Writing Songs In Saskatoon

This past week, I was in Saskatoon at the SWANA Northern Lights Chapter Annual Conference.   We had started a tradition in my hotel room a few years back when we held the conference in Edmonton.  A few of us bring our guitars and jam.  Our good friends Izzy and Dick now bring their sound system and last year the annual informal jam was a big hit.  This year, several delegates kept asking where the jam was. 

Izzy set up her sound system in their hotel room on Sunday, so that's where we jammed.  Apparently some other guest in the hotel weren't entirely happy and the hotel security shut us down sometime after mid night.  On Monday, they let us play until 11 pm.   On Monday night we had about 4 guitar players and Dave was playing his accordion.  The room was jumping.  At one point I turned at looked around the room.  It was packed shoulder to shoulder.  Someone brought in 2 kegs of beer and the party was on.  a few got to dancing. 

Monday was banquet night and the organizers included us on the evening entertainment schedule.  Played on my own music.  There were a few folks there that wanted us to play top 40 covers.  I'm getting to the point in my music where I don't even know how to play cover songs any more.  Lately, I've only been playing the Magpies music, so that's what I played. 

Now, for the real important part of this story.  Izzy has been working on writing songs and since she doesn't play an instrument - her instrument is her beautiful voice - she hands me her lyrics, and sings a few lines.  Then somehow with her singing and me playing guitar, we work out the music.  Last November she had a song called "Scotch Flavoured Kiss" that we put music to.  On Sunday evening, she showed me a partly written song called "Waiting at the airport".  By the time the evening room party began, we had the music worked out and she finished the lyrics.  It is a great tune, as is Scotch Flavoured Kiss.  Of course, Izzy's great voice makes these tunes a hit with everyone who hears them. 

How I Write Songs

I think it would be interesting to share what has helped me write songs.  Now I won't even begin to try and tell you I've become an expert in this subject.  My knowledge of music theory is pretty well next to "0" and my life's record of understanding poetry is quite dismal.   So why then would I have anything useful to say about how to write song?  Good question.  Maybe by sharing how I look at song writing, it might help you, but more importantly, it might help me get a better understanding myself.   

To start, here's a couple of things that have helped me.  In future entries, I'll add a few more thoughts on song writing.

My first few efforts at song writing started with a piece of music and eventually some lyrics mysteriously came to mind.   For songs that I've written this way, I don't always understand where the lyrics come from, but sometimes later on, I look at what's on paper and realize there is some deeper subconscious thing is happening.  I used to say that my songs are just an assembly of words intended to fit a piece of music, but I think I'm starting to see that there really it is much more about the music being a venue for bearing one's soul in lyrics. 

As time passes,  I find I am now writing lyrics and coming up with some music to fit the feeling of the words.   These ideas come from something someone might say or do, or might be about a place or a time.   I've got in a habit of writing these simple little thoughts on paper.  Sometimes, just by putting a few thoughts down, a whole song evolves in no time. 

A good example is a song I wrote called "Two Feet In the Water".   The idea came from a fellow employee who was heading out the door to go to a Caribbean Island vacation.  She said she 'already had two feet in the water.    I sat at my computer and within 15 minutes had the whole lyrics for a song written out.   I knew the music had to have the feel of the sun and the beach, and when I got home, I picked up my guitar, and the music came as quickly as the lyrics.  If you listen to the song, you'll hear a Jimmy Buffet influence, much like Blake Shelton and Kenny Chesney have been influenced in a few of their songs.