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On Tuesday I had the chance to attend a Jason Blume songwriting workshop class in Nashville.  It was a fantastic experience!  This months theme was “Song Rodeo”.  During the “Song Rodeo” Jason would pick a name out of a hat and if he picked you, he would play your song for the whole group while giving it an honest critique.  The whole purpose was to not get knocked off the “Song Bull”.  Although I did not have a song played, I learned a lot from watching and listening to him critique other people’s songs.  I think I probably took the most notes out of everyone in the class, but there was just so much to absorb that I didn’t want to forget a single tiny detail.

At the end of this particular class there was a publisher pitch.  I didn’t expect him to be interested in my song because I’m a newer songwriter.  Although he did not take my song, he did tell me that I had a good start and to keep working hard on it.  He was very encouraging and offered a lot of wisdom about the business of songwriting.

After the class, I went and talked to Jason about how to improve in songwriting.  Basically, he told me that I need to paint word pictures and make people see what I see.  So that’s what I have been working on this week.  I’ve been really working on the song that I pitched and I have now found that my ending could go two ways. I don’t know where I’m going to go with it yet, but hopefully I can figure it out soon so I can keep working to make it  solid.

If you would have asked me if painting a picture through words in a song was easy, I would have probably said, “Yes.”  And if you would have asked me if I effectively paint a picture through my songs I would have said, “Yeah, I guess.” Boy was I wrong.  I got Jason Blume’s “Writing Hit Lyrics” CD and I have been learning so much.  I am still on exercise 1 because I am trying to apply it to my other songs. If you are a songwriter I suggest you get his CD’s!

I know the more I write, painting with words will just become something that I do, but right now I am finding flaws in my songs, all over the place.  It is a little frustrating but I’ll get over it.  The only way to get better at something is by doing it.

Have you ever had something that you thought you were decent at only to have your foundation shaken so you had to rebuild your whole entire craft using a new tool?  How did you work through that?  I would love to hear your stories!

Thats all for now! I have to go figure out where my song is going.

Have a great Easter week,

Hailey Zeph. 3:17 xoxo