Week 3
Jul 23, 2016 21:44:44 GMT -5
Post by Kristen T. Clark on Jul 23, 2016 21:44:44 GMT -5
Week 3
Co-write a song with another SAC Challenge participant about a relationship.
I have to admit, I was nervous when the co-writing challenge was posted. It can be stressful relying on someone else to communicate and be flexible with ideas, inspiration, and following whatever direction 'forward' seems to be. I have heard songwriters say that they don't write songs, they just provide the song with what they feel like it wants. Though a lot of effort still goes into that, I think it's important to let your vision grow as the song progresses and explore the potential creativity it is 'asking for'. I find it becomes more of a struggle if you're stuck to your initial expectation. I believe you have to let it evolve.
I am excited to say I ended up with a co-writer that was attentive, responsive, insightful, and encouraging. Paul Tarvydas had commented that he liked my submission in week 1, and we talked a bit about some writing techniques and our mutual interest in Pat Pattison. Thankfully, this made it easy to decide who to work with for the co-writing challenge. Being that the topic was a relationship, Paul asked me to pick an experience and write about it. Not lyrics, just an explanation of what happened and how I felt about it. So I did that and he responded with some of his own similar experiences. I think this was an eye opener for me because a lot of co-writes have that awkward beginning stage of "where/how do we start?" It seems to make so much sense now, to just talk about some experiences without just jumping into lyrics, so that both people can be on the same page with direction and something personal to draw ideas from.
We decided to focus on one aspect of a situation. I guess sometimes, the whole story is too long for one song. Paul sent me some possible lyrics, and I was inspired to re-write a bunch of it and add chords/melody. Paul replied with some Pattison-esque analysis of stresses and structure, and more talk about what the song really means, and we reworked the second verse and added a bridgeish section to the end of the last chorus.
Usually in my songs, most of the content is 'internal' or as some people say, 'telling' instead of 'showing'. My understanding is that it's ideal to have a good mix of both internal (feelings) lines and external (imagery) lines. This song was interesting to work on, because it is mainly imagery. The song is built around a concept of harsh waters flooding over a breakwater and damaging an otherwise calm bay. The bay/lighthouse being the relationship and the waves being the antagonist of the relationship. However, this context is not given until near the end of the song, in one of the few places that it switches from showing to telling.
I am pretty happy with how this song turned out. It's definitely something different for me, and I enjoyed the bouncing of ideas with Paul and the extra little songwriting insights I picked up on along the way, as is usually the case with good co-writes. I think that's what makes this challenge great; be it positive or negative, everyone has something to learn from someone else, that they would not otherwise encounter.
So, thank you S.A.C, and Paul, for this experience!
The song is called >>>>> Breakwaters <<<<<
Lyrics:
Tidal waves on a Saturday
Testing the strength of breakwaters
White caps sweeping, peaking
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking breaking breaking through
No shelter in the bay
Lighthouse on the shore fading out
Storm surging, tide rising
Smashing my heart
Crashing over breakwaters
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking breaking breaking through
Bashing my dreams
Trashing my life
Drowning my heart
In a sea of lies
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking my heart
Guess that's what you do
You take things too far
So I'm breaking, breaking up with you
Tidal waves on a Saturday
Testing the strength of breakwaters
Co-write a song with another SAC Challenge participant about a relationship.
I have to admit, I was nervous when the co-writing challenge was posted. It can be stressful relying on someone else to communicate and be flexible with ideas, inspiration, and following whatever direction 'forward' seems to be. I have heard songwriters say that they don't write songs, they just provide the song with what they feel like it wants. Though a lot of effort still goes into that, I think it's important to let your vision grow as the song progresses and explore the potential creativity it is 'asking for'. I find it becomes more of a struggle if you're stuck to your initial expectation. I believe you have to let it evolve.
I am excited to say I ended up with a co-writer that was attentive, responsive, insightful, and encouraging. Paul Tarvydas had commented that he liked my submission in week 1, and we talked a bit about some writing techniques and our mutual interest in Pat Pattison. Thankfully, this made it easy to decide who to work with for the co-writing challenge. Being that the topic was a relationship, Paul asked me to pick an experience and write about it. Not lyrics, just an explanation of what happened and how I felt about it. So I did that and he responded with some of his own similar experiences. I think this was an eye opener for me because a lot of co-writes have that awkward beginning stage of "where/how do we start?" It seems to make so much sense now, to just talk about some experiences without just jumping into lyrics, so that both people can be on the same page with direction and something personal to draw ideas from.
We decided to focus on one aspect of a situation. I guess sometimes, the whole story is too long for one song. Paul sent me some possible lyrics, and I was inspired to re-write a bunch of it and add chords/melody. Paul replied with some Pattison-esque analysis of stresses and structure, and more talk about what the song really means, and we reworked the second verse and added a bridgeish section to the end of the last chorus.
Usually in my songs, most of the content is 'internal' or as some people say, 'telling' instead of 'showing'. My understanding is that it's ideal to have a good mix of both internal (feelings) lines and external (imagery) lines. This song was interesting to work on, because it is mainly imagery. The song is built around a concept of harsh waters flooding over a breakwater and damaging an otherwise calm bay. The bay/lighthouse being the relationship and the waves being the antagonist of the relationship. However, this context is not given until near the end of the song, in one of the few places that it switches from showing to telling.
I am pretty happy with how this song turned out. It's definitely something different for me, and I enjoyed the bouncing of ideas with Paul and the extra little songwriting insights I picked up on along the way, as is usually the case with good co-writes. I think that's what makes this challenge great; be it positive or negative, everyone has something to learn from someone else, that they would not otherwise encounter.
So, thank you S.A.C, and Paul, for this experience!
The song is called >>>>> Breakwaters <<<<<
Lyrics:
Tidal waves on a Saturday
Testing the strength of breakwaters
White caps sweeping, peaking
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking breaking breaking through
No shelter in the bay
Lighthouse on the shore fading out
Storm surging, tide rising
Smashing my heart
Crashing over breakwaters
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking breaking breaking through
Bashing my dreams
Trashing my life
Drowning my heart
In a sea of lies
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking breaking breaking through
Breaking my heart
Guess that's what you do
You take things too far
So I'm breaking, breaking up with you
Tidal waves on a Saturday
Testing the strength of breakwaters