Who Can Wait Forever -- The SONGWRITING PROCESS

Any musician who writes songs probably will say the same things about the process: it takes time to get it right. It is also something that often just happens.

For me, I never had any problems coming up with good music. That was always natural for me. It may be because I taught myself the guitar. It may have been something I inherited from both sides of my family -- both of which were loaded with musicians.

I took to music the same way I took to speech. It just happened naturally. And the first thing I did when I learned guitar was to try to write. For several years the music was good but the lyrics were sheer garbage. Writing words that didn’t completely suck – that was always a challenge for me.

I think I probably speak for a lot of musicians when I say that the process of songwriting is similar for all of us. You start with either some words, or some chords. For me, it's guitar chords.

Dean 12 string acoustic, usually tuned to standard tuning, or EADGBD

In my case, the ideas usually come when I have a lot going on in my heart, or I'm pissed off about something (usually the former). I pick up my guitar – usually my 12-string – and a couple chords will spill out of my fingers. Sometimes they will turn into a chord sequence that I like. For a few minutes I’ll strum the chords. Then sometimes a phrase will 'appear' that is singable and fits the chords. Soon enough -- entire lines start spilling out.

The best songs come automatically. I don’t know why that is, but it’s the way it happens. The only conscious part of the process is the subject matter – who and what the song is about.

The following song is an example of a song that wrote itself. It just spilled out. I wrote it in probably 15 minutes. I think I probably revised the words once. Then I recorded it. The longest time it took to work with this song was when I was trying to play the piano part without screwing up.

Boots the Cat, when a little kitten

It’s called “Who Can Wait Forever”. 

It’s a couple 12-string guitars and a piano. Boots the Cat can be heard meowing at the very end of it (he was wandering down the hall, wondering where I was):

Who Can Wait Forever:

http://tindeck.com/listen/ibqsf

It describes my muse at that time – a woman I knew.


There are also some other songs of mine on my Tindeck page:
http://tindeck.com/users/Interrock