Record Breaking

Over the weekend, I started feeling a little panicked- I think I've fallen just a little behind on my schedule of getting 50 songs written in 90 days.  One little voice in my head has tried consoling me, telling me that the point really isn't to get to 50 anyway. The point, instead, is to write more than seems possible... and just to make songwriting a near-daily practice for 3 months solid.  My other little voice has told me that other voice is Crap, and that I will really feel let down if I don't make it to 50, because I'm getting so close.  Which voice is true? I'm not sure...  Maybe they both are.

But the non-consoling voice won me over this time around.  And today, I plunked myself down in my studio and vowed not to get up until a song or two was written. 

I ended up writing 3 songs.  Because I've never written 3 songs in one day and it just seemed like a do-able thing once the afternoon warmed up.  (And I mean that both literally and figuratively... In Dallas, we reached a record temperature of 101 for this day.  And as the day warmed, so did my creative juices.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again- and again- and again.  You've got to be brave enough to create crap.  If you don't create some ugly stuff first, you'll probably never make it to something beautiful.

Of these 3 songs I wrote today one is meh.  If I go back and really work on it, it might turn into something good.  But honestly, I'll probably never look at it again. Another one, I feel really good about- At least in this moment.  It also needs work, but the bones of it feel good.  The third one was awful.  So awful that although I gave it a title, I wrote "This one sucks" in parenthesis beside it.  But there might be one decent line in there- of words or of music... Or neither. 

But who cares?! 

I wrote 3 freakin' songs today!  Songs number 36, 37, and 38 of this batch of 50.  Which I WILL make it to. I'm not going to get this close to the finish line, and then flake out.  I will crawl over that line if I have to.  But I'll get there.  On or before October 1!

50 Songs in 90 Days- Progress!

As I mentioned at the beginning of last month (and oh! how the month flew by!), I am participating in the "50 Songs in 90 Days" songwriting challenge that runs July 4- October 1.

the necessary tools for songwriting (for me, anyway!)

Today I wrote song #21-  So LET'S GO TO VEGAS!  No, but really, I DO feel like celebrating.

It's funny how this random, online challenge lights a fire under my booty.  I've written 21 songs in 31 days that did not exist in the world before.  I think that is pretty cool.

What I've learned, and relearned, each time I've participated in this challenge, is that as impossible as it seems, I really can churn out a large amount of songs in a short period of time by simply planting myself in my room, putting a guitar in my hands and just screwing around.  It's really fun, and not painful at all.  In fact, whatever the opposite of painful is, that's what it is! 

part of what most days look like for me

I think perhaps it's so un-painful, when I do it in this fast and furious way, because there's really no pressure to write a good song.  I know, with absolute certainty, that I'm not going to write 50 good songs in 90 short days.  But I have started to believe that with every bad song I write, I'm that much closer to the next good one that's worth keeping!

21 songs down, and only 29 more to go.  And 57 more days to get there...