Rachel Harrington: Blog

Have just had a 24 hour visit from the love my life – Steve Duda.  A lovely respite.  And now this evening – back to work.  For the past 24 hours I had two people and 3 dogs living this small studio space – so I’ve just cleaned house.  Now I’m off to the local shop-all store to buy a few things – mainly the manila envelopes I’m so fond of using to keep my papers organized.  So each folder is one song and into that goes everything I’ve written about that song.  I have about half a dozen notebooks of all sizes currently in use – and when I’ve written a bit for a particular song, I just tear that out and put it into the appropriate envelope.  

Over the past 3 records, I’ve found that – to start – I do best focusing on material generation.  That includes things like … the original melody and lyric snippet the song was born with.  Any lines or couplets that come to me when I’m thinking about the song or that seems like they might be related to the song.  And pages of brain-storming sessions that include sessions devoted to a) related words , particularly words that are related to the title of the song b) any associated memories c) general free-writing and d) sometimes a rhyme list – so words that I think I want to use in the song, or words that rhyme with key words in the title or chorus.

I have two songwriting files currently, and I’ve outgrown them both.  So it’s time for a new file – and then I’ll create envelopes for the songs I’m working toward.  Those won’t actually go into the file yet though – they’ll be strewn against the wall along one side of the cottage.  I do much better with being able to ACTUALLY see things – rather than being tucked away or on a computer file somewhere.  I like actually seeing things.  Which makes for a bit of  a clutter.  But I’m not expecting any visitors for another week so that’s ok J

In other news, I’ve googled all my prospective titles and discovered that of the roughly 35 I have, two of them were titles of #1 hit songs, one was a #3, and one was a #13.   Not insurmountable, but I do have to go back to the drawing board on a couple of the (what I thought were) more unique titles and get more creative.

The best news though is that several of the titles/ideas I’m working on I felt for sure had already been done – and it turns out that they have not.  So alas – perhaps there are actually a few genuinely original ideas here!

Xo,

Rachel