Clarity in Songwriting: write songs as if your life depends on it
A series on songwriting by a singing Stoic Krav Maga Practitioner trying to get through this thing called life.
Clarity is a truth knuckle sandwich. Most people flinch and look away. Not in the face, clarity. Not in the face. But without being clear on who we are, and what we want to achieve, we are destined to fail. This lesson was (literally) beaten into me through training Krav Maga. The fundamental element of clarity in self defense is the ability to stay calm in the eye of the hurricane. The hurricane in this instance being a physical threat or an escalating conflict.
Eventually I learned that I needed to apply this philosophy to my daily life, as I had spent decades pondering who I wanted to be when I grew up. In this context clarity became knowing the change I wanted to bring into the world. My North Star.
As songwriters, having a North Star allows us to clearly articulate what this fully-realized version of ourselves is trying to get across. Our Why.
The difficulty is that in any creative endeavor the world is going to do its level best to kick the shit out of us along the way. If we lack clarity, all the bumps and bruises will eventually knock us off course. Then we start making excuses why these things are happening to us. Then we quit. More on victimhood later.
Words I see thrown around in music marketing are “brand” and“authenticity” but more often than not this becomes a combination of our influences, our image, and our ego. I don’t dismiss any of these things, all of them will benefit from clarity, but we cannot mistake our ego (or image, or influences) as clarity itself.
Story time!
I love blues music. I love playing guitar. I am a decent guitar player. There have been moments when I let my ego take over and begin believing that my path is to become a blues guitar gun slinger. Every time this has happened my songwriting has suffered. I spent more time noodling than writing. I came up with a stack of cool licks that I could never write a vocal melody for (I have an audio notes folder FILLED with “Stankface vol. 1–666” not a single one of them have become a song. Not. Fucking. ONE!) The inevitable cycle when I am in this state is: pick up the guitar. Play through the collected works of stankface riffs until I get bored and go to bed.
But when I really think about why I do this, it’s because from a very early age I was knocked out by the power of a great song. The melody, the emotion, the craftsmanship, the proficiency. The benchmark being “Purple Rain”.
I get goosebumps every time I hear that song. Since Prince died I can’t get through the end of that song without crying. The solo at the end is usually when it happens. The way Prince uses the solo to heighten the emotional intensity of the song is genius. And it rips! In reality, the solo is not all that complicated, but it’s my favorite guitar solo because you can FEEL what Prince was feeling when he cut it. It sounds like Prince existed in a pure state of creative expression. And as the listener I am transported into that state and I feel like I am sharing that heightened sense of emotional bliss with the performer.
OK, so I want to use the guitar as a tool to heighten the emotional impact of my songs on the listener, but I am first and foremost a songwriter, and the goal of each song is to reach a level of emotional resonance with a listener that stops them in their tracks and makes them feel something. Check. Now with this renewed sense of clarity, I can set to work in a way that will make an impact on who I am trying to be when I grow up. Does the current song I am working on deliver on the promise I am making my future self? That dude that is fully free to express himself through the words, music, and guitar work? Does it live up to that idea? No? Fix it. Yes? Move on to the next one. Sure I might throw down a little stankface as a warm up or a cool down, but that shit is 5 minutes max.
This clarity requires some deep soul searching and brutal honesty. At first glance it might be scary, you might not like what you see. But you’ve got to face it. You’ve got to push past that surface fear and dive on in. Because if you don’t, you run the risk of spending the short time you have on this earth living in disharmony with what you truly value. And if you’re really lucky, and live a long life, you’ll get the chance to face this fact as you lie on your deathbed alone with your regrets, lacking the power to do a thing about it. That cheery thought is what shocked me awake, and forced me to do something about it while I’ve got a little time left on the clock.
