Songwriting Exercise – Using Peak Hour Traffic To Your Advantage

How about this for a songwriting exercise.

The next time you find yourself stuck in peak hour traffic, instead of feeling frustrated, stressed and angry about it, use the time to manifest songwriting ideas in your head.

I caught myself doing this on the way to work this morning and I can tell you, doing this is a better use of your time and energy than stressing out over an event you have no control over.

I used the scenery around me as reference points to get my creative juices flowing. I was focussing on things such as:

The weather – How does it make me feel?
People in cars – What were they thinking?
Buildings – Any landmarks nearby?
How am I feeling right now?
What am I doing this weekend?
What did I do last weekend?

In theory, once I’ve developed something I’m happy to record, I just phone my home or office number and put the songwriting idea on the answering machine for future reference.

This morning I didn’t snare any songwriting ideas however, it did inspire me to write this blog post so all is not lost.

I’ll try it again tonight and any other time I find myself stuck in traffic.

In fact, you could use this concept in any situation where you find yourself waiting for something. Examples that come to mind would include:

Bank queues
Doctors surgery
Waiting for public transport

Any other suggestions? I’d love to hear them.

Imagine what would happen if all songwriters used these times to their advantage rather than to their detriment?

There would be no road rage, less stress, we’d be more tolerant, patient and actually looking forward to waiting for something just so we can give ourselves some time to court the muse.

We all have time to write. We just have to be creative with how we find it.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting help, songwriting idea, songwriting exercise, songwriting blog, corey stewart

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Friday, June 6th, 2008 Songwriting Exercise

6 Comments to Songwriting Exercise – Using Peak Hour Traffic To Your Advantage

John Cowell says:

June 7, 2008 at 8:44 am

Songwriting Exercise – Using Peak Hour Traffic To Your Advantage

Corey your suggested songwriting exercise – using peak hour traffic to your advantage is a great idea. Its gets us thinking like a songwriter at the time in the day when its easiest to forget to be creative.

The other thing I suggest is when asking the six questions, to ask a simple question regarding what is felt. How do other people feel about this and what could I say to them in an example to demonstrate the feeling? By this I mean specific feelings and specific images that could be used to show others what the feelings are. That way it will be easier to find a way to show it in a song.

John Cowell – Great SongWriting.com

Jannie Sue says:

June 7, 2008 at 2:48 pm

I don’t know how you keep coming up with all this original songwriting stuff (my own blog is a mish-mash of general things, not all songwriting,) but I am so glad you do!

“All was not lost,” indeed.

Other spots? Not exactly waiting, per se but… Well lawn-mowing and vacuuming, of course. Maybe something in the rhythmic motion brings songs out?

Jannie

sanoittaja says:

June 9, 2008 at 12:33 am

Yes.. I don’t even know how many songs i have written on the bus stations and trains.

Songwriters and musicians - make the most of your day job says:

June 9, 2008 at 3:09 am

[...] Corey Stewart has just published a very insightful post “Songwriting Exercise – Using Peak Hour Traffic To Your Advantage” over at Songwriting Zen. [...]

Natalie says:

June 9, 2008 at 3:12 am

Great post

I’ve found your suggestion very useful so i’ve added a link to it from my post “Songwriters and musicians – make the most of your day job” over at http://quaxle.com/2007/12/06/songwriters-and-musicians-make-the-most-of-your-day-job/

songwritingzen says:

June 9, 2008 at 12:48 pm

It’s great to see so many people commenting on this post. It goes to show that you can work on your songs in most situations.

John – “The other thing I suggest is when asking the six questions, to ask a simple question regarding what is felt.” I totally agree. bear in mind that the six questions mentioned aren’t fixed but are based on the surroundings you find yourself in at the time.

Certainly trying to imagine what is felt will create more tangents then just singing descriptions about what you see at the time.

Jannie Sue – “Other spots? Not exactly waiting, per se but… Well lawn-mowing and vacuuming, of course. Maybe something in the rhythmic motion brings songs out?” Housework in general brings this out in me. Especially doing the dishes. Must be something to do with the water.

Sanoittaja – “Yes.. I don’t even know how many songs i have written on the bus stations and trains.” I love catching public transport for this very reason

I remember a time where I had to travel an hour to and from work every day catching a bus and a train. I always made sure I’d take a notepad and paper with me. I had a very active journal at that time.

Natalie – Thank you for your kind feedback. I love your blog. Very informative and well thought out. I’ve linked to it because more people should be reading it.

To all, thanks for stopping by. Come back often, there’s more stuff where this came from.

Corey