Where Do The Ideas For The Songs Come From?

I have been asked many times over the years where the ideas for the songs come from and to be honest, I don’t really know. I have been writing songs since I can remember. The very first songs that I wrote were “my versions” of the Christmas Carols. I gave them all new lyrics when I was about six years old and started writing full original songs when I was twelve or thirteen. I have written hundreds of songs, some I don’t even remember anymore but the best ones get recorded and shared.

Another question I get a lot is, do you write the words or the music first? I wrote a song yesterday that came to existence the way most of my songs do but even faster so while it is fresh in my consciousness I will describe my process.

First I get an image or an emotional impression of something that stands out and gets stuck in my mind. Then I sit down at the piano or with the guitar and start playing around with melodic phrasing until I find one that fits the idea. Then I doodle with what I call a word wheel. I put the words of the main idea in a circle in the middle of a blank page and I do a free association kind of thing and write down all the words and images that come to mind, sometimes this is the first thing I do and where I get the idea to begin with. I have hundreds of notebooks (I am sentimental and can’t bare to throw them away). From there I go back to the piano or guitar and play with chords and pull words and phrases from the word wheel. If I am open, what happens next is hard to explain, but if you have ever been fishing it is similar to that feeling you get when you are just sitting their relaxing enjoying the day and all of a sudden you get a bite. For me in songwriting it is usually a phrase that fits perfectly with the melody and it creates an emotion and I just know it is right. That is when I get excited and a little obsessed and I stay with the song as long as I can, it is like pulling that fish in. Except it is more like I am pulling the song out of me instead of toward me.

After I have pulled as much of the song out as possible, I walk away from it for a while; I come back to it again and again and see if there is anymore of it available to me. From there I start looking for anything that resembles a hook – no pun intended. The “hook” is the actual name of what you call the part of the song that you want to hear over and over again and the better you are at writing “hooks” the more successful a songwriter you will be so hopefully I find one. Then I start playing with the song structure, verse chorus, or verse refrain, rhyme patterns, rhythms and determining where the hook is going to live in the song. Once I have the hook, and I know where it lands in the melody, I start asking myself a bunch of questions like, what could this mean? What is the story? Is this first person, third person n other words, point of view, is it a conversation? Who’s talking? Why? Where is the jumping off place? What is the pay off – the landing place? What feeling do I feel when I sing this song and themn I try singing a bunch of different way looking for the emotional response that “hits” me and that I hope to generate. By this point it is almost like an obsession for me – I playing over and over again with different lines and lyrics, musical phrases. I call this part of the process “playing with the clay”. If you have ever taken a pottery class, you know you have to keep the clay wet while you are shaping your work; the same is true in writing a song. I don’t allow my self to get to attached to something until I get that intuitive “click”, and then I know, this phrase lives here in this part of the melody. How long does it take? Sometimes I write songs in a couple of hours, sometimes it takes me days and some songs get stuck and can take me weeks, months or years. I am usually chewing on more than one idea at a time, in fact I, like many writers I know have more ideas than they have the time or bandwidth to develop into finished work.

How do I know when it’s finished? There is a satisfaction level that I have to feel. When I get there or feel like it’s close, I usually play it for other writers or friends who will give me an honest constructive critique. This is an important step and at first it feels vulnerable to put your music out there especially at first, in fact it never stopped feeling vulnerable for me, I’ve just developed thicker skin and the ability to open my mind to hear constructive criticism. This is probably the most important part of the process really. Do I always make changes that are suggested, no but if not I have a clear understanding of why I am choosing what I choose. Sometimes I do find ways to improve it based on feedback and often the song is better when I take this extra step.

If you are interested in songwriting I would suggest joining a songwriting organization to learn more about the craft and business. The West Coast Songwriting Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association International are two outstanding organizations that support songwriters. I hope you have found this interesting. I would love to hear from you.


Enjoy

Elizabeth Edwards