Some of the things I noticed about conversations about songwriting and stuff is that often the people that are musical talk about “getting together to jam” all the time. Which, depending on the people, could mean getting together to write music or just getting together and playing songs by other people. This in turn sometimes sparks inspiration. These “jam sessions” are necessary to keep the cycle of inspiration going in the writing communities. I think this pertains to both the larger society and the small-town mentality because it affects everything. Social interaction helps to create new levels of inspiration. When interviewing Brad Davis, the organizer of the songwriter’s event, he talked about getting together with his core group of artists to write songs. He says you have to limit yourself to who you write with because first of all, you don’t have the time, and second of all, some people you just don’t “click” with. There has to be a connection there that is unique and inspires creativity. That is why these jam sessions are important – they inspire and they help you find connections that will continue to help you throughout your career (or simply just your experiences).
Another phrase used was “Hook line.” This came up when talking about the writing process – the writer first comes up with one catchy phrase or chorus, or even a guitar riff, and continues from there to write the entirity of the song. This I found important in light of literacy because literacy is a process, and you have to start somewhere.
Sadly there wasn’t much else besides this single important term because all the other “phrases” are normal, regular, understood by society. Unless you get down to the technical terms about music or writing which are mostly educational, and to be honest, not widely used among songwriters themselves. That is why I’m not making a big use of them – simply because they’re not that important unless you’re taking classes about them or learning them for your career. When songwriting is a hobby, there’s just no use for them.
“Terms” that songwriters use are pretty regular and often used in stories. They say, “well I wrote this song a couple days ago so hang in there with me.” They say this a lot – as if apologizing for doing badly even though they rarely do badly. I think this is a kind of reverse psychology: if I say it’s a bad song (even though I myself don’t believe it; otherwise I wouldn’t be performing it), people will expect it to be bad and be surprised when it turns out ok. It’s this kind of thing that songwriters use a lot, but the terms aren’t new to society. That’s why I’m having a hard time coming up with a solid list of words. However these few things I’ve pointed out should be helpful for insight into the writer’s mind.
