Songwriting
18/01/08 22:17 Filed in: Songwriting
| Creativity
What is it like to sit down and write a song? How do
I start? I will walk you through a songwriting
session so you can get a sense of what goes on in my
mind — and beware, I can get pretty analytical. But
for me this is an amazing medium to work with. OK, on
to writing songs...
I
thought to myself it would be really interesting to
do some writing about songwriting. Then my mind went
blank. Not like writer’s block blank. But I realized
I have a lot of thoughts on the subject, but there a
lot of aspects of songwriting that are mysterious to
me. So with that I’ll dive in and describe what I go
through to write a song.
At this point where I’m at as a songwriter I am always polling my mind for interesting lyrics and themes. I get a sense that I want to say something (a theme) in a song and sometimes that will percolate around in my head for weeks or months or longer. For example, one theme I have been kicking around in my head for many months is the idea that it would be interesting to hear a dialogue between my younger self, my current self, and my elder self across time. I get fascinated with the possibilities. So let’s take that as an example theme and move on.
Then what I might do is work on the lyrics. But lyrics come in and move around in my head from so many sources, I actually find it difficult to force myself to sit down and write a specific lyric about a specific topic.
So another thing I need aside from a theme is a point of view. So keeping this example alive – I might take the point of view that is universal that would be we all need to keep perspective as we go through our lives and remember that we will be older than we are today, but also to keep our childhood playfulness alive and honor the kid that we used to be, as well as respecting ourselves right now. OK that’s a lot to work with!
You can see that I get pretty analytical and heavy right away in my process. I do a lot of thinking like this. Perhaps this is why I don’t gravitate toward the jokey songs so much, even though I love to be funny and make people laugh. Every song feels like the opportunity to share something important, so I want to take advantage of that. But then again, maybe I need to lighten up!
Then I might have enough to sit down and try some verses. So I would pick one approach. I might start with answering the question: “What would my little boy say to my present day self?” When I ask that it reminds me when I was 7 years old I use to take some picnic table benches and other furniture and set it up in our basement and pretend that I was 18 years old. Eighteen years old! I couldn’t imagine being any older than that when I was seven. Of course in my imagination at 18 I lived in my own apartment and played records and my life was so fun! I couldn’t wait to be 18!
So I’ll throw out a couple lines:
Imagine me and I’m Eighteen
A seven year old’s fantasy
I can’t say this for sure, but I think this is where I sink or swim. I look at these two lines and right away I think, “Imagine me and I’m Eighteen” that’s OK. That works. But if I say “A seven year old’s fantasy” then I’m an observer. I’m not that seven year old kid. So right away I’m paying attention to consistency and logic, which is probably a bit early in the writing process. I should get more out and just be writing at this point.
But since I have three points of view I’m juggling, young, current and old, I can see if I can keep this alive.
Imagine me and I’m Eighteen
A seven year old’s fantasy
Looking back from where I am
It was a decent dream
Sometimes this is enough to have the entire lyric and melody flow out of me in one session. This however is not that session. I’m still stuck and analyzing. The first two lines don’t seem justify the second two lines. So I need to add more about the seven year old’s fantasy. I need to say more about how cool it would be to hang out in my apartment as an Eighteen year old. So I revise...
Imagine me and I'm Eighteen
A seven year old's fantasy
How cool to play my records
Drive my car, live the life of ease
Looking back from where I am
It was a decent dream
Now a skeleton is forming. The meter of the verses and the rhyme scheme start to take shape. I like that these are not perfect rhymes. Eighteen, fantasy, ease, and dream — there is a lot to play with. The meter will get more solid as I develop the melody and the rhythm for how this would really be sung. This is one of the excellent mysteries of song writing for me. I'm not exactly sure how I develop a melody or the underlying chord structure. I know that I listen to a LOT of music and it impacts me. I'm sure that I squirrel all those melodies and chords somewhere in the back of my head and then I beg, borrow and mash them up until it comes out as something that seems right. I might work on and off for months trying different approaches to see how this becomes singable. Or I might hit that chord progression that almost sings this song by itself and that's when it comes pouring out of me. But for this experiment I will stop here and let that roll around in my brain for a while.
The challenge then as I get deeper into the writing is to stay true to this very intriguing concept that started all this. Three points of view of the same person in a dialogue across time. Very cool concept indeed, but I do sometimes find myself getting too involved in some aspects of the writing and then I look at the result and it doesn't capture my initial premise.
In the end when I have captured a premise and put it to an interesting melody with a chord progression I like — I feel very validated. I really have a sense of accomplishment. Some of the best feedback that I've gotten is when audience members will come up to me after a performance and quote back lyrics they liked. To know that they really were listening on a meaningful level is so inspiring.
I would love to hear from you any feedback you might have. Feel free to use the comments link. I have posted some of my lyrics so check 'em out. If you'd like to see some other lyrics of mine posted, please send me a message!
At this point where I’m at as a songwriter I am always polling my mind for interesting lyrics and themes. I get a sense that I want to say something (a theme) in a song and sometimes that will percolate around in my head for weeks or months or longer. For example, one theme I have been kicking around in my head for many months is the idea that it would be interesting to hear a dialogue between my younger self, my current self, and my elder self across time. I get fascinated with the possibilities. So let’s take that as an example theme and move on.
Then what I might do is work on the lyrics. But lyrics come in and move around in my head from so many sources, I actually find it difficult to force myself to sit down and write a specific lyric about a specific topic.
So another thing I need aside from a theme is a point of view. So keeping this example alive – I might take the point of view that is universal that would be we all need to keep perspective as we go through our lives and remember that we will be older than we are today, but also to keep our childhood playfulness alive and honor the kid that we used to be, as well as respecting ourselves right now. OK that’s a lot to work with!
You can see that I get pretty analytical and heavy right away in my process. I do a lot of thinking like this. Perhaps this is why I don’t gravitate toward the jokey songs so much, even though I love to be funny and make people laugh. Every song feels like the opportunity to share something important, so I want to take advantage of that. But then again, maybe I need to lighten up!
Then I might have enough to sit down and try some verses. So I would pick one approach. I might start with answering the question: “What would my little boy say to my present day self?” When I ask that it reminds me when I was 7 years old I use to take some picnic table benches and other furniture and set it up in our basement and pretend that I was 18 years old. Eighteen years old! I couldn’t imagine being any older than that when I was seven. Of course in my imagination at 18 I lived in my own apartment and played records and my life was so fun! I couldn’t wait to be 18!
So I’ll throw out a couple lines:
Imagine me and I’m Eighteen
A seven year old’s fantasy
I can’t say this for sure, but I think this is where I sink or swim. I look at these two lines and right away I think, “Imagine me and I’m Eighteen” that’s OK. That works. But if I say “A seven year old’s fantasy” then I’m an observer. I’m not that seven year old kid. So right away I’m paying attention to consistency and logic, which is probably a bit early in the writing process. I should get more out and just be writing at this point.
But since I have three points of view I’m juggling, young, current and old, I can see if I can keep this alive.
Imagine me and I’m Eighteen
A seven year old’s fantasy
Looking back from where I am
It was a decent dream
Sometimes this is enough to have the entire lyric and melody flow out of me in one session. This however is not that session. I’m still stuck and analyzing. The first two lines don’t seem justify the second two lines. So I need to add more about the seven year old’s fantasy. I need to say more about how cool it would be to hang out in my apartment as an Eighteen year old. So I revise...
Imagine me and I'm Eighteen
A seven year old's fantasy
How cool to play my records
Drive my car, live the life of ease
Looking back from where I am
It was a decent dream
Now a skeleton is forming. The meter of the verses and the rhyme scheme start to take shape. I like that these are not perfect rhymes. Eighteen, fantasy, ease, and dream — there is a lot to play with. The meter will get more solid as I develop the melody and the rhythm for how this would really be sung. This is one of the excellent mysteries of song writing for me. I'm not exactly sure how I develop a melody or the underlying chord structure. I know that I listen to a LOT of music and it impacts me. I'm sure that I squirrel all those melodies and chords somewhere in the back of my head and then I beg, borrow and mash them up until it comes out as something that seems right. I might work on and off for months trying different approaches to see how this becomes singable. Or I might hit that chord progression that almost sings this song by itself and that's when it comes pouring out of me. But for this experiment I will stop here and let that roll around in my brain for a while.
The challenge then as I get deeper into the writing is to stay true to this very intriguing concept that started all this. Three points of view of the same person in a dialogue across time. Very cool concept indeed, but I do sometimes find myself getting too involved in some aspects of the writing and then I look at the result and it doesn't capture my initial premise.
In the end when I have captured a premise and put it to an interesting melody with a chord progression I like — I feel very validated. I really have a sense of accomplishment. Some of the best feedback that I've gotten is when audience members will come up to me after a performance and quote back lyrics they liked. To know that they really were listening on a meaningful level is so inspiring.
I would love to hear from you any feedback you might have. Feel free to use the comments link. I have posted some of my lyrics so check 'em out. If you'd like to see some other lyrics of mine posted, please send me a message!
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