This week was the start of the new songwriting course taught by songwriter-producer extraordinaire Ryan Tedder and I’ve been busy working on a song in a totally different way than I usually do. It’s not ready to share yet, but it’s been a huge learning experience as it required me to speed-learn Ableton in order to do the assignments. This method also included writing music and melody before the lyrics, which is also the opposite of how I usually write songs.
Two things I learned:
- The reason why my microphone had a delay was because I hadn’t downloaded the Focusrite software on the laptop I started using. Yes, that took nearly two hours to figure out.
- The reason that Ableton didn’t have many sounds and loops to work with is because you need to download them separately (and they have some free ones to start with.)
Those realizations probably seem obvious, but I’m admitting them here anyway in case anyone is frantically searching “Why is there a delay on microphone?!” and maybe this is their solution, too.
This week’s song is “Follow Your Dreams” because no matter how late in life it may seem to pursue your dreams, you might as well get started now because, ah-hem, you’re not getting any younger. Yes, it’s true, today is the youngest that you’re ever going to be again.
This recording is from this month five years ago, at the start of my current songwriting journey. I recorded it on my phone and I had just recently started playing guitar again after a long hiatus. In other words, I didn’t create this in Ableton on my laptop (and hopefully my guitar playing has improved since then).
My Songwriting Journey 