Starts With Me

[Intro: solo fretless bass, intimate baritone]
I used to wait for better days
For kinder hearts and gentler ways
As though the world would rearrange
Before I had to make a change

[Verse 1: syncopated, guitars enter]
So I called a friend I'd lost
Said I missed them, took the risk
Helped a stranger with their bags
Without a story, without a wish
And nothing grand came raining down
Just little changes all around

[Pre-Chorus: ascending stacked thirds]
Maybe that's the way it starts
Not with speeches, but with hearts

[Chorus: explosive anthem, bright major]
Let it start with me
Let the smallest kindness grow
Let the mercy that I practice
Be the mercy others know
I can't heal the whole world
But I can change the space I fill
And if enough of us keep trying
Then one day maybe we will

[Instrumental: complex bass counterpoint, 138 BPM breakdown]

[Bridge: half-time, vulnerable to soaring]
I won't always get it right
But I'll try again tomorrow
Leave some light for someone else
Who has a road of sorrow

[Final Chorus: key lift, epic harmonies]
Let it start with me
Let it spread beyond my name
We may never see the ending
But we'll never be the same

[Outro: full-band crescendo, sustained]
The world I want to live in
Starts with how I live today.