Sometimes writing a song is like opening a present. Unwrap an idea and voila! Other times it’s like baking a cake. measured ingredients and methodology. Often it involves tracing an existing outline and colouring it in. There is no right way. The muse is elusive and unruly…pun intended. 

My latest song is more like nurturing a seedling over several weeks. Every day there is a little bit of progress. I wake up in the morning and play what i’ve got so far. It started with a pleasing arpeggio connected to a second arpeggio which i repeated several times. i went on about my daily life and the next day i woke up and played the arpeggios and unconsciously went to a third chord. my brain must’ve been working unconsciously to resolve my progression and figured out where to go next. playing what is now the A section to my song over and over and humming along with ‘ghost’ melodies until the right on fit like an elusive jigsaw piece. When it falls in place it is so satisfying.

On to the next part. The B section is always a contrasting section. i started with a chord that hadn’t been heard yet and followed it with two altered chords that enabled a one note melody. The melody note is a B which is the 11th degree of an F#mi chord I transitioned to a C major 7 chord (maintaining the B in the melody)The B note being the Major 7th. I resolved it down to a B7 chord which means the melody was now the root of the chord. I left it overnight. The next day I resolved the B7 to E minor. Resolution is satisfying! I was now ready to continue. It all seems to fall organically into place. I am just here to catch it.

Two sleeps later I received the brainchild of inverting the order of my first idea and I now have a C section (obviously not a natural birth, this song). AABC eight measures each makes a 32 bar song. Now to just make more than one time through. 

I started writing this song on my Martin D28 and I was enjoying the sound and feel of it, but sometimes my fingers got a little in the way. This morning I switched to my Greenfield and the arpeggios were cleaner and the longer notes rang on better due to a slightly wider neck. I didn’t have to think so much about technique and lo and behold some lyrics started to flow. Turns out the song wants to be about injustice and greed. I realize this is all and abstraction to most people, the house is not quiet enough today for me to record what I’ve got so far.

It feels right. I may finish it tomorrow, may take longer. It’ll know when it’s ready.