Seriously though, can you give me some more info on that? I’ve read that it would help (are you saying someone on the internet was wrong?!). It seems to help me. I’d like to know their reasoning for why you shouldn’t.

I’m not sure what “actual meditation” consists of. FWIW, I sit cross legged, close my eyes, breathe deeply, and try to quiet my mind, stay in the moment, focus on my breathing.

Actual meditation anyway – if you’re simply talking about taking some time to try and quite your mind and relax, go for it. But any form of “legitimate” (whatever that means) meditation is generally considered to be a bad idea right before sleep.

Writing top down can be fun. I’ve definitely written like that in the past. The issue for me is that melodically I have a much larger gap to cross musically than with anything else. So I figure our lyrics and a sketch of a melody, and then try to underpin them. Then, once I like the backing stuff, I work back up and try to either improve the melody/lyrics or find someone who can do that for me.

Don’t be afraid to stumble across amateur sounding chord progressions. I think there’s a sort of disease in music which says that the simple roots of rock, those chord progressions that we now think sound amateur, are bad. I’m all for finding interesting chord progressions to work with, but there’s a magic in taking something simple that’s been done 100 times, and making it in to something new. That process is great for a songwriter to go through, and can yield some great songs. Find a chord progression you think is over-used and try to put your own spin on it.

I think you were right that this was one of those songs where I came in with a verse and chorus that didn’t quite match. However, this son definitely got the verse part. I remember sitting in my room playing with the finger picking section of this for a while, trying to think what else could be done with it to make a song. I eventually found something I kind of liked as a chorus, but which didn’t really work in the end. Once you and Jeff talked me down from that chorus part going with this (I think that chorus part might have become Cold-hearted Woman), we were able to work until we found something simple but elegant that would offset the more complicated verse part.

This song is hopelessly pretty and one where everything just came together. Sometimes a song writes itself. More on that idea from me later this week, probably.