The future was wiiiiiide open!
The future was wiiiiiide open!
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
Writers dont give up on writing
You have to write until the right one comes along
3/4 of my writing is just a means to get to the
one like I just wrote yesterday
I have TONS of books laying around
Maybe try verse prefect 2.0
It's a free download
Send your imitation moleskin notebook to me then
http://verseperfect.en.softonic.com/
Stratocaster-ghettoblaster
www.MySpace.com/EdMcLaughlin
Originally Posted by clayville
Back in my navel-gazing youth ("Clay: The College Years") I used to keep a journal (maybe they called them diaries back then, I can't quite remember). I found after a year or so that I was spending more time reading it than writing in it.
That was a disturbing realization.
But I thought the writing part was good for me... so I built a kind of sealed cardboard ballot box with a slit in the top and started writing on looseleaf paper. Stuff poured out of my head, onto the paper, into the box... and that was that. When it got full, I put it in the dumpster without ever opening it.
Unfortunately, I still have a few of the "songs" I scrawled back then. Actual sample lyric transcribed just this second:
Dm G7
My love and me, just wanna be free
C Am
To walk together by the sea
Dm G7
Oh how happy we will be
C
Wait and see
I might have stolen half of it from Ringo, it seems.
Many moles died to cover my current notebook... which sits empty, glaring at me not far away from where I sit. Next to it is another empty one covered in fine Italian calfskin. They don't realize it, but they're glad they're empty.
ps: It matters little that I couldn't get the chords to line up over the phrases.
At least your writing led to this entertaining post!
For me writing (and a lot of other things, like playing guitar) are analogous to exercise. The first lap around the track is quite painful.
You might be sore after the first writing session, seeing the banality of your thoughts which you always imagined to be so creative and original.
After a few days of regular exercise the soreness goes away and you might find yourself settling into a rhythm.
But you have to keep at it. Even some of the best songwriters have said that each time they begin a new song they feel like they are literally incapable of doing it.
I think we're all capable, but you must already be doing it WHILE the inspiration strikes, you can't just sit and wait for inspiration. Like an athlete (or musician, for that matter) gives an inspired performance, it cannot happen unless he has practiced to the point of having the capability to pull it off and are ready to make the most of the inspiration.
Well, it's five years later.
I got another notebook.
Fill up that notebook and allow yourself to write anything--keep the gems, act like the rest never happened. Happy is the writer with selective memory of his own work.
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
Welcome back Jim - we missed you!
I sold on that project Strat you sold me (The Warthog) - it's getting good use in a soul band these days!
Yeah, Jim. Good to see you again on the forum.
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
Good to hear from you Jim!
Howdy, gents. Good to see you all, too.
Dirtdog, that guitar must have come from another Jim! I have sold any guitars in a long while.
Could be another Jim. It was in 2007 that I bought it, so my memory could be faulty. I'll try to attach a picture later to see if it rings a bell with you. Beat up old black MIM strat with some sort of superhere sticker on it...
Hey, you know... that actually rings a bell... like I was going to make that project and got too busy... I think maybe I did sell you that guitar! The superhero sticker rocked my memory.
I just listened to one of your Soundcloud tracks, Jim. Tasty!
On the topic of this thread: When I was in college, I was a pretty prolific songwriter. I aced my music theory course by transposing one of my compositions into four-part harmony. I recently pulled out my college notebooks, in which I had written all of the songs in my repertoire (including my originals).
That was then. This is now.
A few years after college I entered the computer field (we called it "data processing" back then). I found that the logic of computers melded well with the logic of music theory. But here's the thing: Having spent the past 35 years training myself to be strictly logical, I seem to have lost the intuitive, emotive, "illogic" that causes the creative juices to flow. It's bad enough that all my lead playing sounds routine to me, but there aren't any SONGS that come to me.
Well, one step at a time. I was a non-playing guitarist for so long that it's just fun spending time every day getting the fingers and hands working again. Maybe the creative stuff will come...
Keep at it. SOMEBODY has to write the songs! :)
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