Day 113: Guitarless & Giving Up

I've been struggling with a song (Not About The Pigs aka Brother) that's feeling more like a non starter each day  I work on it. I've been persevering because it fits in with one of my goals for this year, which are

1 - Write some more emotionally honest songs
2 - Write some fast songs
3 - Write stronger melodies

and of course

4 - write more songs

this fits with goal one so I thought it was profitable to work on even if the finished song sucks. But it's been heavy sledding and I was ready to give up. But today I broke through. I deliberately went to Shabby Road without my guitar, forcing me to sit down at the desk with a pen and paper and think through

What is this song about?
What am I trying to say?
What ideas are working and how do they fit together?

Being objective and stripping away that cool riff or nice drum beat made it easier to see the wood from the trees.

So, feeling more like a sculptor with a block of stone than a songwriter, I chipped away the chorus (lyrics, music and everything), the title, most of the harmony, all the drum patterns and reduced the chords to their simplest variations. I also slowed it down. I'll have to tackle goal 2 another time. This song just doesn't want to be a fast song.


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