Do, not think.

Tea & cookies
Two days ago, I heard from my friend Ashley who'd been in Equador for most of the past year studying meditation and organic farming. She took such a big leap leaving everything here behind, that it's hard not to be inspired by her. She was back home for a jam-packed two-week visit and wanted to know if I could squeeze her in. Of course I could. We met for tea and cookies at the Only Cafe in the east end. It isn't the only cafe, it's just called The Only. Strangely enough, so is another one in Peterborough! I guess that means neither of them actually is.

But back to the tea and cookies...

So, with Ash being the spritual, motivational seeker type that she is, I told her about a little tailspin I'd gotten myself into last week, how I'd been doubting myself and feeling scared of what lay ahead, and of somehow screwing it all up. She said "doubt isn't real." Simple as that. What a lovely and sussinct way of nipping that in the bud! So we went on to have a great chat about how progress comes from action – from continually doing a little bit more all the time, and not getting caught up in thought. I've decided to do less thinking.

So what have I been doing since the infamous Revelation Of The Schedule 11 days ago? Not updating the blog, that's for sure! Well, last week was a bit of a write-off. But I'm back on track this week.

Telling stories
There was another NSAI meeting this Tuesday night. I didn't bring a demo for feedback and there was no guitar there, so I couldn't play one live. One fella played one, and we each gave our two cents on that. But mostly we talked about story telling, progressing the story from one verse to the next, and so on. Dan played 4 or 5 Nashville hits as examples and we discussed their lyrics, poetic devices, stories, characters, etc. It was interesting.

So that session inspired me to buckle down and make some progress with verses for a new song I've been mulling over for a while. The idea started with one line that I came up with on a motorycle ride a few months ago. I often sing gibberish melodies as I'm riding along and they eventually turn into real words. It's a cool way to focus on melodies and not get caught up in what the chords are – perhaps another way to look at doing vs thinking! I recently discovered that sitting down with the guitar too soon can limit my melody possibilities, because I end up jamming the early melody idea into the bounds of my basic rhythm guitar skills. So I've been taking a more fluid and patient approach.  

The chorus is essentially a fun little folksy way of saying 'I'll go any distance to be with you' or 'nothing can keep me from you.' So this week, after the NSAI session, I decided to come up with a story. I've been working on the lyrics and melody in my head everwhere I've been in the past four days. On the train, in coffee shops, the grocery store, here at home. Came up with a nice little story about a couple who've been in love pretty much their entire lives, since they were little kids and didn't even know what love was. Amazing life-long friends turned into lovers. I managed to resist the tempation to pick up the guitar until last night, only after I felt like I really had a nice little unusual melody worked out. Then it ended up being a fairly quick process of writing the guitar part – and, it's a part that I never would have wrtten if I hadn't taken my time on the vocal melody.

Slabs of stone
I love how a melody often tells me what the words will be. I once heard an Innuit carver say that he never knows what he will make from the slab of stone in front of him. He said that there's a spirit in each piece and he just helps it out into its final shape. I thought that was pretty awesome and it reminded me of how songs often come from somewhere inside without me really having a specific goal in mind. Even now that I'm being more objective and proactive with writing, there's still an element of that mysterious discovery process with the lyrics and story rising up out of the melody. It's magic.

I wrote the first verse on the train ride home yesterday and just finished the second and the bridge tonight. I'm really digging it and will bring an acoustic demo of it to Nashville. I'll likely run it by my buddies Alex and Mike first, though. They tend to be good sounding boards for lyrics.

So... 51 days to go and I've got another song.

Doing. Not thinking.