Larry had an amazing idea for a song. He sent me a poem he said that he wrote in less than a half an hour that he tried to capture the idea of what he wanted the message of his song to be about. He said he didn’t want to take too much time on the words because he knew I would have to adjust them in order to create a song, and he didn’t want to be too attached to the words he had come up with.
I thought Larry’s poem was beautiful, and it was hard at first to want to change anything. I’ve learned however that poems don’t usually make great songs, and once Larry convinced me that it was okay to change his poem, I got started on making the transitions to begin writing his song.
Larry’s message was about an idea he had been pondering to help stay focused on the positive, rather than getting stuck in the negative.
On the phone, Larry and I talked about how when we’re going through difficult trials, often we’ll give all our hearts and our mights, but how often do we also give all of our minds? Larry’s idea was one to help us to be able to see a way to use our mind… and to show and increase our faith as we did.
In the song, you’ll hear his suggestions about visualizing how we have already overcome our trials, and then, with the Savior, look back with gratitude and joy at all we’ve overcome. Ultimately, it takes faith to imagine that we will overcome our trials, and putting that faith first in imagining it before we have, is definitely exercising faith in our mind!
Once we can imagine completing the trial, then he suggests taking it one step further to imagine how God helped us to do it! In this way, God has the opportunity to give us ideas and thoughts that might help us as we try to figure out more specific things we can do to get through our trials.
I believe using our mind this way, truly does help us to use our heart, might AND mind. It definitely seemed like an inspired idea and I loved being a part of sharing his message!
As we began the songwriting process, I had no idea what the final song would sound like. As I started playing with the initial lyrics and music, I could already hear a distinct two-part countermelody happening in my mind. I worried, because I didn’t know if Larry would even want a two part countermelody or if it would even work for the message of his song. I tried to stay open minded to changing the melody in case he wasn’t open to it.
The melody did change, as did Larry’s poem. What was cool though, was that we were able to capture the message that Larry had written in his poem, and in the end, I was able to use some of the counterpoint melody that I had initially heard in my mind. Some of the melody had changed quite a bit, and I wasn’t sure it would still fit. It was pretty cool when we gave it a shot, and it sounded even better than what I had before.
Larry had also wanted a chance for people to think and ponder about the idea he had presented in the song. Listening to the two part counter melody was the perfect opportunity to give people that chance to think, and even to want to listen to the song again. It was a win-win for both of us and I was grateful for the whole experience.
Some people might not like having someone else to work with through their creative processes. What I have found however, is that two heads are better than one, and that getting feedback from someone else who also desires to create something inspirational, has just made my meager contributions into something greater than I could have done alone.
I’m loving writing songs for people and I love getting to help others express the messages of their hearts. Do you have a message I could help to share?