Another way to bring ideas to the surface

Writing poetry is hard, and let’s face it—songwriting is poetry. It’s even more challenging because you’re trying to fit words to melody, as well as meter and rhyme. You have three or four minutes to tell your story, and a third of that time is eaten up by the chorus. A daunting task, and one that could make you freeze in the headlights.

Often, you’re afraid to put the first word on paper, or even to utter it. Insecurity is the fundamental barrier to creativity. You really do much better creating when you’re not scared. Lonely, sad, or depressed, perhaps; but not scared.

You have to do something to get things going. How can you do that? One approach I find effective is to simply write. Write about something that’s bothering you, someone or something you loved, your relationship with a friend, lover, or parent. A special time, perhaps, that held a lot of good or tumultuous memories.

But don’t worry about songwriting for a minute. Don’t rhyme. Don’t write poetry—unless that’s easy for you. Even then, let it ramble.

Now, go back and re-write your draft just once. Correct it for grammar, organization, proper paragraph division, and a structure that makes the most sense. And then let it simmer.

Come back in a day. There is a very good chance you will discover some interesting phrases. Reading it over will probably give you some ideas for a song, and they may not be the things you wrote about in the first place.

Have you been goofing around with some ideas on the guitar, piano, or whatever you like to write on? Try merging some of those ideas with the narrative ideas you came up with in this exercise.

I bet you’re off and running.

Get out of town...

As I write this I'm sitting in a hotel room in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My wife and two youngest are sleeping, and my 15-year-old is lying down listening to punk music on his headset..ocasionally asking me what I'm up to now.

I've just spent a week visiting my parents in West Glacier, Montana. For good measure, I got to spend a fair amount of time visiting my brother and his wonderful wife down in Columbia Falls. Have you ever been to Glacier Park, Montana? I don't know how a songwriter can visit this place and NOT write a song.

I had made arrangements to rent a guitar this week, but was almost derailed by a local music shop that was not willing to rent me a guitar as they had promised. Enter "Music One Workshop," an amazing music store in Kalispell. This place is world class, and one of the family owners of the business--George Miletich--was able to fix me up with a very acceptable instrument on short notice.

I had expected to play a songwriter showcase at Flannagan's Grand Central in Whitefish. After several calls and assurances from the club that I would be able to particpate, they elected to cancel the showcase for a few days dedicated to bluegrass music. An excellent idea, I'm sure, but it left me without a playing venue. As it turned out, I was able to do some parlour concerts anyway. It all worked out.

Back to songwriting. I find it is important for me to be involved in everyday worklife, romance, community involvement, etc. Without some normalcy, I'm not writing material that anyone can relate to. But when you change your environment for a tour, extended road trip, or a vacation, make sure that you plan for some time to write.

Between the change in scenery and all of the family time, I found my creativity peaking and lyrics pouring out. My son and I even started collecting ideas for a movie. Don't know if it will ever get made, but the intellectual exercise is great. On top of that, we might have shot a pretty good little music video.

On Tuesday I'll start back at my work-a-day life again. But the break has bourne a great deal of fruit. Stay tuned for some more serious postings on songwriting.