B C# B C#
A E F# A C# A

chorus
B BC# A EE
A B A F E B B C# E F# EE
A A C# C# A A A E E
B B C# A E E

12/15/24 change the chorus to use 1 chord per line to help even it out and not sound choppy like the verse, looking for a distinct difference here. Now I have to again review the chords are harmonic (scale degrees 1,3,5) with the melody, mostly beginning of line and ends of line. Then record it, play it back and see if it sounds okay. crap.

Sugar Drowning [A]

[A]I want to be [D]skin[A]ny
but I ate the [E]coo[A]kies
why did I eat them [D]all?
so many [E]calor[A]ies

sugar, flour, butter
from my cookie cutter
why can’t I eat just one?
one leads to another

A C# E F# AA
D E D A G# A
E G# B C# C# D
A E F# A C# A

[chorus]
[E]I don’t want to be [A]sugar drowning
[A]addin’ up calories I ain’t even burning
[D]how to stop this cookie counting?
[E]I don’t want to be [A]sugar drowning

BC#EC#B A E A A
A B A F# E B B C# E F# EE
A AC#E DD AA
BC#EC#B A E A A

Sugar use disorder
I have no control over
why did I eat the cookies?
when I know it’s torture

I finally surrender
needing a body cleanser
Can I be admitted?
to Betty’s sugar center

[chorus]

Found my higher power
turning down sugar and flour
how is my life better?
finally fit my trousers

12/16/24

Finally think I found a version I like. Move away from sugar drowning, nobody says that, and keep cookie counting because at least that’s understandable. Also, change chorus to instead rhyme willpower, which fits the story so much better.

Still working through discovering my songwriting process, so forgiving myself for taking so long writing this silly song. I am not able to sing along to the virtual instrument melody I painstakingly created. Still glad I’m learning how to do that, but I keep picking up the real guitar, and now I am teaching myself how to sing the applied melody by picking out the singular notes. Why am I fighting this natural process? SO for my next trick… ditch the virtual instrument, and maybe my process is to sing and pluck the melody as my first track? Then I just lay the strumming chords on top of it with an additional track? Duh. Try that. ALSO the lyrics are packed in too tight, can not catch breath between verses and chorus’s… so have restructure song AGAIN to add instrumental breathing room. Let’s freaking remember that next time for God’s sake.

No many times I try, I can not get it recorded because I simply can not play the guitar. So now play it 100 times to memorize this stupid shitty ditty just so I can get the damn thing recorded and called complete because I really want to move on. And now I hate the song and this is miserable.

Cookie Counting

[A]I want to be [D]skin[A]ny
but I ate the [G#]coo[A]kies
why did I eat them [D]all?
so many [E]calor[A]ies

sugar, flour, butter
from my cookie cutter
why can’t I eat just one?
one leads to another

[chorus]
[E]I don’t want to be [A]cookie counting
[A]adding up calories I will not be burning
[D]how do I find my willpower?
[E]I don’t want to be [A]cookie counting

Sugar use disorder
I have no control over
why did I eat the cookies?
when I know it’s torture
[A]

I finally surrender
needing a body cleanser
Can I be admitted?
to Betty’s sugar center

[chorus]

Found my higher power
turning down sugar and flour
how is my life better?
finally fit my trousers

ADDDING CHORDS =========================

Cookie Counting

[A]I [C#]want [E]to [F#]be [A]skin[A]ny
[D]but [E]I [D]ate [A]the [G#]coo[A]kies
[E]why [G#]did [B]I [C#]eat [C#]them [D]all?
[A]so [E]ma[F#]ny [A]cal[C#]or[A]ies
[A]

[A]su[C#]gar, [E]flo[F#]ur, [A]but[A]ter
[D]from [E]my [D]coo[A]kie [G#]cu[A]tter
[E]why [G#]can’t [B]I [C#]eat [C#]just [D]one?
[A]one [E]leads [F#]to [A]a[C#]no[A]ther

No no and no. You can’t fucking do it. just can’t get it recorded. START FUCKING OVER. You, chords on guitar, and singing the melody. no drums. no tracks no nothing. I’m so disgusted. I really hate myself right now.

Cookie Counting

[A]I want to be [D]skinny
but I ate the [E]coo[A]kies
why did I eat them [D]all?
[D]so many [E]calor[A]ies

sugar, flour, butter
from my cookie cutter
why can’t I eat just one?
one leads to another

[chorus]
[E]I don’t want to be [A]cookie counting
[A]adding up calories I will not be burning
[D]how do I find my willpower?
[E]I don’t want to be [A]cookie counting

Sugar use disorder
I have no control over
why did I eat the cookies?
when I know it’s torture
[A]

I finally surrender
needing a body cleanser
Can I be admitted?
to Betty’s sugar center

[chorus]

Found my higher power
turning down sugar and flour
how is my life better?
finally fit my trousers

12/17/24

starting over. you went to the recording too fast i guess? reworking just chords and vocals, and slow down to get it right. I hate this song, but if I don’t give up, I might complete it.

Cookie Counting

[A]I want to be [D]skinny
[A]but I ate the [E]cookies
[A]why did I eat them [D]all?
[D]so many [E]calories
[E]

sugar, flour, butter
from my cookie cutter
why can’t I eat just one?
one leads to another
[D][E][A]

[chorus]
[E]I don’t want to be[A]counting cookies
[E]adding up calories [A]I am not burning
[D]where do I find [A] my willpower?
[E]I don’t want to be [A]counting [D]cook[A]ies
[D][E][A]

Having no control over
cookie usage disorder
why do I eat cookies?
when I know it’s torture

finally I surrender
need a body cleanser
I want to be admitted?
to Betty’s sugar center

[chorus]

Found my higher power
turn down sugar and flour
how is my life better?
finally fit my trousers

OK so here is your process. DO NOT OPEN PRO TOOLS. EVER. Well, almost never. If you can not sing and play guitar chords FIRST, then you do not have a song and no amount of drum tracks or virtual instruments will help. Period. This is a very painful lesson when I want to play with mixing. So maybe my exercise is to record the song on my phone for the next couple of months? This would keep me from being distracted by spending too much time on recording tracks, and get me in the habit of just writing and being able to play guitar. I think I keep my goal of writing my first 100 songs, but out of the 100 maybe 5 songs gets to see ProTools.