Getting Ideas For Songs

Hi guys, Wendy Day here. Hope you're doing well. Let me apologize in advance because you might hear my dog Gangster snoring in the background. He is fast asleep and he's loud. He's funny. Today I want to talk about where you guys get ideas for your songs, because there are times where you run out of ideas and you need to do some different things in your life in order to get some ideas. There goes Gangster. To get some ideas, um, about what types of songs to record, what topics, um Of course, you should always be talking about stuff that you can relate to, like stuff that's real. The thing that fans resonate with in music is passion, your passion, and authenticity. Fans really like to believe that artists are talking about stuff that they know about. So if you're talking about selling drugs or beating people up or If you're a super athlete and you're talking about, you know, health stuff, just make sure that it's something that you understand and that you live, or somebody near, near and dear to you lives, so that you can talk about it without looking stupid and you can make sense of what you're talking about. Um, the last thing you want to do is get exposed as a fraud as a rapper. Or a singer. Um, having said that, there are some things that you can do. You know, for some reason in the music industry, like, if one person makes a song about Versace, then somebody else makes a song about Gucci, and then somebody else makes a song about Fendi. And while those songs may do well, um, it's not like it's really an in-depth classic type of song. Um, one of the things that you could do to get ideas other than spending time, you know, analyzing your life and your world and seeing what's going on in your world and talking about stuff that's near and dear to you, you know, what's going on in your family, what's going on with your job, you know, what's going on with school, what's going on with your, um, love interests or your relationships, you know, things that everybody can kind of relate to. Um, struggle is a great topic because everybody has struggles, and you might be rapping about a struggle that you're experiencing in school, and I may listen to it and I'm thinking about— because it applies to what I'm going through perhaps in life, and it applies to maybe my relationship. Maybe I'm going through a struggle in my relationship, or maybe I'm going through a struggle with my parents, and what you're talking about, even though it's, it's a little bit different than what I'm going through, I'm getting value out of it because I can relate to what you're talking about. Um, one of the great things that you can do to find a topic that is both current and popular is you can look at what's trending on Twitter and at Google. So you can go into, um, Twitter and see like, you know, what's trending tonight at Twitter, you know. And not to, not to like be a news program and talk about, you know, exact topics, but you can garner ideas from whatever that topic is. For example, right now it's trending Chris Brown and Soulja Boy are going at it. It's, it's like WWE in, in rap right now, and they're talking about, you know, doing a fight in Dubai and, you know, blah blah blah, blah, blah. But you can take from that beef, so you could make a song about beef and this, or a song about how you handle adversity. And it's very topical right now. You can go to— there's a, a part in Google, um, for trends so that you can see, you know, what are the top 50 trends that are happening right now in the US. So like, you may not be somebody who's into politics at all, but maybe, you know, the incoming president, the incumbent, you know, uh, Trump— maybe that topic is really hot, like within the top 5. And you don't know enough about Trump to make a song, but you can talk about when things don't go your way, because that seems to be the problem is the people who didn't vote for him are pissed off that he's coming into office. So you can talk about how you feel when you don't get your way, and, and it's not like you're talking about the exact topic that's trending, but you're talking about something that millions of people are feeling and can relate to, you know. And then of course it comes down to having really good music. You've got to have great music, but that's a wonderful way to overcome when you're blocked and you can't really put together a great song. If you watch a lot of movies or if you read books, you know, they're really great for giving you ideas. Meditating is great. You know, a lot of, a lot of artists think that's a little bit woo-woo. They don't want to meditate, but there's something about clearing your mind of all the stress and the bullshit of our everyday lives that allow ideas to come in. One of the things that I do, and I'm not a rapper or singer by any means, but one of the things that I do when I'm trying to get an idea for a topic, like for these videos or for my blog, I'll go through and write down on a piece of paper or type into the memo on my phone everything that comes into my head. Like, no matter how bizarre it is, if it pops into my head, I write it down or I type it out. And that way Like, I'll download 50 to 75 ideas, like, within 10 minutes, and just to get them out of my head. And, you know, I'll get really bizarre things like cat's paws, write about cat's paws, which you guys know I would never write about because I talk about, you know, how-to in the music industry. So that has nothing to do with cat paws. Or I'll talk about my dog snoring or whatever, but I get it out of my head and onto the paper, into the memo, so that it clears my mind for the shit that really matters, for the stuff that's important. And I find that when I do that, I might get a fragment of an idea, or I might get something that leads to another idea that leads to another idea that I'll write about. Um, another thing that I do is I ask you guys, like, I'll go to my Twitter or my Facebook or my Instagram, and I'll ask, you know, what issues are you guys having that, you know, you want me to cover? And you guys will give me great ideas. And then sometimes when I start to write that article or make that video, it leads to another idea, you know, and then that leads to another idea. So as an artist or a creative person, you can kind of do the same thing, you know. You can You can go to your fans and ask them, you know, what are you guys going through right now? What's the most challenging thing that you had to deal with last week? What is the thing in your life that has made you happiest? There's certain questions that you can ask people and they'll tell you stories that might trigger a song idea. You know, maybe somebody will tell you about, you know, when they were younger they got molested and how much it screwed up their life. And you might not want to write a negative song, or maybe you do, maybe you want to talk about that topic, or maybe you want to take it from the opposite angle and talk about somebody overcoming their adversity and overcoming a situation that could have really, you know, stumped them or really ruined their lives, but they overcame it. And whatever they're doing, they're great at, even though they went through this huge tragedy, you know, in their lives. So there's different places that you can get inspiration. And there's different places that you can get ideas. I get a lot of ideas when I go to the art museum. You know, who would think that going to a museum and looking at paintings would give me ideas? But when I look at different paintings, I get certain feelings from them. Like, I'll look at a painting, especially modern art, right, where it's just colors and, you know, brushstrokes. I'll look at a painting and I'll get like an angry feeling from it, or a sad feeling, or a happy feeling. And what that does is it triggers in my mind things that make me sad or angry or happy, and then I take note of those and I write them down, and they become topics that maybe I want to share with you guys. You know, there's, there's just different places that we can all go for inspiration. Um, for me, I also find I'm very artsy, so I like to paint, I like to play in clay. I like to make things, you know, artistically. And sometimes just taking time to do a hobby will give me enough calmness within myself to have ideas just start flooding. And you've all been there, you know, when there are times where you can't come up with an idea to save your life, and then you know there are times where you're flooded with ideas. You'll get like 50 ideas and if you don't write them down, you lose them, and you think, ah man, last week I had all these ideas, why didn't I write them down? You know, it's a great thing for your memo in your phone is to write this stuff down, right? Or grab a piece of paper. You know, I carry a notebook in my purse because I'm still a little bit old school. There's something about putting a pen to paper that really helps me to remember stuff. You know, when I type something in, I don't remember it as well as when I write it down on a piece of paper. So with ideas, sometimes I want to feel the pen scratch the paper. I want that sensation, and it helps me for some reason. I don't know why, but, you know, do whatever you have to do. One thing that I don't do is when I have a mental block and, and I'm trying to write and I get, you know, writer's block is very real, and you guys know that if you rhyme. I don't force it because if I try to force it, it just, it gets all convoluted and it, the words don't flow and it just doesn't work for me. You know, I, I try not to wait to the last minute when something's due for that reason because I don't want something to be due on Wednesday, so I'm writing it at 3 AM on Tuesday, you know, trying to get it ready for, for that delivery at 9 AM and then have blockage and then I can't, nothing comes out, and then I'll make an excuses, right? So I always tried to do stuff a little bit ahead of time to give myself the luxury of saying, you know what, this isn't working for me, let me go do something else, let me take a step back. Even something as simple as, you know, pulling up a movie on Netflix just to clear my head, or pulling up a book on my iPad and just reading. Um, usually that's enough to sort of get the energy flowing. Sometimes it takes days, but I try not to force it because when I force it, you can kind of tell. You know, there's articles that I've written where I'm like, I don't want to put my name on this, this, and I've just had to redo it. So, um, I try not to force it. So all that to say, guys, there are lots of ways to get ideas. Um, I hope this has been helpful for you. There's just some ways that I thought would be helpful to share with you, and maybe by watching this video you've thought of other things you can do to get ideas. And hopefully you can get past that writer's block if you have it. And when you have a lot of ideas surging, write them down, get them out of your head, and go back to them when you're out of ideas and you're looking for something to do. You should be able to just go into your phone or open a notebook and see hundreds of ideas, you know. Maybe you've even got pieces of half-written songs that you can go and work on and finish. You know, who knows, maybe there'll be a gem in there. Okay guys, take care, hope all is well, and I'll see you soon.