More Songwriting Photosâ€¦

– February 12, 2009Posted in:

Hey friends!

Greetings….I’m still not better…wow this pain takes a while to subside (not to scare anyone else who needs their wisom teeth out though! I’m sure you’ll do better than me!)

Going through some photos here in bed while I rest up… Some more shots of me writing on Melody/Keith’s piano….. Here is Simon Cowell watching over my writing, telling me if it’s good or terrible! (Brits are so mean!)

And this is me catching a beautiful Kansas City-Missouri sunset, taking a break from writing and getting inspired by nature’s beauty!

I also saw that my new Gretsch White Falcon seems to be inspiring Phil Wickham. I loaned it to Producer Pete Kipley while I’m out of action getting better, and it seems to be making it onto Phil’s latest project, which is fun. Check out his Blog here. Pete says it has great tone when it’s recorded, which is encouraging…I’m glad I bought a good one!

Question for you…. All this time in bed recoverying is giving me time to think, dream and explore new ideas for this Blog…And as you guys are the most important people – the community who read it! – I want you to speak into this…

“What are your most favorite elements about my Blog? And what would you like to see on here as future content?”

Time for some more soup & ibuprofen!…

Vicky

Related Posts - these might also be of interest:

http://Www.twiter.com/hjscott Heather

I always love your questions, even though I don’t always answer them. Even when they are fun questions they get me thinking.
And the video blogs always make me smile.
In general I like thought provoking things. Be it something you talk about or a video you post or a question you ask :)
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan

Oh good, your website’s back now… it disappeared for a while last night. Strange.

I enjoy the mix of content you put up here; you’ve got a great sense of humor and also ask some really good questions. You also do well at mixing in information about your own life as well as broader topics, not to mention making good use of various types of media. In addition, you’re great at encouraging people to really share their own thoughts and that makes for a great community. I’ve had a few people ask me recently about what a good blog should look like, and I’ve pointed them to yours.

Believe it or not, just earlier today I happened to think “I wish Vicky would open up the floor for questions on her blog…” Are you a mind reader? :o)

Many of the questions I’d like to ask are songwriting-related… Don’t know if you want a whole barrage of them (I could give you a lot more than follow here, and maybe I will come back and add a few later), but the thoughts running through my head earlier today were all about the collaboration process. What does that typically look like for you? What works for you and what doesn’t? Here are some more specific questions that might trigger some thoughts: Do you prefer that both people try to come to the table with some ideas to work on together, or do you sometimes brainstorm for even the original idea together? Do you sometimes have successful collaborations with several people in a group, or is it usually better with just one other person? Do you collaborate mostly in a single session on a particular piece, or do you follow that up with a lot of back and forth over a longer period of time? Do you tend to collaborate more or less equally on both words and music, or do you more often relegate more of the words to one and more of the music to the other? Of course, all of these things will work in different ways for different people, but some advice from a talented and seasoned songwriter could still be very helpful for those of us who aren’t nearly as far along the path yet. Perhaps you even know of some good resources to help budding songwriters get up to speed on the collaboration process.

It’d also be great to hear more about your history, where you’ve come from (in various senses), what shaped you while you were growing up, what your family is like, etc. Tell us more about you – not just what you’re doing. I should add the caveat that I’ve already been amazed by how much you share with us here, and maybe some of these topics would be moving the public/private line too close to home.
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan

Oh, BTW – Simon Cowell really cracked me up, and I love what you did with that first photo – it’s beautiful!
http://myspace.com/kristindmusic Kristin

Hey Vicky!

I really like your blogs..especially the photos and questions at the end! As someone interested in the Christian music industry, I’d also love to hear about inspiration for your songs, what life is like ‘on the road’, and also about the different challenges Christian artists today might face.

Oh..and definitely keep the videos coming..they’re great! :)
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan

Here’s a new personal record; three comments on a single post. A rather dubious distinction… :o)

That’s a great video on Phil’s blog; I wonder if he edited that himself? I don’t doubt that he could, but that’s pretty time-consuming stuff. I’ll have to check out the first two in that “In the Studio” series as well. Did you notice the black sun at 4:10?

Also thought of another collaboration question for you. How do you pull off collaborating with guys? (Any advice for us guys on how to collaborate with girls? It seems like songwriting could be a pretty emotionally charged process, and so far I’ve just avoided getting into that with any of my musical friends who happen to be girls. It seems like it ought to be able to be done right though…)
Elise Pass

I am new but enjoying how personel your blog is. Thanks for being so open.
Marvin

What your songwriting process is like. Has it evolved? What have you noticed over the years about your process?
Lucy

hey vicky!
i think i like your questions too. they make me think. im a bit of a thinker too.
i like the whole range of info you have on your blog, its fun cos i means i feel like i can get to know you and its nice :)
i think you're really amazing and i love your music. keep at it! hope you come back to play in England soon, we miss you over here!
love Lucy xx
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan Paul

I hinted that I might come back here. :o) Almost looks like I'm starting to own this post… hope you don't mind! (Not even sure you'll notice comments on old topics, but we'll see…)

I've heard that some poets rewrite one of their pieces 20 or 50 or 100 times… until they have it just right!

Something else I'd love to hear from you about songwriting is what your typical songwriting process looks like… how many hours do you spend writing and rewriting for a particular piece and over how many days/weeks/months does this often occur? What do you find helpful/refreshing/inspirational during the rewriting process? What is the largest number of rewrites you've done (on which song), and what is the smallest number of rewrites (on which song)? I think that info would be both very interesting as well as very helpful to others who are working on the songwriting craft. Of course the process will vary quite a bit from person to person and song to song…
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan Paul

Ah yes, and one more on the rewriting… do you find you have to push through and just grit your teeth with most of the rewriting process (like many of the rest of us mortals), or do you find fun and joy and inspiration in a lot of those later stages of refinement as well?
Roni

I never comment on anything (like blogs, articles) but i must admit i never saw any artist or band official web page being so personal as this one.

(the previous sentences i wrote before I sae the “teeth video”) actually its good to know that there are still people in the who think that being adult doesnt mean that you have to be always serious, official and formal.
Actually when im now trying to remember, I never saw any artist who put a video taken by their phone or camera in the net. So congratulations for that.

Spread the good gospel and let the all the dentists hear that God does care about them.

Roni
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan Paul

Ok. A couple more late night questions to pass the time until I can sleep! My mind won't shut down tonight. Argh.

On rewriting… When you're working on an album, is it more that you write way too many songs and pick out the best ones to rework some more until they're just right, or do you write close to the right amount of songs and just work hard on them until you get them into shape?

On collaboration… How do you avoid a bad collaboration experience? (Have you had any of these? What do you look for in order to make it more likely to be a good collaboration experience? What things are good things to do? What things should be avoided if possible?)
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan Paul

Ok. A couple more late night questions to pass the time until I can sleep! My mind won't shut down tonight. Argh.

On rewriting… When you're working on an album, is it more that you write way too many songs and pick out the best ones to rework some more until they're just right, or do you write close to the right amount of songs and just work hard on them until you get them into shape?

On collaboration… How do you avoid a bad collaboration experience? (Have you had any of these? What do you look for in order to make it more likely to be a good collaboration experience? What things are good things to do? What things should be avoided if possible?)

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