I have been writing songs for a long time. At first, it seemed to me a kind of poetry, but then it slowly became more and more musical. Now, I’m not a professional. I do this for fun, because I love music and want to create my own, so keep that in mind. I’m not saying I’m some pro amazing song writer. But I wanted to write about this process, because there is something really amazing about it.

It’s hard to explain, but it’s as if the songs come to me rather than I thought them up. It reminds me of tuning into a radio station or something, but in my mind. I hope this doesn’t sound insane LOL. I know I’ve heard other people say similar things, so it’s definitely not just me. There is a book called “Big Magic” that talks about this stuff. I wish I could have found this book 20 years ago. At first, I was concerned that these were songs I’d already heard and forgot or something stupid like that. I have listened to thousands upon thousands of songs in my life, I love music and have always loved it since as long as I can remember. As a kid in the single digits, I’d spend hours in my room listening to music and just dancing around.

I thought, no way could I come up with music! That’s only for people deemed special and talented by society. That was over 20 years ago when I was still stupidly brainwashed by society and I no longer believe that. Not even close. Now I know, that most people have natural ability in something – and what you don’t have in natural ability you make up for with hard work. This ability may not be in what you think you like though or in what other people value. I always had a musical ability, but it wasn’t recognized or valued by the people around me growing up, unfortunately. It’s no different from any other ability, and an ability needs to be nurtured and practiced.

I suspect this ability (or whatever it is) has to do with the right hemisphere of the brain and how easily it is accessed. It’s not a logical thing, it’s a creative thing. There are books written about this as well. This phenomenon happens to me at the strangest times. In the past, songs would come to me when I was dancing ( a super right brain activity!) Also, they come to me in the shower, while I’m doing yard work, vacuuming, or even at work (though that’s less common), driving or when doing yoga or meditating. I’m not saying that the entire thing just comes all at once and is perfect. It’s more like an outline. But often, the lyrics just kind of appear and there’s music with them. Then I go to the piano and try to figure out what key the song is in. I experiment with it and the lyrics and that could go on forever. The hardest part is knowing when to just stop and decide it’s complete.

I really think there was a point in my life when I started to become way more creative than ever before and that point was in my mid 20s, when I started dancing, for fun and for exercise. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that since then I have never been the same. It was the starting point of all my desires to be creative. It caused me to see things in a different way and I think it’s because dance heavily utilizes the right hemisphere of the brain. Shortly after I began dancing, I had this desire to learn piano that I couldn’t ignore and shortly after that songs started coming to me. Very sadly, I tore my meniscus dancing at age 29 and recently torn it again. Seriously WTF! I’ll have to tell that story in a different article. But I’ll never forget what dance has done for me. And I’d recommend it to anyone looking to be more creative.