I wrote a song today.
It reminded me of back when I first got involved with my band - actually just a couple of weeks after moving to Graz. I found a band before I found an apartment. Important to have one’s priorities straight.
Most people are surprised when I tell them I sing in a metal band. There’s an obvious stereotype of how a metal band member should look and most of the time I don’t fit it. One man even asked why I didn’t have any tattoos. It’s true that I come from Birmingham, hometown of Black Sabbath, but I don’t share much with Ozzy Osbourne except for a hint of that accent.
The genre of metal is as broad as any other, and my tastes runs towards the progressive end of the spectrum. The music we make in Joker Smile is quite experimental when it comes to time signatures and effects. I only sing clean vocals and sometimes also talk or play flute. I have been known to appear on stage with a hand puppet.
Anyway, to return to my original thought, I wrote a song today, and it reminded me of the very first time I did so. I was so proud and excited and I kept going around repeating it to myself to re-experience the thrill:
As with any sort of creation, it seems miraculous to have brought something out of nothing. Although I don’t write all of the parts, only the vocal line and the lyrics, it always seems to me THAT’S what makes it into a real song instead of an instrumental piece. I’ve breathed life into it by giving it a story, a theme, a message to convey.
But the main point of this post was to share a thought I had about getting the most out of your creative instincts when inspiration strikes.
I recently read this super post by
, where he talks about adapting your daily and weekly planning according to your fluctuating discipline levels in order to maximize productivity. He makes a distinction between tasks that require a lot of discipline to focus on, and those that require less discipline.
This was an interesting perspective for me, and has helped me to grasp why some aspects of writing seem to be harder than others. Those must be the high discipline tasks.
Normally, songwriting would be a high discipline task for me. It takes a lot of focus and repetition to get it right. Also, I wasn’t planning to work on a song today. In fact I had a whole list of other things to work on…
But I woke up with an idea for the song, and it was like one of those times when you’re inspired to do those difficult chores that you keep putting off. When that happens, you know that you have to take advantage
So I knew that the best thing I could do with the day would be to change my plan and work on the thing that was foremost in my mind. So I’d like to add my tiny bit of insight into the
That’s how it works for me anyway. Anyone else got thoughts or insights to add? Have you had the same experience of waking up with a great idea?