I’ve started attending a local songwriting group. Picture 6 or 7 songwriters in a back room of a pub, taking it in turns to talk about and perform their own songs. It’s like an open mic but with additional focus on the methods and approaches we all use.
Because songwriting is weird, right?
Where do songs come from? How do we bring them into being? Songwriters often convey a sense of channeling something from outside of themselves, as though it were like connecting to some kind of cosmic or spiritual Wi-Fi.
But there are various approaches one can take, particularly to lyric writing.
Using “found material” as inspiration for songwriting.
Towards the end of our second session, the person coordinating the event suggested an exercise we might wish to try. Homework, in disguise!
The challenge was to use “found material” to write a song. Found material can be anything you might come across in a newspaper or magazine, a book or a painting, something you overheard on the street, something someone said to you, or something your heard on TV or the radio.
Anything that catches your attention, basically. The key is to pay attention and take notice of things. Once you start doing this, you’ll start to notice things everywhere you go.
Capturing your found material.
Moments are fleeting, and even the most profound ideas can fail to reappear later on, so capture them quickly while they’re fresh.
I find the best way to do this is into my phone. I use Google Keep to take notes, and to add to scratch files for potential song titles, or little one-liners that might find their way into a song at some point.
There are lots of alternatives such as Evernote, and most allow you to capture text or photos, and even make little audio recordings.
The importance of good song titles.
Increasingly, I find it’s easier to write a song if I can start with a great title. A strong song title provides the direction for the whole work from the outset, and helps to focus the lyrics in the verses and chorus to be more cohesive.
My new song inspired by “found material”
The title of this song came directly from a late night conversation in a strange city, over a kebab!
The person had been describing a difficult childhood with a parent who was narcissistic and neglected them somewhat. They had done well at school and aspired to study at university, and described this as “the kindest way to leave”.
As soon as the phrase was uttered, my inner songwriter was awoken. What a great title for a song!
The kindest way to leave
Here’s the very first recording of this new song, just me and my guitar. I always like to record these basic, early versions of songs, partly in case they never get recorded “properly” and partly because I like to reflect on how songs change and evolve over time.
Lyrics
The Kindest way to leave, Alan Thompson 2023
Capo 3, Am Em F C
[Verse 1]
She used to put me down, like a broken toy
didn’t want me around, spoiling all her fun with the boys
watching every move, this bird can’t fly away
but I found freedom in learning and it gave me a highway
[Chorus]
F C
Torn between our broken – hearts,
F G
I just had to go,
Am G F Fm
I found my way to dream
Am Em F C
It was the kindest way to leave.
[Verse 2]
There was a younger one, just a lonely boy
He never made it out, it’s taken an emotional toil.
self medicate,but those kinda scars they stay
I wish , I could’ve done more, but he slipped away.
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
C Em Am
I’m kinda proud I made my own way
G Dm
From the ashes of those. ear-ly years
If I’d have stayed I would have burned up too,
G E7
But I still sorta miss you
Last chorus:
Torn between our broken hearts
I just had to go
But I found my way to dream
Leaving shadows in the memories
After everything that happened to me
It was the kindest way to leave
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