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Can you learn how to write lyrics? July 8, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : creativity, theory, Music , 4comments

Learn how to write lyrics?

The story goes like this: I was reading Friendfeed and came across a link to a site about How to write Lyrics and thought to myself “Well that’s a bit presumptuous isn’t it?” On visiting the site I found advice which seemed to recommend ‘tuning in to the music of the spheres’. Bah humbug said the little critic sitting on my shoulder, so I left a terse drive-by comment and moved on thinking no more of it. Then the original author read it and called me out, so good for him. We’ve had a good chat since during which I realised that I’ve never written down my own story about getting to grips with the songwriting process, so here it is as promised.

My problem with writing lyrics

I picked up a guitar and learned to play when I was about fourteen, mostly devising my own versions of favourite songs by ear. Songs by people like Loudon Wainwright who is possibly the greatest lyric writer of all time, are music staveusually pretty simple in terms of the chord structure and I’d always loved to sing. Very soon I wanted to write my own songs because that’s what any musical artist seemed to need to do in those days, and it’s still the case today, if not more so. I found that the music came pretty easily, just out of experimenting with the sound of new chords and progressions, jamming with myself for hours on end so to speak. The lyrics, on the other hand, were problematic. I kept a notebook with two ends. At one end I wrote down rough drafts and odd verses, full of crossings out and rewrites. Then when I thought I had a finished song together with music I’d copy it to the pristine end and feel pleased with myself for having completed one. The trouble happened within a few days or weeks when I’d try to play the new song again and decide that it’s rubbish. Often the crossings out and rewrites had made it worse, or the original material was based on a really bad concept in the first place. Part of the problem was that I hadn’t fully understood that song lyrics are not poetry, and many of the most sucessful songs look pretty awful if you try just reading them as cold print. And teenagers are always very self conscious, so amongst all of this, just a handful of songs emerged which stood the test of time. “Hold on Below” is one of those from my early teenage period, together with Puddles and The Show Carries On.

The theory of idealism

Because I didn’t understand why sometimes, rarely, I was able to write lyrics that I was happy with, while at most other times nothing good would come out, I began to entertain the theory that the inspiration was coming from somewhere “out there” rather than from within. That fits with a philosophy of idealism which is common enough in our society, and prevalent amongst artists but which I now view as particularly unhelpful. I could go for months and even years at a time with writing a single song, waiting for the right conditions in which the muse would arrive. I even wrote one about that very idea which contained the line “I’m just the man who held the pen that wrote it down” which is very similar to the concept at the How to write Lyrics site where it says “I don’t write music, music writes through me”.

My new approach to songwriting

If you have ever read published authors advising hopeful writers on how to write a novel, the advice usually comes in the form “Sit down at a desk and start writing. Then continue writing every day for at least eight hours until you have written the first draft”. They have to treat it as any other job, otherwise it will never get done. So I decided a few years ago to try the same approach to songwriting. I knew I had a song which I wanted to write, a ballad about a journey I had made. I planned myself a day to write it, and decided that I would spend the day on a river boat cruising up and down the Thames, making good use of the all-day ticket.

how to write lyrics on board Mercedes Thames cruiser

I took with me paper and pencils, and maps to remind me of the journey. There was a convenient table on the boat so I installed myself there and got eveything out, knowing I had all day to get the song lyrics written. I love being on boats so this had been a great idea, and within a couple of hours I had about eight or nine verses written so I could afford to take an enjoyable lunch break. That song remains unchanged (well, apart from the pronunciation of Ugijar) as “Winter in Andalucia” for which I get requests from time to time, and it’s a nice one to play if I ever feel like quietly fingerpicking and can remember all the lyrics.

Intentionally writing song lyrics

So this was nothing short of a revelation. If I set out deliberately to write a lyric, I could do it!

Songwriting trip

A few years later, I was badly let down by a companion with whom I’d planned a holiday. I decided to go anyway, as the flight and car were all booked up, but instead of trying to have a holiday by myself I would treat it as work and do lots of writing. I said I would write a CD, which meant writing enough songs so that maybe ten or twelve of them would be worth keeping. Eight would do it at a pinch, and I had a week, so one song a day seemed reasonable.

Writing lyrics on an Aeroplane

I started writing the day before, and made good use of the time on the plane. After a day or two on the road I didn’t restrict myself to writing sat at a desk. In fact I often started composing a first verse or so while walking.

Creative Walking

Zoom back a few years and during a sparse phase for songwriting there was one song which emerged from out of a camping trip. Filling two large water containers then tramping back downhill, the rhythm of my gait started me off humming and then I shut myself away for half an hour and wrote some lyrics to the new tune. That’s Mondura Dam.

So during my deliberate CD writing trip I fell back on the creative walking technique once or twice, and then made sure I memorised the verse or two composed in my head, so I could write them down and elaborate after I got back to the hotel. Incidentally I don’t think I could do that with a companion.

How to Write Twenty Three Lyrics

By the end of that trip I had no less than twenty three new lyrics which I’m still using as base material. Gernika, Cormorants and The Wreckers Prayer all came from then, and there are a few more which may also represent some of my best work. So I’m definitely convinced now on the question of how to write lyrics, that the deliberate method is the best one for me. The same philosophy probably stands for other forms of writing and creativity as well, like this blog post for example, which I planned yesterday and then got out of bed this morning with the deliberate intention of getting it written and published.

    Links

  1. Andy Roberts Music page at DARnet
  2. Free Download Andy Roberts songs from last.fm
  3. How to Write Lyrics lens at squidoo
  4. How to write lyrics lesson two

Open Social Objects? November 2, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : theory, social objects , 2comments

OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:

The details aren’t yet out so it’s possible that the Activities API allows for discussion around social objects but there’s also a chance that the common mistake of designing only for links between people and people has been built in to the framework.

The evolution of language October 11, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : theory , add a comment

I can’t help feeling there’s something of possible significance outside of the field of linguistics in the findings of this research into the evolution of Indo-European language patterns.

Mindhacks: Following the evolution of language

The researchers found that the more frequently the a verb is used in the language, the less quickly it becomes regularised in the language.

A similar technique was used in a study by Mark Pagel and colleagues, who found that in Indo-European languages, the more frequently a word is used the less likely it is to be replaced.

This pattern, which applies in the evolution of species as well as language and in other complex systems such as markets and technologies is that the mainstream populations are more stable, almost calcified, whilst innovation takes place more rapidly at the edge, together with higher attrition rates of course.

Community launch from an event September 3, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : distributed research, theory, Community, online facilitation, COP, edublog, web2.0 , 5comments

Thinking about a community birth process which I’ve just witnessed during August, it seems appropriate to try and generalise  and  seek further applications.  A month long training course, open and free to attend, generates a momentum of interest, good will, and community indicators.

“what are we going to do when it’s all over?”
“I’m really going to miss the daily podcasts”
“I’m a few days behind, will the content still be available?”
“this forum is the best I’ve ever been in”

So then one of the convenors makes the announcement that the thirty day challenge goes on forever, and an ongoing community of practice is born. Of course the momentum built up during an occasional time-delimited event cannot be sustained at the same level, which is just as well, but the chances of enough residual activity continuing to get a self-sustaining community off the ground are probably a lot greater through this method, whether pre-planned or not, compared with the precarious method of trying to build up a critical mass through recruiting ones and twos, adding member by member, month after lonely month.

And yet, often the last days of a temporary online gathering are used to acheive closure, to sum up, and say ‘thanks a lot, and goodbye’.  I began to  wonder what would happen if…..

What if the conference on Web2.0 in January 2006 had been encouraged to continue onwards in situ?

What if a hotseat event, where people gather to ask questions to an invited guest, were to be left open and made public to generate further discussion amongst the participants and others. Maybe each and every hotseat or conference has a potential to spawn a practice community, to provide a growing public space. Many will dwindle and peter out after a while but maybe some will flourish instead of being shut down and put away.

I’m sure there are a few other examples where an online learning event has spawned a persisitent community, but nowhere near as many as have been  conveniently wrapped up and dispersed. It’s not as if anybody would be forced to hang around against their will, or that any measurable resources would be consumed to allow event based learning communities to live on.

Or to put it the other way around, if you are hoping to launch a distributed  community of practice then consider starting off by organising a month long conference at a specific time and space, build up a sense of occasion and then take it from there.

Writing an About page August 8, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : wordpress, theory , 4comments

I had a bit of time to myself with an offline laptop recently, whilst Linda was using my main computer to record an interview podcast as it happens. So I decided to write a reflective “about” page for the blog. The main purpose was for myself, trying to get some focus on where the blog is currently situated, in terms of topics, appoach and sense of audience, and where it might be going next.

I’d been sent via Linda’s Furl, a link to lifehack.org so I thought I’d try using the questions and prompts in that artice. I think they worked quite well as stimuli, although no doubt I’ll need to tweak the page from time to time, and rethink it altogether in a much shorter time than I usually expect! Anyway, it’s up on the web version of the blog, accesible from the rightmost page tab in the blog header. That has a url of http://distributedresearch.net/blog/about and may become a landing point where new visitors arrive to see if the blog has anything of interest for them. I’m going to reproduce it below for the benefit of those reading via RSS or email, which frankly should be most people these days. You can always come back to the blog itself to leave a comment :-) Since writing the about page, I’ve just seen Stephen Downes’ article “How to be heard” which could also form the basis of a good “about” page or rebranding. In fact if you read both links first then you’re almost guaranteed to produce an even better one than this:

Who is Andy Roberts?

I am a blogger and wiki-er, an explainer, researcher, musician, online community professional with both a technical and creative background. I work from home in London, UK and hope to move pemanently onto a narrow boat in a couple of years. I’ve been fascinated by online groups for ten years, joined hundreds, started many, facilitate a few, but I don’t always fit in easily with norms and expectations so I’m active on my own spaces as much as others. I love WordPress and MediaWiki.

What is this blog all about?

DARnet blog is a vehicle for tracking my journey through internet life, as well as a shop window into my work and learning. It adapts and changes as do I, so the content can be somewhat random or clearly focussed, depending on the period.

My main theme is the process of change, particularly in the context of distributed communities of practice, using the method of action research and applying the theory of social objects.

I’m trying to tell the world that these amazing ‘new’ phenomena are governed by universal laws of change, although complex, can be understood and guided to some extent, and are every bit as real and human as offline communities.

Because I am situated in the UK, you will also find posts related to some topical news and events and my participation in the vibrant London internet startup and social media scene. Homeworking and changing the nature of work is at the forefront through my work with pajamanation, and there’s a separate page for my acoustic music making.

Why Does Your Blog Exist?

See myblog story

How Does Your Blog Work?

Sometimes I don’t post for a week, sometimes twice or more in a day. Comments are open and encouraged with no registration required. Upon commenting, you get a chance to subscribe by email to future comments on that post, so a that a conversation may ensue.

Who Is Your Audience?

I hope the blog is of interest to anybody who knows me through the various social networking events and sites, to facilitators and moderators, geeks and homeworkers, newbies and net veterans, at home and abroad.

I read three hundred RSS feeds daily but the blogroll in my sidebar only contains links which have some relevence to the DARnet blog, mainly individuals.

As far as I know I’m the only blogger writing about communities of practice combined with action research, object orientated sociality and a dash of marxist dialectics. I’m passionate that good theory is important, and try to communicate my ideas in a clearly understandable manner with an informal yet grammatically correct style.

Why Should I Subscribe to Your Blog?

If you subscribe for a long enough period, you will receive unique insights and discoveries, technology tips and developments as well as an unfolding story about the new web entrepreneur lifestyle. All written in an accessible style with illustrative but not gratuitous graphics, and occasional podcast or video.

Social objects again August 3, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : theory, social objects , add a comment

The ideas of object centered sociality formed a big stimulus when Jyri Engeström visited London in June . This post is just to note a report of Hugh MacLeod speaking at connectSF.

from InmanBlog:

Social networking sites are all about “social objects.” The objects themselves — pictures people upload to Flickr, say — are unimportant. It’s the conversation that takes place around them. Social objects always consist of a noun, such as the photo, and a verb — the action they create, such as the urge to share. MacLeod didn’t dream all this stuff himself, he said. It goes back to research anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski did while living among Pacific Islanders nearly 100 years ago.

Whether these ideas which can be applied to online networks and social websites have their origins in ethnographic anthropology or in soviet psychology (Activity Theory), probably both, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the recognition that theory has an important and very practical role to play.

That conversations take place around objects rather than around nothing is an important principle. The objects themselves may indeed be unimportant compared to the conversation, but that doesn’t mean you can do away with objects. In the absence of any object, I would venture that a surrogate object tends to be contructed, often out of elements from the conversation itself. Then people start talking about the conversation, about the meaning of words and other such distractions. If you’ve ever taken part in threaded online discussions where there is no clear topic or purpose then you know what I’m talking about. It may well be that it’s the absence of social objects which causes people-to-people-only networks to fixate upon the meta-levels of conversation about the tools or about the processes.

So get yourself some objects, preferably made out of concrete :-o

Blog Friends app on Facebook July 18, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : theory, facebook, blogs and community, web2.0 , 2comments

Introducing ‘Blog Friends’, a new application on Facebook which fills an apparently simple yet imporant niche. This is what it does:

It’s just been launched as a public Beta by Luke Razzell, who has been blogging on the topic of “Identity” for several years now, so we can expect the theoretical underpinning of the application design to be a sound one. It certainly seems to have all the makings of a succesfull Facebook app, including the capacity to spread virally, and appealing to the needs of bloggers to attempt to reach wider audiences. Every thing has been well thought out including the name, logo, taglines and this graphic:

myblogfriends

And this is what it looked like from inside Facebook over the weekend:

Blog Friends

Notice the RSS icons - this is one application which allows you to take your data outside of Facebook instead of just sucking things in. So it drives a small hole into the ‘walled garden’ criticism of the fashionable Facebook fad.

Outside in my feedreader I’m suddenly discovering a number of new blogs and posters, within my specified areas of interest, all thanks to my blog friends. And no, I don’t have any financial or other stake in the enterprise, I simply volunteered to alpha test out of of interest and because I’ve known Luke as a blogger for a long time. The fact that the whole application was developed from specification to working Beta in around three weeks has staggering implications for the future of web apps and Facebook.

Creativity as a social act July 10, 2007

Posted by Andy Roberts in : theory, Art, Community, web2.0 , 1 comment so far

I was going to write something about creativity based on Matt Moore’s article but Jack beat me to it. I know some people are trying to think hard about exactly what is the nature of creativity. Well if “human knowing is fundamentally a social act” (Wenger) , and creativity is a social act (below) , not to mention work rest and play, software and media all being social these days, when do we get to have 2 minutes to ourselves?!? It’s a convincing argument though:

Engineers without Fears: Creative Ecologies (or why my genius is unimportant)

We have tended to view creativity as personal act. The creator sits in their garret (or mansion) & comes up with the goods. As the previous posts on work by Bob Sutton, Teresa Amabile et al indicate, I believe more and more that creativity is a social activity. The relationship between a creator (be they professional or amateur) and their audience is not one way. Comments, references, tags, bookmarks, private emails & words face-to-face can all feed into the outcomes (a post, a video). But we only see the tangible outcome not the intangible exchanges between participants in the creation conversation.

To understand the inputs into and impacts from social media, we have to see these invisible ecologies of creation that form & reform. These ecologies have long pre-dated the internet but now we see them more.

To repeat, co-creation is not an option, it is the default…

As a creative writer and musician, I do need to sit in my garret (yes, I have an upstairs room) and come up with the goods by myself, although it does help to have a sense of audience at some point, and of course plenty of previous social experience feeds into the creative process, but the role of the individual should not be dismissed. There’s a dialectical relationship between the individual and the social so I would say that neither can be accurately described as the default.

Tim B-L says “This is serious” June 22, 2006

Posted by Andy Roberts in : social media, internet, theory, web2.0 , add a comment

I tend to have a kind of “faith” that once the technology has been invented, then it generates a momentum of its own which will obey certain natural laws regardless of individual human motives. So once the internet existed, it was pretty much inevitable that people were going to communicate and collaborate across international and corporate boundaries, and that any attempts to stifle or steal ownership of this could always be circumvented, sidestepped or innovated around. If somebody did manage to completely clamp down on the present internet then we’d just set up another one wouldn’t we? Well maybe I’m being over optimistic. Tim Berners Lee says it’s serious:

When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.

Net Neutrality: This is serious | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs

Cause and effect June 22, 2005

Posted by Andy Roberts in : theory, Action Research , add a comment

Eric Benson’s stream of consciousness on his blog today:

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned lately is to not learn from experience. Learning is for suckers. Learning from experience is (more often than not) like being a pigeon and learning that spinning in circles will help make the pellets come from the dispenser. Our brains are hard-wired to tie effects to causes (not the other way around) but this only works as a brute force survival method. Other parts of our brains, I think, are much better at judging each individual thing individually, and deciding with a less crude system what to do. This involves some learning from experience, but it’s never of the “I learned to never” or “I learned to always” variety that usually tries to take over our personalities. I think part of the way that I came to learn this was due to my many years at Amazon testing small changes on the website in parallel to see which small change was superior… and slowly coming to the realization that small changes, though they can have big impacts, don’t matter.”

I picked up on this because it bears just a little bit of resemblance to something I was trying to get to grips with in the ILM2 assignment I just handed in:

I also managed to clarify to some extent the problem of drawing conclusions from research, about cause and effect. One case study by itself cannot establish a relationship between actions and subsequent observations - ‘Change this and that happens’ unless further cases can establish a convincing trend, or else the underlying mechanism which links the two in that order can be identified and shown to be happening in the process somehow. It sounds obvious, but from my experience it’s a common pitfall and I feel this is something which Action Researchers in particular need to be wary of.