RussHutto.com

Songwriting:

I started writing songs about twelve years ago.

Up until recently, the process has looked the same every time: wait for the muse – wait for the moment – wait ’til I can “feel” a new song/thought/melody – then RUN to the guitar and get it all down.

This, I’m learning, is not the most productive way to hone my creative skills.

Discipline of Creativity

New to me, and new to many of us, is the discipline of creativity. Being disciplined about being creative.

(Ugh. Seriously – could two more OPPOSING words be put in a sentence?!)

I’m learning now, that the songwriting process can occur a number of ways, and I’m familiarizing myself with each of them.

Practices of the Discipline of Creativity:

1) I might have a great song idea. I need to latch onto it and do some brainstorming, then set it aside for later.

2) I woke up in the middle of the night to a catchy new melody line. Don’t forget it. But don’t stay up all night hashing it out.

3) I have the time and I want to write, but I have no idea what to write about. I’ll go back to the resources from #1 or #2 and see what happens.

4) I don’t feel like it. I don’t have the energy. I hate my life right now and it feels impossible to write anything…. WRITE ANYWAY. I’m learning that I can write about how crappy I feel. And, viola, I’ve got a song.

Employing all of these practices keeps the creative side of my brain at work constantly… It keeps me going, it won’t let the creative Mandy check out for too long. And this has greatly increased my ability to write more frequently.

Whether you’re an author, a photographer, or a scrap-booker, I’m sure you can find ways to adapt these creative “disciplines” to your own life as well.

Mandy blogs regularly over at mandythompson.com and is a member of Our Creative Community (a blog community dedicated to creative discipline).

Here’s last week’s entry. I’m about 3 songs behind for the year, but that’s ok. We started a great little CREATIVE accountability community last week with a bunch of great bloggers. Check it out.

This is a song idea called “Redeemer” – I was really inspired by some of the older salvation, ransom, redeemer type hymns and was just worshiping and writing when this kind of flowed out.

Redeemer (Draft) from Russ Hutto on Vimeo.

Redeemer

(v1)

Jesus, oh how You love me

Through the cross, death has lost it’s sting

Savior, oh how You saved me

I was lost, but now I’m found, I am free

(pc)

Redeemer

Redeemer

(c)

I will sing of my Redeemer

My chains are gone, You ransomed me

On the Cross You took my place

My debt you paid, I am free

(v2)

Jesus, oh for Your mercy

I will sing, my praises ring for You

Savior oh for Your power

I will bring, my offering to You

(pc)

Redeemer

Redeemer

(Chorus)

My first attempt. I’ll post some audio or a video later of this so you can hear the tune.

To help me stay motivated to stick to my commitment to write a song per week, I decided to record and post a song that I wrote over 5 years ago, that remains a favorite in a few congregations around here. I set up the Mac yesterday afternoon and ran an input directly into the mic in from the board in our rehearsal space. No firewire, no ProTools or Logic…just me, the triton, mixer, and GarageBand.

It’s not mixed or mastered or anything, but I enjoyed playing around with some of the sounds.

Granted, my vocals ain’t pretty and I’m sure I could use some female vocals on the harmony parts. But, I  actually love the sound I came up with. I’d like to layer in some guitar parts as well.

I wrote this tune in a mountain lodge near Colorado Springs on a songwriting retreat back in 03. It’s one that I know could be tweaked and made “better” lyrically but it caught like wildfire in my home congregation at the time, so I felt it was fine as is.

Typically on the “JESUS” part the guys sing the high Jesus and the gals sing the echo JESUS.

 

 Every Creature: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Chart: Every Creature in the Key of E PDF

If you’d like to use this song in small groups, worship services, etc. Please feel free to. I just ask that you let me know about it!

Now that I’ve shared something from the past, it’s time to grab the guitar and write something for today!

So, I’ve been flirting with writing one song per week for the last six months. I have 2 songs to show for it. Not quite the pace I’d like to see for myself.

However, I’ve been called out. Challenged openly.

Mandy committed to writing 2 songs per week this year. She remembered I had made a statement in which I conveyed my desire to write a song per week and she laid down the gauntlet. Not only did she challenge me but she challenged several others to commit to ramping up their creative output this year.

I’m in.

Starting this week, I’ll be posting a new song, or at the very least the skeleton of a song, on Saturdays. I may be “setting myself up for failure” by doing this – but if I fail at writing 50 songs this year, and go into 2010 with 30 songs, that’s better than ZERO songs, right!?

I wrote a whopping 2 songs in 08. Crazy For You and Rhythm.

What is it that you know you’re pretty good at, or maybe even you’d like to get good at, that you’ve kind of been dragging your feet at these days? I’d like to challenge you to pick up that guitar, sign up for those dance lessons, get out the sketch book, open up that word processor and just start doing it!

Set yourself a goal, and then create blocks of time to make it happen! Who’s in?