Pre-writing Rituals?

badgas

badgas

New member
I got a phone call from an old band member yesterday. Caleb Johnson.
He use to write all of our original material. After all these years he's finally been approached by a label, Alligator.
He was on a return trip from a tour in Japan and landed at Seatac Airport at Seattle. He called me from there.
I went up and brought him down here to the shack for a day.
We did a lot of talking of the good old days, and some about songwriting.

One of the interesting comments he made was when I asked him about setting his mind to write a song.

He told me he has a ritual he goes through. To my suprise he told me every songwriter he knows has some kind of ritual.
Caleb showed me as he told me about his pen. It's a fountain pen from back in the 1920s sometime. It was his grandfathers. He swears he cannot write lyrics or music without it. He also has to have a cup of tea and a pair of slippers on his feet. Beside peace and quite, that's his only requirements. Well, the only he fessed up to.

I also found out I have a ritual, but didn't realize it till he kept digging at me.

When I work on an existing project, I prime my mind, set my mood and mode. Looking back on my most recent songwritings, I found I actually begin setting the tone of my mind hours before I begin writing. Also, I have to have a guitar in hand whether I use it or not.

My ritual, if that's what ya wanna call it, made him laugh. He said most songwriters do the same thing, except some have can only write in a special notebook, only at the piano, in a certin room in the house, time of day, etc.

I never gave this much though till he brought it up.

I'm wondering if any of you guys/gals have a special hat that helps you be creative, or some other thing to bring out your muse.
 
Yeah, I noticed that PRIOR to the actual writing it on paper, getting in the right "mode" as you put it, always comes when I am driving. Must be the rhythm of the road or something always gets me in the creative mode. I rarely listen to the radio. Sometimes, I "arrange" existing tunes in my mind. Most always, I end up writing it on paper before I get wherever I'm going. If it's a tune, I even keep it in my head going over and over, even when I'm working. Any decent lyrics are scribbled on anything available. Not so much a "ritual" as it is a pattern that I've been able to recognize. It's kinda surprising what the mind can do when you aren't even aware it's doin it. When I get home...YES gotta have the guitar. Gotta have a LEGAL pad. But then it always seems to come together pretty quickly.
 
I have a special pen I use.

And I normally have creative buursts while I try to get to sleep.

I always write at my bureau too, either with a beat I'm planning on writing lyrics for or with a beat that sounds how I want it 2 sound or with another artisyts album for inspiration (Eminem Show is one of the best for this - the violent, emotional lyrics always light fireworks in me)
 
My "ritual" has changed over the years. When I first started it usually involved a trip to a local diner for lots of coffee and people-watching to make notes or actually do some lyric writing. The composing came during my usual daily guitar practice.

Then, after several years I had a spurt of writing activity that usually involved long stretches of alcohol intake and the hangovers therefrom. Most of the writing occurred during the hangovers.

Now, it's pretty much a daily routine which starts around 10:30 p.m. and involves reading notes I've made, songs started during the day, but not finished. I always use spiral college-ruled notebooks and Bic mechanical pencils and have worked at the same desk for 23 years. Most of my composing still occurs during my daily guitar workouts, which run 2-5 hours daily.

During my brief employment as a staff writer years ago, I did very little, if any, actual writing in my publisher's office. Almost all of it was done on my own time and my time at the office would be spent working with co-writers and pretending to be creative for 6 hours a day.
 
i also find that driving seems to be a good time for me to come up with ideas/lines-though i AM a delivery driver, so i do spent x number of hours a day driving.
 
I just get the kind of energy the song I'm going write needs
going inside myself. Then I create musical representations of that energy in my head. Finally I use deductive reasoning to manifest that part so it works on every level.

If I just keep the train in my head running. I just use the best parts and I can't lose.:cool:
 
Drifting off during some boring conference or seminar usually results in some of my best lyrical work!

I nearly always try to set the mood here at home. Light some candles, turn on the lava lamps, partake in a little sacrament perhaps...it never works. In the end, I mostly come up with my compositions while 'noodling' around on the acoustic! Starting with a rythym track or idea of somekind helps me.

Red wine and/or beer are often involved too...Writing remains a painful and largely frustrating experience for me.

I dont know why, but I like those roller ball pens when writing lyrics.
 
i dont know if its a ritual really but every song i have ever written was written in the middle of the night between say midnight and whenever i fell asleep....i have woken up many mornings with the imprint from a spiral notebook tattoed across my face.


jamal
 
I thought about this one quite a bit and I can't find any clear pattern that would qualify as a pre-writing ritual.

There are certainly times, however, that I tend to write more and better material. Transition times, generally. Life gets a little unsettled and that opens the door for new thoughts and new creativity, new perspecitves.

I suppose I could make a ritual out of seeking unsettledness. :eek:

Nope, not worth it, though it happens often enough on its own. :)

Take care,
Chris
 
I have to have a big glass of water to just slowly sip on haha If i don't do that... i seem to just not get any ideas.
 
life

sometimes I can spend a year without managing to get anything down on paper/tape/harddisk. Then I go through one of life's traumas...a death, a fight at work, a fight with the wifey, a birth, a generic bad hair day, etc. and I can't wait to get home and vent it all off in song. Most of the times the end result has nothing to do with my feelings at the time but it seems I end up waiting for something drastic to happen in my life coz it's then that I get creative! Not so much of a ritual perhaps, but it's my way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top