Being at work constantly means I’m always trying to write while far away from my instruments, which is easy enough to do by scribbling in a notebook or singing into my own voicemail. The problem I keep running up against is that when I finally sit down with a guitar, the words I’m writing don’t exactly fit into their intended places.
It’s frustrating because , I’m not sure what I’m missing. It reminds me of trying to solve math equations: I understand the concepts in algebra, but I still end up with a lot of wrong answers.
It’s fascinating, though, because I’m not sure where these things are getting muddled in translation. Memory is imperfect, so that’s a good suspect. I also think that I’m prone to writing little bits in different keys, and then I have trouble transposing them all into the same key later.
I feel like songwriting should really be more like building with Lego: the size and shape of the music you need should be apparent from looking at the lyrics. But for a person without a functional grasp on musical notation...well....
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
I frequently find myself in the same boat. It seems to me that often times the best material arises from my own improvisations, but to pause and write down the ideas disrupts the natural flow of creativity. Yet, I am not so hasty as to despair, I am certain with the right amount of discipline I can somehow harness the wild and scattered elements of my imagination, and produce something wonderful. Also, awesome Lego analogy.
ReplyDelete