What method works best for you?

Every now and then...

George-

Mac Davis had a song out by that name. It's first few lines were:

"Every now and then
A blind squirrel finds an acorn.
Every now and then
A wounded sparrow takes to the wind..."

Of course I grew up hearing "blind hog" instead of "blind
squirrel"...

thanks for the recall of memory!

faithmonster :)
 
Hey faithmonster,

I remember Bob Hope having a theme song called "Thanks For the Memory."

Oh well birds of a feather gather no dust........er........um....Or was that rolling stones flock together. Oh well......Lay down George before you hurt youself...........zzzzzzzz

<><
George :D
 
It's been a month since I last posted on this thread about what works for me.
I haven't written the complete words or music to a song since that posting on the Woolton Chruch thread.

What I have been doing this past month was making an experiment during my private practice sessions, alone.
What I did was to try other peoples ideas on what works for them. My conclusions of the past month are mixed, and only my own, as I know no benchmark to compare them too.

I tried to make a sampling using stuff I have done in the past, comparing it to new stuff I did this past month. I've never done anything like this before and I got some odd results, to me, and my original idea of comparing the material durning this past months experiments, got lost or mixed up with the base, or plesebo (spelling) material I've done in the past.

I tried writting the words to a song first. In this case I just used what ever came to mind as I sat on my front porch. I tried as hard as I could not to let a melody seep in on some of them, others I accepted the melody, and took notes on it.
Also, I have quite a few songs I've done that I haven't played in years. I just copied the words to them and added a new melody without looking at my score on those particular songs.

I have tons or riffs, turn-arounds, lead solos that I've done over the years. So I jump into my library and yank out three that I haven't used in years, I did this after making three more one evening in my studio.

What I didn't do was what I usually do, and that's just let the musc flow, as I posted a month ago.

To make a loooong story short. Nothing worked. Not one song was completed. What I have I'm not pleased with.
I realize some of the songs in this past week I 'tried' to hard on, and reviewing them, I can tell I 'tried' to hurry and get something down. The incomplete songs from last month sound ok, but the mood, inner self or something was lacking and when I'd return to work on them, I felt like it was an effort.

Remember, I didn't once during the past month give in to that urge to seperate myself from what I was doing and just flow with the music.
At this moment I'm busting inside to do that. Not that I have a song in me that I haven't heard yet, but that's my style of playing, practicing and creativeness.

I did this to see if I'm missing something that someone else is doing. To see if there was a better way. Explore new ideas.
At this point I feel my own way is what works best for me.
I may be stuck in a groove, but I tried to wheel out of it and nothing seemed to work. I saw no interesting scenary along the way. Next session, I'll jump back in my groove and get rid of this busting inside feeling I have. I've capped it too long.

I've a busy schedule this afternoon, tonight and tomorrow, so it'll be a few days till I can 'bust loose' in solo practice session.

Just wanted to try something, and don't know really what I've learnt from it all yet, but it was fun and frustrating.

~ lets out a huge sigh ~
Now, I can start putting more time into learing this recording stuff.
 
Courting The Muse

Wow man...I just wrote the most illuminating, inspires insightful response to this thread, but aol kicked me off , so you guys won't get to read it (lol)
 
COURTING THE MUSE

Got me again....Any way I will sum up if I can stay on long enough !)...I wish I had a method 2) Sometimes I get whole songs and arrangements, sometimes fragments. 3) I try to have a recording device running when possible when I am fooling around on the guitar, otherwise I lose lots of good ideas.4) when I hit a dry spell, I switch guitars for a few days. 5) write down everything, even the worst drivel that comes to you. You never know when the next frag will complete it and turn it into something cool and useful. 6) re-write...re-write...re-write OK...there it is, my "non-method " of songwriting
write-on...chazba
 
Though I have written by many different means I think the one word used that links all of them together is "FLOW". No matter what I'm doing musically, if its not flowing, I'm getting nowhere real fast.

That was an intresting observation there Badgas. Now I know what I didn't know that I knew. Say that three times real fast. :D

<><
George
 
Howdy, George! How's life out on the rig?
Lots of interesting views in this thread. Over the years I've developed a method that works well for me. Every Sunday morning I sit down and write a song - complete - verses, chorus, bridge, everything. Since I'm writing country/folk stuff, I pay most attention to the chorus lyric, as that is usually the hook in the song. As to content, I like every song to be similar to a short story. It should be interesting, clever (if possible), but most of all tell a compelling story and be entertaining.
Another thing that works for me is to get away from songwriting on occasion and write something else. I'm half-way through a novel, I write short stories, and am also writing a musical theater piece. It doesn't matter if they ever get published. I find that it stimulates other parts of my brain that somehow surfaces in the songs. That's my $.02.

Bob
 
Hello Buffalo Bob,

Well now that you mention it, thats where I am now, on the rig. We've brought the rig into the shipyard in Sabine Pass, Texas. We had some pretty major upgrades that we've been waiting for a window to do. The window is open.

I also write short stories. I guess if someone is a song writer or poet its really not that difficult to write a story. After all thats basically what we do when write songs. Just in a scaled down from a Reader's Digest version sort of thing.

Believe this or not, but one of the tools I use in writting is bowling. I try to bowl proficiently as I possibly can. This means I have to be intensely focused on what I'm doing. I can't be thinking about a song, story, home, the job, or anything else in order to bowl well. What this does is allow me to clear my head of everthing else. So when I go back to writing it gives me a fresh clear sence of what I'm doing. At least it does for me. But then it dosen't take much to impress me. :)

<><
George :cool:
 
For me it's fishing. I live right at the top end of the Florida Keys, and when I'm out there the whole world is a beautiful place.
Haven't got to fish Louisianna yet, but I know it's called the Sportsman's Paradise! Going blue crabbin' on Biscayne Bay on Sunday.........mmmmmmmmmmm - hot crabs and cold beer!

Bob
 
Buffalo Bob,

Man if you love to bass fish you'd be in hog heaven around where I live in Many, LA. Just 18 miles west of Many is Toledo Bend Reservoir. A 68 mile long and 3 mile wide (At the middle) body of water. I used to fish all the time when I was home from work, but I had too many irons in the fire. To my own unbelief, one of those iron I took out of the fire was fishing.

May your livewell be full. :)

<><
George :cool:
 
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