The Songwriting Process – Part 1

I know it seems like I’ve been neglecting my blog, since my last post was at the beginning of month.  In reality, I’ve been been working on writing something to submit to EFY 2009.  Throughout all of this, I’ve been careful to keep notes of my song and lyric versions; I thought some of you would be interested in seeing a glimpse into my creative process.

My first crack at writing was around June 8th.   The original lyric idea came pretty quickly.  I decided to describe how life’s experiences help us understand that He cares about the details.  Elder Bednar’s classic tender mercies talk served as the concept. However as I started writing, the lyrics kind of took an interesting turn. There were a lot of rewrites to try and tighten up the concept before I ended up recording a demo.  Here’s what came about:

Verse 1

Crossing the other side to grow inside,

In my heart I know you can see me

Now on the other side, sometimes, I’m blind

In my heart I know you, can see me

Down on my hands and knees

Asking to help me see

Chorus

I know enough

That I can say

I’m close enough

To feel your strength

I close my eyes with you

Cause you see me,

And I see you too

Verse 2

Searching all through day

To understand,

In my heart I know you

Can see me

And when I feel I’m almost

Near my end

In my heart I know you

Can see me

Down on my hands and knees

Praying to give me peace

Chorus

Verse 3

Walking a lonely road

No help, in sight

In my heart I know you

Can see me

And through the midnight black

I see a light

In my soul I know You

Can see me

Down on my hands and knees

Praising my Lord my King

Chorus

Repeat Chorus

And here’s the mp3: I Close My Eyes

After I finished the demo, I was quite pleased with how everything turned out.   I wasn’t sure what to do next,  but I figured I’d come back to it a few days later and figure it out.

Well that Tuesday or Wednesday when I sat down to revisit the demo, it just didn’t sound right at all.   I liked the groove and the general chord progression, but the arrangement itself was too repetitive (lots of block chords).  I kept imagining what the sheet music would look like; if I had to play it myself I would have been incredibly bored. One other thing that bothered me about the arrangement was that the vocal range was just too low.  When I first wrote it, I liked having the verses melody in the lower registers because I thought it sounded indie-ish.    Well, on my revisit, it didn’t hold up so well.

Another issue I found was the the chorus’ chord progression.  Even though I found the chorus catchy, it just seemed a little generic.  As a songwriter, one of my greatest fears is that I will subconsciously regurgitate a song that I’ve heard in some previous setting.

The third thing that bored me was that the tempo was a little slow.  The emotion of the song was prevalent in the first verse and chorus, but since the tempo and arrangement didn’t vary much it started feeling monotonous.   I also had a hard time envisioning the tempo of the song working with my intended audience.

The last thing that I struggled with was that the lyrics weren’t focused enough even after all the rewrites.  Verse 1 is more metaphoric while verse 2 talks about the spiritual experience from a general perspective.  Finally, verse 3 can be intepreted both metaphorically and literally (I originally envisioned a stalled car at night, with the driver trying to find help).  This was one of the major problems.

I tried rewriting the lyrics a couple times, but the rewrites didn’t match with the imagery of the chorus.  After a while I got frustrated and just went to bed.   In part two, I’ll detail my second revision attempts.

A final note:  In preparation for this post, I listened to the mp3, and still found it catchy. I think I’ll keep it in my catalogue, although I probably won’t work on adding any additional instrumentation.