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Birth Of A Song
How I wrote the song Subway Train
Songwriting is a mysterious thing. How do you explain something that seems like magic? Most musicians struggle trying to explain how songwriting happens. They will say things like “I pulled it out of the air” or “it just poured out of me.” You can use formulas to write songs, and they can be helpful tools, but they don’t provide the creativity, imagination, or magic. Those are the mystery.
I am going to attempt to explain how I wrote a simple pop song. I won’t be able to completely explain the mystery of where the music and lyrics came from, but I will explain the steps of the process and try my best to tell you what I was thinking while writing.
I started writing music shortly after I began playing guitar. Of course, most of my early attempts at songwriting were awful. But I am a hands-on learner. I learn best by doing. So I started writing songs in the hope of eventually getting good at it. As my guitar playing ability improved, so did my songwriting.
I wrote a lot of bad music in my teens and early twenties. And a few good songs. Then work, marriage, and three children made it hard to find the time. My songwriting output was far less over the next couple of decades. And my focus changed from vocal songs to instrumental jazz songs.
