-23.3-

The song writing workshop with Brian was different than I expected. It was more of a casual workshop. Brian brought his own chairs.
We sat and listened to some things that Brian was working on, and he took us through some of his creative process.
Sometimes songwriting seems overwhelming...you could have lyrics, but no music (I seem to be this type), music, but no lyrics...you can have a song in one key or change keys...you can take the melody up and then down again to change the pace or tone...then  many different styles...you could also pursue music writing, which is a different approach. With all of these options I feel a little overwhelmed whenever I sit down to write a song...
However, sitting down and writing seems to be the only way to find out which styles you're comfortable with, and which chord changes feel good to use. Brian showed us all of the files he had for a "daily practice" of song writing he had...I don't know if I'm /that/ dedicated to songwriting...sometimes I get in the mood to make music, but I'm never always flipped on. I like writing songs, but I feel worried that my seeing this as a...hobby isn't as good as the passions of the others in my group...but then again STAC is supposed to be for experimenting...
I think I need to find a method to approach songwriting -my very own procedure (since there isn't a set way to write songs...it's so boundless!)
I really liked the songs Brian showed us. My favorite was the Beatles tune he made for his girlfriend. He took famous lyrics from all of the Beatles' songs and turned it into a love song...in the style of the Beatles tunes, of course.) It was such a whimsical idea and very clever (I could feel myself grinning when he played the song for us!)
Brian also gave some good tips, such as, "Ask a question in your song so the audience's attention is grabbed." I wish he went more in-depth on how to approach styles of baselines/chord progressions, but I think I need to experiment with that (when writing the music for songs, I'm normally ok with the lyrics, but I get freaked out over how to approach the music.)
The song I presented went pretty well, I wrote it faster than my last two projects and actually had time to practice it, but I think I need to have more confidence in singing louder...it was odd, because Brian suggested that I record the instrumental and audio separately, and that's how I've been writing songs.
I was worried that mine wouldn't sound as well as the other people in my group, because I had so little experience with writing music, but everyone's songs were so different that it was hard to compare them to eachother.
Overall, I took away these five points:
1. To get good you need to practice a lot
2. Sing out
3. Try picking the tone of the song and writing music to that
4. Work on descendig baseline/chord progressions
5.You don't have to go through the process alone

edit: adding a point:
-Australia seems to be encouraging musicians to travel more than the American government. (see John's blog for more about this)