Painting, or art generally… with all its technicalities, difficulties, and particular ends, is nothing but a noble and expressive language, invaluable as the vehicle of thought, but by itself nothing. He who has learned what is commonly considered the whole art of painting, that is, the art of representing any natural object faithfully, has as yet only learned the language by which his thoughts are to be expressed. -John Ruskin
It’s the sense of progression in songs that gives listeners satisfaction: note to note, chord to chord, verse to chorus, soft to loud. Music is consummately satisfying when it gives us a sense of going on an adventure or a journey—so it’s only natural that you would seek a similar sense of meaningful travel from song to song.
As a songwriter or an artist of any kind, it can be hard to find motivation if you lack an overarching purpose and context for your daily tasks. If you don’t understand why the harmonic minor scale is important and don’t see how it will ever be useful to you, you won’t feel much inclination to learn it—and even if you do memorize the scale, you won’t feel much satisfaction. Days and days spent learning without a real sense of progress will inevitably cause you to stop at some point and think, “Why am I doing this, again?”
The same is true of writing songs. You can write a new song every week and still feel like you’re running in place. Again, if there’s no greater context for writing those songs, you may eventually find yourself feeling restless, dissatisfied, even lost. If you don’t understand where this feeling comes from, you may experience it as general angst that impedes your efforts.
Where to Find Direction
Below there awaits a list of factors—some internal, some environmental—that can all contribute to the artistic path that you choose to walk, whether that path eats just one day or forty years’ worth of shoe leather from your heels.
It’s important that you guard yourself from negative influences and make sure that you don’t let anybody shape your path for you without your full consent. Along the way you will find it necessary to adjust course to get around obstacles, to compensate for a mile or two of careless navigation, or to change direction entirely and head toward a new and better destination. Some people navigate well by instinct; I myself have to be very conscious about it; I am always weighing option against option. That famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” is relevant here. Let’s dig in.
Audiences
Who’s listening? Whose attention do you seek? What’s the occasion? Your answer to questions like these will shape your songs, your performances, and your sense of self in the long-term. A song written for grandma’s birthday will probably be different from the one you sent to record execs for consideration as a mass-market radio hit, right? For the sake of both grandma and the staff of said label, I hope so.
Deadlines
Deadlines can serve an immediate, short-term purpose, like writing a simple but interesting chord progression by Friday or coming up with a lyric idea by the end of tonight. They can also be larger and longer-term: you might allot yourself one year to write and record your next EP, for example.
Deadlines tend to work best when there’s a consequence for taking too long to meet them. You might try placing a bet with a close friend or resolving to enter a songwriting contest. Lost opportunity, if you’re aware of what you could have gained, can be a powerful motivator.
Personnel
Who else is with you on this journey? If you have relationships with businesspeople, performers, & bandmates, they are all affecting the development of your art and its position in the world somehow. What direction is your team taking you in?
More importantly: is that where you really want to go?
Projects and Challenges
Resolving to record a CD or write a cycle of songs about your dog are both projects. Every project has its own self-contained purpose, but that purpose will also influence common perception of you and your work—and may help shape your future course.
You may also set yourself short, medium, and long-term projects and frame them as challenges, such as when composer John Zorn decided to write 100 melodies in one year using traditional Jewish scales as a base. That project, called The Masada Songbook, now features hundreds of songs, an ever-expanding circle of performers in different contexts and arrangements, and you can’t count the discography on two hands. Or even four.
Self-Image
If you see yourself as a ne’er-do-well and a fraud, it will affect your work. If you see yourself as an evolving artist who progresses with every song and every performance, your attitude and fate will be much brighter. But there are many, many distinctions that can be made beyond “positive” and “negative.”
Your self-image is a composite of your life experience, perception of others, family, career, famous figures, people you’ve met, archetypes, the culture or cultures you were raised in, comments and feedback from others about your deeds and character, and your own desired future self.
Do you want to be a pop star? A songwriter, a perfomer? Both? All of the above?
What do you want to experience next? Who do you want to be in a year? Five? Ten?
Work to expand your awareness of the opportunities and possibilities that are open to you; I find reading books about music business, marketing and promotion can be especially empowering.
Causes
Woody Guthrie earned a place in history writing songs for the labor movement. Seattle legend Baby Gramps sings about homelessness. What do you care about? Who do you want to write about or advocate for using your social status and your audience?
Influences
This is an enormous topic, not limited to just the music you listen to.
Favorite novels, poetry, visual arts, travel, your hobbies, your heroes… anything that’s moved you or resonated with you in some way will affect your work.
This includes anything that felt like it opened the curtains, let in the light, and allowed you a glimpse of your future outside. Any “A-ha” moments. Anything that made you say, “I want to do that!” Anything that helps you think, directly or indirectly, about your art and its place in the world.
Consider also: the people you admire. The people you don’t. Any experience, positive or negative, that gave you insight into your own desires. And anything you can experience next that will help you refine your vision.
Maybe it’s time to dust off that Dostoevsky book on the shelf. Or go fishing.
Education and Training
Anything you know about your chosen craft. As I write this, I’m chipping away at some intensive books by the great guitar teacher Ted Greene, learning a great deal about melody and harmony—and discovering sounds I love that I might never have encountered otherwise.
Opinions differ on the need for instruction, but I’ve found personally that anything I can do to deepen or broaden my understanding of music and lyric writing has only helped. Actually, since I made the decision to really develop my skills, I’ve made giant steps: more songs written, more music understood, more chords, more tools for writing and altering melodies. There have also been plentiful song ideas, with improved methods for collecting and developing them.
There are some amazing teachers out there; there are also teachers who are… less effective. The same goes for materials you can use to teach yourself. Some are terrific! But others are careless, inaccurate, or poorly organized. Take care, seek the opinions of anyone you think might be qualified, and then seek second opinions if you can’t afford a lot of trial and error. A stack of mediocre music books could cost you over a hundred dollars and hours of time and energy that could have been more effectively spent.
Here are some general guiding principles for buying a book: if you flip through a book and feel excited, if the author seems informative and/or enthusiastic, if the ideas are well-organized and presented clearly, and if you can find no other book that teaches the same material in a way that works better for your style of learning, it’s probably not wasted money.
Overall, education is an important part of your art. But it should be used to help you discover and communicate your ideas; it’s not an end unto itself.
Conclusion
Finding satisfaction is a matter of finding your purpose. Whether that’s finding the purpose of your next song or discovering your deep-seated reasons for creating art at all, any one of the above areas is a good place to begin searching. Take your pick.
Do whatever it takes to begin right away. Any beginning is better than nothing, because you can always change direction. It’s crucial to propel yourself forward. Seek earnestly to satisfy your artistic hunger, and you will come out somewhere. You’ll become aware of more and more gorgeous vistas as you go. Change directions whenever you wish, but again: keep moving.
Consider this before you go:
It is not by the mode of representing and saying, but by what is represented and said, that the respective greatness either of the painter or the writer is to be finally determined. – John Ruskin
Good luck. I’ll see you in the trenches.
This article is intended as an overview, not a comprehensive guide. In future articles, I’ll expand on ideas only touched upon here—so please be sure to check back regularly or subscribe! Leave any questions or observations below, through the comment form. Thanks for reading!