Prepping For A Song Co-Write
Prepping For A Song Co-Write
(1) Make contact with the rest of the team prior to the writing session, identifying a leader to host the session and guide the participants through potential creative challenges and road blocks.
(2) Determine if someone is going to track the session, in which case, figure out who brings what gear-wise. If you decide to track while writing, please ensure that the technology is a servant and not the master. If the tracking process slows things down, please be prepared to dispense with it and finish the write the old fashioned way.
(3) If you can, have one of the writers come ready to (iPhone) video the co-write and the song in its finality at the end of the session.
(4) Bring your musical instrument and recording gear, even if it is just your iPhone to record a voice memo.
(5) Come to the co-write with one or two incomplete song ideas.
(6) If you are unable to prep an idea or feel nervous to participate boldly and confidently because of your current circumstances, please excuse yourself from the co-write with enough time for the others to make a plan B. It is just not helpful to the others in the group if you come unprepared or are unduly nervous and shy to contribute. Here is John Mayer on the boldness required.
(7) Please come with a generous spirit. Come as a listener. Come with eyes in the back of your head. Be careful not to take over the session and not to use words like ‘I do not like that,’ or ‘No.’ Do not shut down peoples’ ideas, in the same way that you would prefer for them to not shut down your ideas. Come to the session expecting to walk away with several song options that emerged during the write that can be finished up at a later date.
(8) If you are mad or sad, please tell everyone so that they can know what is going with you, and you can either encourage each other, or you can ask for some prayer or excuse yourself.
(9) If you are in a group with someone that you do not know, please do not presume that they have the same experience or understanding as you. Please be sensitive toward them, and not bombastic or presumptuous.
(10) With regard to lyrics, embrace the possibility that you will probably not get the lyric finished in the initial session. Be prepared to live with the song for months in the pursuit of getting the best possible lyric. Striving for a breathtaking lyric could trigger relational awkwardness. Please know that this is part and parcel of the process of co-writing a phenomenal song. Please read our encouragement to writers to strive for lyrical integrity.
(11) Record a demo or voice memo of the song at the end of the session, irrespective of its level of completion. If you are writing for others, whether it be a label, a project, an organization or a ministry, do not expect to be invited back into co-writing sessions if you are unable to turn in demos ‘the day of’. It is counter productive for an organization to continue to invite writers to co-writing sessions who battle to produce timely demos. If you struggle to fulfill this basic function, please do not be offended if you do not get invited back to co-writing camps. When you send in your demo, please also attach any iPhone videos that you took of the process.
(12) Please read our blog on co-writing business realities.
Malcolm du Plessis
