This might sound weird but I think with cowriting the best results come with intimacy, how well you know the other person and to rely on one another. The songs I wrote together were always some sort of complex synergy I can't explain (or maybe would be best explained by making love?) How you complete eachothers ideas so that you feel a connection in your soul. A new song is born.

Well your descriptor is something I have yet to experience, but if that's song writing at it's best I am thinking I may decline future writing sessions, especially with my guy friends... lol

scared of intimacy? lol
ofc it's not the same as, but on some level share some similarities imo :)

Not scared at all. The only things that scare me are heights, out of tune guitars and industrial size cans of food (especially mayonaise).

I have done some co-writing recently, and thanks again for the advice you gave a few weeks back. I have yet to have any bad experiences. I've had a few sessions where you do more looking at the other guy than anything else though... which is probably the reason you told me to always come with ideas. : )

Wow! Two power-house writers in one room. I'd consider myself uber-blessed to write with either one of you! I have only written a few times with someone else. We both brought a few ideas to the meeting and developed each. Then, the best part came when we tried something totally new for both of us. It seemed more 'collaborative' at that moment. I think it's because of the 'buy-in' we both had because it was 'ours' versus adding to mine or adding to hers. I've recently been listening to the book "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" and it had a few insights about ownership and buy-in. Very important aspects in the creative process. I'm always ready to collaborate on music, so if you're ever in Arkansas, we should write something :) - David

I am a second-degree seeking Songwriting major at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. I hope and pray to one day collaborate. I write poems of praise and worship. I also write poems of encouragement. I focus more on lyrics. Quite honestly, hymns are poems set to music. I hope and pray to collaborate with different people.

Co-writing is still difficult for me. With my friend Chris, I just take something he's started and finish it. Michael Neale and I actually wrote a good new worship song that's on his new record. He did the verses and I did the chorus. Kind of. But sitting down together like you're talking about is really difficult for me. I just had my first successful co-write session with a friend of mine named Chad Cates, a great writer from Nashvegas. But it took Chad two hours to get me comfortable enough to participate! But he stuck with it and he definitely took me in some directions I would never have gone in. I enjoyed it. Kind of like going to the dentist. I like the person. I like the outcome. The process, not so much. Hopefully, I'll do better next time.

Todd

Thanks for opening up this question! I love the pictures, how you cropped the wider one, and the lighting lends itself very nicely to the black and white as well. Hope we get to hear some of the fruits of that Stu G songwriting session at some point!

I have tried doing some co-writing before, but it seemed that we didn't know what to do with ourselves in that setting. Even though each of us had written lots on our own, we didn't know how that process should work when you're trying it together!

Here's an updated/pruned copy of some questions I posed a few weeks back about the collaboration process. :o) Of course please don't feel like you have to specifically address any particular one of these (and certainly not all of them!). Maybe one or two of them will spark some advice you think we budding songwriters will find useful. (Just for fun though, I've starred a few of the questions I'd be most interested in hearing your answers for!)

Of course, all of these aspects of co-writing are likely to work in different ways for different people. I really appreciate your being willing to share some about your experiences though as I'm sure they will prove helpful for those of us who aren't as far along that path.

* What does the collaboration process typically look like for you? What have you discovered that works (and doesn't work)? The first time working with someone, do you try to set up any ground rules or expectations at the beginning or do you just hop in and go for it and see what happens?

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 at once? If so, how did you structure that collaboration (time, space, roles, etc)?

Do you tend to confine your collaboration to a single session, or do you sometimes/often follow that up with a lot of back and forth over a longer period of time if things are turning out well but not yet complete?

Do you try to let one collaborator own a particular song and have the final say about it, or do you generally keep an equal footing for all input? (How do you keep a strong unified voice and avoid getting something that sounds like it was written by a committee?)

Have you ever had success with one person focusing primarily on the words while the other focuses on the music, or do you generally contribute equally to both?

* Any practical tips or advice on how best to approach and handle pointing out and working on parts of the song that... well, still need some work? :o) (Constructive criticism, etc)

Do you know of any good resources that might help budding songwriters get a leg up on the collaboration process?

* For the guys here, can you give us a feminine Christian songwriter perspective on how single guys might best approach collaboration with single girls? How can we best respect and honor our Christian sisters in this sort of situation? (Or is this actually easier than it sounds? You seem to have figured out how to do this well in reverse.)

* How do you recommend we go about deciding who are good candidates (and who are not) for collaborating with?

I suppose their might be two basic schools of thought about this:
- try to collaborate with practically everybody and see what comes out of it
- collaborate only with people you have strong mutual respect and trust with

Hey Vicky,

My suggestions I do consider do have background music/art/theatre/ in the past I would free write idea(brain storm ideas) once I have a theme that is relevant and build a framework around. Always have people that you trust that can give constructive feedback to polishing the song.

Side note for while been looking getting back into helping with music ministry one my passions has been to build custom guitars and use my fine woodworking skills to use. Question do feel there is a need for this type of ministry needed in the church today? Feel free to let know your thoughts on this.

Peace,

Nathan

I recently started working on co-writing (twice) after writing by myself in the past. Both times it was a fellow songwriter coming to me for help (as if i can be help!) with their idea and shaping verses, etc. So we crafted from there. So to me it felt like it was their song and I was just kinda helping out.

How do you just sit down with someone and say, "let's write a song?" Do you start with an idea and go from there? How about Glory to God, Forever with Fee?

Keith