I’m currently working on the usual full recap of our latest Songcraft Session held on Friday night. I will post up the full recap (together with all the sound clips) probably in the next few days.
In the meanwhile, I was just pondering about some of the reflections I had after the latest session.
One thing which I realised is that our songwriting circle is essentially a “support group”. (I believe Ivan was the first to term our circle as such on one of his blog posts, and I felt that it was such an apt description.) We’re more of a support group than anything else, cos we’re here to listen to each other’s songs and provide encouragement to each and every songwriter. We tend to be more accommodating and less critical, pointing out what we liked rather than what we didn’t like. To be honest, I’m perfectly fine with the way things are, and I don’t believe in fixing something which ain’t broke.
Secondly, it always brings me great joy to hear of a number of us actually gaining the inspiration or the impetus to sit down and write songs because of the Songcraft Songwriting Circle. Personally, it applies to me as well, so I’m fully aware of what they mean when they say that. You wouldn’t believe how many times I thought to myself: “If not for this monthly meetup, I wouldn’t have had the motivation to complete my songs.” And now that I look back at the growing number of songs I’ve completed over the months, it gives me a great deal of personal satisfaction. I’m sure this applies to many other friends in the circle as well. After awhile, you look back at your personal “anthology” and I’m sure it brings a smile to your face, and a sense of warmth to your heart.
Thirdly, I’m reminded once again that all of us in the circle write songs for different reasons. Some write purely for self-expression. Some write in the hope of improving their songcraft. Some write because they would like to make it in the industry one day. Some write songs to tell a story, and to touch the listener (I fall into this category). Some write songs for their band to perform. Some write songs to profess their love. We all have different impetus for writing songs, but we all share the same common denominator - We love to create music. And that’s all that’s needed, to be honest. And that’s why I feel we always gel together so easily…because we share the common passion for creating music, and for music in general. Music is indeed a universal language.
Lastly, as much as we would like to focus purely on the “songwriting” aspect and not the “performance” aspect of our song presentations (we’re a songwriting circle after all, not a singers circle), I guess we can’t escape the fact that a good delivery of the song is almost as essential as the song itself. We can’t hide from that fact. As much as we wouldn’t like to admit it, a great performer would make a song seem so much better than if an average performer were to have sung it. Unless we want to become strictly composers like Tchaikovsky, Richard Rodgers, John Williams or Diane Warren, or unless we can always manage to find a good singer to deliver our new songs for us, we will inevitably have to face the situation whereby we, the songwriter, have to deliver our own songs. And therein lies a slight problem for weak performers like myself. But as what our friend Geoffrey wisely commented, it would be worthwhile for all of us budding songwriters to spend some effort to work on our singing…cos ultimately, there is no one who is more suited to perform the song than the songwriter himself/herself. It always sounds so much more sincere when it comes from the songwriter’s mouth.
Hi Jeremy, I agree with you wholeheartedly that Songcraft is about “songwriting” and much less of “the songwriter as the performer”. If we attend Songcraft just expecting “good musical performances” rather than sharing in the art of songwriting, then we’d be missing the point.
Of course it’s a good idea that the songwriter should consider improving themselves as performers, brushing up on the “stage presence” and technical abilities in singing and playing the instrument. We should strive to develop our skills, even get out of our comfort zones.
However, all that should be seen as optional item. Because what’s core to Songcraft is songwriting.
Maybe in future, we might merge a Song-perfomance group (i.e. people interested in performing original compositions, but they don’t necessarily write) with Songcraft! But until then, we remain as a group where the songwriter has to be the performer too (cos no one else can present and explain the song to the group — unless they have a singer at their beck and call!)
It helps that the songwriter has natural abilities as a performer and playing the instrument. But to me, that only helps me ENJOY the song.
What I want is to also APPRECIATE the songwriting process. So I try to be less of as “a member of the audience” but as a songwriter, i.e. put myself into the person’s shoes and I understand how the words and music flow, the structure of the song, the chord progression, how the melody fits the rhythm.
[...] In The Morning, Dear Emily I presented a total of three new songs at Friday’s Songcraft session…two of them piano songs, one of them [...]
Yes, I agree very much that since coming to Songcraft, I’ve felt motivated to do more writing too, although I had not essentially completed any songs since then.
As for performing your own songs…hmm…I guess it’s more meaningful to deliver your own songs as you truly know the meaning of the song and deliver it sincerely. But there’s also a “problem” there. As you “feel” your song when you perform it, sometimes, you relive the moment/story/context such that you get caught up with it, especially those personal songs (I got a bit choked up when I did my piece last month).
But yeah, performing your own songs are good.
[...] you can read (here) for more of my long-winded reflections on last Friday’s [...]
well, i don’t know much about music but I was inspired by your passion and the love of your craft so i’ve sent this site along to my kids in Hawaii who are into it like you guys. From all the way over here in little nz.