Andrew Cote, 2024 M.E. Grammy Quarterfinals (Merrimack College, North Andover, MA) Classroom Excerpt

expense It's like because it's not goodbye it's not the end I love that it's a see you later wait what is the the yearbook line was it hags right have a great summer I'm gonna write that in there tags that's it yeah I like the little red ones those memories oh yeah the album yeah that's good nice that's right yeah yeah album on Spotify all your streaming platforms right memories are just pictures there's like the venmo tip link that comes up underneath see you learned all the strategies all the business okay um awesome other feedback on some yeah um Stephen and rivency will this make album two who knows there you go memories are just ooh there you go we're getting deep uh yeah let's see let's do this one here there we go so supportive at the end thank you yeah for sure yeah that's really good that was actually going to be one of my comments too so that's great and we'll talk more about that other thoughts feedback foreign so one little thing I just wanted to show and highlight just like in your growth year songwriting um is you've done a really nice job um not uh like the Temptation right when we're writing songs is is line ends line ends line ends line ends and there's no real overlap but what you've done with this is you kind of play with okay is this word really the end of this line or is it the start of the next line and I think that is also indicative of the song which is really cool right because it's again reflecting kind of of these memories and these different ideas and is this really ending is this really not and I think that was kind of really fun um and uh like um was just saying about the pre-chorus the same thing you you stretch out like certain words within this and um I know another thing that you and I've worked on too is like okay do we have too many words here are we starting to get in a way but here it was actually in the opposite direction where it's nice that you were like okay actually I can emphasize some of these words because I have some space to be able to do that um to highlight what I'm talking about can you try that uh from verse one through the pre-chorus and I don't know if everybody caught this so I just want to point it out again so like for instance like right at the end like and I'm like oftentimes you wouldn't think to do that right because you'd think okay no I need to do my rhyme scheme to like end on each of these but if you find with this right this is another example of a song that really works um and you're not as reliant on like kind of these symmetrical moments where it's like rhyming you know what I mean it's like the evolution of hip-hop right if you listen to early like Hip-Hops like the word then down here's the next word they know it kind of ends on like those different phrases but now like good hip-hop in my humble opinion like kind of stretches those bar lines right it makes you not have so much predictability in that and I think because of the fact that you've taken away some of the predictability even though you know it is it's still a simple like accessible song you uh invite in a little bit more Intrigue if that's I think that's the best way I can describe it so uh I'll show you what I'm talking about so can you start again running the first verse cool is [Music] why do we keep the memories [Music] okay awesome can we do one more thing can we go do a little text painting okay okay so and I'm holding my breath for one more minute you take a breath right before you sing holding my breath so I actually think it might be cool if if you if you take a breath before or after away so that way you're singing and I'm holding my breath for one more minute and it can you can hear it in your voice like and I think it would be really cool especially like theater wise like a musical theater wise like if you're literally doing that and you're trying to do this in that one breath I think it might be that much more effective too can you humor me and try that okay okay it is a little ironic to say take a breath right before you say I'm holding my breath yeah [Music] funny too do you regret playing that wrong note there too see we're getting really into the text painting here I love it okay no one more time from the top yeah [Music] why are my hands clenched yeah and you have good like breath control because you're also classically trained you can probably do that whole thing it's like you know the swimmers who can like swim a full lap underwater right and holding their breath you could probably do that because you're you're classically trained but I think adding that little bit of vulnerability is really good and that way when you get to are my hands clenched tight like you're just getting gasping for their air and so it also adds that little bit of nervousness that's in there too so it's like a subtle thing but it's it's and it's honestly taking total inspiration from the lyrics that you wrote but again incorporating that into your performance practice makes it that much more impactful you're telling that story through how you're interpreting it does that make sense cool fun little exercise and I think that the helpful thing is these sorts of things don't have to be like totally prescribed like sometimes you might do it but um it might be something that like on a revision you notice this and go oh this is actually a cool opportunity to be invited uh into something like that um cool and then again subject-wise with this it's great I mean it feels really fresh right now um I think it's going to be really interesting for you to play this song a year from now to see how you interpret it or how you think about it um maybe it could also serve as this memory you know it's it's kind of wrapping up your like it's like a musical photograph that you have I know it's a set it's not a sad day it's a good day still have more time I think graduation is literally like a month away from today so so it's okay you don't need to do like the Epic countdown but you can too but it's a beautiful song it's really great I think it captures a lot of exactly what you're talking about I love the verse about um everybody's asking me uh these questions which is everybody's favorite graduation thing that never goes away by the way like when I was uh graduating high school it's like oh what's next I'm like oh I'm going to the University of New Hampshire like cool um then I graduated from UNH and they're like oh cool what's next and I'm like well I'm going to graduate school and I graduated with my master's like oh what's next and I graduate is my doctorate and then I graduated my doctor and they're like oh what's next and I'm like stop look I'm gonna find a job hopefully um yeah it's always what's next like we're in a hurry to get to these next things so those of you seniors who are graduating I hope that uh I'm sorry you're probably gonna hear that a lot from parents and if you have a graduation party and whatever people are going to always ask like what's next but enjoy you've seen yourself especially seniors like enjoy where you are right now because it is a massive accomplishment and congratulations not only on this song also on your time here at Merrimack so good job what's up Randy [Applause]