As a singer/songwriter/performer, I find that I always have a song or two in the queue. Songs that are begun but only partially finished.
Recently, I had an interesting experience in which I had some songs I was working on — more than two in draft, actually. I had mapped out the chord progressions and time signatures for two of these songs. Had a smattering of lyrics for each. Yet I wasn’t making any progress on either. I’d pull one out; play through it; ponder it; and put it back away.
Until just the other day. That’s when I pulled one out. Made no more progress. Then I pulled the other one out immediately after. And suddenly it occurred to me that I should try switching the chord progressions. You know, take the subject matter/lyrics of one and put it with the other tune. Guess what? Yep, you guessed it. They were much better that way. And I started making some inroads on them BOTH.
Isn’t that funny? I suppose I had them wrong ways around (bass ackwards) from the start. Glad I pulled them out one right after another, or I may have remained in limbo on writing them for some time to come. Now I just have to set aside enough time in the schedule to finish them.