How Do I Start Again

[inovermyhead]

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Edited May 13, 2010 by inovermyhead

[Jim622]

I'm in sort of the same situation. I'm 46, I've written songs on and off since 9th grade. It's the same as playing

guitar, I'll never make a living at either, but I wouldn't stop either one. It's part of you. Sometimes I think of my songs

as the same as pictures from your past. My wife looks at old songs and I get the look. I'm the only one that knows

where it came from and it just makes her wonder what I'll be like when I'm senile. You shut out the world, no mortgage,

no kids, bills, etc... You keep coming back to it because you don't have a choice. Don't question it, just enjoy it.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only old - wannabe/probably never will be - out there though. Just keep doing what

you do.

[john]

Hey

Expectation and motivation. I don't think it is lowering the bar, but it is about examining expectation and motivation.

It sounds like you have very firmly attached an expectation of success to your songwriting, even your songwriting improvement seems very firmly driven by the notion of success in some way. "I write better songs therefor I will be successful".

In my experience that whole notion is counter productive, especially when you start to ask the question "Why am I not successful?".

Success in the business is not something that songwriting talent alone can achieve. It takes good contacts, confidence and a whole lot of other things. You can do everything right and still get nowhere.

If you mean going nowhere in terms of with the writing itself, ie nothing to do with success with your songs then i would ask do you mean your songs are stale? Is it a lack of ideas or a lack of fulfillment when you carry them through?

So what do you mean by "going nowhere"?

Cheers

john

[Jim622]

I like this topic, it can go in many different directions, all depending on your definition of

success. John and Tunesmith, both make excellant points. I personally have no real aspirations

for the business aspect, if it came it would give me great satisfaction, of course! I now get the

satisfaction from the process, and did I achieve my expectations of what I was trying to get at

with a particular song. So if your frustration is your perceived lack of progress in your skill level,

which from what I've seen of your work, surpasses mine - your just in a self perceived rut.

As for success on a business level, you do not hold that destiny in your hands alone. Theres

alot more people involved on that level. Just enjoy your gift, alot of people can't do what you do.

[inovermyhead]

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Edited May 13, 2010 by inovermyhead

[inovermyhead]

removed

Edited May 13, 2010 by inovermyhead

[inovermyhead]

I'm in sort of the same situation. I'm 46, I've written songs on and off since 9th grade. It's the same as playing

guitar, I'll never make a living at either, but I wouldn't stop either one. It's part of you. Sometimes I think of my songs

as the same as pictures from your past. My wife looks at old songs and I get the look. I'm the only one that knows

where it came from and it just makes her wonder what I'll be like when I'm senile. You shut out the world, no mortgage,

no kids, bills, etc... You keep coming back to it because you don't have a choice. Don't question it, just enjoy it.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only old - wannabe/probably never will be - out there though. Just keep doing what

you do.

Tom I totally relate to this only difference is I think I am senile for coming back lol.

Michael

[MikeRobinson]

My guess on the matter is that the best thing to do -- maybe the only thing to do -- is to keep writing, no matter what.

Every book on prose writing that I have ever read stressed the point that "writing consists of rewriting." Maybe a piece of prose sounded fresh and original the first time, when writing the very first draft of it, but I kinda doubt it. Maybe the perfect phrase just poured out the very first time like gilded diamonds upon the page ... but I don't think it works that way. So, maybe as wannabe song writers we start out on the wrong foot with the very first step. We expect the process to somehow be as it isn't, and thus, set ourselves up for a feeling of disappointment that is actually unjustified.

One of my favorite writing books (I collect 'em, I guess...) is Stephen King's On Writing. Toward the back of the book he shows an example of editing. He shows you the as-writ first draft of a piece he first called "The Hotel Story," and shows you a little bit of how he edited it. And edited it. And edited it. And caused it to become at least decent.

Maybe it's just not realistic for us to expect to sit down with a guitar and have anything of obvious value come out. But hidden inside that terrible-sounding rough draft might be something wonderful, and maybe it's ours to figure out how to develop it into a satisfactory piece. And maybe we just have to tummy-up to the realization that, when we're finally finished, it's going to sound "obvious" and "easy" and "why did that take so long to do?" But, persistence pays off and things get easier with practice. And, paper is recyclable.

The really nice thing is... it does not matter in the slightest anymore "where in the world" you are. And, thanks to the computer, you don't have to be constrained by your childhood music-lessons (or lack thereof). The computer is a faithful word-processor for music. But that process of "writing is rewriting" is probably always going to be basically the same regardless of the technology involved.

Something else that occurs to me is that: a "good song" might be expressed in a "so-so recording." But performance and recording and mixing and mastering are all technical art-forms unto themselves. We can't wear all hats. If the song is "there," the rest will follow.

Edited March 10, 2010 by MikeRobinson

[inovermyhead]

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Edited May 13, 2010 by inovermyhead

[MikeRobinson]

You are doing this for the same reason that every writer is doing this ... because they can't do anything else.

Okay, I've got a little video reading-assignment for you. Go to YouTube and look up "Livingston Taylor clinic." He (being James Taylor's brother and an esteemed college professor) did a series of three lectures at the Berklee College of Music in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Your assignment is to go and watch all three of these.

Now. (We'll wait...)

I think that, anytime you set out to produce something for the public ... anytime you reveal yourself in this way ... you need to fully prepare yourself for what that will, emotionally, cost you. And then, as the song says, "do it anyway."

Let your only goad ... the only relentless master that you strive to please ... be the music itself. Strive to make it the best music that you know how to make, and then try to learn more. You will run out of lifetime (unfortunately...) long before you reach your goal. But, "the journey is the reward" here.

You have absolutely no control over what the reaction to your music will be. You can be absolutely sure that some people will be gentle, and that some will not ... but also remember that the "spoken word" of any forum is actually the written word, which carries a thousand times more impact than actual speech. Even so, what does the music say? What does the craft(smanship) demand? Pursue that. And consider: how many hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands of people in this gigantic Internet might well have encountered your work, and loved it, and never bothered to reply?

Creators are at the top of the food chain. Livingston Taylor says that repeatedly, and he is right. You might have created "a large pile of offal," or so you think, but: (a) you are undoubtedly mistaken, and ( just how many people in this world have the opportunity, or the guts, to create ... anything? Ever?? Let alone to have the courage, let alone the drive, to reveal it?

By the way... I wanna hear your stuff. Post a link to it, please. I'll bet it's good.

Edited March 11, 2010 by MikeRobinson

[inovermyhead]

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Edited May 13, 2010 by inovermyhead

[MikeRobinson]

I am currently preparing a piece called "Doodlebug" but since the whole thing must be scored, it does take quite a bit of time.

Your songs are quite poignant and thoughtful, especially the latest one. It takes a few moments to let "... because I loved you" to sink in, but it really resonates when it does. There might be more things that you can do with the chord progressions, adding substitutions for some of them to add variety and interest each time the song comes around. You could, shall I say, "cabbage" some of the musical phrases in one song and blend them with phrases from another to create yet-another new thing.

Edited March 13, 2010 by MikeRobinson

[inovermyhead]

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Edited May 13, 2010 by inovermyhead

[inovermyhead]

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Edited May 13, 2010 by inovermyhead

[MikeRobinson]

The thing that impressed me most about Stephen King's book was that his first draft of the story was ... uhh ... "crap." Really, it's not much different from what anyone might write.

But what happened next (and as he carefully relates) is the product of Stephen's experience. He took the raw material and shaped it into something much better.

Now... if you "just sat down and read the story," you would be encountering the final version and you would have had no exposure to any of the drafts. It therefore might never occur to you that any of those drafts even existed. Therefore, if you were an aspiring writer, you might compare your latest draft to that final story (by the admittedly more experienced and successful writer), see that your draft was "crap," conclude that The Writer must come from a different planet, and quit.

The process that Stephen King's book (and many other writer's guides) carefully describe ... is very clearly multi-part. First the material is captured, then it is refined. Or maybe, "assembled." Anyhow, two (or more) very distinct and very deliberate processes.

And there can be individual differences. In one writing guide by Terry Brooks (Sword of Shannara et al), Terry, an ex-lawyer, describes how he carefully outlines everything before writing it. But then he points out how, after carefully describing his system at a writer's conclave, another (equally successful) panelist turned to him and said, "Terry, I don't think I have ever outlined anything in my entire life." (She obviously meant nothing negative by it ... nor was it taken as such.) And so it goes.

The "take-away" from this ramble is just these two things: (1) you can't expect any creative work-product to "just happen," and (2) everybody does.

"Hell, yes... of course they do." You look at something, after having sweated bullets over it for however-long, and you can't help but say: "That's it? What took me so long?" And you just have to tell yourself (even if you're not listening): "that's how it works. That's just how creativity works."

Edited April 1, 2010 by MikeRobinson

[thepopeofpop]

Interesting discussion. Ultimately you write because you want to or have to. It doesn't matter whether anyone else will ever read it or hear it.

If the ideas aren't coming ... and that can happen to the best of us ... reconsider your approach. Maybe you're not getting your usual inspirations. I moved to another country (where the main language isn't English) and then I hardly came up with an idea for six months. Then I went to the USA to visit relatives for two weeks and had loads of ideas - so I knew that I hadn't "dried up", I had just been living in a place where I wasn't getting inspiration from TV, newspapers, radio etc.

Go through old notebooks and look at lyrics that you discarded, listen to music you've never listened before - sometimes I'll just hear a single word in a new song and it will spark something. Or it could be a couple of chords ... but in a song I've never heard before. Or go see a movie ... I've got quite a few ideas from watching movies.

--Paul--