Madness, Meet Method. Method, Madness

I feel like a shut in. After chaining myself to the couch yesterday and leaving only to go to rehearsal, I awoke this morning to find an inch or so of snow on the ground.

Days like this make me want to pull down the shades and just write all day... and I'm currently wrestling with whether I should go to the gym and then to teach, or spend another day inside. After catching up on a little sleep yesterday morning, I managed to get some work done in the afternoon. Emails were sent, webpages were updated... so in the afternoon I was finally able to settle in to do some playing and writing.

I played from about 3:00 to 5:30 without stopping, running through some new tunes a few times, and then starting work on a simple idea I'd come across on Tuesday while I was teaching. I usually tune my students' guitars at the beginning of each lesson because a) it's quicker if I do it, and b) I want to make sure nothing is wrong with the guitar, i.e. it needs new strings or a set up. So after I tune the guitar, I usually play a couple of chords, let my hands wander a bit to make sure everything is okay.

I can't tell you how many times I've hit upon song ideas during these brief fits of playing. I think it's because while playing I'm often simultaneously talking to my student, and therefore my hands and ears are left to work unencumbered by my brain and mouth. If I hit on something that strikes my fancy (sometimes as simple as a little phrase or a cool chord change or a good rhythm) the trick is to remember it until I have a couple of minutes by myself to really solidify what I did in my head and hands.

My students are very patient with me and my quirks, which often include playing the idea a good dozen times with my eyes closed whilst singing along with it as well as jotting down some cryptic notes. I figure it gives them a bit of insight into how songs are written. By me at least. Anyway, most sparks that are worth remembering, I remember. Then begins the actual process of writing.

Some things to consider: is the spark a verse, chorus, or neither? Is it in a good key? What is the feel/rhythmic suggestion? Is it too obvious/too esoteric? A lot of the time, these questions are answered subconsciously and instantaneously. And once I have something that I like and I think it's sitting well in my hands and ears, I try to start singing something. Anything.

Usually open vowels or words with open vowels, just to see where potential melodies sit in my voice. Sometimes I get lucky and I sing some legitimate words that jump start the lyric writing process. Most of the time, I have to be a little more calculated, and start thinking about what the song sounds like it's about and how that jives with some of my recent lyrical ideas. Anyway, I'm over-analyzing the process here.

Yesterday, I began building some ideas around a simple eight note pattern I came across Tuesday. The first thing I did was lower the pattern a half step and then I changed the way the bass notes on the guitar supported and related to the pattern. Once I was happy with the basic structure and feel, I began brainstorming some lyrics.

I don't know if it was the day, or the fact that I was a bit sick, or the fact that Gina is out of town and I was missing her, but I was feeling incredibly sad as I began writing and I tried to capture some of that... a lot of the time, lyrics start with certain words or phrases that I find attractive and then I have to go back and figure out what the heck they mean in the context of the song. I've gotten to the point where I have maybe one line left to write in a particular song, and I still have no idea what it's actually about. I like this. I used to be a stickler for concrete meaning, but I've learned to write more towards the sounds of the words and the images and then bring the meaning along afterwards if need be. Sometimes.

Sometimes I try to write with a particular meaning in mind too. So yesterday, I began with this idea of driving back from the airport at 7:00 in the morning from dropping Gina off, and kind of went from there. As I wrote things down, crossed them out, revised what I had, the sun went down and soon I was sitting in the dark, straining to see my writing book and singing this new song. I managed to write most of two verses and then got stuck on one line in the second verse. A lot of times, the best thing to do is to put a song down and come back to it the next day with a new perspective. Which is what I did this morning. And it clicked.

BREAK Slipping through the empty streets at the break of day Lost an hour somewhere along the way... do you remember when The innocence was just enough to get us to the show? I guess it wasn't all that long ago And the buildings that hang along the lake Swallow up our lightening from the moment we awake... and in between The northern star and the old train cars, a lion sits and waits I wish that this fragile heart would just go on and Break break break... is it too Late late late

jbg