Paul Fifield Music

Important ideas I learned and/or results I got in songwriting classes and camps:

* This is from my first California Coast Music Camp (CCMC) in 2006. Don’t remember the teacher’s name. But he taught us how to claim, energetically, a performance space. I didn’t put it into practice in just the way he taught it, but eventually I came to incorporate the spirit of it in my performances, as a way to move beyond stage fright. 
* In my second CCMC in 2007, Cosy Sheridan teaching songwriting. Two big ideas:
  * In her class syllabus that I read before camp, she said don't expect songwriting to be easy, to flow easily. Songwriting is work — don’t expect it not to be. 
  * Then during one of her classes I couldn’t relate to the exercise and she suggested I write a lullaby, so I did. In class. Almost fully complete. Seemed easy. Flowed easily. Ironic, huh?
    Don’t You Cry
* The next CCMC, in 2008, Linda Waterfall was the songwriting teacher. I played an unfinished version of Lift Me and she was blown away, told me I had to finish it and play it at the student concert, and that I should get Rene Worst to play bass on it. So I did. It was very well received.
    Lift Me
* Cosy Sheridan again at a later CCMC, took the class on a guided meditation, which resulted in My Old Man, which I finished during camp and played at the student concert. Several people came up to me subsequently to express how much the song touched them and how well they could relate to it. 
    My Old Man
* Also that year, Cosy initiated an exercise in which we pulled a slip of paper out of each of 3 hats that were passed around — two had phrases to include in a song and one had genre. The song I started there in camp and “finished” a year or two later was “That’s What You Do”. The slips of paper containing phrases: "I’m afraid"; "too early in the morning too late in life". The genre: Country Ballad. I won a song contest with this song a few years later but recently I rewrote the lyrics. 
    That’s What You Do
* Songwriting workshop at Esalen in 2010 lead by John Smith and Julie Baker. John Smith encouraged us to think of performing as giving the audience a gift. He also taught us that if you’re performing and having trouble connecting to the music, get into your body. I got two songs from that week-long workshop: 
    The Long Sorrow (song title chosen from a hat)
    Joy Spring (I had started it a few years before, mostly finished it there, finally finished in 2024)
* Americana Song Academy circa 2011 — From Mary Gauthier: you have to sit at your writing desk day after day and keep writing until you find your voice. I took that in a metaphorical sense.
* Carol McComb songwriting classes at Gryphon Stringed Instruments, which I attended for a couple of years starting in 2009. I got several songs from doing homework exercises. Sometimes I was able to use an existing fragment and finish it, other times the exercise got me to start and finish a song from scratch. I finished or mostly finished these songs as a result of these classes:
    Put Your Pistol Away
    We Are The Trees
    Way Over You
    Fare Thee Well
    I Don’t Need A Reason
    I Choose
    You Never Know
    Slipping Away
    Just Move On
* Jazz guitar class with Ed Johnson. This song came from a chord progression exercise.
    It’s Good To Be Here
* Nina Gerber guitar lessons. She teaches the C-A-G-E-D system. I only got through the A form before moving on, but I got a song out of it. 
    Photograph
* Steve Seskin songwriting series (six classes). I learned some useful things:
  * Always do a pronoun check before declaring a song finished (1st person vs. 3rd person). Different perspectives can make a big difference. 
  * Helped with this song. Steve said that as soon as he heard the line “first words out of her mouth put me on the floor” he wanted to hear what those words were, but I wasn't getting right to it in the lyrics. So I paid attention and made several improvements.
    I’m Number Five

Some of the key things I've gotten out of all of these camps, classes, interactions with other songwriters and song scouts, and my own experiences. Maybe some of these will help you, no matter what your creative endeavors are.

  * Songwriting is work — don’t expect it to be easy. The easy ones are few and far between. Develop your workflow processes. 
  * Find your voice. Pay attention to how the song makes you feel — are the lyrics and music connected to your core and are you expressing the essence of your self? The point is that you are the only you in the universe, the only one with your particular point of view, and that point of view is perfectly valid.
  * Honor your muse. Your muse may decide to start holding back if you don't appreciate its contributions. Revisiting abandoned song ideas can free up lots of stuck energy. (However you choose to think of where your creative ideas come from, there's an energy component, a flow, that you can tap into, and the more you do it the more natural it becomes.) Everything is energy. See if you can find ways to let it flow.
  * Find ways to limit self-censorship. This is a difficult one. We naturally censor as we create. I've actually found recently that interacting with AI can help overcome this – since it has no self, it can't self-censor. It doesn't know if its ideas seem stupid (and a lot of them are). But it doesn't matter because the AI's lack of self censorship can empower you to consider ideas you might otherwise reject before even exploring them. And anyway, this goes back to the concept that you are the only you who has ever existed or will ever exist. Your point of view is unique and perfectly valid. Go ahead and express it. 
  * There's nothing wrong with humor and whimsy. These are also expressions of who you are. No need to always be serious. (I have a tendency toward seriousness, so I need to periodically remind myself to let go.)
  * Keep going. You will get discouraged at times but it will pass. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep going.  Keep working most every day, on something (it's okay to take breaks but don't let them become extended because it can become difficult to restart). If you’re blocked, set that song aside and go to another one for a while. For example, I've let negative comments blow me out of the water a few times, losing precious years of songwriting in the process.
   * Pay attention to the voice inside that isn’t sure about some words or concepts in the lyrics, or doesn’t quite like the feel of the song, or where the melody goes — whatever. Sometimes it’s tempting to just get the song finished but if some part of you knows it’s not quite right, explore to find out what’s nagging at you. Play the song for others and listen to their comments. Sometimes they can be really insightful. You don't have to do anything someone else suggests but it doesn't hurt to consider someone's thoughtful responses. But until that nagging voice in the back of your mind is satisfied, the song probably isn't finished to your standards. 
   * Avoid playing the comparison game. There will always be people who write songs you wish you'd written, or songwriters who you deem better than you, or more successful than you, yada yada yada. It's absolutely no help to make comparisons. Just write your songs. And remember, always, that you are unique. 
   * Don't write to fit someone else's idea of what a good song is, or what some song scout wants for the artists they represent. For example, I've had song scouts tell me a song is good but it should have a happy ending. Then I spend countless hours trying to achieve that only to finally realize the song was fine as it was. 
   * When you fall in love with a song you're writing, run with it. I've experience this over and over. Some of the greatest joy I've gotten from songwriting is from just falling totally in love with the feel, melody and ideas of a song, to the point that I've been in workshops and not been able to pay attention to what the teacher was saying because my new song was in my head and  heart so completely. It's okay. These turn out to be some of my best songs. 
   * Keep a digital recorder or your phone with you all the time and get used to recording voice memos when you get ideas. And whenever you sit down with your songwriting instrument set your recorder or phone up, ready to record when you have a new idea. Especially now, with AI music generation sites, a snippet uploaded can evolve into an entire song pretty easily, because you can hear how it will sound when it's a finished product. 
   * Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. This comes from Steve Seskin. Oftentimes we want every detail of the story to reflect what actually happened but that doesn't always create a compelling story. It's okay to use poetic license and throw in a little fiction. 
   * Give your audience credit for being intelligent. You don't have to spell everything out. (This tip from Margo LeDuc)
   * Think of different ways to say the same thing. Maybe by so doing you can squeeze more thoughts into the same space. Or just find a more  poetic or compelling way to express a thought. 
   * Allow rhyming needs to steer you into new thoughts and phrases, and more clever turns. You can always go back.
   * Pure fiction is just fine. So is fiction extrapolated from experience.
   * Sometimes the most personal is the most universal. We're all human. Other people can relate to what you've experienced or are experiencing, even if it's very personal. 
   * Unfinished songs are not failures. Think of them as "fragments' perfectly content to wait for you to get back to them. Even if it takes decades.
   * Allow yourself to improve a song you had thought you’d finished. New experiences lend themselves to new interpretations and new ways to say things. 
   * Include “furniture”. This means that, for example, instead of “car” get specific, like “'56 Chevy”. I don't recall where I heard this tip, but it was in a songwriting workshop somewhere along the line. 
   * Co-writing works for some, not for others. Do what works for you. Personally, it's never worked for me. I'm just too picky. 
   * If you're planning to perform songs, practice them until they become second nature. That way you can put your energy into the performance.
   * Think of your music as a gift, whether performing or distributing recordings. For performances, this can help alleviate stage fright.
   * When performing, if you're having trouble connecting with the essence of a song, get into your body. Start moving to the music. The connection will come. 

I'm happy to share these concepts that others have shared with me and that I've also learned through my own experiences. I hope you find some of them helpful, and if so, please feel free to share them with others. 

Paul Fifield