On Songwriting
I occasionally am asked, “How do you write songs”? The real answer is this: I have no clear idea. I mean, I know about song structures—AAA, AABA, and so on. I know about meter, rhyme, alliteration, and other poetic devices. I know something of music theory. These are all useful things to know, and I couldn’t finish a song without them. But those flashes of inspiration that are the seeds of the songs—where do they come from? Ah, now that is a mystery to me.
Those flashes most definitely do not come from my conscious mind. If I sit down and try to consciously write a song, I will almost always fail. Although I can put myself into a frame of mind where I am more receptive to inspiration, I can’t by force of will make it happen. Most of the songs I have written come from little bits of chords or riffs that come to me while playing the guitar or piano. I’ll be playing, and then suddenly I’m doing something that catches my ear. When that happens, I have only a limited amount of time to record it before it passes completely out of my brain. Once I have those little bits of music, it’s up to my conscious mind to build a structured song out of one or more of them.
Similarly, the ideas for lyrics come out of nowhere. Generally, when I want to write lyrics for a song, I try to come up with a title first. Often I’ll wrack my brains trying to think up a title without success. Then one will pop into my head in the middle of the night, or when I’m getting out of the shower. Particular lines of lyric will arrive this way, too. I usually think lyrics that come this way are superior to the ones I have to consciously squeeze out. Though sometimes I have only a vague notion of the meaning of the words. Again, it’s up to my conscious mind to put together all these pieces into a coherent song.
When I look back at songs I have written, I often wonder, “Where did that come from?” I have heard some songwriters say that they don’t write songs, the songs come through them from somewhere else. I understand why they feel that way; I sometimes feel a sense of awe and wonder when music is flowing through me. Whatever the source of that power, I’m grateful to be a conductor.