Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Perfect Moment

for the Essentials In Songwriting Certificate Course with Dan Wilt

I've spent a lot of time waiting for that perfect moment to come along so that I can do something creative.

Funny thing is, that perfect moment doesn't come around very often, if at all.

My idea of perfect has been wrongly shaped by media: magazines with clean, organized, beatifully decorated living spaces; movies and tv shows that give a distorted view of real life; books that make me long for order that only exists in, well, books and magazines...

In his Worship Songwriting dvd series, Brian Doerksen mentions a songwriting experience he once had with Brenton Brown. Brenton (single at the time) was visiting the Doerksens and had this great song idea to share with Brian, father of 6. Brian is in the throes of holding an unhappy child, trying to calm said child down as it was time for bed. Brenton comes into the room oblivious of the fact that any parent would recognize: this is not a good moment, much less a perfect moment, for songwriting. But Brenton plows ahead and sings what he has so far, asking Brian what he thinks because Brenton is stuck on what to do for the chorus. Brian says: "How about 'Halleluiah'?"

The song being written was none other than "Halleluiah (Your Love Is Amazing)" proving the point that they didn't have to wait in order to write a really great song.

Here's to not waiting anymore for perfect moments and for diving in during the moments of my day. Who knows what song might come out of washing dishes, cleaning up messes, managing disputes, teaching and disciplining children, making supper, doing laundry...