Originally Posted by: LisaMcCHey all,

Let me know if you have thoughts or questions that come up from using The Song Builder's Toolbox.

I'd love to know your feedback!
Best - Lisa

Hi Lisa. I just wanted to thank you. I've been struggling with this for years. I've been playing guitar for about 15 years now, and have been in and out of failed bands for as long as I can remember because I always seem to get into spats with every singer I work with. I would prefer to sing myself, but have never had any luck with songwriting. Occasionally I could come up with a fragment of a melody, but lyrics, and how to fit them into a melody or a rhythm, was a completely foreign language. I started using the Song Builder's Toolbox about a week ago, and already I'm starting to break through the wall and get some rough ideas out at least. I've heard a lot of this advice before, but the step-by-step walkthrough that you've put together, along with the homework assignments, is structured in such a way that it really begins to make sense after the first few days.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak to my favorite singer/songwriter, Geoff Rickly, from the band Thursday, and asked him for some advice. He is an incredibly nice guy, and took a few minutes to explain his process and gave me some tips on getting comfortable with myself. It helped a lot, but I wasn't quite there yet. Once I started using the Song Builder's Toolbox, I noticed a lot of the advice he gave me popping up again, but slowed down, and done in small increments that are tailored specifically for a guitarist. The whole process is finally beginning to make sense now, my only obstacle at this point is lack of self-confidence. I'm comfortable singing in front of people when it is something that someone else wrote, but singing something that I wrote for the first time feels really awkward, and I'm terrified of unintentionally using a cliche or a predictable and/or cheesy topic, rhyme, expression, etc, because that really bothers me, and instantly turns me off when I hear it in music. Any advice on how to get over that hump? Although this is more my own personal neurosis than a songwriting complication, so maybe I should direct this question to a psychiatrist instead. ;)

Also, I have difficulty playing guitar and singing at the same time, unless it is a very basic strumming pattern and relatively monotone melody, which is no fun at all. I find that either I completely lose the rhythm of my strumming, or the vocal melody falls apart in trying to keep everything balanced, as they are typically happening at different rhythms and tempos. These seem like extremely basic questions I'm sure, but as I said, this whole process was complete nonsense to me until a few weeks ago, I had basically withdrawn and accepted my fate as an instrumentalist until now.