Learning To Sound Real

One of the main complaints I hear from musicians about their music is that they think it sounds forced or ingenuine somehow. Often upon asking, you find out that they just haven't spent a lot of time in that certain area or that instrument, and this seems to be the usual culprit. Sometimes, though, it is that they were given a writing assignment, and the topic caught them off guard. In either case, sometimes just applying yourself will cure this problem quickly. Here are a few ways in which you can get past this awkward point in your songwriting.

PRACTICE!

I really can't stress this enough. If you don't spend time at least doodling with love songs, it will be tough to write them. If you don't at least make up funny parody rap tunes, you probably can't write one off the cuff that sounds like it should. Singing along like a dog musically howling to country tunes can at least get you in practice to write string parts for one, but if you just try to wing one, you probably won't get that twang right. There really is no genre that you shouldn't at least be able to tolerate enough to poke fun at it, and no instrument you shouldn't have tried jokingly to substitute on your synth for another at some point. Sometimes making a game of doing unpleasant things is the quickest way to get it past you-the Mary Poppins spoonful of sugar approach, if you will. Even if you just pull out your guitar and jump around with it along with the radio, you are helping your songwriting, because you at least picked up your guitar, which is half the battle. Do yourself a favor and at least fret a chord or two and strum a little in time, too, if you can, even with the sound off and not caring if you hit the notes right or not, and you can at least get some ideas of how easy or not some songs will be to perform that you have in mind. Every bit of practice helps.

SURPRISE YOURSELF DAILY

The easiest way to be ready for the unexpected is to practice the unexpected. Doing the daily crossword, daily word puzzle, letting a book fall open and reading a paragraph or so and trying to make at least one line about what you just read, keeping up on news somehow, or just taking a different route home can all help your songwriting. Anything you can do to stretch your imagination, make yourself have to think, or just do something non-ordinary can give those little grey cells some exercise and make them be more capable of handling any challenge that might face them. Sign up for daily quotes, words of the day, and get involved in some online discussion groups about things you like besides just songwriting, and your songwriting will be better for it, simply because you are getting some forms of exercise outside of music that all provide fuel for that next tune. Even if you mostly just write arrangements, getting newsletters about cats might trigger you to try creating cat sounds on your instruments, just because of some cute cat sound effect someone sent you in email. Inspirations are everywhere, even on your drive home, especially if you suddenly see the home of your dreams or wild animal crosses the road and you get that sudden smile on your face. Somehow, it is those little surprises that can be the source of the best songs, since we all have them and love them when they show up.

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