I love thinking of being a songwriting giraffe. Giraffes have long necks they can stick out to get water that isn't muddy when they go to the watering hole. Giraffes can get the leaves at the tops of trees that the other animals can't get to, so they are filling a need to keep trees trimmed and forcing new growth while not keeping other animals from getting their share of food, either. Songwriters often have to do the same things-they need to find a niche that keeps them working while not alienating them from their fellow writers, and still all being able to get what money they can from scarce monetary resources in a tight market. When everyone else has made a mess of what refreshment is around, it is a resourceful songwriter who can find inspiration in what seems to be a very cluttered and already used-up cache of ideas to make music from. Here are a few ways we giraffes can stretch our necks out to keep getting the good stuff.
STICK YOUR NECK OUT
Too many songwriters never go anywhere because they "play it safe." Sure, you can write according to genre guidelines, and try to write like the pros you look up to, but unless you break out of that mold and do something different, there is nothing to distinguish you from all the other writers out there. Find out what your strengths are, and make the most you can of them, whatever they are. Take what you do know and try stretching that to a ridiculous extent, and see if that works or not. Just getting started is tough for a lot of us, but unless you stick your neck out and play in front of an audience, or dare to pitch your demos at a convention, no one will even know you exist.
DON'T DRINK MUD
Why should you do what everyone else is doing? Just because everyone else seems to think that wading in and making it so everyone after him or her should eat their dust doesn't mean you have to follow the rest of the herd. Sticking your neck out, you can grab your own bit of clear water, and set your own path. Let the others follow the others and hope to ride on someone else's coattails to success. It is always far more fun to be a trendsetter than a trend follower, and it is a lot tougher to get into copyright problems if you write from a fresh style, and not try to make your music sound like all the other songs in your genre. Nowadays, genre lines are really fuzzy, anyway, so it is perfectly acceptable to combine ideas to create something new. Don't forget to reach for really fresh perspectives, and try to stretch those boundaries.
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