What do you know? 

• Now I have started getting familiar with the song writing process and certain artists’ creative processes have inspired me in different ways. I know that it is best to do a free write everyday and more if possible so your mind is always engaged and in the writing mode. Also from free writes come lyrics and song ideas. In terms of answering my essential question, I have been reflecting on my life and experiences and discussing my emotions as much as I can in my free writes, I am trying to learn how to best express myself through song. The next challenge will be translating my writing into lyrics and having them express the same meaning and truth. From the book Writing Better Lyrics I have done multiple exercises around writing about feelings and how to use description to tell your own story and relate to an audience of different stories. I have found while I want to tell my story it is also equally important to be relatable to an audience and to a certain level, keep your songs open to interpretation. I have also read multiple NYTimes articles from the Diary of a Song series which features how certain celebrities came up with their hit songs and their process’ which were all very inspirational and gave me new ways to begin my own process. 

What don’t you know?

• There is so much I still don’t know and am excited to learn about. As I was saying before I don’t know how to turn words/a free write into lyrics and pack such few words with a lot of meaning and specifically have those lyrics reflect my personal experiences. And in addition to my main question I wanted to address that I still have a lot to learn about my sub questions in terms of growing as a musician and learning from other artists. My sub questions are: How can I grow as a musician by better understanding music composition? How can I develop my own voice by listening to and covering songs of artists that I admire? These questions are far from being answered but I can already tell the online course I’m taking will help me come closer to finding the answers, and specifically working with my guitar teacher where I can ask questions, will be very helpful. And I will also be listening to artists and reflecting on there work as the weeks go by so I can find why I like certain songs and how I can incorporate those parts that I like into my own music.
• While I am thinking about these questions I also need to learn about how I can produce a final product and how much production I can actually accomplish. I am thinking I want just a guitar track and then voice but might want to learn about adding other instruments/beats if I have time.