Song Writing

Well, it's been a pretty great week with a couple bumps along the way.
I met a guy.. there were fireworks. Well not really, but he was full of good advice, and I love meeting people that can insert some wisdom into my life. His name is Joshua Seller, a worship leader from Harvest Bible Chapel in Oakville and a singer, songwriter. Find him on facebook and pick up his cd.
Well he put this little idea in my head, and I thought it would be selfish not to share it. After talking about some strategies and theology on leading a church into worship (Which many of you will find less than interesting..) he gave me some advice for musicianship (which a quarter of you will find interesting) (I recognize that three quarters of you wont be interested and I'm not even remorseful..)
The advice was this. Jon Foreman is the lead singer and writer for the band Switchfoot. You may or may not have heard of them. They're a relatively recognized band that's stumbled onto quite a bit of success. Jon makes it a discipline to write one song a day! A day! And that is one, finished, entirely written, bridge included, pre-chorus-figured-out song. I have the hardest time finishing a song, because once you label it finished, you leave it alone and you can't bring new stuff in. The mind-set behind the one a day song plan is this.. Every new song is better than the last, so keep pushing them out so you can keep improving. And at the end of the year you've got 365 songs to cycle through to look for that pearl.
Joshua has incorporated this into his ministry and he requires every one of his interns to write and record one song a week which they will show to him. It seems small, but if we want to grow as writers and we want to stretch our music than it makes perfect sense to force ourselves into a discipline that will stretch us. I wish I could show you some of my early songs.. no I don't.. they were terrible.. But I had to get that junk out to figure out what works. A friend of mine Scott Jackson from Life 100.3 has told me that his pet peeve is artists who rhyme, "Love with Dove". It's been done. It's what we all resort to when we're struggling with lyrics.
I know this is long.. I'm sitting in a class right now that's not even mine and I can only focus on homework for so long. Moral of the story. Discipline leads to greatness. Stretch yourself, be it songwriting, musicianship or your spiritual life. Hard workers take the lead when talent stops working hard.. or something like that.
The Raptors start their season this Wednesday night and I'm going to be sitting at home watching the game with my dad and a doctor pepper. Does life get any better?
Check out our little song on the facebook page. And hey, go write a song

Levi