An actual blues riff in B.

This year, my number one goal with FAWM is to write new songs to play with my band Wood Burning Cat. Therefor, it seems fitting that the songs I write be tailor-made to fit the band. History has shown me that adapting folk songs for use in a power pop band is not only exhuasting, but results in something that usually sounds more like a folk song than a power pop song. So what is it that I think my band most needs at this point? In my opinion, the answer is uptempo major key songs. That, for the time being, is what I'm working towards.

In recent years, I've found it very rewarding to stick to the basics in my songwriting, at least at the very core of the song. I've had a lot of success and a lot of fun writing on simple 2 and 3 chord blues style progressions. So far, this idea sticks to that philosophy. Essentially it's B major and E major. The two melodies are panned left and right. The left-hand melody is what I envision as a keyboard lead, and the right-hand melody is a potential vocal melody.

When I revisit this idea, I may consider staying on each chord twice as long and further developing the melodies.

20110201-0236am - B major by notjason

Welcome readers. It is now officially February 1st, which can only mean one thing: February Album Writing Month. "FAWM," as we call it, is a once a year challenge where songwriters attempt to write 14 songs in 28 days. I have never succeeded at accomplishing this goal, but every year I try. And though I fall short of 14 songs, I always come away with at least one gem that endures and proves useful.

The core idea of FAWM is that quantity necessarily heads some sort of quality. I actually agree with this. I think that many people fail to write good songs because they refuse to work through the bad ideas. I think that people get hung up on difficulties and give up too soon. FAWM forces you to get over those normal hindrances, by forcing you to adhere to a nearly unrealistic deadline. By the time you finish several songs, you find yourself well practiced in the craft of filtering ideas and piecing them together, and you create great songs with much less effort than previously required.

Having said that, a few years ago I decided that I no longer wanted to settle for mere quantity. I decided that a more important challenge for myself was to push my songwriting in the directions where it most needed it. Simply writing a lot of songs was easy, but writing a few good songs that truly excited me, that was hard. The key to this, I determined, was in allowing myself several drafts. Furthermore, being able to document my incremental successes seemed potentially very helpful. Thus was born the previous version of this blog, "neurotic musician". This is the exact same idea as that one, only I wanted a completely fresh start. With any luck, this will continue past February this time.

Good luck everyone!