I've been trying to get into writing my own songs for several years now, and it seems I always only end up with a partial song because either I totally have ADD and don't know it, or deep down I'm afraid of failure, so I never finish anything because then it can't suck because it's always still a "work in progress".
On friday I went to this Andrew Bird show, and it was amazing. I've seen him play 5 times, but this was a totally different type of show because it wasn't really advertised except for people on the mailing list of the tiny tiny theater that hosted it. He played by himself after having taken a long break from performing, and he only played brand new songs (he was literally saying things like "I wrote this yesterday, and it's not done) or songs that he hasn't played in 10 years. Needless to say, there were some mistakes, some of the songs he only played part of and then he would say "that's all I have". It was absolutely fascinating that this guy that I've admired for years for his musicianship and his songwriting skills could just get up in front of people and not be afraid of screwing up. Some of them he just completely forgot either what he was supposed to be playing or what the lyrics were, or he messed up with his looping system and would end up looping the wrong thing or looping it in slow-mo. I think it's safe to say that he was writing (or re-writing) some of these songs on the spot too. It didn't matter that they weren't perfect to him because he was sharing the process with us. It was really, really cool.
Usually when I go see him, I leave the theater enthralled but also slightly depressed because it always makes me realize that there are many people (but especially him) that have infinitely more talent than I do. But this show was so much more human... he didn't seem like he had super powers this time. The music was still amazing, but he did mess up a bunch, and stuff wasn't finished. So that pretty much just gave me a huge amount of inspiration to stop wasting my time and write some stuff and actually finish it.
So here is my challenge to jumpstart me into finding my process and get more comfortable with writing:
2 Week Challenge
- One song sketch per day. It doesn't have to have all the instrumentation figured out, but it has to have a melody and a chord progression with all the song's parts. No more "I'll figure out a bridge later."
- I'm not allowed to judge the song until after I have the whole thing written down or recorded, after the two weeks is over.
- I'm not allowed to compare myself to others' work.
- It's okay if the songs completely suck. This is just practice, nobody needs to know if I wrote something crappy. I can write something better later.
- No using computers or recording a bunch of stuff with software right now. I can do that later. Right now it's just about getting the basic structure of the songs out. I'm using my little handheld recorder and my Loop Station and taking notes with pen and paper. If I get into using the software, I'll waste a lot of time and probably not get things finished.
- No listening to cds or mp3s. If I'm driving somewhere, I can make up my own song in my head.
- Limited time on the internet. I waste too much time doing that as it is.
- I have to use all my instruments at least once during this 2 week period. Guitars, uke, banjos, bass, keyboard, and various simple wind instruments I have around the house from when I played a lot of Irish music.
- I don't have to write lyrics yet, I just have to have the vocal melody figured out.
So that's it. In two weeks I hope to have 14 song sketches I can work with and figure out instrumentation. Then I'll record them at my friend's house. She has a nice home studio, way better than mine.
The hardest thing is going to be not listening to cds. I'll suck it up though. Mr. Bird gave up listening to other people's music for a year when he started his solo career, and that turned out very, very well for him.
On friday I went to this Andrew Bird show, and it was amazing. I've seen him play 5 times, but this was a totally different type of show because it wasn't really advertised except for people on the mailing list of the tiny tiny theater that hosted it. He played by himself after having taken a long break from performing, and he only played brand new songs (he was literally saying things like "I wrote this yesterday, and it's not done) or songs that he hasn't played in 10 years. Needless to say, there were some mistakes, some of the songs he only played part of and then he would say "that's all I have". It was absolutely fascinating that this guy that I've admired for years for his musicianship and his songwriting skills could just get up in front of people and not be afraid of screwing up. Some of them he just completely forgot either what he was supposed to be playing or what the lyrics were, or he messed up with his looping system and would end up looping the wrong thing or looping it in slow-mo. I think it's safe to say that he was writing (or re-writing) some of these songs on the spot too. It didn't matter that they weren't perfect to him because he was sharing the process with us. It was really, really cool.
Usually when I go see him, I leave the theater enthralled but also slightly depressed because it always makes me realize that there are many people (but especially him) that have infinitely more talent than I do. But this show was so much more human... he didn't seem like he had super powers this time. The music was still amazing, but he did mess up a bunch, and stuff wasn't finished. So that pretty much just gave me a huge amount of inspiration to stop wasting my time and write some stuff and actually finish it.
So here is my challenge to jumpstart me into finding my process and get more comfortable with writing:
2 Week Challenge
- One song sketch per day. It doesn't have to have all the instrumentation figured out, but it has to have a melody and a chord progression with all the song's parts. No more "I'll figure out a bridge later."
- I'm not allowed to judge the song until after I have the whole thing written down or recorded, after the two weeks is over.
- I'm not allowed to compare myself to others' work.
- It's okay if the songs completely suck. This is just practice, nobody needs to know if I wrote something crappy. I can write something better later.
- No using computers or recording a bunch of stuff with software right now. I can do that later. Right now it's just about getting the basic structure of the songs out. I'm using my little handheld recorder and my Loop Station and taking notes with pen and paper. If I get into using the software, I'll waste a lot of time and probably not get things finished.
- No listening to cds or mp3s. If I'm driving somewhere, I can make up my own song in my head.
- Limited time on the internet. I waste too much time doing that as it is.
- I have to use all my instruments at least once during this 2 week period. Guitars, uke, banjos, bass, keyboard, and various simple wind instruments I have around the house from when I played a lot of Irish music.
- I don't have to write lyrics yet, I just have to have the vocal melody figured out.
So that's it. In two weeks I hope to have 14 song sketches I can work with and figure out instrumentation. Then I'll record them at my friend's house. She has a nice home studio, way better than mine.
The hardest thing is going to be not listening to cds. I'll suck it up though. Mr. Bird gave up listening to other people's music for a year when he started his solo career, and that turned out very, very well for him.
