Write One Song

Oh it's a new site this means I feel like I've got a fresh start. Maybe this will be the beginning of a new streak.

How important is that for me, to create a new streak? Do I really want to get into that right now?

Part of me says YES opportunity for a new streak. Take it, run with it, write all the things. I'm already assuming that I'll like this new version of the site which gives me a sense of a new version of myself.

Maybe I can write a blog for myself.

Last year, I wrote my first song. Well, I had written two songs before then but they were without much trying. Then I started taking music lessons and a few months into that I got an idea for a song and I wrote it.

The feeling of completing the song was exhilarating. It felt magical to bring what I heard in my head and make it into a song that other people could sing along to.

Then a few months alter I did it again. This song was even more complex and heart-felt. It turned into a song that transformed my life ... but that's a story for another time.

But then for the rest of the year, I wrote zero songs. I started to feel like those songs were a fluke. They were accidents. I wasn't meant to write songs, that was just a passing fad in my hobby life.

Except, some deep part of me yearned to write more songs. The more I played music I reflected on what made me give up playing guitar when I was a teenager. I criticized myself for letting the critical parts of me get in the way (ironic, isn't it?).

I would cry about the songs I could have written if I'd only pushed through the self-judgements that turn up whenever you're learning something new. I then realized that I hadn't learned that part of life yet when I was 13, so of course I turned to things that were easier for me.

But now, at 37, I long to write music and make stuff that "good enough" for others to want to hear.

So I promised myself that I'd just write a bunch of "shitty" songs to get them out of the way. But I had to begin by breaking my dry spell.

Enter in this little book. My friend, Wes, handed it to me one day and suggested I check it out. "How to Write One Song" has been the antidote to my song-writers block.

I also went to my music teacher and told him I needed an assignment of 3-4 chords that I could use to write a song. I can write words, no problem, but being new to music I'm still getting to know what chords go together.

So I went off for a vacation, with guitar, book, and chords in hand. To my delight, it worked! I read the first chapter of this book, which is mostly about getting over yourself and learning to have fun without having to produce anything "good" (a lesson I re-learn all the freaking time). Then I sat with the chords my teacher gave me and used a strum pattern that's similar to another song I like.

Suddenly, I started hearing a melody and words. My girlfriend was coming to meet me and I walked downstairs of the hotel to meet her outside. She ended up taking a wrong turn which meant I was waiting for a bit longer down there. In that time, the rest of the words came to me.

It took me a bit to figure out the exact melody to the words and I needed to add a new chord to the bridge, but by the end of the week, my first song of 2022 was born!

I share all this to say that when it comes to creating, it may seem like it's easy, but there's a whole lot of work that goes into it. But if some part of you want to create anything, find the tools, people, and motivation to do it. Imperfectly.

Don't make something good. Just make something. Then do it again. This is really the only way anything gets made any ways.

There are things inside you that just want to come out, your job is to get out of the way so they can do that. Love them. Let them teach you to love yourself.