Write Away Magazine - April

One Man's Songwriting
Process
Taylor Sappe
In the 1960s, when I was new to songwriting, I
used to get some great ideas for songs, but the
one problem I had was that I would forget the
ideas by the time I was in the presence of a guitar. I
had to rely on my memory, which already had too
many things in it to leave room for new song ideas. If
the idea didn't occur to me at the time that I was near
a guitar it got lost forever.
Eventually, common sense dictated that I write everything
down, so I started keeping small note pads and
a pen in my car, living room, dining room, bedroom,
kitchen and bathroom. I tried keeping one in my
pocket, but it fell apart.
When a page of my notepad would fill up I would
copy the ideas (by re-rwiting them) to a master notebook.
When I was in the presence of a guitar and began
writing, everything went to paper, so I had to rely on
my memory again to remember the melody to the
lyrics I wrote against those cool chords. During that
chapter of my life recording devices were expensive
and hard to come by. Portable recorders didn't
exist.....at least not to my knowledge.
All of these incompleted songs went into a master
notebook that I would rotate through until a song was
finished.
Technology improving work flow
The only type of recorders that were available to
consumers at the time were big bulky expensive reelto-reel
tape recorders. Eventually, cassette
recorders were invented. The dictaphone was the
songwriter's dream tool. We could record our
thoughts and even our musical ideas and store them
for later development. There was just one drawback.
If you recorded hundreds of ideas on a half hour
cassette tape you had to fast-forward and rewind the
tape to try to find what you wanted to work on. If we
wanted to add new ideas we had to fast forward to
the end of the tape.
When digital recording started becoming affordable
for the upper middle class, but not yet for me, they
began making hand-held digital recorders. This made
storing of ideas much easier because you could create
a seperate audio file for each song idea and
name it. I was eventually able to afford a cheap digital
hand-held recorder for around $100 USD. This
was all before smart phones came on the scene, but
digital recorders are still in use to this day, but with
many advanced features that are better equipped for
professional field recording.
I had a cell phone since the 80s, but they didn't
invent smart phones at that time. It wasn't until many
years after smart phones came on the market that I
finally decided to upgrade, and now I never look
back. My smartphone, which is an Android, gives me
everything I need right at my fingertips, wherever I
go.
My essential lyric writing tools in my phone are a digital
recorder and color notes notepad. Color notes
gives me the option to create my choice of a text
document or a checklist for each topic. In the case of
song ideas, I use the checklist option. Because my
phone is with me 24/7, I don't need note pads lying
around the house with pens that skip and run out of
ink. I can just record my lyric ideas into my phone's
notepad, using voice to text when necessary, and my
digital recorder to capture my melodic or instrumental
musical ideas. Since this magazine is about lyric
writing, that is what I will focus on. If you want to
learn more about the music writing process, please
visit my website http://www.taylorsappe.com.
How do I find lyric ideas?
I try to keep alert for anything that could create a
title, line, or concept for a song. Sometimes I will be
watching TV, reading a newspaper or magazine,
dreaming, meditating, engaging in conversations,
experiencing life events or listening to music or
songs. Something might trigger an idea for a song.
When it does, I record it into my phone. When it happens
in a dream I have to catch it as soon as I wake
up or I forget it. I try to force myself to reach for the
phone while the idea is still fresh in my mind, but
there are still times when I am just too lazy to grab
that golden nugget and I end up losing it.
What do I do with the ideas I collect?
Over the years I have collected literally thousands of
lyric and musical ideas. Many have made their way to
complete songs or musical compositions and many
have not. Some are still under development and others
will probably never make the cut. So how do I
manage all of those ideas?
Some songwriters say that it is best to set aside a
specific time of day with a specific amount of time to
work on songwriting. Some say it is best to continue
working on one song until it is finished. What works
well for some is not a one-size-fits-all. Those methods
don't work for me. In fact, having a regimented
schedule to create something, or continuing to work
on something after my ideas for it have been
exhausted actually hinders my creative process. I
need an environment where a free flow of ideas can
occur. For me, that doesn't happen when there are
time constraints or any kind of obligation, self
imposed or otherwise.
The closest I can get to that method is to create a
daily list of things I want to get done. Because I work
in music full time, almost everything on the list is
music related, so I divide up my tasks and portion
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