Writing The Good Time Song

So how do you have a good time? My acting coach used to urge us to "dig inside your treasure box of experiences" and think about those special events that got us to feel good if that is the feeling we wanted to give our audience. We all have a personal area of expertise, whether it's surfing, sailing, fishing, hunting, biking, running, riding horseback, going to concerts, or whatever we do to get out of doors and have a great time. Now armed with your memories and favorite source material on that subject, let's get into the studio and write a song about it. Here are a few ideas to get you moving....

SENSE THE MOMENT

Once again, use all your senses to remember how it felt to participate in your fun. Did you have a certain food or drink at hand? What was the weather like? How did it smell around you? How did it feel to work the equipment if there was any, what was it, and how does it feel in your hands and work your muscles? What were people wearing? Where does this event take place? What time of day? What are people saying, or are they? Loud noises like engine roars or total silence except for the occasional insect or splash count here, too. Put these feelings into your lyrics, or try to recreate them with your instruments or sampled sounds that you can work into your music. As always, have fun and just play with the ideas at first to free associate and get stuff on paper and/or tape, and worry about editing later.

USE YOUR KNOWLEDGE

If this is something you normally do, there is probably a whole vocabulary of slang words and special technical terms related to this event-use them. Show how someone who would be there participating would refer to the items or moments involved, and don't worry if folks don't understand some terms-you can always put a footnote next to the term and list the meaning below-I've seen several artists do this on the sheet music versions of their tunes. Chances are, though, if it's a common pastime, everyone who shares your enthusiasm for this will know exactly what you are talking about, and can translate for the uninitiated. Go for it, and strut your stuff in your area, too, and use your knowledge of instrumentation and lyric writing to create the feeling with your tempo, choice of instruments, alliteration, or anything else that is uniquely you to put your message across about how this event makes you feel.

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