Songwriting
Everyone has their own way of writing and creating songs. There’s no right or wrong way.
My start point is almost different sounds or fingerstyle runs created by experimenting on acoustic guitars in alternative tunings.
Add to that heady mix full and partial capos used conventionally or upside down and that’s a pretty interesting box of tricks to play with!
In the past couple of years I’ve added a guitar with “Nashville tuning” to my tool box – and that’s led to new songs like “Witching Hour” and “Wishing and Waiting for Christmas”.
My interest in guitar tunings was triggered Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi (DADF#AD) and Ralph McTell’s Gypsy (CGCFAC) during the 1970s. Then there were other British greats like John Martyn and Nick Drake who used alternative tunings…and suddenly the box of delights seemed never ending.
Trying to work out how to play some songs was another matter with no internet back then. I was told some people took 20 years to work out how to play John Martyn’s classic song “May You Never” !
The songs on all my albums On Roosevelt , Usual Alias and now Somebody Said all come from this rich source.
Some started with a couple of words sung over the top of a musical hook like “Somebody Said” – others discoveries led to me to a sad or serious song.
Occasionally something I had read or seen popped into my head like Flash-Matic ( Eugene’s Magic Beam) and When The Rain Came.
Some songs arrived quickly – others took a world tour , kept me awake at night and underwent several re-writes ! 🤣
If you are interested in finding out about the guitar tunings of a particular song feel free to contact me by Facebook or Messenger.
https://m.facebook.com/LeeDestySongwriter
Collaboration
It’s really enjoyable to collaborate with other songwriters from time to time. For my latest album “Somebody Said” I was lucky to work with clever poet and lyricist Simon Wells from London to create “Witching Hour”.
It was great fun and definitely took me out of my comfort zone 😊
I met Simon in 2018 during a songwriting workshop at Halsway Manor in Somerset run by the brilliant British songwriter Boo Hewerdine and his American friend and songwriting collaborator Darden Smith.
I thought anything run by the guy who wrote the wonderful 1994 hit “Patience of Angels” has got to be good. It was. I met some pretty special songwriters there and I learned a lot from them.
Simon collaborated with Boo to produce the hugely enjoyable and inventive album ” Simon and the Astronauts” in 2019 , which also featured Scottish singer songwriter greats Karine Polwart and Findlay Napier.
