Writing songs for yourself

[love_hate23]

I've been in a rough place lately, and I've been writing a lot of material that I don't really think I ever want to share with any one. Not so much that it isn't good, but its really really raw. No metaphore, no cover up, and I almost feel like showing it would be exposing myself to people.

 

Any one else deal with this? Some times your songs become journals, no?

[ggm1960]

I think there's nothing better in music than raw honesty.

[blue2blue]

I think it can be valuable.

 

I always think at least a little before I put a song out in public, to be sure.

 

When I'm inspired to write, I write.

 

Later, I edit, refine, analyze, and make decisions about what, if anything, to do with what I've written. I almost never throw anything away, if there's even a glimmer of the inspiration I was feeling when I wrote it -- even if the words are crap. I figure it's still a clue that might lead me back to that inspiration and the emotions behind them...

 

 

By the way, let me take this op to invite you to stop by the HC Songwriting Forum. It's a work and constructive criticism oriented forum where songwriters and composers can talk about the art and craft of writing music as well as share constructive feedback on each other's compositions. Since it's a little more on topic-oriented than some other HC forums, it's not a bad idea to glance over the Rules/Resources sticky thread at the top of the forum listing. It's a good crew of folks over there, seems to me.

[Jeff da Weasel]

It's a tough decision to make, sharing those songs.

 

What I mostly am concerned with is not so much the sharing of emotions, but the inevitable questions should other people involved in the situations that inspired the writing recognize themselves in the songs.

 

One quote that might interest you is in regard to Joni Mitchell's album Blue, perhaps the blueprint for the "confessional singer songwriter" genre. Joni said, ""The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either."

 

Something to consider.