Peter Doran is a Mullingar singer and songwriter of immense talent who is in the process of releasing his second album entitled "Sleepless Street". Check out www.peterdoran.com for more details. This week I'm delighted that Peter has agreed to be the guest blogger.
Today I'd like to talk a little about songwriting.
Songwriting, like any craft, is something that can be developed and honed, improved and perfected. But it's a tricky business all the same. To me, the most precious thing about a song is the spark that starts it off... the trigger. It can be a very elusive thing to track down. In fact generally you can't. If you go hunting for an idea, totally focused and determined to write something, you rarely come out with anything of note. You search and dig and scratch your head furiously, yet nothing inspires. So I think there's a lot to be said for being patient with songwriting, or maybe just lucky!
Most often I find the song or at least the early rumblings of one will come to you when you're not actively searching. Some will start with a word or a phrase, others with a melody. With lyrics, often something will happen that will send your thoughts in a certain direction. Then maybe you can't stop thinking about this one thing and you have to make a song, a place to house the ideas. The behaviour of the musical muse can be just as difficult to predict! One day your fretboard looks like the most dull and thoroughly over-harvested thing you've ever seen. The next it seems full of new and wonderful possibilities where anything can happen. These are the good days :)
Then you push on and try to write as much as you can, they won't all be good, but hopefully you'll learn a little with each new effort. Maybe if you're very lucky, what you've done might resonate with someone out there.
Here's a song called "The Composer" taken from my new album, which deals with the idea of writing & creating. Hope you like it.
~Peter
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