How to create a good song.

How to create the perfect, the best, a good song.

Happy Music Monday! Before I dive into my little rant today on perfectionism and creating something that is good enough, here is the sheet music for “Not Alone”. I’ve also attached the lead sheet for this song as well.

Free Sheet Music Download

Letting go of perfectionism

The only way I’ve been able to write and record the songs that I’ve done so far and continue to do, is by letting go of perfectionism. I don’t have time to be perfect! And the goal isn’t to make something that’s perfect anyway. Perfection is unattainable and unrealistic. The more music I create, the more understanding I have of my limitations and areas where I still need growth. If you think about it, there’s really nothing that is perfect. Perfectionism is an illusion. There has never been a perfect person (except for one, if you believe that Jesus Christ was…and I do), there has never been a perfect basketball game (even when a team wins, there are blunders, mistakes in every game). Any good home inspector will find something wrong with every house they look at. And it’s pointless for me to try to create the “Perfect” song, recording, sheet music etc. I could spend hours upon hours working on one aspect and may never get it “perfect”.

Art is subjective

The odd thing about the arts though, is that it is all very subjective. So there is really no “perfection” in art. It is just what you think is amazing, what speaks to you, your values, your mood. Like most anything, there are rules, principles and skills that make up a quality product, but even many of those rules are broken at times and people still love them.

My goal is “good”.

So my goal is good. I try to put good things out into the world. I want to become someone who writes good music. Now “good” can mean a lot of different things to different people. But for me, the only opinion that really counts, as far as what I should put out into the world, is my own. I want to do what I feel inspired to do, what my talents allow me to do and what I feel excited about doing. I want to continue to create music that I think is “good” and that’s good enough. I’m striving to learn how to let go of perfectionism and just continue to create and grow.

Recipe for “How to create a good song”

1.Write out the skills you have and strive to maximize them. For me, I can play the piano, sing and write lyrics. I want to continue to get better at each of those; so I try to learn about how to sing better (I do vocal exercises daily, take courses, watch videos), keep my existing piano skills and improve on them (I do piano exercises and sight read song regularly, along with trying to play more things by ear and by memory), and learn more about songwriting. I spent probably 6 months reading and watching videos on songwriting, maybe 10 minutes a day 3-4 days a week. I also, have begun to practice and write more on a daily basis. Now, before you think that I am dedicating my entire life to this, realize that my goal is to work on the above things for 30 minutes a day and I don’t always get to do it. And then I spend some time during my respite care each week, maybe 4-6 hours a week working on writing, recording etc. So, yeah. Nothing too crazy.

2. Develop and learn some of the others skills that are necessary for creating a song – skills that you may not currently possess. I don’t really play the guitar or the drums and am amateur at using the recording equipment and programs/plug ins we have. I have decided not to worry about learning the guitar or drums, maybe someday ha ha! But I do need to be able to understand the recording equipment and recording programs, so I have learned a bit about those, enough to get me by.

3. Just do it! You can spend a long time planning, studying, watching videos etc. but there comes a time when you just need to do it! You just need to create something. Just go for it! The more you create, the better you will get at it. I’ve been building up to starting this website over the last year or so. Once I had a few songs built up and felt like I knew enough about the whole process, I started this website and committed to record a song every month. I’m learning and growing so much already. And I just love it. I’ve always loved to sing and play the piano and write. But I never really applied myself to it as much as I am now and I appreciate it more than ever.

I realize the above steps are super general and simple, and could really apply to learning and doing almost anything. But, that’s ok. It’s “good enough” for this blog post! Ha ha! Have a great day, and I’ll see you next week when I’ll post a special little bonus song for you.

(One little insider note for you…this blog post took me about 2 hours to write! Still a bit of perfectionism in me! Granted I was polishing up my sheet music for part of that time, but I mostly just chalk it up to inexperience. I think the more weekly posts I write, the faster I will get.)