Writing In Your Sleep

There is no way any of us can practice enough. If you really want to be good at what you do, either writing music or penning lyrics, you have to put in your time in the trenches, just as in any other trade. This doesn't mean that everything you do has to be perfect, or that you have to complete a piece every time you sit down to work, either. You should, though, be able to write in your sleep, or at least dream about things to write down later. Here are a few exercises you might not have tried to get yourself able to write more easily, and at least get a musical workout, even if you don't actually manage to get anything on paper or otherwise recorded.

JAMMING

I've mentioned this before, and it is still one of the best exercises you can do, musically. If you are a lyricist, it can be as silly as taking a headline from something you are working on at work, and making up a rhyme for it. You don't have to come up with an entire song, just try to come up with doublets. If you are a music writer, and need more work on melodies, try coming up with a good melodic line while you are waiting for your fax to run-maybe you can come up with one that is in harmony with the fax squeals? If you like rhythms, maybe you should try coming up with one while in traffic based on the beats of the cars around you and the revvings of their engines-think of them as guitars and sometimes that helps. Just don't hit on your steering wheel too hard, or you might set off your airbag. You can always just come up with some cool counterpoint song to go with whatever is on the radio ala "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" by Simon and Garfunkle. Even if you are just doing a parody answering back as if you are the person the song is being sung to, you can sometimes come up with a totally new and different song, just because you bothered to jam along with the radio.

NOODLING IS GOOD FOR YOUR NOODLE

One of the most famous noodlers of all time, Jimi Hendrix, was known to sit with his guitar in all-night movie houses in Seattle sitting in the dark, playing his guitar without an amp as the movie ran. If he can, you can-sit with some pencils in front of the TV and work on your paradiddles as you check out the news, or finger different notes at least on your flute or other instrument. It doesn't have to make any sound-you just need to think of where your body is supposed to go and get used to the feel of the instrument and basic rudiments on it. Sure, you can practice actual scales and exercises, but it is really fun just hitting random notes and listening to the sounds that come out. The more you do this, you will be surprised to find that you can often know where to go to get a certain sound, and your ear playing will improve tremendously. If you are a lyricist, doing crosswords and Jumbles are great to help you come up with words, and doing them often really helps you to come up with words on a very short notice, just because of the practice you get. Flipping around in a dictionary just for fun and learning new vocabulary words is often helpful, too.

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