I’ve been working on some new music. I’m not entirely sure where it’s all headed but right now the point is to shake the snow globe.

I’m taking a songwriting class that is doing just that; a course that a close friend of mine gifted me. 

At first, I was a little reluctant to delve in because, one, it required a fair dedication of time. And two…didn’t I kinda already know how to songwrite?

With certain skills, I have always maintained a reservoir of self-conscious worry (or insecurity), the levels of which swell, or dry up to a slippery patch, depending on the weather of my mind. These skills include: singing, guitar playing, showmanship…but songwriting? Strangely, this is something I don’t dedicate a whole lot of time to worrying about. Maybe its because my understanding of the form and boundary of song is more flexible and ever-shifting. And less worry is not to say I don’t care about my songs or the craft. I do. Deeply. In the process there is worry, but mostly it’s a healthy worry, or, one might say, the energetic byproduct of puzzle solving.

But once the song is written and recorded, that’s it. Why worry about something you can’t change (I have…I’m not a robot!). 

And yet, here I find myself in a 4-week course, with a weekly lecture, Q&A and homework!

I think, sometimes, there is at play in this mysterious realm of artistic creation, a neurotic fear that too much thinking; too much analysis; too much breaking down of all the component parts; too much ingestion of theory and structure will, somehow, strip away that innocent, pure and ineffable light that makes for transcendent art.

As in all things, there is a balance. And with artistic creation, I believe there is a time for subconscious play and a time for rigorous, studied, conscious-driven revision. 

I have always wanted to write more songs; to songwrite every day. I write every day, but that energy doesn’t usually spark a song right away, if ever.

So, shake the snow globe, shake up my daily habits, patterns and methods and see what comes out the other side.

There is always more to learn and I find this course is pulling new things out of me that I’m not quite sure, yet, what to do with. And that’s exciting.  

First song to come (hopefully) this Saturday.

love,David

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