Okay, I'm still searching for that perfect title that I haven't found. On top of that I am trying out verses for the new titles that I am writing. Seeing what works and what doesn't work. I have another Title to try- Perfect like you. Here is how it worked in the chorus.

So I strum a little louder,

sing a little sweeter,

Sing a love song, That's about you.

Hope you like, Hope you love it.

Hope it's perfect, perfect like you.     

 

     I have a big problem. I don't believe any of my old verses go with the  new title. Let's take a look.

You're the girl next door, with a bad boyfriend

I fell for you, fore you fell for him

I sit on my porch, play my guitar

as you tell him good bye, get outta his car.

 

So I strum a little louder, 

sing a little sweeter

sing a love song, about you

Hope you like it,

hope you love it

Hope it's perfect, perfect like you.

 

 

So I decided to write a verse for this chorus. I wanted it to be about her. After all she is perfect.

 

I love those peek a boo holes in your ripped  jeans

the way the wind blows your hair in spring

Not a thing about you that I would change

Just one thing, your last name

 

     I don't like the second line. It rhymes but doesn't do anything for me. It is the weakest line in my new verse and the last name line is pretty cliché to.  Let's talk about some problems with this new title. I like the title Perfect like you but I believe most of the song would need to be rewritten. Instead of investing more time I decide to move on in my title search. This was probably a wise decision. I could save this title and use it later on another song.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Okay. so far I have written two verses and a chorus to a song called You Know Where I'll Be. I don't like it. So I decide I need another title. So I get out my guitar and I sing the chorus. Over and over. Thinking about what I want to say. I want the girl to leave her boyfriend and fall in love with me. The new title is now, Fall for me. 

Here is the chorus-  So I strum a little louder, 

sing a little sweeter, 

sing a love song, I wrote for you.

Hope you like it, Hope you love it

Hope it makes you fall for me. 

 

So I read the first verse to see if it still works

You're the girl next door, with a new boyfriend

I fell for you before you fell for him

I sit on my front porch, play my guitar,

as you kiss him goodbye, step outta his car.

 

     I don't like the second line. I fell for you. The song title is Fall for me. Too similar. So I decide to rewrite the first verse. Here is the new first verse.

with the chorus.

You're coming in late from a wild weekend

been kissing in the car with your boyfriend

You're the girl next door, who I love more

So I play my guitar on my front porch.

 

So I strum a little louder, 

sing a little sweeter,

sing a love song, I wrote for you.

Hope you like it , Hope you love it

Hope it makes you fall for me. 

 

It's Friday night, playing down at the bar

almost closing time, I wonder where you  are

You come walking in, all by yourself

This songs for you and no one else

 

so I strum a little louder, 

sing a little sweeter,

sing a love song, I wrote for you.

Hope you like it, hope you love it

Hope it makes you fall for me. 

 

     What problems do I see now? Okay for one. Now she is on the wild side of life. She's been making out with her boyfriend in the car and I am going to win her over by playing a love song I wrote for her. Not gonna work. So what do I do? I write a second verse and she comes walking into the bar that I am playing at and I get another chance to win her over with my song. I probably should of rewrtten the first verse to work with the new title, Fall for me.But no,  I decided to write a bridge. In the bridge the next door girls is singing-

You poured your heart into this song

so I drink it in, I  sing along as you

 

Chorus- Strum a little louder, sing a little sweeter

we sing the love song, you wrote for me.

You know I like it, You know I love it

You know it made me, fall for you.

 

      I kinda liked that idea but didn't like the new first verse. I prefer to keep the chorus the exact same every time it is sung to make it easier to remember and sing. Also, what if I wanted to get a demo of this song. I would need a female singer and this would cost extra. Also, I wasn't thrilled with Fall for me. It says exactly what I wanted it to say, but it was to cliche. It has been said and done before. Remember this- I liked some of these idea but I wan't sold yet. So I kept looking for a better title. 

 

 

 

 

     

 

      

 

 

     Yesterday, I shared about the latest song that I wrote. The mistake I made that cost me a lot of time was no title. I gave you the Reader's Digest version on How not to write a song. I told you about the different titles that I tried trying to find perfect one. If all I did was write a chorus over and over until I figured out the title or the hook that would of been a wiser choice. But this isn't what I did,   I wasn't done wasting time. It was now  time for me to take my new title and run with them. So I took my first title "You know where I'll be" and wrote a second verse. Here is the song so far with my second verse.

You're the girl next door, I took for granted

I fell for you, when you found someone else.

I sit on my porch, play my guitar

as you kiss him goodbye, step outta his car.

 

Chorus- So I strum a little louder

sing a little sweeter

sing about love, like I know what it is.

Hope you hear me, hope you see me.

Whenever you need me

You'll know where I'll be.

 

Second verse- I'm down at the bar on Friday night

drink in my left hand, a mic in the right

Looking at the door, hoping you'll walk through

If you walk in, I know what I'll do

 

Strum a little louder,

sing a little sweeter

sing about love, like I know what it is

Hope you like it, hope you love it,

Whenever you need me

You know where I'll be

 

      I am in editing stage. I am looking for problems with the song. Now I have the singer in two different places. The title is - You know where I'll be but we don't know if he's at the bar or at home on his front porch. This is when I knew I still didn't have the right title. So on to the next title.

 

 

 

 

     How many blogs, articles, and book have been written about how to write a song?  Probably too many to count. I wrote a new song that I completed this week. I have been working on it for about two weeks. Not an everyday kinda working on a song but a gradual process. Let me share my process and hopefully it might help you on your songwriting journey. Remember- this is how not to write a song. 

      I had a beginning line for the song. You're the girl next door that I took for granted. This line was the feeling of the song. It is about me and I am in love with the girl next door. She has found somebody else but I want to be with her. Let me share the first draft. 

You're the girl next door, I took for granted 

I fell for you, when you found someone else.

I sit on my porch, play my guitar

as you kiss him good bye, and step outta his car.

 

     I wrote the verse and I kinda liked it. It had that good stalker feeling. Laugh out loud. Kinda like the song from the seventies- My Eyes Adored You. One of the lines of that song was- My eyes adored you, thought I never laid a hand on you, my eyes adored you. Definitely a stalker song. Probably need to come back later and fix this problem.  

     The first verse gave me a direction to go with the chorus. I am going to win the girl next doors love by playing her a love song. Yes, she is in a relationship but I am trying to win her over. So what do I do?

Chorus- So I strum a little louder, sing a little sweeter

sing about love, like it know what it is.

Hope you like it, hope you love it.

Whenever you need me

You know where I'll be.

 

      This is where everything falls apart. The title and the hook of my song is You know where I'll be. (Right next door) Of course, stalkers always live next door. This isn't going to work. What if the title were fall for me.

Chorus- So I strum a little louder, sing a little sweeter

sing a love song, I wrote for you.

Hope you like it, hope you love it

Hope it makes you, fall for me.

 

       I liked this better but thought fall for you was to cliché. Everybody falls in love. Then I had another thought about changing the last line again.

Chorus- So I strum a little louder, sing a little sweeter

Sing a love song, That's about you

Hope you like it, hope you love it

Hope it's perfect, perfect like you.

 

        So far I have had three different titles or hook at the last line of my chorus. 1) You know where I'll be, 2) Fall for me and 3) Perfect like you. Every time I changed the title it totally changed the whole song. I still had a problem. I wasn't sold on any of these titles. So I kept singing the song, trying new things until I finally came up with the missing puzzle piece I was looking for.

 

Chorus- So I strum a little louder, sing a little sweeter

sing about love, joy it brings

Hope you like it, hope you love it

Hope it makes your heart sing.

        The title of my song is Sing. The hook is makes your heart sing. This was what I wanted to say. I wanted her to fall for me and the song I was playing for her  was my golden ticket to her heart. This was the puzzle piece. If I would have found the title first I could of competed this song faster and quicker. It is so much easier to write a song when you have the title first. 

       

 

    I love it when I watch something on TV that interests me. Songwriting is one of my hobbies. Another hobby of mine is bike riding. I love to ride my bike. It is fun. I have been on many organized  bike rides. I have ridden on the  BAK (Bike across Kansas), GOBA (Great Ohio Bicylce Adventure), and RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. All of these are rides where you ride between 40 and 70 miles a day for a week. At night you sleep in a tent or in a gymnasium. ?Does that sound like fun to you? Id does to me. 

     Sarah Cooper is a 45 year old mother of four who does extreme bike riding. She won first place for women in the Race across the West. Race across the West is a 928 mile race that takes about two and a half days to compete. In 2018 she entered and won again. This time she won the Race Across America. It is a 3069 mile race that ran from the west coast to the east coast. She  completed it in 11 days, 18 hours, and 56 minutes. To understand how extreme this ride is you need to compare it to the Tour De France. The Tour De France is about a 2100 mile ride completed over 22 days. About a 1000 more miles but done in ten less days. What is the difference? No sleep or very, very, very little sleep. She got to sleep about two hours a day. I take naps longer than that. 

     I loved a couple of quotes about bike riding on the documentary. One of my favorites was - The higher I go, the stronger I get. These were the words her crew and friends told her as she was climbing the mountains of Colorado. We all need encouragement. Another quote I liked was advice a friend had given another rider. Go out a little slow, but don't slow down. That reminds me of the old saying, Hurry up and wait!

     At the beginning of the show the question everyone wanted the answer to  is why. Why do you do this?  Why ride 3000 miles in all types of weather with hardly any sleep. I liked her answer, Why not? I believe we don't always know why we do what we do? But we do it. 

     I write songs. I have been writing songs for years. Almost all of my songs have been written in the last twenty years. I spent my hobby time before songwriting learning to play the guitar. Guitar playing and songwriting are the perfect fit. I had no intention of becoming a songwriter. It was something that happened over the years.

     I believe part of the answer to Why I do it is- I love the struggle, or the challenge. Learning to play guitar was a challenge for me. I worked and worked and worked at it. It has been the same with songwriting. I know what it is like to be terrible at something but to keep on trying. Not quitting. Hanging in there. I might not write a lot of song like some songwriters but I keep on writing. I have a new song every month that I play at our monthly NSAI meeting. That is my goal. It keeps me writing. Keeps me looking for song ideas, Keeps me motivated to get better. Keeps me from quitting. 

     My encouraging words today are Keep going. Don't quit. It is like the biking quote- the higher I go, the stronger I get. Keep climbing higher. You got this.