Chapter Ten: Collaboration
From Songfarmer: Writing More and Better Songs
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Prompts, Conclusion
Collaboration
Co-Writing
Co-writing is what happens when two or more people have a goal-oriented, creative conversation and slowly discover (and take note of) lyrics and melody for a new song. Perhaps some songs can only be written by one person - all alone - who must go and interrogate himself or herself until the words and music express a singular, artistic vision. But many satisfying songs have been crafted when two people contribute their own distinct feelings, perspectives, and styles into the same new composition.
What makes a good candidate for a co-writer? Because much of co-writing is conversation and trading back and forth of ideas, a co-writer should at the very least be someone you would enjoy having a conversation with. As a rule of thumb, two hour blocks of time are the minimum that most pairs of songwriters need to put a song together. Four and five hours might be the upper limit for a productive, focused meeting on creating a song.
Step 1: Brainstorming (FLOW)
The first goal of a co-writing meeting is settling on a topic or phrase or melody to focus on for the next 2 hours. The first effort together is characterized by the FLOW style. The co-writing meeting can start with an existing idea for a song (or even a partially written song lyric or melody idea) that the two of you flesh out into a full song, or it can start from candid and personal conversation of “what’s been going on?” Any distinct feelings or issues that either one of you have been thinking about or dealing with lately might hold the seeds of a song you can create together.
Listen closely in your conversation with a co-writer for any feelings or phrases that catch your ear. Recent travels, family members, or personal experiences/difficulties/successes are usually productive areas for co-writing. As you bounce ideas back and forth, write down the words that come up in conversation in a notebook. No need to note structure - just list the interesting words or ideas that come up in your conversation. The first part of your meeting is about FLOW of ideas, with no judgments, just listing, sharing, free-associating, and connecting. Devote 20-40 minutes on just creating a “wild zone” or “junkyard” of ideas that you both can pick through later.
Maybe another good question for this phase is: what kind of “feel” for a song do you feel like writing? (uptempo, bluesy, bluegrass, rocking, ballady, country?) When brainstorming - and during co-writing in general - keep the sharing channels between you wide open.
Remember: Write down all proposed ideas, whether or not you think they will appear in the final version of the song. The word “no” is not helpful in co-writing. Instead, use the phrase, “Yes, and…” over and over. If you use “no” or “that’s not good,” you will shut down your partner’s creativity and sharing (and thus, you’ll shut down your own as well). When you are tempted to say “no” to an idea, try instead saying “Yes, got it down, and what else?” The key is to keep generating raw material at this phase. You need all the material you can get for later phases of the co-writing.
Step 2: Focus (EDIT)
After brainstorming and having a freeform conversation about possible song topics, and listing words, issues, phrases, and feelings, it is time to enter an EDIT phase of the session. Together, take a look at the “junkyard” or “wild zone” of words and ideas you have produced together, and circle the ones that seem rich for further digging, unearthing, and discovering together. Use the evaluative function of the EDIT mode to seek a phrase or a melody that you both would enjoy contributing ideas toward for the next couple of hours. Did you find an idea that could serve as a jumping off point, a central idea that you both can continue to explore together with the goal of creating a song? If so, proceed to step 3. If not, go back to step 1, Brainstorming, and repeat the process until you do have something to proceed to Step 3 with.
Step 3: Expand your wild zone
Once you have a topic or central phrase or central melody or some concept that your song is about, now it’s time to resume the FLOW phase. Together, ask yourselves: What words or phrases might be in a song about __________? List them with no judgment, just write, talk, and free associate. What chords might be in a song about ______________? Revisit the idea of question of what kind of “feel” might the song have (uptempo, bluesy, bluegrass, rocking, ballady, country)?
Sometimes drawing bubble maps or mind maps helps, and sometimes it helps to list different aspects of the topic on multiple pages of a notebook. Produce lines that rhyme, lines that don’t, lists of words, and favorite phrases that might connect to this central idea.
Step 4: Pick a line to start reacting to
From what you produced in Step 3, use EDIT to find a line that sounds like the beginning of something - a line that could be the beginning of a verse or the beginning of the chorus. Or maybe it’s the last line of a verse, or the last line of the chorus, or the last line of the song. Either way, take it and write it on a new sheet of paper.
Step 5: Find out what comes after that line or before it
React to that line with FLOW: try to figure out what comes right after it, or maybe what comes before it, what rhymes with it, what contrasts with it, or what goes along with it. Grab any words from Steps 1, 2, or 3 and expand them into phrases that can precede or follow up the line you have written down.
Steps 6, 7, 8, 9…
Whenever you feel moved to, try singing some of the lines in a musical FLOW mode or play some chords or a groove that might fit the lines. FLOW and EDIT, FLOW and EDIT, FLOW and EDIT, until you’re both happy with the song. But, by now, you’re not reading these steps anymore, you’re off and running, co-writing a song, because you got it started by listening and writing down everything that was said without judgment. You said “yes, and” and “what else?” and you got the song growing from a seed. You created options, you made choices, you used FLOW, then EDIT, then FLOW, then EDIT. You and your co-writer created a draft of a song that would never have existed if either of you were writing alone. Your minds and ideas interacted to create an artifact of your conversation and experiences. Each of you will probably revise it by singing it and playing it on your own, then you’ll meet up again to show each other what you have learned. FLOW and EDIT until you both agree that the song is done.