I just got back from the 2010 Taxi Road Rally, held in Los Angeles California. It’s a yearly gathering of songwriters and artists all looking for the same things…a place to share our music with industry people, to make some new friends, and to get better at our craft. For me, it was a great opportunity to learn from the best and brightest in the business. Here are my takeaways, and aren’t you excited that you didn’t have to spend all the money and time to travel?
First, songwriting is something that can be taught. The beauty of this is that if it can be taught, it can be learned. I think I went into the Rally with a sense of how to write good songs. I believe that I came away with a formula for how to write great songs. Three of the sessions I attended were hosted by Jason Blume, and these sessions were the best time spent at taxi. Jason has a wit and honesty in his delivery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I came away from his sessions feeling enabled to write better tunes.
One of Jason’s sessions focused on the powerful tool of rewriting. We sit down, write a song (screenplay, poem, etc), sit back and enjoy our creation. If we accept it as it is, it may be fine and good, but what if we break open the idea a little further? Further illustrate the key idea? Use simpler language? When the writers for the hit movie “The Sixth Sense” finished the screenplay, they went back and explored more captivating ideas. I’m glad they went back and revisited the script, because it wasn’t until the 5th rewrite that Dr. Malcolm Crow, Bruce Willis’ character, was dead. It was in the 5th rewrite that the most awesome hook was placed in the movie.
The learning is in the leaning… One of the greatest tools we have is in our doing. Doing the work often makes us better at our craft. This applies just as much in songwriting as it does in typing, math in school, and cooking. As writers, we hang ourselves out there. Everything we write won’t be brilliant, some things will probably be awful. By continuing to jump into ideas, and give our best to them, we will get better . The question is whether or not we’re willing to lean into it and continue on past the rejection, dissapointments, and close seconds.
I can’t wait to hear your songs, g
