MUSIC: ZEN AND THE ART OF SONGWRITING
Music: Zen and the Art of Songwriting
A different approach to finding and writing the song within you
Songwriting is not simply about learning how to write better lyrics or finding the right chords.
For me, the most powerful songs emerge when we get out of the way of ourselves and allow something honest to reveal itself.
Zen and the Art of Songwriting is a personalised songwriting session built around this way of working.
Rather than following a formula, we explore the deeper creative process behind a song: where an idea comes from, how to recognise when something is alive, how to follow a feeling or image, how to find the words that genuinely belong to it and how to allow a song to become itself rather than forcing it into shape.
We can work with lyrics, melody, chords, structure, rhythm, songwriting ideas, unfinished songs or simply the feeling that there is a song somewhere inside you that you want to find.
Songwriting with a difference
My approach to songwriting is grounded in curiosity, presence and trust in the creative process.
We explore how to:
- Find the emotional or elemental heart of a song
- Move beyond self consciousness and the pressure to write something “good”
- Follow unexpected ideas rather than immediately judging them
- Discover images, words and melodies through feeling and intuition
- Understand when a lyric is telling the truth and when it is trying too hard
- Let songs develop naturally rather than forcing structure too early
- Work with vulnerability, memory, imagination and lived experience
- Find your own voice rather than sounding like someone else
- Recognise when a song needs more work and when it simply needs to be left alone
- Develop greater trust in your own creative instincts
- The intention is not to turn you into a particular kind of songwriter. It is to help you become more deeply connected to the songwriter you already are.
What we can work on
The session can be shaped entirely around where you are in your creative process.
You might bring an unfinished song, a lyric, a melody, a chord progression, a recording, an idea or simply a feeling that you want to turn into a song.
We can also begin with nothing and explore what emerges.
This is suitable for experienced songwriters, emerging writers and people who have always wanted to write songs but have never known where to begin.
No particular level of musical knowledge is required.
The session
$95 per hour
Available online or in person at the Sanctuary.
In person sessions at the Sanctuary can be combined with the natural surroundings and the Elemental Zen approach to place, allowing the landscape itself to become part of the creative process.
For sessions involving travel beyond the Sanctuary, a travel fee may apply.
Come with a song, an idea, a question or simply a willingness to explore.
The song is already somewhere within you. The work is learning how to listen for it.