Songwriting Exercise

There has been an interesting challenge on Facebook in the last while, one that I participated in myself and found kind of fun.  And as I did it, I thought that with a couple of moderations, it would make a good songwriting exercise to stir up your creative juices.

The challenge involved going to websites like Wikipedia and the Quotations Page and then Flickr to pick random names and quotes and photos to create an album cover.

So I’m going to put in a twist.  Here’s what you do:

1. Go to Wikipedia and hit random, here The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your song

2. Go to Random quotations page, click here. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is a phrase that has to appear in your song

Now here’s my addition:

3. Go to the HotFrets Chord Progression Generator. Pick a key, a progression and a style and generate a chord progression to try out on your guitar or piano

And that’s it!  See what you come up with. 
IJ

The Power of Observation

You’ll get the same advice everywhere (and you’ve gotten it from me too) about finding inspiration in reading or people watching…or by just planting yourself in a new place you’ve never been before.

This time, however, I want to take you one step further.

When police officers are trained, they learn a lot about developing their observational skills, remembering little details about events or people so that they can apply them later.  We take a lot for granted when we are out and about…we look past everything because we’re distracted by our own thoughts or inner conversations.  It isn’t until something significant catches our eye or our ear that we are jolted back into the present.

Buddhists practice something called “mindfulness” which can be an excellent tool for working on your powers of observation.  You don’t even have to be Buddhist to use it :-).  Simply put, it is about focusing in on the present…focusing your ears and eyes, all of your senses so that everything that happens, as minute as it may appear, is consciously observed.  But it is not easy to do!  Set an alarm for five or ten minutes and for that amount of time, try to stay completely in the present, giving your complete attention to whatever you are hearing or seeing, but ignoring any distracting thoughts at the same time.  It takes some work to do!

Once you have tried the 5 minute experiment, take it a step further.

Go for a walk with the intention of remembering as much as you can about everything you see and hear on your 15 or 20-minute walk.  The test will be when you get home…because you are then going to make a list of everything you can remember from your excursion, every observation you made.

Why am I giving you this exercise?  Simply put, you will realize how much you miss, many little bits and pieces of daily life that you may actually be able to use in your lyrics.  Exercise isn’t just for working your muscles, it is also for working your mind and your mind is a pretty powerful writing tool.  Once you have tried the walk, take it a step even further and put yourself in a place with a lot of people activity, like a mall or a park.  This time, do the same thing as your walk…try not to allow yourself to be distracted by your own thoughts and simply observe as much as you can.  Later, when you get home, pull out a piece of paper (or your laptop) and make a list of everything you remember.

This practice will help you to develop your powers of observation, just like the cop who’s in training.  A songwriter is always “in training” because we are always on the look-out for a new idea or something to stimulate our creative consciousness.

If this exercise works for you…let me know right here!

And keep your eyes and ears open…

IJ

Songwriting In A Lousy Economy

It’s hard enough for songwriters when the economy is humming along nicely, but what do you do when it takes a downturn as it has in the last few months?

Most of us don’t have any delusions of grandeur when it comes to writing hit songs;  in fact, many of us are only writing for our own pleasure.  But those of you who are still seeking that holy grail hit song, or just a one song publishing deal, might have to re-think your strategy these days.

Publishers stopped hiring new writers a few years back when the songwriting biz started to sour (blame downloading and mp3 players for that one), and now it seems that it’s almost entirely fruitless to even pitch to publishers.  The independent route appears to be the only way to go, which means a lot more leg work and an even longer waiting period for anything to happen.

Here are some ideas:

• If you are a songwriter who doesn’t perform, these days there are so many ways to approach lesser-known artists and bands online through their MySpace pages or homepages.  The first question always is, do they write their own material?  If they don’t, or if they do a mix of covers and originals, listen carefully to the songs they perform.  Is it what you write?  No point in approaching a band or artist in a completely different genre, and that seems perfectly logical, but I have heard of songwriters blindly offering songs with little or not thought to that!
• If you would rather meet them in person, consider going out to local venues in your area and getting an idea of what bands and artists are playing.  Once you’ve educated yourself a little, then approach them and ask if they would consider listening to your stuff.  And be prepared with a CD in hand!
• It seems that synchs (or synchronization contracts) are becoming more and more popular.  For instance, getting your song on a television commercial or series can mean a lot of money and ultimately a lot of fame…look at what 1,2,3,4 did for Fiest on the iPod TV spots!  A lot of TV series use artists and bands songs in their shows.  If you’re smart enough, you can find the person on a series who picks the music (usually called the Music Supervisor), and send them some of your music.  But…REMEMBER to do your research;  does your music match the kind of music they have already used?
• Make use of MySpace and any other music-related pages out there to show off your work.  You never know who you might “meet”

Okay, there are just a few ideas for you to ponder.  It’s hard to stand out these days, and even harder with economic times being so difficult and cut-backs happening everywhere.  But remember, in difficult times the general public turns to entertainment to make themselves feel better.  So all is not lost…hang in there!

IJ