Thursday, February 18, 2010

Getting out of the songwriting rut

We had been noticing that all the songs with the kids in SongCamp were sounding pretty much the same. To do something different, I brought my new Boss loop pedal. Not only can I record my guitar and add a lead, it also comes with a number of prerecorded drum tracks. The result, two totally different sounding songs.

In applying this to songwriting, I made the following observations:

1) Change the energy - Just adding something new to the mix, immediately changed the energy of the room. We were in uncharted territory. I've had this experience before with a new guitar, plugging in my guitar, or adding a capo.

2) New rhythm - A new rhythm, changes the landscape. Inspiration came from seeing something new. It pushed me outside of my typical safe comfortable patterns into a whole new world and a totally different song.

Can wait to see what we do different next week.

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7 Comments:

At 1:48 AM, Blogger Matt Blick said...

Nice blog Jeff
I've been doing a similar job in the UK for about the last 10 years - rewarding but always unpredictable!

I've just started a songwriting blog analysing all 211 Beatles songs in chronolgical order - trying to add some fresh inspirqtion into my own writing - it's called (The) Blog After 909 if you want to check it out.

 
At 10:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for your post. I too am a songwriter and I really need to learn more about home recording and putting technology to work.

David Patterson
http://theseedsofsong.blogspot.com/

 
At 7:09 PM, Anonymous Steve said...

Nice blog and great post! Thanks for the help!

 
At 8:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice blog & good advice.

Jessica Brandon
Artists Relations
USA Songwriting Competition
http://www.songwriting.net

 
At 4:44 PM, Anonymous Anthony said...

Jeff,

I use my looping pedal as well for songwriting! It really does wonders for inspiration to have multiple tracks going at the same time and being able to experiment with them.

I just finished a post about being in a lyrics-writing rut, and I thought your post would be a nice complement to it. Check it out when you have the time:

http://themodernmusician.net/2010/04/got-songwriters-block/

-Anthony

 
At 9:01 AM, Anonymous Craig said...

The good old boss loopstation, great for getting creative!

Craig S.
http://www.world-of-songwriting.com/index.html

 
At 5:06 AM, Anonymous Darren Jarwood said...

I agree, it's good to try new directions when songwriting. I also find something simple like using a capo on the high frets of the guitar can add some refreshment. Nice Post.

 

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