I think the above quote is a perfect description of another way in which a song can be formed. Write an essay about something and then condense it into a song.
As I have lots and lots of snippets, song titles and miscellaneous lines floating around in my head or written down on pieces of paper its important that these ideas become fleshed out a bit more if songs are to be written from them.
In paraphrasing what Madonna had quoted, from a line a sentence is formed, from a sentence a paragraph is formed and from a paragraph a short story is formed. Its amazing how much you are able to write if you let yourself go.
This technique of making a mountain to produce a molehill is something that I use a lot. Writing an essay from a single idea enables me to express that idea to its fullest potential, to put down every tangent that comes to mind and to fully exhaust all options. Then comes the fun part, the process of elimination. This is where the song is formed.
Let me give you an example of how this has worked.
I was chatting to a friend of mine Penny, and she was telling me about a horror road trip to Lake Charlegrark (dont ask me where it is but it's somewhere in Australia). It was the story about how she was chatted up by this guy who turned out to be married and on and on and on it went.................
I must say it was very entertaining but something had occured to me as the story was being told. It was a flash of inspiration.
I had this idea. If I get the whole story then all I have to do is find the most important bits and mould that into a song, a country song at that (something I had never done before).
I recieved the email and boy, it was a long one but there was more than enough information there for me to format a song from. As I was reading the email the melody and the hookline for the chorus popped into my head (which then became the title of the song).
Half an hour after that "Two Timin', Smooth Talkin', Double Crossin' Married Man" was born. I was estatic.
For me, its easier to write too much and take things away than to write too little and have to add things afterwards.
It just goes to show that in songwriting it pays to sometimes make a mountain out of a molehill.
Until next time, happy writing,
Corey Stewart
Songwriter/Musician
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