A few days ago, I started writing a song that I was absolutely convinced was going to be a fast rock tune.
I could hear it in my head. The energy was there. The attitude was there. I knew what I wanted it to be.
The only problem was the lyrics didn’t want to cooperate.
So I did what songwriters sometimes do when we get stubborn: I kept trying to force it.
I changed lines. Changed phrasing. Changed rhythm. Reworked verses. Tried different arrangements. Then tried them again.
About ten attempts later, I still wasn’t getting there.
The idea was good.
The approach sucked.
That was the problem.
I was so committed to making the song fit the sound I had imagined that I wasn’t listening to what the song itself was trying to become.
Once I stopped forcing it into a fast rock arrangement, everything changed.
The tempo came down. The space opened up. The mood got darker and more interesting. What finally emerged was a slow piece that sits somewhere between alternative, blues and jazz.
And suddenly the lyrics worked.
That happens more often than people might think.
Sometimes you start with a musical direction and everything falls into place. Other times, the song keeps pushing back until you finally get the message.
That’s one reason I don’t like putting too many fences around songwriting anymore.
A song might begin with a rock idea and end somewhere completely different. It might pick up blues phrasing, jazz chords, reggae rhythm, synthesizers, folk instrumentation or something I never intended when I wrote the first line.
The important thing is not whether I stayed faithful to the original plan.
The important thing is whether the finished song works.
I spent ten tries trying to make this one obey me.
Turns out, I should have been listening to it.
That’s songwriting sometimes. The idea is fine. You just have to get out of its way.
— JayT