Visual Tool for Songwriters

I happened across a wonderful tool on Alice Hancock's Design blog that might be useful to other songwriters. Wordle is an online program that turns your words into pictures which can then be printed or exported as pdf's.  The frequency of a word's usage determines its size in the visual.  Results can be randomized, or you can customize them by selecting fonts, colors, etc.  I decided to experiment with the lyrics to one of my songs, and then used the graphics to create a video.  Wordles could also be used to generate posters, t-shirts, album covers or whatnot.  And they might prove valuable in providing a visual tool to examine your writing style.  Have fun with it and see what you can come up with!

The Importance of Being Idle

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop."  At least, that's what I remember the nuns telling me when I was young.  Consequently, the overtones of guilt that accompanied time spent daydreaming, imagining, or lazing in the sun destroyed the pleasure of those activities.

But as I've grown older, I've put away foolish proverbs.  Today I shamelessly declare that idleness can be the angels' playground, and is as necessary to cultivate creativity as water is to maintain life.  

We have become a society that emphasizes more and more doing. Even children are frequently shuttled from home to school to sports activities to specialized classes with no time to just be. And just being is an essential part of the creative development our society is going to depend on if we're to remain innovators rather than drones.

I've found my best work comes when I'm not looking for it; when I've put my mind in idle and just let what happens happen.  I'll be noodling around on my guitar with no defined purpose, and whump!  A new song lands on my head fully formed without any apparent help from me. I'll snap some pictures of whatever takes my fancy while I'm out and about (the one accompanying this post was taken while exploring the St. John's River with my bandmates), and next thing I know I have an idea for a new blog post.  I'll take a single silly line that pops into my head as I'm falling asleep and play around with it until it weaves itself into the chapter of a book.  No planning, no direction, no overt effort.  The work seems to want to do itself, disguised as play.

So consider this your invitation to be idle, to explore the no-wake zone.  Let's float down that river with the sun on our backs, open to whatever inspiration may come.  Even if it's just for a day . . .

The Joy of Being Authentic

"The authentic, I said 

breaking the handle of my hairbrush as I 

brushed my hair in 

rhythmic strokes: That’s it, 

that’s joy . . ." 

Denise Levertov, Matins 

There's a lot of advice out there about the right way to do things. As if there was only one right way. As if every marketing solution was outside in. As if with the right picture, the right body language, the right typeface you could leapfrog past the competition and sell a million dollars worth of whatzits to somebody who wouldn't give you a second glance if your twitter background was cobalt rather than cerulean. 

Maybe the pundits are right. But I'm done twisting myself into a knot over it. When push comes to shove, I think the real task is having something authentic to communicate. And making over a product to fit the latest marketing paradigm is like stuffing a hefty lady into a bodyshaper--something absurd is bound to bulge out at the most inopportune time or place. 

Being authentic is an inside job. It doesn't require perfection; In fact, wabi sabi thing that it is, its very flaws are part of what attract us to it. It communicates nakedly from heart to heart in the power of its truth. It creates immediate recognition in the receiver--an "aha!" moment. 

What would happen if instead of carefully micromanaging every aspect of your product to suit the trendiest advice, you gently but ruthlessly stripped away the unnecessary and allowed the authentic to be revealed? 

What is your daughter doing this summer?

Looking for an experience that will make a lifetime difference?  Look into Rock Camps for Girls, programs that encourage girls to create music together and find their own voice.  The movement originated in Portland, but camps are now held in CA, DC, GA, NC, NY, OH, PA, TN, TX, as well as Canada, England and Sweden.  Many areas have started additional camps for women. 

Contact information is available from the Girls Rock Camp Alliance.

The movie is now on DVD and paperback book Rock 'n Roll Camp for Girls: How to Start a Band, Write Songs, Record an Album, and Rock Out! was released last summer.

The Universal Language

                     

A musician friend shared this video with me, and I think it speaks volumes.  We often talk about music as the universal language, but this demonstrates it so clearly.  It's part of some incredible documentary footage put together by Playing for Change, which describes itself as "a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music."  A laudable goal, and the movement has certainly provided me with some inspiration. As economic distress reduces the funds available to schools for music programs, and pits different groups against each other, let's think about what micro-movements we might undertake in our own communities to create unity through the language of music.  

In The Pocket

There's a phrase musicians use for a rhythm section that finds the groove and stays there: "in the pocket."  It's a zen thing.  Like being in the zone.  Being the ball.  Once you're there, it's effortless, intuitive.  It just flows.  Getting there isn't quite so easy, though.  It requires practice, confidence, and the ability to make infinitesimal adjustments to rhythm and tempo that bring all the players into alignment with each other.  If you make a conscious effort to make it happen, you lose it almost instantly.  But if you reach out with your heart to the others in the band, feel where they're playing from, the groove catches you all up to a new level of playing, where it's not just a song anymore, it's genuine music.

Life has its "in the pocket" times too--days when everything  just seems to fall into place without any help from us.  Serendipity.  Synchronicity.  Even the traffic cooperates to get us where we need to be right when we need to be there.  It can't be forced any more than a groove can.  But it can be invited by being prepared to do our best, believing that the universe wants to cooperate, adjusting to the changes we encounter along the way, and reaching out with our hearts to those who are along for the ride.