Keeping your eyes, ears, mind & heart open
Susan Cattaneo, a professor of songwriting at Berklee and great songwriter, wrote an article about the magic of songwriting published in American Songwriter today. (Read the first article in a five part series here: “Abracadabra“)
“But, writing songs is something everyone can (and in my opinion, should) do,” she says.
That point jumped out at me, and I can hear some silent naysayers scoff, “Ha! I’m not creative! I’m not a songwriter. I don’t have the magic.”
We believe that there are some people who are creative and others who aren’t. Which isn’t true. We all have an imagination. We all have an inner artist waiting–needing–to emerge.
Question: Everyone enjoys coloring with crayons when we are children. Everyone enjoys hitting pots and pans like drums when they are toddlers. Why do some close off this allowance of creativity as adults?
Answer: Fear.
And it’s dangerous to close off your inner artist.
Closing off the inner artist allows violence to brew, negativity to fester, sadness to drip inside us like drops of water from a leaky faucet.
Plus, the last decade has been so focused how the digital world is changing how we read books, how we listen to music, how art is shared, we have lost sight of the bigger picture. Technology is just the tool. We will always face the great big questions of the human experience, that are often unanswerable.
Only finding your inner artist can help us do that.
Susan Cattaneo’s article reminds us that being a writer is simple about keeping your eyes, ears, mind and heart open.
That’s the same trait that makes us better friends, partners, parents, teachers, neighbors and citizens.
I’m excited to read her second article the next Tuesday.
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