111 songs: January 2011

As an artist it's easy to get hung up on perfection and quality. Excellence is good, but not if it silences all creative flow and shuts down all productivity. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our creativity is to let it flow uncensored. Pursuing quantity over quality this year will force me to consistently encounter and grow in my craft and will hopefully force me to draw from a deeper well. My 111songsintwenty11 do not have to be epic, great or even good. They just have to be finished. I’m so excited about the possibilities.

I read of a pottery teacher who divided his class into two groups for a semester. The students of the first group were challenged to each produce a single pot of the highest quality. The students of the second group were challenged to produce as many pots as they possibly could in the same amount of time with no regard to quality. Every pot was brought in at the end of the challenge to be counted and inspected. The surprise was that the pots created by the “quantity group” were far superior in quality when compared to the pots created by the “quality group”. Their pursuit of quantity caused them to excel in quality simply because they spent so much time with their craft.

So I'm in. I'm rolling up my sleeves, sitting down at the wheel, and I'm ready to sling some clay. I'm getting my hands on my craft and I'm hoping by the end of this year, my pursuit of quantity will make me a better songwriter. I'm hoping some quality songs will emerge from the piles of forgettable ones.

This blog is to chronicle my adventures in songwriting this year and to invite you to join me. I’m gonna post what I learn about songwriting and videos of each song as I finish them so that you can comment and join in the fun.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New songs incoming!

Nothing finished yet! But some lovely ideas taking shape...

Saturday, January 1, 2011

1-1-11 Day 1

1-1-11
It's here! I'm starting to get nervous now. I realized today that I haven't written a song since last May!! Ugh. That is unbelievable. It now is 2:34 in the afternoon and I haven't felt like writing all day. Reeeeeally haven't felt like it. I've actually invested a lot of energy into procrastinating. I should have expected that. I should probably go kick things off with a ridiculous or funny song just to take the pressure off.... That's what I used to do with a new empty journal. I'd leave the first couple pages blank and then make a shopping list on the next page. After that, it felt like the pages filled themselves. I made up that formula years ago when I was overcoming perfectionism (which is just fear). Sounds weird, but it worked. Alright, no more procrastinating. No more fear. I love songwriting more than any other form. I've been writing songs since I was a toddler. This should be as easy now as it was then!