I’ve been binging music this weekend. First Garth Brooks’ The Road I’m On, which is on Netflix. Then Little Voice, written by Sara Bareilles and loosely based on her life before become the songwriter we know. It’s found exclusively on Apple TV but the songs can be streamed and are beautiful. Both of these shows taught me a lot about songwriting and music.
From Garth I learned that a lot of my favorite songs weren’t written by him. It’s easy to assume a performer writes everything, so learning how many of his songs are written by others made me feel better. Even more powerful was listening to all of these other amazing songwriters all gush over the Dance.
Today, listening to Little Voice I learned that writing is never a linear process. A song can take days or weeks to come together lyrically. And even when a song is amazing the songwriter might not be able to see it.
Listening to two of my favorite performers, either through their words directly or their songs, inspired me to keep trying. The current work-in-progress isn’t the only story in my head with a songwriter. Even if it was, all writing takes practice. The more I write songs the better the songs will be.
What I find particularly fascinating is songwriting is yet another creative endeavor I did only in my younger years before giving up on it. I never played them for others and only rarely showed them to someone else, but they were a form of expression at a time when I struggled to express myself. Now that I’m finding my own voice it seems songwriting is taking hold in my heart.
I can’t wait to see where this all leads.