When I get in the groove to write a song, nothing can take me away. I put everything aside and I write that song. It usually just flows from my pen tip on to the page and translates itself into the melodious ringing of my amazing guitar. When I emerge from underneath the sheets of soiled papers, scratched out and scattered across my bedroom floor, I always feel so accomplished. 'Look at what you just created!' I tell myself. 'You're a genius.' Then I run down the stairs of my house, usually tripping and falling, to serenade an unwilling spectator - usually one of my brothers. After the rush of exhilaration leaves me, I save a copy on my computer and never play it again.
Ok, maybe I'll play it a few times more to try and get the rush of accomplishment again. I am terrible about writing down the chords for my songs so I have to practice over and over in order to remember them.
However, I have yet another huge fault. I am usually so taken with the beauty of what I have just created that I don't even think about what I could change it to, or how I could expand it. In short, I never revise. While yes, you can get a fabulous song in the heat of the moment, if you take the time to revise and edit, you can turn it into an even more powerful song. Take for example these lyrics I had written several months ago:
I'm not even sure what I'm s'pposed to say.
My life is one mystery inside of each day.
How am I s'pposed to cope after what has been done?
Do you expect me to just walk out into the sun?
The sun well it's great but it's still really cold
Just like the lies and the truth I've been told.
The answer is there somewhere but so far away
And I'm getting tired of living this way.
Well it's hard enough to set it straight
When I don't know where to begin, where to wait.
And I'm tired of people saying be strong and tough
Sometimes all I need is some warm, gentle love.
That's how I left it. It's not that great although at the time I believed that it was. Today as I was doing an assignment for my music class, I brought these lyrics up and revised them. This is what they look like now:
I'm not even sure, what am I s'pposed to say?
My life is one mystery inside of each day.
How am I s'pposed to cope after what has been done?
You expect me to just walk out into the sun?
The sun well it's great but it's still really cold
And it's just like the lies and the truth I've been told.
The answer is there somewhere but so far away
It's more than exhausting to exist in this way.
Crooked life history is hard to keep straight,
When trying to soften this irrational fate.
I'm tired of people saying be strong and tough
At times I require a little wholehearted love.
Quite an improvement, I believe. When you word things in a more interesting way its easier to keep the attention of your audience. I love songs with hidden meanings, double meanings, double entendras, you name it.
For instance, check out these lyrics to 'Good People' by Jack Johnson.I love this song and what he's talking about. Not only is the rhyming quick and addictive, the song points out some great things while being somewhat sarcastic in nature.
Although the above lyrics in green may not be a hit, they are much better than the lyrics in blue. So to go back to the very beginning, how did I discover I had such a bad habit to begin with? Well, I was reading this site: http://blog.songtrust.com/open-mic/whats-the-quickest-way-to-kill-a-song/.
If you are a music geek like me, subscribe to these people!! They have so much valuable information and can really open your eyes to some things. I signed up for their newsletter, and so should you. Wouldn't it be better to have something other than spam and emails from crazy relatives in your inbox?
And then after you subscribe and sign up and maybe block that relative, go back and look over your old songs. See if you can't find something that can be reworked and reworded. If it's something from several years ago, your fresh eye and new experiences may help you analyze what's really there. Never settle just because it's close enough!! You could be holding the next hit song in your hands! Write, write, and re-write.
Now I'm almost afraid to open up my old songs...but I'm going to in case I turn out to be a one hit wonder.
May the frets be with you.
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