On Songwriting: My Phone Is Killing Me

When I started writing songs, I used the time honored way to draft: write in a notebook and record with a tape recorder.

That process didn’t stick.

In college, I gravitated toward drafting on a computer. Then the iPhone voice memo app became my most used option, more than texting!

I’ve had long conversations with other songwriters about their songwriting processes. In 2007, Marshall Block, producer and owner of Real II Reel Productions, told me a common trait he noticed among great songwriters.

He said they all use pen and paper to draft their songs. He challenged me to return to the same practices again. Abandon that computer!

So I tried. And failed.

I missed the speed of typing on a computer. I missed the ease of searching for words on online rhyming dictionaries. I missed legibility.

However, I want to admit a nagging suspicion I’ve had this year. My iPhone and MacBook have been hurting me more than helping me.

They are filled with tools; they are also filled with distractions.

* * * Achieving the Flow * * * 

There is a process of creation where an artist enters the flow period. Time stops, and the artist is in complete focus.

I used to achieve this state of mind a lot throughout 2000-2007. I’ve noticed it’s hard and harder for me to get there.

I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but 2007 is also when I bought the first generation iPhone. Enter in that miraculous ability–to check my Twitter feed, to browse through Facebook, to read an email, to watch a Youtube video–at any time!

I’m left to ask: Am I using my phone, or is it using me?  Whatever the answer, my songwriting remains sporadic, with many unfinished, abandoned ideas in the voice memos app.

* * * Back to the Notebook * * *

Last night I returned to Marshall’s advice, with a few added rules:

1. Schedule in a block of time to write.

2. Leave phone and laptop upstairs; turn off phone.

3. Experiment in a notebook.

4. Record with a simple recorder that doesn’t connect to the Internet. (I use an old Zoom H4.)

5. Allow any ideas to be written in the notebook. Allow any musical concepts to be recorded.

After three hours, I had a full song finished! More importantly, I had one of the best songwriting experiences in a long time.

* * * Guinea Pigs and Babies * * * 

I know, this isn’t a new epiphany to offer the world, but it’s an important, personal one.

We’ve entered a new era of creativity, one where we are fighting our technological advancements as much as being enhanced by them.

I have been a Guinea pig in this social experiment, and at many times, I’m failing. There is only one way for me to stay productive, and that’s to choose to disconnect from time to time.

I’m preparing for a wonderful, new distraction soon, too: a baby in March!

At SERFA 2014, songwriter Elaine Mahon gave me some tips to practice songwriting in shorter, focused chunks of time, so I’ll know how to work when a baby sleeps. I’ve been trying this more.

* * * A Warning * * * 

People are warning me how a new baby will affect my schedule; however, no one warned me how technological distractions that we take for granted do, too.

I thought I’d offer a quick warning to the younger songwriters out there: Get away from your devices when you work. 

There is a good chance they are hurting us more than helping us during that early stage of creation that we call brainstorming.

And that’s the most fun part of music…