Songwriting Sessions: Songwriting in Action (Lyrics first!), Part 5

Part 1 for this series of blog posts can be found here.
Part 2 for this series of blog posts can be found here.
Part 3 for this series of blog posts can be found here.
Part 4 for this series of blog posts can be found here.

How I write songs

One important component of my songwriting is: patience. I'm not usually in a great hurry to finish a song. Why? Because most of the time they don't come all at once. Once I have the basic structure or "skeleton" of a song, I tinker with it and chip away at it until it's done.

I don't always know exactly what's going to happen with a song, so my general approach to writing a song is:

1) Write some stuff for 10-15 minutes
2) Leave it until the next day (but always make sure to remember what I wrote - my number one rule for songwriting).
3) Repeat steps 1 and 2 until I feel like the song is finished.

In my last post on songwriting I did an acoustic demo of the song. I wasn't completely satisfied with the song, so I left it for the day. I've been pecking away at the song here and there this week (probably 2-3 times), and this is what I came up with:



Now why did I decide for an electric guitar in the recording? I think early on I planned to add some electric guitars, and possibly eliminate the acoustic. I'm still not sure.

The great thing about writing a song is that you don't have to commit to an idea right away. I may end up junking what I have so far and do something different. But at least as this point I like what I have.

Some thoughts on this version of the song:

1) It's definitely not done. I know I need more space in the song. It's too compressed, too short. There probably should be a guitar solo in there somewhere. There needs to be more space in between some of the verses and chorus, and I was aware of that immediately after recording this. But I left it as is because I wanted to give you a "snapshot" of the current state of the song, and before the day is over!

2) The electric version has a different vibe. I like the song like this. The other version was a bit more like a traditional song or folk song, which is definitely cool, but I'm not sure if it was the right vibe for the song. Time will tell.

3) I changed a chord. In the verse, I replaced a C and Dm chord with Em. Why? It seemed cool that in D Dorian (the key the song is in) I can play an Em chord. In normal D minor you would get an E diminished chord, which is not usually as cool (in my opinion). One of my goals with this song is to explore Dorian mode a little more and see what can be done with it.

4) I changed the vocals a bit. I'm still not 100% sold on the vocal melody, so it's in a kind of state of flux until I find exactly what I want. Not my greatest vocal take, either, though it's not too bad.

More work to be done, but I thought it'd be interesting to share what I've got so far. Enjoy! And keep writing!