Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The 10-Minute Restart

Sometimes a song gets stalled. Maybe you have a good title line or a hook, and you're excited about it for awhile, but suddenly...nothing.

Your enthusiasm vanishes, the song can't find a comfortable groove, the ideas are flat and muddled. Ick.

When this happens to me, I have to reboot.

That means I put the original idea aside, for at least a whole day. Instead of working diligently on it, I completely drop it.

Then, a day or so later, I devote ten minutes of creative "prime time" (for me, that's first thing in the morning, around 9 a.m.) to the song.

And here's the really important part.

I don't go back my original idea. I start completely fresh, with new chords and melody and rhythm. In fact, I try to make it as musically different from my original idea as I can. (Often I recycle lyric ideas, but usually just the title line.)

Usually in that "10 minute restart", a new song emerges that is much better than the first.

Try it next time you're stuck.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Picky, picky, picky

I wrote a song over the weekend and it's almost finished.

But I'm still fiddling with one line. It's an important line, right at the end of the song--and ideally it will sum up the point of the whole piece.

No wonder I'm being so picky.

I think it's worth going to this extra effort, to make sure the song is exactly right. Whenever I settle for something that's "close enough", I never shake off that unsatisfied feeling.

The truth is, I really care about what I say to my audience. I don't want to say something I don't mean (or something that doesn't make sense) so I work hard to be as precise as I can.

Sometimes it's really maddening process, because the precise words aren't quite conversational or don't fit the rhyme.

Sometimes I have to rewrite an entire verse to get it right.

I've read that Leonard Cohen has pages of unused verses for many of his songs. Needless to say, even his discarded lyrics are probably better than anything I've ever written.

His perfectionism may be extreme...but having high standards is a good thing. As the old saying goes, "Shoot for the moon and you might land in the stars."

When I feel a niggling feeling of dissatisfaction, sometimes I do shrug it off...but sometimes I ask myself, "What would Leonard do?"

And then I take another look at that verse.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Jukebox in Your Head

Want to try an experiment?

Take a moment to notice if a song is going through your head.

(I have a theory that songwriters have a perpetual jukebox in their brain, all the time. But maybe everybody does! Is this true? Let me know!)

So...pause...and check which song is playing now. It might be one of your own, or it might be somebody else's.

Your brain is constantly on "shuffle". But I don't think it's random.

You see, the song that was playing in my head just now was Cyndi Lauper's "True Colours". Coincidentally (not!), it offers specific insight on how I need to approach a current challenge.

Earlier in the day, another "random" song in my head related directly to another task. I was mailing promo packages...and the song was one of mine called "Safe Arrival".

[Hmmm...I just realized something. Now those songs might be playing in your head...or at least Cyndi's because you're more likely to know it. If I re-programmed your jukebox just now, wait a little while until it naturally resets.]

Now, take a moment to notice the song playing in your head...and see if it's what you need to hear.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Maybe your songs know the way

I just read another on-target blog by Derek Sivers, the indie music guru and founder of CD Baby. Today his thought-provoking article is called "Listen to my music and let me know what I should do."

It reminded me of something a friend told me years ago (no doubt when I was puzzling over what I should do).

She said: "All you have to do is listen to your songs."

To clarify: I don't think she meant that anybody else should listen to my songs to figure out their personal direction. She just meant that I should.

She was reminding me to look within to find direction, to trust my inner voice.

If you're a songwriter, chances are your inner voice will step out from time to time, onto a stage or onto a CD. (It can hide in those places too...and false selves do love the limelight. Maybe the inner voice is in a notebook, or a dream.)

When we tune into our inner wisdom, we'll be able to create work that's authentic and meaningful more often...and if we maintain our connection to that true voice within, we'll be able to more easily recognize an authentic path and follow it.

We'll be able to figure out what we're called to do next...

Without asking Derek Sivers.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Dave Carroll: A Songwriter Not Without Options

Here's a David vs. Goliath story that will get you cheering for the little guy and humming a catchy tune.

After Dave Carroll's $3,500 Taylor Guitar was mangled by United Airlines baggage handlers, at first he tried to solve the problem through the official channels. After getting nowhere for the better part of a year, he realized that "As a songwriter and traveling musician, I was not without options". (Here's the whole story.)

I love that. "As a songwriter...I was not without options."

Realizing that he had power--and a lot of it, actually--he exercised his option to write the song "United Breaks Guitars" and produce it as a video. (He says it's the first of a trilogy! As I've always said, anger is a great tool for writing songs!)

The song has now gone viral, his band Sons of Maxwell has attracted press coverage all over the world...and we can only hope that Dave gets a brand new guitar from United out of it, plus an apology, in addition to the well-deserved career boost he's getting now.

Meanwhile, may his lemons-into-lemonade story be a lesson to us all:

As songwriters, we are not without options!

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Songs as Seeds

Right now, a number of my friends are job-hunting. At the same time, I've been seeking good homes for my songs. We've all been surveying the landscape, bravely seeking out new opportunities.

Meanwhile, I've been gardening.

If I think of songs as seeds, I notice that the more I share them (releasing them freely into the world without expectation) the more chance they have to take root and do some good.

Of course, sometimes they fall in places that can't nourish them, just as many perfectly good seeds land on concrete every summer day.

But at other times, and often when I least expect it, a song-seed will find its way to fertile ground and immediately bear fruit! Just the other day, for instance, I came upon a perfect new place to play, a ten-minute walk from my home. A welcome patch of green.

I'm a big fan of local gardens, but it's also amazing how far the gusty wind of the internet can carry a song. Write something original and truthful and beautiful, and you're likely to get an unexpected thank-you from thousands of miles away.

Who knows where these seeds will grow?

Friday, July 03, 2009

The small "i" on the iPod

Yesterday a friend wrote to tell me that her 9 year-old is busily loading up her iPod with some of her favourite music: Disney, Michael Jackson, Lynn Harrison!

I'm truly honoured.

(I wonder which songs will come up on "shuffle". Will Disney's "High School Musical" miraculously follow my "First Day of School"?)

I'm so glad that my music brings joy to this delightful girl--and I'm grateful it does so without all the entertainment-business machinery that surrounds my playlist companions.

After all, that machinery created "Michael Jackson", the brand, but it helped destroy Michael Jackson, the human being.

This is a good time to notice the benefits of being a lesser-known artist and to celebrate the wonders of small-scale production. It's wonderful that, in our time, we can create music that is easily reproduced and enjoyed on iPods everywhere. Imagine!

Produced on relatively small budgets, it may be "imperfect" by some standards...but it can also be meaningful, beautiful and whole. In the end, what else matters?

Alongside Michael Jackson's, our songs can live on, independent of us. Meanwhile, if we're lucky, we can create balanced lives that make sense of our various occupations. We can keep our egos in check and our expectations reasonable.

Hopefully we can accept ourselves as we are, and appreciate the miraculous days that we have.

Here's to the small "i"s on iPods everywhere...surviving just fine beside the big names.