Lessons from Music Camp (3 of 5)

Lessons from Music Camp (3 of 5)

So you would definitely recommend Miles of Music?(Launa is quoted in blue, Bill in red.)

Definitely! Our time at the camp has resulted in an enormous improvement in our songwriting, arranging and performance for our own band, New Yeller. A big percentage of our songs were started on the island, or improved through the creative process.

Eventually all good things come to an end and you have to get back to the everyday life of the “real world.” Is it difficult to sustain that level of creativity when you go home? 

We both have full time jobs, and we have been raising two kids for the last 20 years. There are so many priorities in our normal lives that it would be easy to say, “we don’t have time for that.” However, the process of writing, arranging, and performing music with New Yeller is so energizing that we tend to just feel inspired by that. 

It sounds like this creative outlet is an important part of your routine off the island. How is it, working together to come up with new material?  

Bill and I have our own approaches to creativity. I often find that a lyric will swim into my head without my looking for it. One of my favorite songs, ”The Miracle”, started that way. The lyric was, “He’s gone to the miracle.” I just heard it come to me, and I was curious to know what that line meant. Miles of Music gave me the tools to notice that I was curious, to explore that idea, and then to use music theory to build a song. It became a song about my grandfather’s favorite fishing hole in the Adirondacks, my favorite place to hear music in Prospect Park, and other everyday miracles we all experience and notice.

Recently another line came to me: “The purpose of the nest is to empty itself.”

Ooooh!... that sentiment would resonate with a lot of people. I’ll be interested to hear how it evolves!

I remember Bill telling me about an exercise in creativity that was used during camp. Each person chose a word that interested them from three random books. Then they took quiet time to think about how they could be related or ordered, letting the rhythm of the combination inspire the music or the words themselves influence song content. Is that a favorite technique, Bill? Do you have others?

That’s called the “Stacks” method, and it’s a great way to kick start creativity if a particular line or idea isn’t easy to find. Kristin and Laura, the creative geniuses behind the songwriting classes, have also taught us to “cannibalize” a line of lyrics from another song. They encourage us to find a rhythm or “groove” in a line of a traditional folk song or a line of poetry, and to substitute nouns and verbs to generate something new. Then, let that groove and that new line shape a song. 

They’ve also given us other kinds of writing prompts or tasks that inspire creativity. Perhaps we’ll pick a few chord names out of a hat —  D, G, F#, A — and then have to make a song out of those chords. I can imagine this translating to almost any creative medium. Choose a few colors, or a few bits of fabric, or two favorite patterns and then combine them in a new way. 

 I am constantly using lessons I learned about reharmonizing or changing the rhythm of a song or lyric. I find that most of my songs start out too simple, and that by substituting more complex, interesting chords, or changing the basic meter of a song — turning it from a rock song to a waltz, or from 4/4 to 6/8, I can change the meaning of the song. 

Bill, I was impressed by the insight you shared from a master class. The speaker dispelled the notion that creativity comes from within and stressed the need to open thought to what is going on around you; ordinary, everyday sounds like the rhythm of windshield wipers can inspire beats per measure and add texture to music. After that conversation, I remember being especially alert to sounds around me.  

The name of the teacher who told me that was Victor Wooten, at a camp, called Bass Boot Camp. He told us that music is always happening all around us. In fact, it takes a lot of mental work and concentration to shut it out! What Victor does when he writes music is to stop shutting out all of the music that is around him all the time. Victor didn’t say it in these words, but what I took from that is that music is coming at us all the time. When we relax, we let all those sounds in.

I can see how this applies to disciplines that use other senses. For example, a photographer is always alert to capture that “perfect shot,” the sculptor is on the look-out for the perfect materials,... etc. You never know what will inspire.

Exactly. When I write music, I include words I see on street signs — like “rinse,” or “silver.” I keep a list of words on my phone, or phrases that someone says; I’m listening and looking for lyrics. 

Every good song has to have a groove. I look for interesting chord changes or instrumentation I hear from other bands. I also find a lot of bass lines when I’m repeating a phrase or sentence over and over again. And, of course, I sometimes find them in my bass teacher's exercise.  

Sound would be an obvious influence on music, but are there other senses that you draw from to enhance a piece?

Dance and the kinesthetic sense. The feeling of your body hitting things, or the sound hitting you can be inspiring. 

I’m also motivated by music concepts. For example, the band Occerville River, employed a cool concept at a show I attended. One of their songs sounded a lot like “The Sloop John B.” and then in the middle of the song, they seamlessly incorporated that inspiration source. It wasn’t a medley or a cover, it was just a different part of their piece. 

I wanted to try that idea for New Yeller. I was writing a song about trying to find a car on the street in Brooklyn and I realized that it reminded me of the song “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” so I had that song just morph into my song. Audiences love it. 

So you're pointing to the many ways to bring inspiration from other sources in to your work, creating something unique to you...

This is the website for Launa and Bill's band: https://www.reverbnation.com/newyeller