creative process

[jfb]

Lately I've been setting aside an hour every morning for songwriting, before I do anything else. (Yes, I'm still between jobs.) It's been interesting how the task seems to reshape itself each day. For example, a song fragment I came up with a year or two ago:

1. Last week I sat down with a guitar and wrote enough words for two long verses and a chorus with variations.
2. A couple of days later I recorded the basic structure into Ableton Live, and discovered it was EIGHT MINUTES LONG and kind of dull. So I spent the rest of that hour figuring out how to throw away half of the words I'd written.
3. I had in mind a coda consisting of a lot of four-syllable lines, so today I sat down with a sheet of paper, brainstormed sixty-three phrases in three columns, then cut them apart with scissors, grouped them into themes, and arranged the groups that seemed strongest into the structure I needed.

Tomorrow I'll probably record today's results, and find out what I have to fix next.

Comments

[dongle.livejournal.com]

Hearing you describe the process of writing lyrics is interesting to me, because while I'm famously verbose, I never have been able to write lyrics. (On a slight tangent, one thing that I have managed to do is come up with parodies by altering the words to existing lyrics; maybe my inner werid al is yearning to come out.) I'm going to try some of the things you've mentioned, especially the phrases/grouping exercise and see how it goes.

Oh, and by the way, are the lyrics to "By Your Side" posted anywhere? I really like that one, and when I read your post about the cover tunes meme, I started arranging it in my head...

Inner Weird Al

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Don't let him out! Or actually, do. Maybe working with existing lyrics can unlock something else.

BTW, the first song I wrote ("Losing Streak") was obsessively intricate in its rhyming scheme; one of the ways I think I've improved as a songwriter is by loosening up about rhyme. In case that's a mental block for you.

Re "By Your Side"--they're not posted anywhere, but remind me what your address is (by email (mailto:eostrom@drowning.org) if you like) and I'll send them to you. I'd be fascinated to hear someone else's version.