Songwriter’s Shyness

Photo (“Playing alone…”) by Neogene

Songwriter’s shyness.

(That’s a term I coined up, as I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it.)

I reckon every budding songwriter goes through this when they first start out writing songs. It’s a rather painful and awkward phase.

I went through this phase for a really really long time, for at least ten years to be exact – right from the day I first tried to write a song, till late this year. I think I only got over the shyness just recently. Even then, I’ve not completely gotten over it.

What is the meaning of this term “songwriter’s shyness” which I’m talking about? Well, simply put, it’s the embarrassment of performing your own original song simply because it’s an original of yours. It’s basically an inferiority complex that says that “your songs are not as good as the other songs out there.” Your songs only travel as far as the walls of your bedroom, and never beyond that…cos you’re too self-conscious to share it with other people in fear of it being dissed as “lousy”.

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I onced commented that performing one’s own song is one of the most “naked” feelings ever, cos you’re literally baring your soul to the listener. Music never lies, and what you write is what you feel deep down inside.

We tend to be perfectly fine with people presenting original prose, original photography, original art/design, and original poetry even…but somehow when it comes to hearing your friend present an original song, expectations are altered. We seem to have this misled perception that there is a huge gulf between original music and commercial music.

When sharing an original song, it’s usually an awkward moment for both the presenter and the listener, cos the presenter would be thinking “sheesh, what would he/she think of my amateur little song?”, and the listener would be thinking “hah, that’s cute but it’ll never be anywhere near the songs on radio.”

There tends to be a lot of prejudice against original music. We tend to view “original songs” as being in a different league from “commercial songs”. For instance, your friend can write a song today and you’d say it’s good in terms of the “original song” evaluation criteria, but miles away if it were to be considered a “commercial song”.

The biggest irony here, which many don’t realise, is that EVERY song out there is essentially an original song, isn’t it? I mean, every song ever written has to have been originally written by someone right? So why the distinction between “originals” and “non-originals”?

A few more points:

- Let’s say you go to Timbre or Wala Wala and listen to a cover band perform. You love all the big hits they play, but when they introduce a few originals songs to the set, the common reaction would be to say “uh oh, originals!” (That’s what I presume the common reaction would be.)

- Sad, but true: The best way to introduce originals to an audience, I feel, is to just play them the song first without mentioning that it is an “original”. Then at the end of the song, if it is any good, they’d ask what song it is, then you tell them “it’s an original song”. They could react two ways: 1) They’d be genuinely impressed and say “wow! that’s fantastic, I never knew you could write so well!” or 2) They’d start to think to themselves “chey…so it was just an original song, I thought what!”

- I once heard a friend exclaim (when he listened to a fantastic original song performed by another friend): “Wow, I can’t believe it’s original!” I have nothing against that (I’m sure he said it with great intentions), but it’s just a bit lamentable that there’s still so much prejudice against original music going around.

- Go read Eric Moo’s full-length interview in Life! on Monday (I think). He talks a great deal about songwriting. He mentioned that in S’pore, we tend to always make this distinction between “local” music and music from overseas. He says the media in Taiwan and Hong Kong never has to make such a distinction, why only in S’pore? There seems to be some prejudice in S’pore when it comes to “local” music…especially so when it comes to “local” and “original” music. (Eric Moo is a fantastic songwriter, by the way.)

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I think I might have digressed a bit.

Anyway, I think one of the main things the Songcraft Songwriting Circle has accomplished thus far is that it’s allowed a lot of beginner songwriters like myself an opportunity to get over this “songwriter’s shyness”, or inferiority complex when it comes to sharing our original songs with others.

It’s broken down a lot of the inferiority complexes and reservations when it comes to sharing original songs with one another. And I think that’s an important point.

It’s taught us that there’s essentially no difference between a song that is “original” or not. Music is music, period, and it’s all about the freedom to express yourself.

The first few sessions, I was extremely self-conscious when I presented my new songs. I didn’t feel comfortable. I had this massive inferiority complex. I had a lot of self-doubt. What if they think my lyrics are too childish? What if my tunes are too elementary? What if my songs are plain lousy?

But after awhile, I got over it. After all, our Songcraft circle is also a “support group” right? It has definitely fulfilled its purpose, haha!

Hearing some of the wonderful songs being shared by members in the group has taught me that we are all equally capable of writing fantastic melodies with excellent lyrics – songs which truly move the heart.

I honestly believe that some of our songs are every bit as good, if not better, than some of the songs out there on radio.

And one of the things I hope for is that the upcoming Songcraft mini-concert next Saturday will further break down this stereotype that original music, especially “local” original music, is not as good as commercial music or music from overseas.

The changing of this common stereotypical mindset is a cause which I shall continue to champion for.

If we can all start to realise that our original music made in Singapore can actually be of quite a high quality, and break that mindset that “originals are sub-standard”, then I think it would go a long way in growing and developing our local music scene.