Showing posts with label breaks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breaks. Show all posts

Monday, July 16, 2012

Bridging the break

Writing breaks—those instrumental interludes in the middle of songs—used to intimidate me. I'd always lose my way a few measures in, play something boring. And then what? Where to go from there?

But at some point, I realized that there's a process I always return to. If I trust the process, the notes will find their way to me eventually.

The process goes like this:
  • Write a decent beginning. (This is the easy part.)
  • Play the decent beginning and improvise what comes after.
  • Repeat the previous step many times
  • When I stumble upon something promising just after the decent beginning, follow up and develop it.
  • When I stumble upon something promising at the end, follow up and develop it.
  • Steer what comes before the ending toward the ending.
  • Keep going until the beginning and end meet in the middle.

Tonight I finished a break for one of my new songs. Recorded it so I won't forget. I am pleased.

And for the first time I wondered: Is this process universal? Or do other songwriters do breaks differently?