So music is a big part of my life and I realized some time ago that writing is one of the particular aspects of music that I’m most interested in. Since that realization, I’ve begun to study more intently about writing music, or at least begun wanting to study this sort of writing more intently.

One thing I’ve gathered from books and discussions is that rewriting is a critical part of the writing process and actually may be the primary differentiation between enthusiastic amateurs and seasoned professionals.

Unfortunately, I’ve also realized that I have no idea how to rewrite. Perhaps the first step in learning to rewrite is to simply start doing it – even though you don’t really have it all figured out. So I’m gonna start with that. My goal is to just start putting consistent time into this even though I don’t know what I’m doing quite yet.

I’ve also read (in “TuneSmith” by Jimmy Webb) that over half of our American (and potentially the rest of the world’s) catalog of popular music is the result of a collaboration between two or more people. Guess what. I don’t have any idea how to successfully collaborate either. I’d bet it takes some degree of mutual trust and respect between the collaborators. Despite my wet-behind-the-ears status, I’ve recently begun to just start trying to do a bit of collaboration and see what comes out of it.

How ’bout you? Getting into anything where you don’t know what you’re doing quite yet? Got any tips on the two particular dilemmas I’ve mentioned above? Got the start of a lyric or some great music you’d like to try to collaborate on? Tell me all about it!