I stayed home sick today, so I had plenty of time to bang my head against this first week's song. I won't get into specifics yet (I'll save those for when I post the finished song), but the process clearly reminded me why I'm doing this.
A bit about my background with music and songwriting...
I've been surrounded by music since practically day one. My dad sings, plays a handful of instruments and writes music. Before I could prop myself up, my dad was holding me up to the piano so I could bang at the keys. I started writing instrumental piano music when I was 10, and at some point in high school I started writing songs with lyrics. The creativity has come in waves and I've probably completed about 15 songs to date, many of which have been lost with time.
Voice is my preferred instrument, so I like to write music that can be sung. However, I've always had a lot of trouble with lyrics. When I listen to music, I rarely even notice what words are being sung. Often times I'll sing along with some background instrument rather than with the singer. I feel the music, but not the words. It's not to say I can't appreciate lyrics. But when I do, it's usually because the shapes of the words are particularly rhythmic and musical. Jason Mraz's lyrics stand out to me in this (see title of this post), but then he's all about the wordplay.
So when I sat down to write this week's song, the music actually came out pretty quickly. I even had a picture of what the theme would be like. But as soon as I tried to add lyrics, I drew a complete blank. I found myself unwilling to commit a single word to the page, even after reassuring myself that bad lyrics are good in this game.
Which brings me to my goals:
For me, this project is primarily about words. I want to understand them more the way I understand music. And I'd really like to turn down my lyric-blocking filter.
My secondary goal is to finish more of the songs that I start. I think speed is key here. The longer I take to write a song, the more likely I'll hate it before I finish.
I think this project is pretty well suited to these goals, as long as I can stick to it.
-marlena
Ha! Marlena - I was going to post another post entitled "unencumbered numbered words"... Great minds think alike. It was going to be a dedication to some of my favorite lyrics (I might still post it, but I'll have to give it a different name). It was inspired because I was listening to a line from "Mr. Curiosity" that I had never really listened to before but fell in love with.
ReplyDeleteWas wondering where you were today. I also discovered that "Clockwatching" has actually kind of dirty lyrics. Funny what you find out when you actually listen to the words.