On Co-Writing, Pt. 2
December 2nd, 2009 by Travis Swan | Posted in Song Writing
The Unlikelies are Travis Swan (founding member of rockworship.com) and Katrina Stone – once a week or so we’ll be posting insights gained in the writing/recording/worship leading process of our album, “The World Will See.”
I’ve been told at multiple conferences and by multiple books that writing music with someone else is absolutely the only way to do it. I really hated that idea for a long time. I had the understanding that good songwriters don’t need help from another writer, and there are those exceptions out there. From time to time, I can stumble onto something pretty good on my own. But for the most part, I really agree now that joining forces with someone else is critical in the development of a songwriter.
I see songwriters go through stages much like I did, and it goes something like this:
- They have a desire to write music.
- They can grasp the basic structure of most songs.
- They begin to write songs similar to the ones they admire.
- They experiment with non traditional structures. (i.e. no choruses, long instrumentals, key changes)
- They eventually come back to writing simpler songs.
- They begin to understand where their weaknesses are.
- They collaborate with someone else.
I realized my weaknesses about 5 years ago. I struggle to write meaningful worship lyrics and my chord progressions were predictable. Travis, being rooted in theology and having a certain mastery of his instrument, was a perfect compliment to my ability to write melodies and arrange and edit songs. I have attempted to co-write with about 16 people to date. It is a very difficult thing to do because there has to be a certain level of trust and humility in both people as well as a lack of any expectation that you will be able to produce anything that day. Travis and I had songwriting sessions that really just ended up with us dialoging about music and not creating a song. We have some half-finished songs that were beginning to feel forced and we couldn’t keep going. I think a lot of people get discouraged when they cannot produce a killer song at every session, when really, God may just want you to have to rely on Him more throughout the process. The reason that writing with Travis was such a fruitful endeavor was simply that we had a good understanding of how the other person functions, what our own strengths and weaknesses were, and we weren’t afraid to disagree.
Travis and I are VERY different people and we are often on two separate wavelengths when it comes to a certain topic. However, we have an understanding that we both will be open to the other person and not get offended when our ideas get thrown out. We had to stop attaching ourselves to every “brilliant” lyric and hook we suggested. If Travis didn’t like my idea, we had to move on to a new one. If I felt like we were settling, we would scrap the line and start over. Not to say we didn’t have our share of arguments about theology or melodies or how high the men in the church have to sing, but more often than not, we learned to pick our battles.
In many of my other co-writing sessions, I felt like I was being pushed to settle for the sake of finishing a song. Sometimes I felt like I was running the show or had no creative voice at all. If you are new to co-writing and you are about to sit down and give it a shot, have a conversation with the other person about the realities of who you both are as writers. It is okay to lay all your cards on the table and say, “I can write really great hooks and melodies, but I struggle with lyrics.” Very few people are great as both melody writers and lyricists. Obviously you should strive to strengthen that area of weakness by practicing it more often and studying it, but you should have a firm understanding of where God has placed your natural abilities. It has only helped me as a writer to understand that there are some aspects of composing a song that don’t come naturally to me. For so long, I would settle for mediocre lyrics as long as I had a great hook. Writing with Travis has made me realize that though it takes more effort and energy and time, crafting a great lyric is worth the struggle and the wait.
Basically, the benefits of co-writing are above and beyond what most writers could imagine. After 5 years of writing with Travis, we are both much stronger at our craft, better versed in worship and what the church needs to sing, and more able to encourage other writers to be excellent and not settle. The experience alone has forced us to let go of our pride, surrender our time, and grow as worshippers.
~Katrina
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under Song Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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