Week 5, SAC Songwriting Challenge 2014

Week 5, SAC Challenge 2014 

(Compose 6 songs in 6 weeks)

 Overview of this week's blog:

1. LISTEN to "Knock Your Brains Out" song (sound link)
2. Lyrics

3. Reflections/Epiphanies on the songwriting process
4. The assignment for week 5

LISTEN to my song:

  "Knock Your Brains Out"

  on Soundcloud

(Click on the song title, above) 

Lyrics:

Knock Your Brains Out

© Copyright music and lyrics by S. Katz, March 20, 2014

Artist/singer: Shera Shakera

Verse

Are you really fishing for me to say,

I’m hooked on you, earthworm,

You’re really okay!

Can you say something confident,

Give your soil a chance to regenerate,

Or else just say/don’t say

Silence (music stops),

Don’t even whisper

Silence (music stops),

Bury self-doubt beneath the earth

Chorus

Your idea was born,

Digested, then by you, torn,

Let opinions form,

You knocked your brains out!

You knocked your brains out,

Then kicked them, self-doubt

Right into the ground

Can I dig them out,

Can I dig them out?

Verse

You threw an avalanche in my face

Not letting me see,

That you’re really okay!

But beneath that white blanket,

Will you give yourself a chance,

Melt the snow

Let me see your green grasses show

Or else just say/don’t say

Silence (music stops),

Don’t even whisper

Be quieter than an earthworm

Chorus

Your idea was born,

Digested, then by you, torn,

Let opinions form,

You knocked your brains out!

Bridge

If I may dig holes into your work

At least you made an effort

Let your ideas circulate the earth…

Allow, allow, allow (2 x)

Give me your brain!

Allow, allow, allow (2 x)

Give me your brain

You’re smarter than a worm,

You’re really okay!

Chorus

Your idea was born, oh yeah,

Your idea was born, oh yeah, how nice

Your idea was born

But, but

Your idea was born

Digested, then by you, torn,

Let opinions form,

You knocked your brains out!

 (repeat last 4 lines, above)

You knocked your brains out

Then kicked them, self-doubt

Right into the ground

Can I dig them out,

Can I dig them out?

Reflections/Epiphanies on the songwriting process

For this week’s challenge, the exercise was to write in a stream-of-consciousness fashion, for ten minutes a day, for five days.

Day 1 (Tues. March 18, 2014):

I allowed ideas to come to my head, and wrote them down in note form. I ended up taking notes on five different topics, and organized the ideas as I was thinking them, into those topics.

The five topics were:

1.A news story (the plane that disappeared),

2.A recent film,

3.Artists’ discussions on lack of confidence in their work (self-doubt),

4. Thoughts about songs in my head,

5. Being so busy all the time

  

I liked the topic about artists’ discussions on lack of confidence in their work, and started to write a song on the theme of self-doubt.

Day 2 (Wed. March 19, 2014):

I found the exercise was similar to the exercise on writing 10 minutes a day, but this time, instead of being very observant of everything around me, I noticed that my writing was focused on my to-do list. In this case, I spent less time observing everything around me, and more time allowing thoughts about the past and future to permeate my writing, hence I allowed the pen to travel in time with ideas about the past, present and future. I did not come up with any brilliant song lines, but the ideas could be turned into a theme for a song, such as the idea of being so busy all the time, as in theme #5 from my yesterday’s writing.

Day 3 (Thurs. March 20, 2014):

I continued with this flow of writing, not censoring any thoughts, and wrote in sentences, but the exercise seemed to be getting easier. It takes practice, and a discipline, but it’s really fun! By not censoring any thoughts and without making judgments, I was unintentionally coming up with ideas that could be turned into song lines that could possibly sound awesome in a song! When I finished the exercise, I reread all the sentences that I liked, and underlined them as potential ideas for a future song. I noticed I had written more ideas about artists’ lack of confidence, and finished my song about it and recorded a draft on it. Here was the line that inspired my song:

“Never put yourself down as an artist.”

I continued to work on my song, using the line above as the theme.

Day 4 (Fri. March 21, 2014):

The exercise got even easier. I continued with the uninterrupted flow of writing, allowed it to go anywhere it needed to, and then reread it, underlining all the lines that are good ideas for songs. I noticed a lot of details came out in the writing, making it easier to write a future song.

Here are some great lines that came out of it:

“Should I try to focus on my day or else allow my mind to concentrate on yesterday”

“Hey, I looked at the clock, that was fast, 10 minutes is up!”

I will keep these ideas as song lines for a future song!

]

Day 5 (Sat. March 22, 2014):

It is just becoming so much easier to do this, the more I do it, the easier it gets! A recent acquaintance shared some personal news and in my stream of consciousness writing, I came up with a line that I like, and will keep as an idea for a song line in a future song:

“You have a sunny disposition that drew me to you, and though the blinds are going down, I’ll help you pull through.”

After the five days, I revisited all the lines that I underlined, and was thinking about either writing a new song, or reworking the song I already was working on during the week.

I finished the song, and after reading some discussion forums in SAC about songwriting, while being inspired by a week’s worth of stream-of-consciousness writing, I decided to get more creative by going with an earth worm analogy in my song.

I researched the life of an earth worm, and it gave me ideas about using analogies such as comparing a human brain with an earth worm’s brain, fishing for a compliment (reworking that cliché as per week #4’s exercise), which I changed to: “fishing for me to say, I’m hooked on you, worm”. I initially had the title of “Don’t Knock Yourself Down” but it’s in the negative and not original, so I changed it to: “Knock your brains out” which sounds more interesting. I also threw in the avalanche analogy, which goes with nature and the Canadian idea of snow.

Last week, I deviated extremely from my usual patterns in songwriting, but this week I decided to bring back some typical, maybe even cliché song structures back into my work, because they make the songs sound good (eg. having a repetitive chorus). However, I incorporated what I learned in weeks 1 through 5 of this songwriting challenge. I thought about the theme (an artist’s self-doubt), original opening line and title for the song (week 1), I tried to incorporate some observations (week 2) (this time deemed from online discussions), tried to deviate from typical song structures (week 3) (by lengthening the chorus, and mixing minor and major keys (B minor and D major), threw in the unpredictable idea of silences), and reworked a cliché (eg, instead of knock yourself down, I used “knock your brains out,” and instead of “fishing for a compliment” I opened with “are you really fishing for me to say”).

Enjoy the song & feedback is always appreciated!

Peace/luv from: Shera Shakera

 

The Challenge – Week 5 – Trusting the subconscious 

March 18, 2014

by Christopher Ward

“Are you ready for Week 5?  Only 2 more challenges to go.  This week we will explore trusting the subconscious.
Every writer has had the experience of coming up with a good idea and having no idea where it came from. We might try to recapture the magic by wearing the lucky t-shirt or using the magic pen, but is there a way to tap into that vast reservoir of ideas that live below the surface of the conscious? You can try stream-of-consciousness writing where you write, without stopping, judging or editing until you run out of ideas or your hand gets tired.
This week’s challenge:
Watch the video below.  Then, for the next five days, spend at least 10 minutes (or until your hands get tired) writing from your stream of consciousness.  At the end of the week, review what you have written and look for at least 5 ideas that could become songs.  Choose one to bring to fruition.

Deadline:  Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Please post the following:
1.  The theme you chose to write about.
2.  Your blog link.
3.  Your SoundCloud Link.”

-Christopher Ward