Everybody knows the benefit of taking breaks during songwriting sessions. A break allows your creative mind a chance to regroup and freshen up. And it doesn’t take much of a break to be useful. Even 10 or 15 minutes with a cup of coffee can help.
“Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base” shows you how songwriters in decades past have used many different kinds of lyrics to create great songs. Use it to create your own great song hooks.
When I take a break in the middle of doing something creative, I almost always find that my best ideas happen immediately after resuming my writing session. It seems to me that while I was taking a break, my mind was still at work, putting ideas together and being generally creative.
You can take advantage of the brain’s ability to organize itself creatively even before starting a songwriting session. Instead of stopping one thing — arriving home after a day of work, let’s say — and jumping right into songwriting, take a short 10 minute pre-writing break and prepare your mind for being creative.
It may take some experimenting to see what works best for you, but here are some 10-minute ideas for helping your mind slide more easily into being creative:
- Do something mundane, like daydreaming, sketching, or anything that allows your brain to transition from your otherwise busy day.
- Try meditation. Closing your eyes and quietening your mind is a great way to prepare it for doing something creative.
- Listen to music. As a songwriter, you may be fearful that the music you listen to is going to find its way into your own songs, amounting to a kind of plagiarism, but the good news is that that almost never happens. Listening to other people’s music can excite you and provide you with creative energy.
- Go for a walk. Saunter around the neighbourhood and take in the sights and sounds. Don’t think about your upcoming songwriting session — just relax and enjoy your surroundings.
- Improvise on your instrument of choice. Allow your fingers to noodle over the notes and enjoy the sounds. Don’t think about what you might use for a songwriting idea (unless something sounds really useful, of course). Just get into a musical frame of mind.
For some writers, songwriting comes with a lot of pressure: the pressure to get the next tune written, the pressure of an upcoming recording session, the pressure of a gig, and so on. These 10-minute ideas will help you refocus on something that has the chance of making you feel more positive.
The ideas in this article may seem a bit boring, but that’s the point; there is research to back up the idea that creative minds need this kind of downtime as a balance for the intensity of a creative songwriting session.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
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