Songwriting Begins Before You Start Writing

When you sit down to write music, you’re probably hoping you write something profound or funny or catchy. You’re hoping for an outcome.

You have expectations.

And those expectations shape your behavior during the songwriting process.

They affect your mindset and they affect the song you end up making.

The second you decide to make music, the songwriting process begins.

By the time you buy a new guitar pedal, you’re already in it. By the time you choose your bandmates, you’re songwriting.

You’re setting things up… and you’re setting expectations.

So be careful

The more time you give yourself to write, the more time you give yourself to ruminate.

The more time you give yourself to set expectations and expectations are what will prevent you from being in flow state.

That’s why Incubator (yes, this post is yet another ad for Incubator) offers a songwriting process that doesn’t give you time to set expectations

• No buying gear
• No scheduling
• No corralling musicians

Just show up to the first rehearsal. Meet your bandmates and start jamming.

• No thinking about how long you have to prepare for the show
• No worrying about selling tickets
• No worrying about merch

All of that is taken care of for you so you can be a musician and do what musicians do: play.

In the second rehearsal, we put together the best bits from the jam into songs in the third rehearsal, we polish them.

It’s fast-paced and clean. It’s simple and centered around play.

It doesn’t take skill or practice to do it. It takes trust. 

When you trust, you can let go and that frees up so much psychic space for creativity to flow.

Everything is part of the songwriting process

It’s hard to find flow when your artistic endeavor is wrapped in worry about finding and paying for rehearsal space, emailing bookers, marketing your band and social media strategy.

We separate all that from the craft, but it’s all part of the same thing.

So do yourself a favor and c’mon down to Incubator, where you can create without all that much stress or responsibility.