Hi, Thank you so much for this insight into your creative process. It's really valuable to me! I'm curious to know how proficient you feel you need to be on your instrument, to be satisfied as a writer. I am constantly pulled between practicing guitar- in order to be more fluent and spontaneous with the instrument and the act of songwriting itself. I would be interested to know your thoughts on this if you had time.
Hey Katie! I think about this a lot. I think for me it has to be a bit of both. When I start to feel like I’m repeating myself on the instrument too much that’s when I’ll try to seek out some new language (either from learning a new song, experimenting with different tunings or doing some sort of technical work). Sometimes I’ll be really intentional about it and try to write using a new technique and other times I’ll realise that something has worked its way into my language over time without me totally registering it. It’s always a bit of a struggle to find a balance between the two but I think I’ve sort of just accepted that it’s never going to be a perfect science 🙃
This is beautiful Hannah. Feels like a backstage pass into your creative process, what a privilege. I love that you can weave a random word selection into a story with a matching chord progression. The parameters might look a bit sterile on paper but the result and the imagery that’s reflected in your songwriting is moving, I love it and feel it.
Hi, Thank you so much for this insight into your creative process. It's really valuable to me! I'm curious to know how proficient you feel you need to be on your instrument, to be satisfied as a writer. I am constantly pulled between practicing guitar- in order to be more fluent and spontaneous with the instrument and the act of songwriting itself. I would be interested to know your thoughts on this if you had time.
Hey Katie! I think about this a lot. I think for me it has to be a bit of both. When I start to feel like I’m repeating myself on the instrument too much that’s when I’ll try to seek out some new language (either from learning a new song, experimenting with different tunings or doing some sort of technical work). Sometimes I’ll be really intentional about it and try to write using a new technique and other times I’ll realise that something has worked its way into my language over time without me totally registering it. It’s always a bit of a struggle to find a balance between the two but I think I’ve sort of just accepted that it’s never going to be a perfect science 🙃
Thanks for taking time to reply!
This is beautiful Hannah. Feels like a backstage pass into your creative process, what a privilege. I love that you can weave a random word selection into a story with a matching chord progression. The parameters might look a bit sterile on paper but the result and the imagery that’s reflected in your songwriting is moving, I love it and feel it.
Thanks so much Grace! ❤️