You may notice that I have changed the title of this infrequent blog, from Thoughts About Songwriting, to "Thoughts about a Writing Life". I haven't stopped writing songs -- far from it. But I have been writing a number of…
Oct 30 2017
Mar 31 2016
Pow.
There is a moment, in the life of a great song, when the world gets to hear it for the first time. I've witnessed it a few times, and read about it too. Picture this: a songwriter (or an artist…
Dec 9 2015
Refocus and restart ... Getting to progress
Wow ! Turns out, it's been months since I had anything new to say in this space. Well that isn't going to continue. In the intervening time, I've finished the first draft of a first novel, and gotten two thirds…
Mar 1 2015
Songwriting workshop - moving ahead on March 21
I can't put it off any longer: I'm going ahead with the first of my own songwriting workshops. It's not the one I thought I would offer first, and for which I wrote a nifty little workbook -- currently sitting…
Feb 8 2015
Time to Get Moving
I had two poems included in an art exhibition this weekend -- they'll be hanging in the gallery and hallway for another week or two -- and that's fine with me. It felt good to be doing something with those…
Feb 1 2015
A Poem - Out Loud (Title: For Colleen Peterson) 
So ... long before I was a lyricist, I wrote poetry. For most of my years in high school and university, that was what I expected to be: a poet.
This particular poem, titled For Colleen Peterson, with Thanks…
This particular poem, titled For Colleen Peterson, with Thanks…
Oct 12 2014
Narrowing the Funnel
The point of a funnel is ... the point. It's a big, wide (-ish) catching basin that narrows down to something that fits into the tiny bottle, or whatever. Funnels are about focus.
Oddly enough, so is songwriting. Big, long-reaching…
Oddly enough, so is songwriting. Big, long-reaching…
Sep 18 2014
So ... what? - The Verse-Chorus pairing
There's a funny kind of relationship between a verse and a chorus, in my opinion. The idea is that a verse leads to the chorus, or alternatively, to the hook line at the end of the verse, in an AABA…
Aug 31 2014
Get Yer Silly On !
I take songwriting seriously. Very seriously. Really, I do. But sometimes, you just have to get yer silly on. Or your whimsy. Cut loose. Sometimes, it's important to just ... lighten the heck up! A lot!
There we are, industriously…
There we are, industriously…
Aug 22 2014
Moving from Mood to Music
So. You're moody. That's strange. And you call yourself a musician. What kind of a mood is it? A songwriting mood? Well, most of them are.
What to do? Play something. Sing something. Write something. Listen to something. Any of…
What to do? Play something. Sing something. Write something. Listen to something. Any of…
Jul 13 2014
Be Hard on the Song
When I was a workshop coordinator for the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) we used to organise "Publisher Critique Nights" in which a music publisher would come out and critique songs for our workshop participants. It was a rare and…
Jun 26 2014
Boy In The Window
I wrote this song -- called Boy In The Window -- with my friend and co-writer David Joseph, after several long conversations about the basic idea (and some of the inspiration for it). It was his original hook idea. Sadly…