I wanted to start a short series here on Cosmic Eagle to share the little tricks and tools that help me find inspirations, melodies, lyrics in the songwriting process. Ram Dass said that the act of creation (and creativity) is simply bringing form to the formless. There’s a bunch of energy, things, events, feelings, ideas-the human stuff- just floating around your world and outside it. How do you tap into it, shine a light and make some sense of the untamed ether to tease a song from it?? Like any puzzle, you have to bring in a little form and structure to the table, a real process. A process that is unique to you and built over time. But where exactly does a song come from…the first flash of inspiration…and specifically, how do you find it?
It can start with a melody that won’t let you go. It can be a personal experience, a deep feeling, that starts to stir you. A movie, a book, a newspaper article, it can be a phrase or a couple of words that are kicking around your head- all starting a songwriter party. These are traditionally what we know as inspirations. But sometimes you might not really have one and you’ll need to look for it. When there isn’t a direct experience, a melody floating around or a turn of phrase, when the world and spirit-verse are failing to stir you to songcraft, you need to expand your inspiration pallet and use other tools to get there. Here’s a simple trick I like to do.
Get a groove. Pull up a drum loop, let it roll, and just start playing a guitar or piano, anything that inspires melody or song structure. Don’t think about it too much. Just set a tempo and start playing chords…they’ll be in time, and it will start to give you the feels, like you're onto something. You can use a drum machine, drum loops from Youtube, Garageband, so many options are available to get a quick groove going.
I like to use the Funk Box app, which is based on my Maestro Rhythm King from the early 70s. You can change sequences, tempos and sounds, it’s very portable…but mainly, you just want something to quickly give you a little push so you can LET GO a bit, get out of your head, and start getting into a CreAtivE FLoW. You’ll inevitably start playing a chord, and another. Soon you have a few chords in a cycle. Then you start humming some melody that hits you, it turns to some nonsense words…oh you might want to write down a few of those words. Wait what?!?!?!? Your’e off, you're writing a song. With that little start from a simple groove, you're adding just a bit of process, order, and form to the wild spaces around you, tapping into a deeper human language of expression. And you’ve just opened up a song portal to jump on into where you’ll find more pieces- counter melodies, a bridge, lyrics, solos. It’s a ride and you know when you’re on it, time pretty much stops, and you’re likely to see a lot of sunrises. Dial a groove, find a song.
-IN
Love a good Spinal Tap clip!