Well, FAWM is over and while I didn’t meet my goal, I still count it as a success. FAWM, February Album Writing Month ( www.fawm.org ), encourages writers to write 14 songs during the month of February. I wrote four. All four were in different genres. Number one was “My Muse Done Left Me”, a blues tune about not being able to write a song. I broke a longstanding personal rule for song number two and did a love song, “Now ‘Til the End of Time”, the first love song I have written since I was in high school. It was composed and performed on piano. I ventured into rap for song number three, “My Life in Rap”. I actually came up with the melody and chords for song number four on the first day of FAWM. With just a couple of hours to go before the end of FAWM, I still didn’t have the lyrics but since the powers that be allow lyrics-only works to be counted, I went ahead an uploaded it with the working title of “Memories of You”.
I have particularly high hopes for that last song. The melody is catchy and it has a strong pop/folk feel. I did a very quick recording of the song with guitar, drums, and vocals singing “doo-doo-doos” in place of lyrics, and I find myself listening to it over and over. Call me naive, but this one could be a hit.
The hardest part of FAWM was trying to turn off my inner-editor. It should have been easy to come up with one song every other day, but I found myself abandoning ideas after only penning a few lines. They say that writing every day leads to improvement, which makes sense, but I feel that if a song can’t keep the writer’s interest, why should I expect it to capture a listener’s interest. It just seems like a waste of energy.
For March, I hope to finish “Memories of You”. The title will likely change. I also would like to write at least one song each week. My big emphasis for March will be to learn more about my multi-track recorder. I have a Boss BR-600 which is an amazing machine, but the learning curve is pretty high (and I have a degree in Broadcast Production Technology!) I also need to get to work on recording a CD, but that is really dependent upon learning the ins and outs of the equipment.