So here is a post I wrote awhile back on my blog, I Sing Folk Songs, about the art of songwriting. I am copying this over from that blog, so, no, this is not plagiarism, lol, cause I wrote it in the first place. Haha. But I get lots of questions about songwriting and I have done many workshops at festivals about this subject, so here is my version, pieced together through the years, of how to write songs.
Now, I wrote this for the Folk Writer who, notoriously , writes 20 verses and does two songs an hour. Yeah, that one! I help people narrow the focus of what they are trying to say in their song, and engage the audience into their story. This works for ALL songwriting, so, without further ado: Songwriting 101 and 1/2 by Norine Mungo aka 30s Uke Girl!
Welcome
to Songwriting 101 and ½
Because the hour long songwriting workshop is nowhere near
enough time to do more than inspire you to write, I’ve created this mini book
for you to read after our session today.
Your
mentor, Norine Mungo
So, who am I to be teaching YOU how to write a song. I know what some of you are thinking. LOL.
So, I will give you a little background on how I got here first, before
I dive into this lesson.
I’ve been writing music since I was 16. Was it great music at first? Mostly not! But it was a start, and it is so cool now to
go back to those beginning songs and compare them to what I’ve written over the
past few years. If you see the growth in
your music, you are going in the right direction!
Through the years I have picked up knowledge from so many
sources and applied them to my songwriting. I’ve read books, talked with
mentors, upped my skills on the guitar, and practiced writing something every
day.
When
I was performing in our Country Rock Band, Reach For
The Sky, we were the house band at a club in Santa Clara, California,
called
The Horseshoe Club. That is where I met
Joan Baez. She used to come in with her
friends from the Arthur Murray dance studio, and she loved dancing to
western
swing. One night, as I was sitting down
on a break, she turned to me and put her hand on the back of my hand. I
turned to her and said, “Hey Joan!” I mean, it is Shut The Front Door,
Joan Baez
touching my hand and looking directly at me!
She said, “I like your songs. You are one of the most
prolific songwriters I’ve met in a long time.
How many songs have you written?”
I said, “Well, about 40 now.” I kept calm but my heart was racing just a
bit.
She
then said, “You are killing your voice in these clubs
when you have a skill for writing. You
need to get out of the clubs before you ruin your voice. And, you need
to write every day. Write 300 songs. Once you’ve reached 300 songs.
Nobody can stop you. You’ll be that good!”
It’s
not like we became buddies or anything. It was just that one chance
encounter. But I did ask about the 300 songs. I was thinking, How will I ever get to 300?
She told me the most important thing I learned about
songwriting. “Every idea for a song should be written down. Once you’ve put any work into that idea, no
matter where you are in the process, it is now considered a song. It might not be complete yet, but it is a song!”
It took a life time to get here but, I now have over 350
songs.
Another thing that has helped me in my writing is that I
have been a performer most of my life, from childhood on. Starting with 17 years of dance school, leading
to high school and college musicals, then vocalist for disco bands, rock bands,
country rock bands, jazz standard trio, western swing, and of course, Folk
music.
As a performer, I see the song from two perspectives:
Can I dance to it?
And, can I sing it? LOL.
Also, as a performer in live shows with bands, I know that
the set list must be diverse enough to keep the audience listening or
dancing. With that in mind, you can see
how it translates to my songwriting. I
write each song with a beat to tap your foot to, or with emotional lines to
deliver an impactful memory. As I write each one, I try to make them different
beats and keys and content so that, once I have enough for a show, the audience
gets a diversity that keeps them excited song after song.
Welcome to my world! It is a chaotic one at best. I can’t even drive to the store without
seeing something that influences me in a way that I want put it down in
writing.
My little pamphlet is created to take you on this journey
and help you think like a well rounded writer! Enjoy!
OK, enough about me, on to the mentoring of YOU!!
Where
Do I Start My Song??
That is like asking, what comes first, the chicken or the
egg? In song writing, I think that you
can approach each song from a different angle, and as long as you eventually
get all the parts going, you will finish
strong. For some, the words come first,
or just the story idea, or poem. For others, they start writing a melody that
leads to a feeling or emotion and the words come after. Like I said, there is no right or wrong on
where you start, but where you finish is the key.
Christopher Cross spoke about his song, Once You Get Stuck Between The Moon and New York City, the
theme for the movie Arthur. He was flying in over New York to work on the
song for the movie, and they got stalled due to bad weather. Like 3 to 4 hours, hovering above the clouds,
waiting to land. He said he looked out
and saw the moon shining down on the tops of the clouds and he thought, “this
is what it’s like be stuck between the moon and New York City” and once he
thought it, it stuck. He got pen and
paper out and began the song in the air.
I am pretty sure he finished it before they landed.
Your inspiration can take you on a great journey, as you
develop your idea into words and music.
As for me, I view songwriting from multiple vantage
points. The story, the poem, painting
the picture with words, the melody, the lead riffs and musical hooks, and
harmony, all come into play with everything I write.
This is not to say that all songwriters will come at their
songs from so many directions. Many
songwriters are lyricists, and many are strictly composers, dealing only with
one aspect of the song.
I think, though, that in the genre of Folk, Bluegrass,
Celtic, Cajun, and most Americana and Roots music, the artist, like me, does a
bit of everything. Therefore, I will
approach this mini class with the slant on creating the whole package for you.
But, given that, I want to impart to you a love of writing
the story of the song! That is what people expect when you call your music
Folk. If you don’t have any starting point yet, but you
feel you have a song idea. Try to write
down your thoughts first, not even poetically, so it’s just your outline of a
story. You will be amazed at how the
song starts developing from there!
Writing
Formula Story Folk Songs!
Why
Formula??
It is not a sell out,
regardless of what you’ve been told! There are purists’ out there that say a
formula kills the buzz. I don’t buy
that! You need to think formula as you are creating your work, just like a
painter. He does a sketch, then a base
coat, then layer upon layer of colors until he/she has a masterpiece. They follow a formula!
Granted, we could take a monkey and hand him a couple of
different paint buckets, and let him slosh it on the canvas. That is cool.
But the attention span of the
viewer will be brief, and the memory of the slosh marks won’t stay in the
viewers mind for very long. Unlike Starry Night or Water Lilies, whose marks and
swirls, make you look at the paintings in depth. These are paintings that have
endured through time because they evoke an emotion. Without all the layers that the master artist
created, they would be nothing more than slosh marks. (Though, at the time they were created, there
were some purists who said Monet and Van Gogh’s paintings were just slosh
marks. LOL)
I like to compare writing songs to painting
masterpieces. I want to leave something
enduring, and timeless. It takes practice to become a master. If you are serious about writing music, then
you must practice your art every day! A
painter and a novelist will tell you to paint or write everyday! So practice, think
formula and have fun. It is a gift to your audience!
What
ARE Formulas!!!!!
Odd place to start when we are talking about Folk music, but
let’s look at Rock for an example of formula!
In Rock N Roll, you will find mostly hooky lines and dance
grooves, lots of repeats, and many story lines that are simple themes. Yet, they are very successful! Why? Well,
that’s because they give the listener something to grab onto. When those lines repeat, and are simple, we
tend to sing along, don’t we? That is what makes them memorable.
Also
part of the formula is the chord progression. The absolute basic chord
progression is 3 to
4 chords. Some songs have only two
chords. Some even only one! Experiment
with the different keys and progressions to get diversity in your
portfolio of
songs. Because chord progression in
another whole subject, I will only tell you to learn from some good
books that
teach the number system and how the chords go together. Again, it is
like learning to paint. If you look at a color wheel, there are
certain color families that go well together, and some that look just
awful. The same goes with chord
progressions. Put the wrong ones
together, and it is like nails on a chalk board. LOL.
Like I said, for this pamphlet, we will concentrate on
structure and leave the actual chord selection for another class.
Rock N Roll!
Many Rock songs have the simple formula of:
A Lead Intro, 2 verses, a chorus, a lead, 3rd
verse, last chorus and lead out with
musical hooks throughout the song.
Let’s take that apart and explain as simply as we can for the novice writer.
1.
The
lead intro is something that might stay on your mind after you hear
it. Like Smoke On The Water, you will hear that guitar line in your
head just from my stating the title of the song! If you are too young, and have
never heard it, go look it up on the net!
That is a quintessential Intro Lead.
Also, Day Tripper. Both of these songs lead intro repeat throughout
the whole song making them the most memorable.
Another example of an intro lead line is The Air That I Breath. This line NEVER repeats again in the song,
but as soon as you hear it, you know what song it is. One last lead line I can mention is Surfin’ USA . Again, it is played
one time, at the beginning, never repeats again, but was so strong that you
jump up to go dance as soon as it starts.
If you are not familiar with any of these songs, look them up on
YouTube.
Yes, not every folk song is going to get
that type of a lead in. But why not strive to create a memorable line
so that everyone will automatically know the title of the song when you start your riff! This
line can be the same as the melody of the chorus. It can be the melody of the first
line of your song. Or it can be something
that never repeats again in the song. Remember,
this is your starting point that gets the listeners attention.
2.
In rock, there is also something called a musical hook. This is a musical line you play on your
instrument that repeats in between your verses.
It could be the same as the intro or, preferably, this is a new line
that traverses the verses and choruses.
It acts like a bridge without words. Listen to Chad and Jeremy’s A Summer Song. You will hear the
opening riff repeated throughout the song.
This is a musical hook!
3.
The 1st
verse should set up your story.
Like any good story, you need to get the audience’s attention with this
verse. And, even more importantly, the
first line should be the bait! A great example is Downtown. “When you’re alone, and life is making you
lonely, you can always go, Downtown”.
You automatically want to hear more of the verse. Another example is Aqualung. OK, it is harsher,
but think about it. The first line is, “Sitting on a park bench, eyeing little girls
with bad intent”. You are hooked
into hearing the rest. One of the best
lines I have heard was from Eleanor
Rigby. “Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in
the church where a wedding has been, lives in a dream”. Those opening lines make you want to know
more about the person, place or thing in the song.
The rest of the first verse expounds upon
the first lines. Just like the first
paragraph in a good book. You make or
break the connection with the audience in that first verse. Make it strong.
4.
The 2nd
verse goes into more detail about the situation, place or
person. I would compare it to the
frosting on the cake. 1st
verse is the cake, 2nd verse is the frosting. Don’t you think it is funny how people
remember and sing along with the first verses and choruses of songs, but mumble
the 2nd one. That is
why. It is the frosting. Certainly important to the content of the
story, but let’s face it. You can eat cake
without frosting, but you usually don’t sit down and eat bowl of frosting without the cake.
This verse is certainly important
though. Remember, you’ve already opened
strong with a character or statement, and now you want to give some background
on that person or statement. Like in Come Dancing by The Kinks, the first verse talks about the situation when their favorite dance pallor gets mowed down
for a parking lot, and ends with My
Sister Went There On A Saturday. Then the second verse goes into detail
about the sister and her dates. The
second verse expounds upon his sister
going dancing.
5.
OK, the Chorus! There are many rock songs that repeat the
same melody for the chorus. In fact, Tom
Petty sings Run Away Train as
the first verse AND the Chorus. But,
essentially, a good chorus will evoke the emotion of the song, and it is a
point of differentiation musically from the verses.
The chorus will raise you up with higher
notes and get louder, or bring you down with lower notes and become quieter.
It can get a different beat or less instrumentation,
or added instruments!
Bottom line, it is a change point in the
song that keeps the interest going and gives the audience something to grab
onto. It breaks the monotony of too many
verses!
A
great Rock chorus example is Stand By
Me. The instrumentation is doing
the same 4 chords as the verses, but, the lyrical movement and the melody
change the beat of the song at that moment.
And everyone sings along with
that chorus. Another example is Pinball Wizard. The verses are frantic and draw you into the
energy of a pinball game, but the chorus changes to Attitude, with the beat and
words and melody giving you the vision of someone who is the king of the
pinball game. Go listen to it again, you
will see what I mean. After the chorus,
it goes back to the frantic motion.
6.
The 3rd
verse
should give closure to the song. It should resolve the story in some
way. If the gist of the song is , I’m A Loser, then the resolve could
be, But I Am
Going To Get Better, or, I Will Never Be Anything Else, or But So Are
You. See what I mean? Let’s say the gist of the song is about
love. The last verse is going to resolve
whatever you’ve been speaking of in the rest of the song. Just like the
final chapter in the book
reveals the bad guy, or tells of the fairytale ending in a love story,
your
final verse will give the listeners closure and solve the mystery for
them. Etc. Great example of a final verse is from You Don’t Know Me. The resolve of the song is that he/she walks
away, never knowing that you love them.
7.
Many
songs add a bridge in the
middle or towards the end of the song. A
bridge usually has far less lines in it than the verses and choruses, or it
could be more. It is almost always an
entirely different melody than the rest of the song. The bridge is usually a retrospective moment
in your story. It is a side story to
your story, or an early resolve of the situation
you are speaking about. It is not
something that you will repeat anywhere else in the song. And, not all songs have or need a
bridge!!! But, if it can be effectual to
the purpose of the song material, then develop a bridge! An example of a great
bridge is from a country song, In My
Dreams. It starts with two
verses, the chorus, a verse, then the bridge, then a fourth verse resolving the
story, and a final chorus. It has the
lead in and outro as well. This is a
well placed bridge!!
8.
The last
chorus is usually a repeat word for word of the main chorus. This is what the listener remembers
most. It pounds the message into the
brain as to the gist of the song. Not
all songs end on a chorus, but many do.
Also, many songs will follow the formula but add the first verse after
the last chorus, repeating that introduction to the song. Again, this makes your song more memorable.
Another thing to note about a chorus, first
or last, and hopefully both, is if you can repeat a line from one of the verses
in the chorus, you have done what they call in soccer, a Hat Trick. Talk about a Lyrical Hook Line! Also, if
this lyrical hook line is super strong and much repeated in your song, you
might want to make it the title of the song!
9.
Finally, your outro should be a musical figure that takes you out of the
song. It can repeat the chorus or the
verse, acting as a tag at the end and lets the listener know that the song is
over. It is the Ta Dah of your
song. Another way to do your outro is to
tag your last lyrical line of the chorus or verse. So, as in Goodness
Gracious Great Balls Of Fire, you repeat the last line “You Broke My Will, But What A Thrill,
Goodness Gracious Great Balls Of Fire”, twice at the end. That is a perfect
tag.
Standard
Formulas!
Ok, so enough about Rock! LOL. Let’s talk more formula. There are many ways to configure your Folk
song. Here are some simple formats to
play with.
1.
Intro, 1st verse, chorus, 2nd
verse, bridge, chorus, repeat the 1st verse, tag last line, outro.
2.
Long Intro (going through the melody of your
song musically), chorus, 1st verse, 2nd verse, chorus,
bridge, chorus, outro.
3.
1st verse (starting song with the
words right away), 2nd verse, 3rd verse, bridge, outro.
4.
Intro, 1st verse, bridge, chorus, 2nd
verse, lead line (can be a repeat of the verse melody), chorus, 3rd
verse, chorus, outro.
5.
Intro, 1st verse, 2nd
verse, chorus, lead line, 3rd verse, chorus, outro with a tag of the
first lyrical line of the song.
6.
Chorus, 1st verse, Chorus, 2nd
verse, Chorus, 3rd verse, outro on the Chorus.
There are many more ways to combine your verses and choruses
effectively, but use these as a starting point to refine your direction! You will use these and other formulas you
find to keep your song moving, and making it very interesting for the listener!
So what
defines a Folk Song!
The difference in our genre of music is that we want to tell
a story, or make a statement. Maybe it
is a funny story, or a sad one, or just a good story about a person, place or
thing. Maybe we are passionate about a
cause or a situation out there in our community or the world at large. But what I’ve seen happen, many times, is
that writers in our genre tend to get stuck on the story verses, and never
develop the song into a formula composition that hooks the listener and engages
the audience into participating with the writer.
You know what I am talking about. You’ve heard those songs
at the open mic nights, the ones with 20 verses, each one different, that go
on, and on, and well, you might be one of them, so don’t feel bad. This is what this mini crash course is all
about.
So, let’s say you’ve already written that 20 verses. A novelist will tell you that they just write
everything down and then they revise later.
Good advice for a Story Folk Writer. Go ahead, write it all down. Now prepare yourself to let some of them
go. Or incorporate the most important
points from each verse into less verses.
Keep in mind, like a good story should, the bait lines, the frosting,
and the resolve. The choruses can be as
simple as repeating a specific point line from your verse. Take that line, and add more thoughts to it,
creating about 4 lines, or 2 lines, or 3 lines! Or, like the Beatles, Just keep
repeating, I Wanna Hold Your Hand!
LOL.
Remember, don’t get
hung up on what comes first, the chicken or the egg. I get asked all the time, “Do you start with
a melody or the lyrics, or do you write a poem and put it to music later?”
I think that everyone comes up with their own method of putting
the songs together. It isn’t right or
wrong to start with any of those. The
words might come first for you, and
melody develops around the rhythm of the meter of your poem. Or, you might be one who starts humming a
tune and then you develop words to match your melody. It is all good.
No matter where you start, it’s where you end that
matters! Follow one of the formula’s to
make sure that once you’ve got your words and melody, you will have a viable
finished product that the public would be interested in hearing.
The greatest cause in the world, sung without some type of
formula, will fall on deaf ears. People
get bored quickly.
We are in a world of fast pace, remote control change
artists who can’t even sit through a TV show without flipping the channel
constantly. Think of that when you are
singing your song to an audience. Keep
that song flipping for them from interest point to interest point, or they are
off to doing their grocery lists in their heads.
Also, if you are doing a whole show based on your songs,
remember to set up your show list with diverse keys, beats, and subject matter.
Again, you don’t want to have everything
you write sound the same. That is why I
give you so many formulas to choose from.
Practice using a different one for each song you start. That way, you will sound interesting all the
way through your set.
Lastly, concerning the length of your song, a good 2 ½
minutes to 4 minutes, tops, is best.
That is a standard timing for air play on a radio. My friend Jane Gill, author of the book, A Matter Of Pride, once said to
me, “I am always amazed how a songwriter can say in one page of music, what it
takes me 250 pages to say!” Think of
that when you are struggling to give up those 20 verses. A great song will still only be one page of
typed words!
If you find your typed song hitting two full pages with
standard font, or worse, going to the third page, I am telling you to cut that
baby down!
As To
My Method!
Ok, here it goes. I am consistently starting my songs
differently every time. I have stood in
the keyboard section of Guitar Center, and heard a drum beat that sets my mind
awhirl. The melody or words just start
popping into my mind, and next thing you know, I am running to the counter
asking for pen and paper. I write a few
of my thoughts down, and then when I get home, I fiddle with those thoughts.
Another time, I will see something in the news, or hear a
story about someone we know, that makes me think deeper about the person, place
or thing. I fiddle with the story a bit,
fleshing it out and then start working on a melody line or lyrics.
But mostly, I like to start with a story. I push myself to come up with new stories
that I have totally made up in my head.
Like my song, Mrs. Edna Pomeroe.
She doesn’t exist. I put myself
through writing exercises all the time.
I thought of writing something about all the women I knew who were now
alone, having outlived their husbands.
From that exercise came one of my most requested songs!
Now
It’s Your Turn!
So here goes, your exercise for your brain muscle!
1.
Write down possible story lines every single
day. Get a journal and keep jogging down
your thoughts as they hit you. If you
are at work or in a situation where you can’t write in your journal, see if
your phone has a recording section to speak your thought into it. My android has something called rich
text. OMG, it has saved my mind. I get a thought and I grab my phone and write
myself a message. If you are driving and
you have hands free, you can call yourself and leave yourself a voice
message. LOL. Yes, I have done that!!
2.
Every day, take a look at those thoughts in your
journal, and pick one to work on. If you
have a computer, and you have Word Document, it is awesome cause you can play
with the story, developing the
thought.
I have all these mini stories just floating
around waiting to gain my attention.
That is why, even if you are working on some songs already, keep
revisiting that journal as well. What
only slightly drew your attention before, might later become a passionate thing
that you want to write about.
3.
Every good story needs a person, place or thing!
In a novel, you need a protagonist. It can be a static or dynamic character. Dynamic meaning growth! In my
song, Jacque, the character is dynamic in that he crumbles from what once were
great dreams and ambitions to being a chalk artist on the street. In other words, there is movement in the
characters life, for better or for worse.
In Will McLean’s songs, he developed his
characters from real life personalities and places from Florida History. Your character could be a Lake, or a
Mountain, or your character could be The Boy Next Door, or The Girl At The Soda
Shop. Your character could be Single
Moms, or The Fight To Save X, Y, Z Place.
It could be a past President, or a War Hero.
Your
person, place, or thing is the key element to your story song. If it is fictional, be as creative as you’d
like with your character. But if it is
about a real person, or a real place, then get all your facts, do the research
and paint that picture as accurately as you can.
4.
Willie Nelson once said, “I never write my new
song down until I can remember it from day to day. If I
can’t remember it, no one else is gonna remember it either!” I liked that.
That is why I just write down thoughts.
When I am starting to create the
meat of the song, I many times just play the guitar and start playing with
words and let the whole thing sort of develop for a couple of verses. I am not going to lose the theme as it’s been
jogged down, but as to the content of the actual song, I wait an hour before I
even start writing the words on paper.
When I come back to it in an hour, if I still have the melody and words
in my head, I know I am on to something that others will remember too. This is just a method that I use personally
to judge the metal of the song.
You might think, NO WAY, and write down
every rhyme that comes into your mind. That is fine too, and if that works for
you, then use it. But if you find that
your songs get boring to you, or to those that are listening, then you might
want to resist that way and follow Willies!
I can say that I became a much better writer after learning this
discipline!
5.
Feedback! Humble yourself to accept feedback
from friends, foes, peers etc! Tell your
friends though that you want honest feedback!
When I am writing my novels, I get certain friends and family to read my
works as I go. I get great feedback that
helps me stay on target with my story, and to keep the reader engaged and
invested in the saga.
You need to do the same thing with your
songs before you go public. Now, not
everyone is going to like what you wrote.
But if the majority of your proofers like what you did, then add it to
your show. If you get the soft shoe
shuffle from your friends, get them to tell you why. Did you write too many verses? Did your song
stay on theme throughout, or did it stray to too many thoughts that confused
the listener as to what the main subject was about.
Ask them to sing the chorus with you. If they can kinda repeat that chorus, this is
a very good thing. When you are done
singing to them, ask THEM what the song was about, don’t YOU tell them. This is very important as you will learn
quickly whether you have something interesting that caught their attention.
6.
Now that you’ve written your song, and you’ve proofed
it with friends and peers, and you’ve done it in front of strangers, and
everyone loves it, and you go running to your home recording studio, and you
make your own CDs, and everyone loves it, and some national company hears it
and decides they want to go to the Real Studio, get ready to rewrite your song!
Producers will notoriously change many things about your song. They may change your intros and outros and
the leads and hooks in between. They may
ask you to rewrite the chorus, or change and tweak the melody.
Now this is where you decide whether doing
what the producer wants is going to make you feel like a crazy sell out! If you have doubts about that producers ideas,
ask them to show you some before and after work that they’ve done and make your
decision based on whether or not you think that they actually improved the
artists songs.
Remember too, that if they make major
changes in your song, they will own part of the song as a co-writer! It is one thing for a producer to arrange the
song for you, adding other instruments etc, but to change words and melody gets
into copy write issues. Be aware of what
you are giving up!
You may be one who wants total artistic
control of your work. You may feel
better about just doing your own CD’s, booking your own gigs and staying local,
or small touring of small events. That
is great. Just know and be true to
yourself. You want to be a happy
artist. But if you feel you have a
really big message to give the world, then you will probably have to work with
a producer that will want to influence the direction of the song.
Take heart though, cause YOUR song might be
so good, and complete that they don’t want to change a thing! But in reality,
that usually never happens. LOL.
Last
Thoughts
I know this is a short recipe on how to write a song, but I
hope it inspires you to create better songs going forward. If I’ve influenced you and motivated you to
get out there and start writing, I hope you will email me and let me know of
your journey and your successes. Nothing
would please me more.
In parting, when I was in my 20’s, a band mate recommended a
book to me. It was called, “If
They Ask You, You Can Write A Song”.
It was all about formulas and it changed my direction for the better.
I also became a better writer when I learned to play my
guitar better. Learning to play more
than those 5 basic chords is real handy!
So moral of the story:
Don’t be resistant to knowledge and skill! Develop both and you will increase your happy
factor and your credibility with the music industry as a whole.
Do
you need to spend 70,000 dollars on a college degree to
be great songwriter? Well, Will McLean certainly didn’t! Does theory
help. Yes, it certainly can. But the most important thing in
songwriting
is. . . . Can you be creative???? I know
that my mother in law can play the piano like she is in a symphony, but
she has
stated many times, if the song isn’t written down, she can’t play it.
And as to writing her own material, she said
that she had never even attempted it.
So, you see, her theory didn’t produce a songwriter in her! It made her
a great musician! Theory can’t replace creative thought. But theory
can take creative thought to the next level!
What I want to you think about is this. Am I a creative person? Can I play an instrument to show other
musicians what I am hearing in my head. Can I write a formula song that the
listener is drawn to. Do I wax poetic?
Do I like telling stories?
If you answered the creative part with a positive, that is
the chef in you. The instrument is the
pot in which you are going to cook. The formula is the recipe. The poetic is
the ingredients. The telling story’s is
the serving of your dish! Now get
cooking!!! Writing!!! You know what I
mean!!!
Facebook me! Norine Mungo, The Mungos, Reenee And The
Rollers, and my Ukulele Facebook page is Norine Marie Mungo
And for some of my cool original recipes, for actual
cooking, I have a blog called Mama Mungos Soup Kitchen on Blogspot.com
