Finding Your Groove in This COVID Season
by Wendy Hamilton
Most of us hit the ground running after New Years with an arsenal of goals and perfect 20/20 vision for 2020. We had big plans. Then, unexpectedly and without warning, life as we all knew it came to a screeching halt as coronavirus / COVID-19 arrived on the scene disrupting life globally. In seemingly a day, complete ways of life ceased to exist and the open environment that many songwriters relied on shriveled up and we were restricted and many quarantined.
That may sound bleak and depressive and if we are honest with ourselves that vantage point was what most of us saw. Countless creatives and songwriters / lyricists found themselves untethered and uprooted and struggling.
Many found their groove and shifted course quickly and saw the extra time at home and on lockdown or quarantine as a gift that freed their schedules, focused their minds and gave them the opportunity to take all their frustration out on COVID in the best revenge possible – writing more songs.
Others found themselves in a grieving process and were forced to acknowledge that the life they knew was changed and to move forward would take real and concentrated efforts to shift course even if one really had no desire to embrace change.
Those of us in the second group are slowly and steadily coming to terms with this COVID season and finding our groove again. To flourish in this new space and space there are a few truths to remember:
Change is Inevitable
Inside this COVID season we learned that change is inevitable. Change will happen. As we embrace this mantra, we find the strength to put the COVID chaos under our feet and surf the change with the flair and authority that creatives possess. If you have not written much over the last few months, set appointments with yourself to write and write anything, but especially songs. Use other music as your template and muse and flood your senses with pre-COVID tunes that spoke to you; find your voice again and write the music within you. Take the storm without and within and write the lyrics that move you and will move others. Not every song needs to be about COVID, but some should be to authentically capture the world we knew, know and want to know in this season.
Time is Irreplaceable
This COVID season punched comfort in the face and challenged our minds with the reality that an unseen and, largely, undefined enemy was among us and threatened our health, wealth, way of life and some of us, for the first time, realized that we truly as the saying goes, “live on borrowed time”. The time we have is irreplaceable. We will not get a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month or a year of our lives back in this COVID season. We tame time by creating goals and crafting the path to achieve them. As we take back our clocks and calendars, write and write some more, we will redeem the time we have available to us and, bring amazing ideas to life. As we find our way out of lockdown, out of crisis and into a new way of doing life, we will have to own how we managed our time – did we use time in the best way or did we waste an opportunity to connect with our talent and gift of writing lyrics at different level?
Inspiration is not Optional
COVID facts and figures can be kryptonite to our creative superpowers unless we use the difficulty around us and refuse to let the tough stuff weaken us. Instead, we realize that inspiration is not optional. Seeing ourselves as overcomers will allow us to weather the surges of news we did not want to hear and stories we really wished we did not know. Finding your groove does not mean you pretend that the tough stuff is not around you and that your world is not different than it was a year ago. Finding your groove is about you celebrating who you are no matter what transpires. You let life – all of it – inspire you and fuel you at soul level to bring heartfelt, honest, hopeful, raw and vulnerable lyrics to life. If you found yourself alone and feeling lonely, write about it. If you found yourself separated and uncertain, capture those thoughts, feelings and emotions into lyrics. Embrace the struggle as the snapshot of your history and the history of a world in tension. This is your marker stone moment in which you carve out the words to songs that define the mood, the tone and capture the experiences of a world in a COVID season.
Writing Tip: How to Upgrade to the Next Level
Push the limits of your talent and work on your craft. Take the same subject matter and filter the COVID season content through different emotional filters. (Research a list of positive emotions and negative emotions.) Write the same song different ways from the somber and serious to the witty and humorous. The results of changing the emotional lens you view COVID (and life) through and what you create may surprise you and give you much to celebrate.
You have the opportunity to upgrade to the next level. Go for it. Find your new groove.
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