Why songwriters are living a meaningful and purpose driven life Pt 3
This is the 3rd and final part of the post “why songwriters are living a meaningful and purpose driven life“. Thanks for reading on…..
If there’s a very good chance of the song being cut and used for a release, what better reason to widen your goalposts and broaden your horizons? Sure, some lyrics can grate a little when it’s not what you would ordinarily write but if we keep in mind that the artist who will ultimately deliver these lines, will not only most likely do them justice but perhaps they simply reside in another area of what we do as songwriters. Our role in a co-write situation is to bring our personality to the creative process and we can only hope that our co-writers are bringing the same sincerity. In actual fact we never have control over how sincere our co-writers will be during the writing process. That’s not a criticism, it just means that we have a greater task at hand in steering the session in an honest direction.
Leverage Your Own Experiences
One method I use when a song is clearly not materialising as something that would represent what I ordinarily express, in my lyrical or musical language, is to leverage my own experiences and use my imagination well to find a way of saying what needs to be said, then trying to put myself in their head from what I may know about their songwriting and that, helps me make suggestions that are more likely to be agreeable to them. Yes, this is a compromise however, the compromise begins at the roots of what I genuinely feel and is definitely not “throw-away” for the sake of wrapping the session for the day. Remember these are suggestions in the context of why songwriters are living a meaningful and purpose driven life and how we feel about songwriting from a philosophical viewpoint and whereby we consider the depth and integrity of our work each and every time we write a song. If we know where the streams come from and we’re content and often excited about that, we are much more likely to enjoy and be overjoyed with where we let the streams take us.
When The Song Being Written Is For Your Own Project
If we are engaging in a co-writing situation with the goal being to use the song for ourselves? Then the approach is far simpler and only takes honesty and confidence to ensure we’re doing all we can to make the most of and get the best results from our co-writing experience. Have the talk! Let your co-writing partner know up front that you feel more comfortable with and are more likely to give the song life beyond the writing process, if the experience is a shared one creatively and if they are open to having faith in your final say. You might also like to suggest that you are willing to review the song at a later date and would love their input at that time. This ensures that your co-writer feels the deserved ownership too. At the end of the day, you and your co-writing partners would all love to feel immensely proud with the results of the session so if you tell yourself that all the way through the process and providing there are no difficult personalities involved, this approach should stand you in good stead.
Why are songwriters living a meaningful and purpose driven life?
We are living a meaningful and purpose driven life because if we care enough about the process to put ourselves into our songs, by drawing from the depths of our experiences and sharing honestly and by using our imaginations well to find the best and most powerful language to tell our story or to interpret life the way we view it, keeping in check our ultimate goals as songwriters (to be moved by our own art), memories are made, moments are frozen, hearts are healed, minds are motivated, hope is shared and in not-so-rare cases, lives are genuinely changed forever by our original and brilliant songs. Remember, treasure, kept in the deep dark waters of your heart, is still treasure.
