I want to know the Secret!

[ggalen]

I think starting a song is full of excitement. We are moved by the initial musical phrases. We believe that this can be a really great song. We just need to now make the "rest of it" as good as the initial ideas.

And then, there is a lull.

We wait for the next good idea. It doesn't come. We keep trying. But nothing we try is good enough to match the initial idea.

We get frustrated and nervous. It's not happening.

We have this cool idea started, but we can't come up with a good, next "part".

It's uncomfortable. It's not fun like playing music is fun. It's work. Kind of painful. Or boring.


I think right here is where successful songwriters are different: they keep at it much, much longer than most.


I, too, have about 200 folders of partially finished songs or song idea snippets. And I, too, find it more enjoyable to start something new.

It would be better for all of us if we keep at it a LOT longer once it becomes "work".



I think you've got to value a finished song 100 times more than "a cool idea with potential". You've got to go easy on yourself when you start doubting your ability to come up with ideas. Realize that a "lull" is normal. Just keep trying things, have faith that eventually it will come. Be proud of yourself for working.

I think that's what the successful songwriters do.

[t4mh]

Also think sometime the song was better in a more organic way

What? With like vegetables n stuff?

There can be a lot of pain involved with creation, a lot of agonizing decisions and we all need to laugh as much as possible while we're doin this. Balance is a good thing!

Keith

[Tree]

Great ideas here by everyone. I think most everything I would think of has been covered. So instead i was looking for a specific quote from a literary writer, I couldn't find that exact quote but I did find a couple others that seem to fit. Although they do seem to be in exact opposites of each other which shows that everyone has their own style.

"I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at nine o’clock."
— Peter de Vries

"Delay is natural to the writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. Delay is instinctive with him. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of courage?) that will carry him along. I am apt to let something simmer for a while in my mind before trying to put it into words. I walk around, straightening pictures on the wall, rugs on the floor—as though not until everything in the world was lined up and perfectly true could anybody reasonably expect me to set a word down on paper."
— E. B. White

[Tree]

I did think of something to add; that if you have trouble finishing a track perhaps find a collaborator that loves putting the finishing touches on songs. When you get tired of working on a song hand it off to someone else.

[mazz]

I think it's valuable to study artists outside of one's field as well. We just this week caught the Tim Burton retrospective at the MOMA in NYC, and it's just so fascinating to see an artist's creative life laid out in front of your eyes, from childhood to the present day. To see the themes that develop, and the style and the vision. The most striking thing to me was that he just kept at it and just honed and honed his craft along with the creative part. There's an immense amount of material that he has generated in his life up until now, but it's clear that it's all been incredibly focused on his artistic vision and the continual work on the craft, the sketches, the models of creatures, the iterations of the screen tests of the aliens from Mars Attacks, and on and on and on and on.

The hard work that Glenn refers to is really the place where, if you've honed your craft and practiced, it will save your butt. When you've got your ideas on the plate, and you feel that the ideas are sound, that's where the craft part comes, putting them together in a cohesive whole that makes sense and articulates your initial vision or impetus for the piece. For me, the initial planning stages of a piece are what determines the success of the piece when it's finished. Then the grunt work begins. Playing an instrument well takes the same dedication to working every day. Playing scales every day on an instrument or writing 2 bars or 2 songs every day is exactly the same process toward the same result: knowing your craft so well that when you pick up your axe or fire up your DAW, you're always in top form. The channels for creativity to flow are open and primed, no inspiration needed, it's immediately available 24/7 in amounts more vast than we can imagine. Waiting for divine inspiration is BS, it's always available to us in every second if we're ready for it and if we've gotten ourselves in shape to handle and channel it.

Instead of turning on the computer and fishing for sounds or chord progressions, imagine how you want to feel when you listen to the piece, spend time doing that, lying on the floor with your eyes closed, or walking on the beach, or whatever. That's as valid to the composing process as making a beat, as long as it's consciously leading you to the result that you are going for. The craft part is breaking through that resistance to the "work" part, because it's no longer that elational feeling of the first idea opening up your heart. Now you have to make that idea sing in linear time. The trick is taking that whole brain non-linear idea and making it linear. A lot of stuff will get sloughed off in the process and there will be dead bodies strewn on the road of your creative path, but that's part of the process.

OK, enough of the metaphor storm. You get the idea!!

Mazz

[ggalen]

I once asked Gordon Lightfoot after a show at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago, how he was able to write so many songs.

He said, "You just have to put your nose to the grindstone, and do it."


That pretty much sums it up. It's really work when it's just not happening and you have to keep trying.



Mazz, I totally agree about first envisioning the emotion you want the song to bring to the listener.

That emotion, the feeling that's generated in the listener, that's pretty much the entire point of a song. The music and the lyrics are a means to that end.

[Hookjaw Brown]

My brother in law is a film director and I asked him how he ever got a film finished. I know he has the same procrastination problems as everyone in the post above me. He said it was a fairly simple thing....set a goal, and a completion date. Whatever is completed by that date is the finished product. You are DONE!

This leads to long, long hours of sweaty head banging as the date approaches, but the reward is You Are DONE! and you never have to think about that song again! unless you are a performer, then there are always little tweaks to make them more playable and enjoyable to the audience. The endless re-writes and doubts and hoping for an idea are DONE. Till the next project.

The key is to do this a couple of times, know it can be done and continue doing it.

[matto]

I think starting a song is full of excitement. We are moved by the initial musical phrases. We believe that this can be a really great song. We just need to now make the "rest of it" as good as the initial ideas.

And then, there is a lull.

We wait for the next good idea. It doesn't come. We keep trying. But nothing we try is good enough to match the initial idea.

We get frustrated and nervous. It's not happening.

We have this cool idea started, but we can't come up with a good, next "part".

It's uncomfortable. It's not fun like playing music is fun. It's work. Kind of painful. Or boring.

I think coming up with the initial idea is easy because there's really nothing to it and it's pure intuition. You almost can't even take credit for it, it's some accidental short circuiting in your brain or god knows what.

I personally love the phase that comes after that. It's where you have an opportunity to make something of that initial idea.

It's almost like the idea challenges us: here, let's see what can you do with THIS!

Some people's initial reaction to this will be: "oh my god, I'm not worthy, I could never live up to the genius in this idea" and they will get blocked.
Others' reaction will be..."what, you mean I have to work on this?...ahh screw that" and they will move on to the next idea.
Yet others' reaction will be..."bring it on!!" and they will attempt to rise to the challenge...and quite likey fail , at least initially.

I think because people are different, all of these initial reactions are normal and it really depends on your personality. But as Debra said, your initial reaction does not have to be your permanent reaction.

And if you want to compose professionally, you will have to find a way to rise to the challenge. And the good news is it doesn't have to be boring or work. I can be fun, play, and incredibly satisfying. And it gets easier the more you do it.
What you need to do is to develop your craft, and the only way you develop it and move forward and become better is by challenging yourself, or better, by allowing your ideas to challenge you to move into unknown territory and beyond your comfort zone.

[ggalen]

Matto,

I like what you said. Lots of insightful thoughts.

The next phrase is a big one, because it establishes a momentum, I think. It gives you a great reward, and that reward motivates you to push for the next idea. The next "success".

I really see the songwriting process as coming up with a series of good ideas, and a series of good decisions.

And too often people stop with the initial idea and simply play it over and over again for three minutes.

I've done it, too.

[coachdebra]

And if you want to compose professionally, you will have to find a way to rise to the challenge. And the good news is it doesn't have to be boring or work. I can be fun, play, and incredibly satisfying. And it gets easier the more you do it.
What you need to do is to develop your craft, and the only way you develop it and move forward and become better is by challenging yourself, or better, by allowing your ideas to challenge you to move into unknown territory and beyond your comfort zone.

Thanks Matto - and that is the point - IF you want to compose professionally ...

And I agree that it doesn't have to be boring or work. Those are actually frameworks you impose on the experience. You could reframe the experience to be something different - like play and fun. It's your choice how you think about things.

He said it was a fairly simple thing....set a goal, and a completion date. Whatever is completed by that date is the finished product. You are DONE!

And setting a goal - and taking yourself seriously on this - can be incredibly helpful. I think it's one of the great values of TAXI - they give you goals. If you want to submit for a particular listing you have to submit by the due date. So use that to push yourself.

And the final point - as writers we talk about drafts or versions - there's a reason for that. The first draft isn't supposed to be perfect. I think its in the editing process that true artistry shows up. And if you find that in the editing process you are flattening out or sucking the life out of your music - then you need to hone your editing craft. Steve Seskin is an absolute master at editing.