Note to Self: How I Captured a New Song in New Ways

Many of my original song ideas are born from observations. I overhear something someone says that sounds interesting. I pick up on something curious or a catch phrase that stands out. I call it listening to life’s ideas: it’s one of my creative principles.  

At this stage, I’m not sure know how an idea will take shape. But I don’t want to forget the spark happened.

I end up jotting down whatever’s promising on a scrap piece of paper, a napkin, a notebook, or a sticky note. Or I grab my phone to capture my thoughts. Whatever’s most convenient. 

Flip The Script 
The song idea I’m thinking about didn’t start with an overheard conversation or catch phrase.

Instead, I was parked at the piano. Our 1923 Straube upright.  

This upright is a timeless, tireless companion weighing in at roughly 600 pounds, according to our piano movers. It was Marianna’s childhood piano that we’re now grateful to have living with us in our 1927 brick bungalow.  

When we’re not around, I imagine our “younger” home bantering with the more senior piano about their age difference. I even picture the exchange in the style of The Far Side comic strip by Gary Larson: 

“You’re so out of touch,” [complained the younger bungalow to the elder piano]. 

“Kids these days,” [responded the piano]. 

“You’re both way out of line,” [chimed in the 1914 Edison phonograph listening to 78s in the basement].

Back to that song idea. So I’m sitting at the piano.  

No agenda.  

No chords in mind.  

No genres on my brain.  

No lyrics in my head.  

No other music to be heard.  

I just start playing whatever pops in my head, wherever my fingers travel, wherever my soul takes me. I call it free play. It’s such a liberating, spirited practice. 

What I initially explore, tends to guide me freely to the next note, chord, scale, phrase, or feel.

No lyrics or words have been established yet. I’m strictly playing what comes to mind as an instrumental. If I’m lucky, I repeat those same notes or chord changes and start to establish what could be an instrumental verse or a catchy chorus.  

If I’m really lucky, I stumble on a variation of what I play that becomes the bridge or a memorable melody.

Now I’m knee deep into this new idea. I don’t want to lose the mojo. But at the same time, I want to capture my progress, so I can come back to it any time. 

Take This Down, iPhone 
I turn to the Voice Memo app on my smartphone. I use this app a decent amount. I’ll fire it up and hit record when I’m on the go and something interesting pops in my head. Or when a music mash-up idea reveals itself based on what’s playing in the car stereo. The promising ideas make it to my Favorites folder:

Here's a few song ideas I describe, play, and save in my phone's Voice Memo app.

But I wasn’t driving when this idea struck. I was at home in front of that trusty upright piano with only my phone as a witness.

I don’t read music and I’m not well-versed in music theory [but should be]. So my verbal intros for song ideas on my Voice Memo app tend to be rudimentary and flippant. But the ideas are still true to my soul.  

Here’s how I described the idea before I play it:

Here’s what I actually played:

Typically, I approach songwriting based on my love for all the roads that lead me back to the Blues. But I’m also drawn to many styles of music.   

For this song idea, I veered quite a bit from familiar Blues progressions and grooves. But it still sounded good when I soloed in the Blues scale. What it produced was a backdrop of chords that also worked for an endless Blues improv session...until I needed a break for my ears.  

Take It To The Bridge
At least at this point, you could have called it a bridge. Here’s how I described it before I played it:

And here’s what that sounded like for the first time. I played through the initial chords and the bridge or chorus a couple times to get a feel for it:

That’s the gist of this idea, which was instrumental at this stage. 

Time for Songwriting Confession 
I usually let Voice Memo recordings like this pile up on my phone.

I know. I know. I should be working on them when they’re so fresh and so clean. It’s my procrastinator’s approach to creativity instead of capturing as much about the idea or song as possible from the get go.

The experts - like music producer Rick Rubin – give good advice on this: 

“John Lennon once advised that if you start a song, write it through to the end in that sitting. The initial inspiration has a vitality in it that can carry you through the whole piece. Don’t be concerned if some of the parts are not yet all they can be. Get through a rough draft. A full, imperfect version is generally more helpful than a seemingly perfect fragment.” 

-From the “Inspiration” chapter of Rubin’s book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being 

Actually, procrastination may have played a part in my love for this new song growing over time. Every so often, I casually re-listen to Voice Memos - like this one - with no agenda in mind or task at hand.

Just listen. Soak it up. Let it sink in all over again. 

The great advertising copywriter, James Webb Young, described this incubation phase of the creative process in A Technique for Producing Ideas this way:

“It will come to you when you are least expecting it – while shaving, or bathing, or most often when you are half awake in the morning. It may awaken you in the middle of the night...” 

“...This is the way ideas come: after you have stopped straining and have passed through a period of rest and relaxation from the search.” 

Young was right.

Between casual replays of my “Favorite” song ideas, life happened. The morning routine. The daily grind. Chores. Weekend plans. News cycles came and went. If something major happened, I reflected on it.  

That was the case on January 7, 2021: the morning after the January 6th insurrection of our nation’s Capitol building. I was ashamed for our country. I watched this embarrassing episode of our history unfold on live TV. I reflected on what it meant to me and my fellow citizens. Here’s an edited excerpt from my journal:

“A mob illegally broke into the U.S. Capitol building because their presidential candidate falsely convinced them – without proof - that the legal votes cast in the election were inaccurately tallied, despite every state certifying the accuracy of the votes and results.

While I watched footage of this insurrection, I saw a lone police officer inside the Capitol being forced to retreat. The officer continued to fend off the leader and back peddled up the stairs, while he called for backup on his hand-held radio. The officer is Black.  

If that officer would have forcefully taken down that lead rioter for illegally breaching the Capitol and inching closer to Senate chambers, that officer could have been seriously injured or killed in retaliation by the rioters. 

Instead, the officer calmly, confidently retreated without using force on those who already illegally forced their way toward him. I commend the officer for his bravery and for not backing down.

Imagine if the people who stormed the Capitol under the same false pretenses were predominantly Black or Brown and the officer was not Black or Brown. Would the officer’s actions had been the same as Mr. Goodman’s actions? And would the actions of the people been the same?” 

At the time, I thought about the historic actions of a young legendary Black leader, the late John Lewis. His calm, confident march for Civil Rights - including rights for voters - was on a public bridge in racially oppressed Selma, Alabama. March 7, 1965.  

When Lewis crossed that bridge, he and others were beaten down by law enforcement officers. In U.S. history, it’s known as Bloody Sunday. Lewis would later refer to Civil Rights actions like these as “good trouble”. 

By the way, the Capitol officer’s name is Eugene Goodman.  

Goodman is a U.S. Army veteran who unconditionally served our country in uniform. He earned the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor for his unconditional actions to protect the Senate chambers during the security breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

John Lewis’s “good trouble” phrase - and the “good” in Eugene Goodman’s last name and actions – inspired me to write the following song lyrics:  

“Good Trouble” 

[Verse 1] 
“Run the race, as hard as you can.  
Whether you lose, or win. 
Your steps might help, someone else.  
There’s plenty of room, on life’s trophy shelves. 
Fearing someone’s taking something away.  
When others never had it in the first place. 
No more what ifs, no we must.  
Stand up to anything, unjust.” 
 
[Chorus] 
“Good trouble, good good trouble, is what we need. 
Good trouble, good good trouble, is my plea. 
Good trouble, good good trouble, bridges to cross. 
Good trouble, good good trouble, at any cost. 
Good trouble, good good trouble, facing harm. 
Good trouble, good good trouble, arm and arm.”  
 
[Verse 2] 
“Roadblocks for races, unlike mine.  
That’s where I, draw the line. 
We can’t go, back in time.  
When the road for many’s been a constant climb. 
We’re not trying to, start a fight.  
Just trying to stand, for what is right. 
The struggle is real, many need our truth.  
All lives can’t matter, ‘til Black lives do.” 

© Song Lyrics and Music by Kirk Clayton Manley. All Rights Reserved.

When I started writing these lyrics, I had no music in mind. I was more focused on the message.  

Then, it hit me. 

Take another listen to my saved Voice Memo recordings. This is the first time I’ve tried to pair an existing instrumental idea with new song lyrics both created three years apart.

There were edits and changes, of course. That’s bound to – and should - happen. Especially when you’re combining two existing ideas into something new.

Early version of “Good Trouble” song lyrics. Yet to be written? “Good Penmanship.”

There were also reworkings of the chord progressions. Plus, I created a new song arrangement that changed how and when the chorus would be sung. 

You’ll hear all of that come together in the following rough demo of “Good Trouble”:

Now I really want to see what can be done in a professional studio to bring "Good Trouble” to light and released as an official recording.  

Maybe strings? Background singers? Harmonies? Multiple keyboard sounds? Guest musicians?

Stay tuned, my good people.