am I crazy?

[Layla Nahar]

I could use some encouragement ...

I am finally working toward my dream - to be a performing songwriter. So, in some ways I'm high as a kite, coz its
something I told myself was impossible for me for (ahem) years.

Here's my problem - I have one great song - one pretty good song, two not so great songs and then I have 3 *great fragments* - and nothing is coming to fill those gaps - for months now. So, I'm having to like, not force, but try out this and it doesn't work and try out that and it doesn't work. I also have one song which is just lyrics and another which is a great idea - but I can't get the scansion - the good rhythm to go with the words I do have ...

god I get so frustrated, and I'm doing all this pretty much by myself - (I have a singing/theory teacher and I just started learning guitar but I don't show them my ideas directly ... for obvious paranoid reasons)

I want to make a demo (that's how I discover homerecording - I want to be able to arrange & program my beats ...) in May -

Am I crazy? How can I get enuf good material together? How can I finish these half done songs? the hardest part is that
the good song, my really good one -- it just F L O W E D like you hear about -- and all these other things - they only flowed half way - then they stopped!


If anybody has any ideas, insight, advice, anything that could possibly help, I would appreciate it

[tanlith]

ExLax?

Kidding... actually you're not crazy... i too have a lot of unfinished material. However I took a different approach. I turned to my best friend (best friend of 25yrs now) -- he plays guitar (Used to play in my old band) I brought my material to him... now about half of what I had is now finished and the rest will probably be too. Not to sound weird, but when it comes to music and writing it's like I'm incomplete without him. On that level any way. Maybe you need someone you can trust to hear what you have and help you out.

I for one wish someone would take my idea seriously here... I have a plan that would allow people to colaborate online and still protect the original artist... I wrote to the WebMaster, but no response yet...

- Tanlith -
(New WebSite)

[limoguy]

Hi Layla,

If you really feel like you have exhausted all the creative energy you have to put into a song that is partly finished, then it might be time to think about collaborating with someone else. But before you do that be sure you've gone as far with them as you can. Great songs do not always flow easily onto the paper in fact, I have found that many times my best material had to be "sweated out."

Pat Pattison has written some great books. One in particular: " Writing Better Lyrics", spends a lot of time talking about excersises that you can learn to do to help bring the creativity you have to the paper. Some times tearing the song down helps to get the momentum going again too. Sheila Davies is another great song writer who has written some great books on the subject as well.

Collaborating is a great way to get a different perspective and some fresh ideas on paper as well. However, a song is a very personal thing and I think it's important to really know the person you are collaborating with. It takes trial and error sometimes to find the right person to collaborate with.

For me I have to focus on one song at a time. I put whatever else I am working on aside and concentrate on one song. I want to get it down "tight" and it's hard to do that when you're "scatterred."

Make sure you have an environment to work in that allows the creative juices to flow. Distractions don't help the process. Try changing your physical writing environment to stimulate creativity.
My wife knows when I am writing it's best to leave me be. :-)

Pat pattison talks about spending the first ten minutes of every morning, (right when you wake up) writing. Once the ten minutes is up, stop writing, no matter how much you are making progress. He claims that this helps to reach that creative "core" in all of us progressively faster when we need to get to it. Kinda like flexing a muscle...the more you flex it the stronger it gets.

Whatever you do....DON'T GIVE UP!!! Believe in yourself and your creative ability. Let your desire to write songs consume you and it will!

Hope this helps a little.

Limoguy

[bdbdbuck]

Layla,
I think you have set the bar too high for yourself. If you find this to be true, I have an excersize for you.

Put together a 3 chord progression.
Write me a song about a Boston whaler.

Report back when you're done.

bd

[joro]

limoguy is correct......

sounds like it's time to collaborate....

I do not have any songs myself that are not collabs....

it certainly helps me...

good luck,
Joe

[Peter D]

Collaboration sounds like a good idea, but I think what you're really looking at is something we all go through at least once, and usually repeatedly, in songwriting. We tend to want things to happen on schedule and to be completed on schedule, but very few of my songs have ever come about that way. I have notebooks full of "fragments" and ideas for songs, which I review often and try to work on.

While I understand the desire to finish your first recording project, I think you might be happier with the results if you give the songs time to come out and develop. It's a lot easier to say than do, but necessary.

[Jagular]

Good advice from the folks above. I find creativity comes in waves for me. I can go for awhile with famine and then all of the sudden it's a feast. I'm in a sort of feast right now as I just finished 2 songs with scratch vocal & guitar (which I will post for all of your critiques soon) and more ideas are flowing in. Then at some point the faucet will be turned off. For me, I think it has a lot to do with how over busy I am. When my mind is in other places I don't tend to write very much, but the rare, enjoyable times when my mind gets focused are great.

I too have a lot of hooks, half finished songs, ideas scribbled down. I will probably have a go at cowriting some time in the near future. I've never done that before. It will be an interesting experience.

[bdbdbuck]

The half-written syndrome has stricken every songwriter alive I think. I've got a pile of em! In fact they will sometimes give you an idea for a song you're currently writing. I actually go through mine from time to time and pick out decent lines to work with. It's almost like having a reference library.

Jagular, I'd be interested in working with you if you ever take the notion to have a go at it.


bd

[Jagular]

Might not be a bad idea somewhere down the line. This internet thingy sure is amazin ain't it?

On and incidentally, I didn't get the Buck Rogers thing in your on line name until just now hehe...

[bdbdbuck]

Yeah, Buffalo Bob said he knew my cousin, bdbdleroybrown. I got a kick out of that.
Oh yeah....the internet thing! It's not just the internet, look at the other things that directly effect our lives. Hell, an 8 track digital recorder for $300? I can't help but look back 20 years because that's my real reference....digital?

bd

[Riverdog]

I find a good routine for me to use as well is two fold:

1) If I have a song fragment in my system and it's been there for a LONG time... Even if I like it, I will (**choke**) ditch it...

I know it's hard... But, I'm of the mindset that if the idea was good enough, (which it usually is), it will appear in some other incarnation on a newer song that I think of....

2) Actually (**Gulp!**) Leave your studio alone for a while... Write "poetry" instead of "songs"... Then come back when you get an idea... Sometimes it's only a few days... Sometimes it's a month...

But, keep writing - the ideas will come...

Hope this helps...!