Keeping Busy as a Songwriter

Sometimes the hardest thing to do as a songwriter is to keep moving towards your goals. There will be days or weeks where it seems you are going nowhere, and that nothing is happening, you don’t feel inspired to write or even pick up a pencil or even play an instrument or even the radio. If you’ve reached this burnt-out phase, here are a few things you can do to get yourself “in the mood” again.

What Got You Started?

Think for a minute back to the time when you first became interested in songwriting. What was your turning point? What made you want to become a songwriter in the first place? For many, it was a concert or a song or a chance meeting with someone who made us want to write. Can you recreate that moment? Can you play that album, go out and see that artist play, or call that old acquaintance on the phone? Try it—you may find you at least get a small spark started that you can fan back into life. For me, it was opening up my old Girl Scout camp songbook—I looked at the lyric/chord charts and decided I could try to do that with my own poetry. Before I knew it, I was back trying new chord combinations with some new poems I’d come up with. Hey, it’s a start.

The Radio Bores Me

I have to agree, here. I really want to work on my singing on the way to work and home each day, but no matter how I switch channels, there is just nothing on that I find interesting. My CD player is broken, too, so that’s out. Just for fun, I’ve found the classical and Christian rock stations, and have started being really silly coming up with adlib jams to harmonize along with these. Hey, I do it in church, why not in the car? At least I’m exercising the old vocal cords, and working on my harmonizing skills—it’s a start, again, and better than nothing. Sometimes, I even do this with the new stuff—coming up with really silly anti-lyrics of how much I dislike this song—it makes me laugh, and at least I’m working on instantly rhyming and some harmonies. I’ve even done some of this to songs on the Spanish channels, just for fun—don’t know what the song is about, but coming up with lyrics and melodies to any music is always a good exercise. Anything you can do to keep moving rather than stand still is better than standing still, so try these—you may come up with several on your own. Who knows? You may come up with a new genre to work on that you enjoy as much as the one you’re dissatisfied with.

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