Lets look at the word SONGWRITING.
The dictionary meaning is ‘writing the music and words of songs’ so that gives us a clue but it doesn’t go deep enough. I propose the meaning should be something like this:
“The process in which a song is created using words and melody”
The word itself is comprised of two words, song and writing. The song part is the end result of a process and the writing part is the process.
Get it!! Without the writing there is no song.
It seems like a simple concept doesn’t it? But it’s amazing how many songs aren’t written rather than the ones that are.
You see, you can talk all you like about verses, choruses, middle-eights, bridges, pre-choruses, the length of the intro and hooks and so on but without the physical activity of writing all of that theory is meaningless.
Personally songwriting is much, much more than the song itself. To me its a whole process. It’s a discipline, a meditation, a way of life really. Without the process the end result (being the song) would not exist.
If we, as songwriters didn’t have a creative process then all of our thought, feelings and songwriting ideas will be random, haphazard and lacking in organisation. How would you be able to sustain a creative songwriting environment with all that disorganisation going on?
In later articles I will be talking about how you can adopt your own process rather than just waiting for inspiration to come your way.
Take the muse by the horns and just write!