Finding the Starting Point

Season 2 Episode 8 If there's one comment that I hear more than any other from my fellow songwriters, it's “I don't know where to start.” Whether they're kind of new to writing and don't know what the process looks like. Or they're still dealing with some of those imposter-syndrome type issues. Maybe they're just plain old stuck. Yes, that happens. Even to those of us who have been writing for a while. Sitting down with a blank page, or an instrument without ideas intimidates even the best song writers sometimes. I've found that the key to conquering that type of block for me is to just sit down and write. Trying my best to hit mute on what I like to call “editor-brain.” Meaning trying to just write the words and notes onto the page without judgment. I can always tidy them up later. This is much easier said than done sometimes, but I've gotten better at it with practice. Even with working on building those types of habits, there are still times where I sit down to with my guitar or piano and find myself asking, “Where do I start?” That's what we're talking about in this episode of The Honest Songwriter. Reflecting on the process of getting started so that we get over those blocks and make decisions about where we want to go next with our writing. I feel like there's two main different 'motions' when it comes to starting songs. They're related to one another, and sometimes look like one another. But the main difference between the two is the direction in which you build your song. One I'm calling 'encounters' and the other I'm calling 'generative structures.' These might seem kind of arbitrary and theoretical, but hang with me. How this helps you get over some of those blocks will make sense in a minute. 'Encounters' are what a lot of people generally think of when they hear the term 'inspiration.' The whole idea of you see, hear, taste, touch, or feel something (you 'encounter' it with your senses) and it impacts you so strongly that you want to write a song about it. These are great when they happen! The process of writing a song from this feels very organic. You start with a seed of an idea and build outward from there. Kind of in ever increasingly larger concentric circles. Think ripples in a pond after you drop a stone in. For example, you overhear a turn of words from somebody in front of you in the grocery line and that sticks with you the rest of the day. Maybe you turn that into a lyrical hook and start to build out the rest of the song around that. Or maybe you're noodling around on a guitar and stumble across a riff that strikes you in a particular way. You like it, play around with it and start to craft a song around that riff. But what happens when those encounters aren't happening? This is where the 'generative structures' come in. They function in the opposite direction of encounters, and they might feel a bit awkward to use at first. But they are equally valid and inspiring ways of finding that starting point for your next tune. If encounters work like ripples, generative structures act more like a funnel. Still concentric circles, but now you're decreasing the size as you go. The way these work is you set up some sort of ground rules to help guide your decision making for that song, and then refine your choices further and further. If you're stuck, take a look at what your starting points for your last few songs have been like. Are you just waiting around for the inspiration to strike? Or are you being proactive and working on developing habits that make your songwriting something sustainable? Do you have places where you can find new 'encounters?' Do you have a plan for what happens when those encounters don't come?

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15-20 minutes of regular, open conversation about songwriting, what it's like to be a songwriter, and how to keep improving at the craft of songwriting. New episodes every three weeks!