Songwriting Sunday: Return to Blogging and Creativity... Well, I Hope.

Well.

It is time to get back to writing after a break. I noticed that my last post had about twice as many views as I usually get, so I suspect that some of you may have been checking to see if I've been posting. It has been a long two weeks, but I am feeling the call to write again, so here goes.

Today is Sunday which means it is time to think a bit about songwriting.

I haven't done much songwriting lately, so I will get my handy songwriting kit and my keyboard to help me in my process. I need some inspiration, so I am going to head over to my clip-art collection to see what I can use to spark some ideas.

Maybe something Autumn in nature... In my Autumn clip-art collection, I have options for bats, for scarecrows, for sharks, for a village, lots of inspiration. So, I have some ideas now for what I can compose about and some visuals to go along with it all.

I tend to be inspired more by pictures when I am composing something, so having pictures helps me come up with ideas. I have never printed off clip-art pictures before, so this is a new way to do things for me. We will see how it works.

Are you ready?

Step One:

Brainstorming - word cloud and thinking...

pumpkin    cooler weather    daylight getting shorter in duration    corn harvest    other harvest    acorns    changing leaves    squirrels getting chunky    hay bales    picking a pumpkin from a patch    apple cider    apple picking    happy moods for me    bird migrations    less insects    hayrides    corn mazes    scarecrows    warm colors

Step Two:

Music play

I am thinking that I want to incorporate some minor chords in the end product, so I start with my 50's rock pattern - I, vi, IV, V7. Get into the groove and start to put words into the chord progression.

Step Three:

Think about client goals. What do I want my clients to do during this TME that will further their progression towards their treatment goals? The different client goals will dictate different things that I can do with the visuals and with the music. Most of my clinical goals are social/emotional and attention focused, so things like color identification or things like that become secondary or even tertiary goals with anything that I do with my kids. For another music therapist, the same song, the same visuals, and the same TMEs could be used for a primary goal of color identification, if that is what is needed by the client in that moment. So, I not only think about my own clients, but I think about others as well during my brainstorming of client goals.

For example, if I focus on colored leaves for my song, I will design a TME where my clients are focusing on social-emotional skill development. For another group of clients, we might use the same colored leaf song but focus on how many leaves they find that are orange. Same song, different goal foci. That's the way I like to write songs...

So, going through my steps, I have the format for some songwriting. The next step is a bit fuzzy because it just includes me sitting at the keyboard, playing around until something starts to stick in my brain and becomes a therapeutic music experience that I can see my clients engaging with and in. It is a bit magical, to be fair, to have this situation happen. After something becomes a TME, it is time to put it onto paper and into my TME compendium. There you go...