Song-a-day 2014

It’s that time of year (most years, anyway) where I decide to try to write and record a song in a day, every day for a week.  Sometimes I’ll keep going for the next week to.  I usually take the weekends off (but not this time). The quality is variable, to say the least, but there are normally a couple of songs that come out ok.

I didn’t do this at all last year, I had writer’s block for 14 months, and it wasn’t fun. Good job I don’t do this for a living.

It’s an unusual feeling, when after a musical drought, you have the feeling, you know that all you have to do is pick up your guitar and open your notebook and songs will appear. It seems to work, though.

Here are songs #1 and #2 from this week: (I started on Saturday this time, just because).

‘Unbroken’ is uncharacteristically upbeat and positive for me, I thought I’d try for ‘not miserable’ and surprisingly, it worked!

You can tell I’ve got a cold, can’t you?

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Creativity, Writer’s Block, Getting Arse into Gear, etc

I’ve really let things slide this past couple of years. I used to read loads, at least a book a week. I used to play my guitar and write a song or two every week. I now read a book once a month, on average, and write a song about once a month too. I’m not sure if these two things are connected, whether the imagination required to read a book spills over into songwriting too.*

Last week I start to change things: I set myself the challenge to write a song a day, every day for that week (I was off work that week, handily).  I might post some of those songs later this week if you don’t behave yourselves. And I have decided to continue into this week, and possibly forever. Every day I will do something creative.

Also, I am going to spend an hour a day reading a book. I have a backlog of 40 books, so I should really get a move on, in case Santa decides to bring me even more, which has been known to happen.

 

 

*This time coincides with me getting a decent-ish internet connection, and spending lots of time sat in front of this infernal machine clicking on things. Not the most creative activity, really.

Campfire Songbook

I’m going camping on Saturday¹ and it is sort-of expected that I will bring my acoustic guitar. This year I’m going to try and learn a few songs that my friends might know or like,  instead of playing my songs² or jamming on blues scales.

One friend suggested ‘Chuck E’s in Love’ (until she realised just how wordy it is) and has requested ‘Sara’ instead (which should be easy, it’s only 3½ chords). Another friend has requested ‘Amy’ (will be sounding more Ryan Adams than Mark Ronson, obviously).

To this I have added ‘Reel Around The Fountain’ (my friends will like that) and ‘Jennifer She Said’ (still a few Lloyd Cole fans in the gang). After that they are just going to have to put up with me jamming.

My notebook with all the songs I’ve learned in it

¹If it doesn’t stop raining between now and next weekend, I will be seriously thinking of not going.

²My songs aren’t terrible (although they tend towards melancholy) but no-one will be singing along as they don’t know the words.