How Big Is Your Onion?
Many years ago, when I finally left my corporate day job to become a full-time songwriter, I realized a truth about myself:
The more I knew, the more I knew how much I didn’t know.
It was fun but, to be honest, a little scarier than I was expecting.
It’s a little like when I first started driving. I remember as a child, I used to watch my father driving, and he made it look easy. Safe and secure. But when I started driving myself, it wasn’t quite as simple as I thought.
Well, being a full-time songwriter was also way more difficult than I thought. So, just like I needed a course of driving lessons, I had to go back to school to write songs. Berklee College of Music.
The Onion
Sure, before I left my day job, there were many years I’d already enjoyed: the incredible journey of harmony, melody, bass, and rhythm. This was one of the most beautiful journeys ever. But for me, there was another journey I needed to embark on - lyrics. And becoming a full-time songwriter, I had to figure out how to write lyrics. This was the onion.
Here’s what happened:
When I started on day 1 of my songwriting career, I thought I needed to learn the skills the size of an onion, one I thought I could hold in my hand.
Right now, as I look at the size of the world of songwriting, it’s the size of a giant onion I can’t even get my arms around. And I continue to learn more things every time I co-write with my wonderful co-writing friends.
To give you a feel of what it looks like, in terms of the world of onions, day 1 of my journey with Song Maps looked like this. And it’s still growing now:
Even now, it’s humbling when I still realize how much I don’t know about my craft, but it’s lovely to still be on a journey.
How can songwriting be like an onion?
Here’s what I’m thinking:
There are many layers to learn how to write songs. Just when you feel like you’ve found the top layer, there’s another, more significant layer out there. Each book I consume or course I finish, there is still yet another layer that I needed to understand.
Sometimes, when you get to the core of your writing, it can be a painful process to find out what you are writing about. Just like cutting up an onion.
For me, songwriting has given my life so much greater richness. Imagine how bland life would be without songs! Imagine how bland life would be like without onions!!
Question
Here are a few questions: Where are you on your journey? How big is your onion? Is it still a bigger onion than you thought?
Berklee Music Online courses are generally 12 weeks. Just sayin’.
Simon Hawkins