Playing my guitar this morning, working on a couple of the songs I've written recently, I began thinking about the process of songwriting ... & how obscure it is; at least for me!I can't consciously grab hold of what happens when I write a song. I never write in a formulaic way. I don't think about music theory when I'm writing. I don't think about what 'should' work or 'shouldn't' work. I just allow the song to emerge ...
And that's the process for me. I can't force a song to be written. I can't just sit down and decide to write a song. The song will only be written when the time's right for the song; that's just how it feels.
Earlier in my life, I was a prolific songwriter. Songs came easily to me. They weren't all necessarily good ones, but some were! What, for me, was important though, was that I could write songs. I could express myself, my thoughts and feelings through music and lyrics; and that was a powerful outlet for me. And then, somewhere along the way, I seemed to lose that ability. Fortunately, for whatever reason (& I could hazard a guess as some of those reasons!), I seem to have broken through my writers' block and have written 3 new songs over the last few months, which gives me great pleasure. And yet, to go back to the songwriting process, I'm not sure what I do to write a song. It's feels more like a process of me having to capture what emerges through my fingers on the guitar or piano, or through my mouth when lyrics & / or a tune begin to emerge, or even what I sometimes hear vaguely playing somewhere in my mind. I'm not consciously creating the song ... it feels more like it emerges through me & I have to catch it!!
Which isn't always easy. Sometimes, I can 'hear' that tune in my head, but I somehow can't quite get it out through my voice or instrument. And that can be really frustrating! But that moment when I do stumble across, or find, the right notes or chords is amazing! Such a sense of achievement; 'Wow! that's it!' It can make me smile or even laugh out loud, when the song is suddenly out there! I feel a sense of pride at this piece of music that I've created, that's come from me ... & yet I still don't fully understand where it comes from!Does that matter though? The final creation is what matters ... the song; no matter where it comes from, or how it gets there ...
