What Kind of Songwriter do you want to be?

I’ve become involved in another songwriting group - long story, I’ll tell you about it later, but a question was posed the other day, ‘How do I know when a song is finished?’ Now that’s a question that would seem to be absolutely fundamental to every songwriter, but I don’t think I personally have actually ever sat back and analysed how I make the decision. 

So I’ve been giving it some thought, and I’ve decided that that’s not actually the question you should be asking yourself first. I think you need to decide what kind of songwriter you actually want to ultimately become, because I think that’s going to help you work out your criteria for what constitutes 'a finished song'. What does the end of the journey look like?

On the journey...

So, what kind of songwriter do you want to be?

Well….maybe an easier first question is, which songwriters do I admire? So I’m going to pose a list of questions you might consider…

Whose music do I like to listen to?

What is it about their songs that I particularly enjoy?

Is it…..

Do you like the emotional aspect?

Do their songs make you feel happy? sad? reflective? nostalgic? hopeful?

Do their songs calm you down? make you want to dance? make you laugh?

Or….and….

Do you like the stories they tell?

The message of their songs?

What do they stand for as a person, in terms of politics, environmentalism, equality…?

Do you like that they use simple language? unusual language? clever language?

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Now it’s okay to have some conflicting answers to these questions. I have several musical heroes, and the definition I’ve built for myself is a mixture of all those people, and basically…me. I’m unique, so are you, so as much as you might like there might be a component of all those people in your work, make sure there’s a good dollop of you as well!

So once you’ve had a think about who you aspire to write like, (and remember it’s also okay to aspire to be a 100% original artist, but that’s much, much harder, and quite frankly even the most progressive or individual artists were influenced and inspired by SOMETHING)... think about your favourite songs and do a bit of a deep dive on the song itself.

If you’re an aspiring songwriter, you’ll be thinking about rhymes, verses, choruses…. About what these things are, how they all fit together and what they all mean. If you basically try to emulate the word patterns, ideas, themes of the music that floats your boat…..

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Oooh. That reminds me of a quick music joke I heard the other day…..

First Bloke : I’ve got quite a crush on Beyonce, you know!

Second Bloke : Well….whatever floats your boat….

First Bloke : No….that’s buoyancy.....

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Anyhoo…..as I was saying, If you basically try to emulate the word patterns, ideas, themes of the music that floats your boat, the chances are the work you produce is going to float your boat too. And if you have enthusiasm for what you’re writing, you’ll want to write more, and that enthusiasm is contagious to your listeners and friends.

The beauty of this is, is that it’s a concept you can embrace from songwriting day #1. Yes, you absolutely do need to lay your foundations correctly, take time to understand meter, song structure…all that kind of stuff, but you can have that goal in mind. You’re not setting yourself a fixed destination, it’s more like the next stop on a world tour.

You’re going to develop, as an artist. Change. Bob Dylan didn’t wake up one morning and just suddenly become a prolific songwriter. He studied Woody Guthrie. Da Vinci didn’t have a cappuccino one morning, and think, ‘I’m bored, I’m going to give painting a try’ and knocked the Mona Lisa out by tea time.

So I’m going to come back to our original question that spurred all this, ‘How do I know when a song is finished?’ and an important part of that answer is : ‘when it has become what, for me, constitutes a great song’.

There are lots of other standards too that are perhaps much more quantifiable for what might constitute 'a great song' but… y’know, try and have a dream destination. Journeys are far easier when you have a general direction to go in.