Redeem Your Lyrics With a Memopad

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Can You Make a Record In One Month?

Go ahead … what’s stopping you? That’s the tag-line of The RPM Challenge; a one month, one album challenge in the vein of NaNoWriMo. This takes place in February so you have a little over two weeks to get your mojo going.

This is the challenge: record an album in 28 days, just because you can.

That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February. Go ahead… put it to tape.

Don’t wait for inspiration – taking action puts you in a position to get inspired. You’ll stumble across ideas you would have never come up with otherwise, and maybe only because you were trying to meet a day’s quota of (song)writing. Show up and get something done, and invest in yourself and each other.

Anyone can come up with an excuse to say “no,” so don’t!

For a complete description of the challenge read more …

 

Writer’s Block Will Destroy Us All

Writer’s block is a real bitch. I’m trying to get something new written before going to an open stage later this week, but I’m having a hell of a time. Nothing I’m coming up with feels inspired enough. Sure I could knock out another three chord trick, or four chord turnaround, but deep within is this nagging feeling that I’ve done it all before.

I fired up the keyboard last night in an attempt to get the juices flowing. I normally compose on the guitar, which usually means I create a harmonic structure first then flesh in a melody. Clearly it’s not working for me right now so I thought I should approach it from the other end and build up a melodic structure, which I find easier to do on the keys. It’s also easier to flip around in the various modes. I’ve never really composed with a specific mode in mind. Having an artificial limit may help me from falling into the old ruts. Alas, two hours of tinkling away have yielded nothing.

If I meditate hard enough on the circle of fifths like it were some mandala, maybe I’ll reach an enlightened state where music just exists within me and all I have to do is play. Until then I must slog through writing, discarding, writing, discarding, writing, discarding.

I think some of the problem is attaching too much importance to the work itself. Sometimes when I’m sketching my best work is done on scraps of craft paper. Quick one offs that I never expect to go anywhere or be shown to anyone. I should try this approach. Just start recording and go. Who cares what happens, just play. If there’s anything worth saving I’ll have it recorded.

 

Don’t Get Stuck

Magnetic Fridge poetry! I love this stuff. It forces you to put together thoughts in unexpected ways. It’s the constraint on word choice that does it; you have to think of another way to say what you want given the available vocabulary. Artificial limits are a great way to break writers block or spark creativity.

Brian Eno made a set of cards he called Oblique Strategies that he would use for this purpose. Each card contained a directive such as “Honour Your Error as a Hidden Intention” or “Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame”. Through having to carry out this directive you take yourself in a direction uncharted, or gain new perspective on a problem.

You can buy these cards on ebay, though the original sets can be pricey. They have since been put into many other forms like a program, placed on the web, and are even available as a dashboard widget.

SongsToWearPantsTo is the brainchild of a very talented musician. This guy takes on the most arbitrary and ludicrous restraints that are suggested by the public and pulls them off with great flair and humour. Be sure to check out “A Rap Song in Which None of the Lyrics Contain the Letter E”

So remember kids, next time you’re beating your head against something, put handcuffs on.