How To Journal Your Songwriting Endeavors

Documentation might seem like an unnecessary addition to songwriting, what is already a very work intensive and well thought out process. However, writing a journal about the songwriting process can be an effective way for beginners to figure out a number of things about their creative process and themselves as writers. Through writing about the process, a songwriter can figure out where they're going wrong, more easily chart stumbling blocks, and look back at their writing much more objectively.

You might well ask what type of content should go into a journal about songwriting. Typically, anything that factors into or influences a writer's music as they're composing or crafting lyrics. Any part of any stage of the process is fair game, whether it's a daydream, a poem, or a song on the radio.

This journaling process can take place even when there isn't any songwriting going on at all. Documenting the blank pages of creativity can help a songwriter move past these mental or emotional blocks towards greater creative productivity. Meanwhile, writing creatively about an instrument, like a Takamine acoustic guitar, or a musical artist that has moved you can help further your skills as a creative writer.

The material included in a songwriter's journal can also provide inspiration for lyrics or a chord progression some other time. Anything included in the journal should be related to songwriting or the writer's life, and is, as such, valid material for drawing from.

A writer could go one of two ways in terms of a medium for the log: a material, physical notebook or a web-based journal. A real notebook is more mobile and practical in many ways. It can go where ever you go and doesn't require any particular environment (like the indoors or a computer lab) to get some writing done. There's far more potential for spontaneity in a physical journal, as long as a pen or pencil is also handy.

Through the latter option, an online songwriting journal does entail more set-up and less mobility, but it has several unique advantages. As an online tool, it allows you to share your thoughts with trusted readers or a community of musicians, who can comment on and assist with any problems that you might encounter along the way. Don't expect to make money blogging on this subject matter, though; it's mostly for your own good.

In either case, try to write in the journal or blog every day so that it recording the day's events and progress in composing, crafting lyrics, or finding a new Dreadnought acoustic guitar can be documented in terms of the way it affects the writing process. Best wishes to all you budding musicians!

Tags: creating music, journal, songwriting