Brussels: Home of the international artist

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I was honoured to be invited as a guest speaker at the songwriting workshop hosted by KFK HOPE as part of the Brussels International Songwriting Festival. The other two guests speakers and the engagement of participants reminded me of the reason why I have staying in Brussels so long: The creative community here is so welcoming and relevent to the culture of our city and the activism of art in the wider world that it feels like home for so many artists. 

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I promised to share my top ten tips for writing songs and here they are:

 

 

 

 

The General Bazaar’s Top Ten General Tips for Songwriting

 

Close your eyes and imagine the song is like a jigsaw puzzle. You have some pieces to start but not enough to even begin to imagine what the bigger picture is all about.  You might have a line but you are not even sure if it is part of a verse or chorus or even a bridge.

 

 

Tip #10: Start with the edges.

Starting a song with an idea of a framework (container) for your original intentions is one way to envision the structures. Structures can be whatever you find them to be but will help your memory and give the song opportunity to explore different paths. Even if you only want to say two or three things, put them in order.

 

Tip #9: lyrics are melodies and rhythm!

I prefer to start a song with a lyrical line which generates its own melody, rhythm and memory dynamics. Having at least one line can help you make a syllable map which can be applied towards uncovering other lines, themes and identifying awareness of different sections.  Experiment with writing down a stream of consciousness that parallel the syllables you already have and make a map from that.

 

Tip #9: Perspective from the chorus

A chorus is often the pinnacle of the song and a great place to get perspective of the landscape leading up to and around it. Starting with a chorus instead of a verse can save a lot of time as discovering the chorus will often give you the title and main theme of the song.

Consider the themes of what you have and also what is missing. Use missing pieces as your guide!

 

Tip #8: Be at service of the song:

Don’t try and tell the song what it is about, let it inform you. Share the moment together and enjoy the distance of perspective. Regardless of what happens next, this moment is timeless. Follow it even down dead-ends to help figure out what it is not. Let the song in and meet you half way.

Only once a song is transferred from your soul into your brain can it really start playing with you!

 

You can help your focus by leaving your smartphone at home and take out a pen and notebook or drink at bars that provide blank beermat backgrounds. Talk about your ideas, most conversations have at least one song in them!

 

Tip #6: Mind the GAP

A lot of songwriting is about designing jigsaw pieces and through trial and error seeing how and if they fit but it is also about saving time by following rabbits and getting lucky. The more songs you write the more you will develop a sense of what you are looking for and what you are not looking for.  To help this process, sometimes I will try a General Ambush Process where I basically start working on another song or two; lure your brain into another structure and then wham! Bam! Bazaar! A piece of the jigsaw is suddenly revealed and somehow, you don’t know yet= but it fits. Capture it and return to the original song.

 

Tip #5: Exercise your memory

Memories are the bones of many songs. Practice working with yours: Transfer your writing and memories through melody to the original cloud where you can access it anytime/anywhere just by closing your eyes. This way you can practice/edit whilst falling asleep, in prison or waiting for a bus.

 

Tip #4: Get the song ready

Share your song with others, go to jam sessions & perform it while it is fresh. A song is only finished when you are dead so “relax and make mistakes” (Hugo/Humus). You will know when a song is ready to be performed and go through the next phase of perspective/change. It may feel like closing a chapter or starting a new one.

 

Tip# 3: Places

Even when writing a song about a person or something that happened in the past, close your eyes and imagine some of the places where the events occurred. Use the details to set the scene and take your memory back there. If this doesn’t work, try writing songs by imagining a place first and setting your own scene before the characters and themes arrive. Sometimes places can express just as much as human characters in representing feelings, moods, as well as giving access to memories.

 

Tip #2: Faces

For me, the most important element of writing is to know who you are writing to.

Imagine the person you are writing to will never hear your song. Maybe they are already dead. Imagine you can channel your subconscious to theirs to save time in the afterworld.

Give yourself to the process. You are most honest when you are alone: express it and you may be surprised with the outcome. Give space for the faces to find you.

Singing to someone also helps the memory to tune into what you were feeling when you first wrote the song or experienced the essence of what it is about.

 

Tip #1: Be playful and open to the muses

Most of these tips refer to dry writing where you must use your wits to assemble and craft a jigsaw puzzle. My final general tip concerns wet writing and finding the space where the song writes you.

It’s slightly complicated and so I present it here for your entertainment in poem form, it’s called:

 

A LITTLE EGO CAN GO A LONG WAY TOWARDS GETTING LOST IN THE WOODS

 

For many moons and endless dreams

I followed the muses into the forest  

And every time and from every path

They led me to a clearing

 

Where the trees bow down into the silver stream,

And I could hear their roots softly breathing

Whispering tongues of faces and places

And always I fall into a dream.

 

And when I wake up and scratch at the surface

Looking for the sign in a wish.

Who can speak clearly for my memory?

Or witness the things I have missed?

 

Who was there to remember?

The colours so sublime

Who was there to remember?

The night the sky was shining.

 

I remember now how the night did shine.