All I Really Need to Write a Song

All I really need to write a song is a room with a piano, a window and not too low of a ceiling. No computer in the room, please. I’ll bring my own guitar and notebook. Some potential collaborators (or, to be fair, their managers) find these requirements unreasonable. I guess rooms with pianos and windows are hard to come by? Anyway, I’ve figured out that those are the ingredients that most likely lead to a good song.

My family’s dogs would always circle and circle the spot they were going to lie down on; they might bring a chewy toy and set it nearby, then they’d circle and circle, until the moment and the spot were just right, and then they’d plop down. Ahhhh, just right.

Sometimes I think my artistic preparation is just a fancy version of that same circling approach.

Whatever your work or joy is, do you have a preparatory circling that you do? And do you have a set of “environmental” requirements, like a room with a window and a piano? And a chewy toy nearby?

(see discussion at http://www.facebook.com/danwilsonmusic/posts/10152881649475301)