Ben Folds Songwriter’s Retreat

For four days in October, I joined 48 other musicians in a songwriter’s retreat hosted by the phenomenal Ben Folds. It was intense, it was educational, and it was incredibly fun.

The retreat was designed to help all the songwriters try new ways of writing songs, break out of habits and ruts, and stretch us all creatively. Ben presented songwriting exercises — challenges actually – set a timer, and by the end of the allotted time, you had to have your song written, recorded and uploaded for Ben and team to review. 

I won’t share all of Ben’s assignments here, but imagine having to write a song with a limited and prescribed number of syllables in the verse, chorus and bridge. Or to write a song from another person’s perspective. Or to take an improvisation you did (and hated!), and build a real song out of it.

The challenges were so interesting, but of critical importance – no matter what you had after the time was up, you had to submit it. So imagine Ben Folds saying “Go”….you’re staring at a blank piece of paper…and 90 minutes later, you had to have a song written, recorded and shared. 

This was so good and refreshing for me personally in a number of ways! But if you just want to hear the songs I created, head down to the bottom of this post for a listen.

Finishing, and the power of a deadline

Firstly, (to use Ben’s term), I am a self-professed “fragment writer”. For me, finishing a song is an incredible effort. One that takes so much out of me, mostly because of the self doubt around the choices I’m making for the song. 

Is this really the best lyric? Is this really the best melody? Should I extend that bridge by 4 bars? So many choices!

I quite literally have notebooks and notebooks of ideas, hundreds of voice memos on my phone, and scratch ideas in my DAW. But how many songs have I actually finished, put a stamp on them, and called done? I’d estimate that number is between 40-50. That’s averaging about 1 song complete per year of my life. And that number is certainly a lot less for ones I’ve actually recorded and shared for others to listen to.

With the 5 challenges presented over the 3 days, I literally have 5 new songs that are complete and recorded! One is absolutely horrible and I know it. But the other four I’m quite proud of, because they are complete songs – with lyrics and music – that are done, and others have listened to.

For me, finishing is a huge step in the creative process, and having those intense deadlines (and by Ben Folds himself!) are probably the only reason I finished those 5 songs. 

Shedding imposter syndrome

Secondly, joining 48 other songwriters was initially an incredibly humbling experience. So many of these musicians are just mind-boggling good – professional singers, incredible instrumentalists, and remarkable producers. 

As we all got to know each other and I listened to the other songwriter’s application songs (which we all shared to each other), I was really intimidated. Coming into the retreat, imposter syndrome kicked in into full force.

But then, because we all had to write, record and submit songs in a really short amount of time, there was no time for self doubt. There was no time to reflect on being an imposter. And, for me, there was no time for editing, mixing, no auto-tune, or other tricks. 

By the time I finished writing the lyrics, writing the music, and learning how to play the song through, I often had time for only one take, maybe two. What I submitted was purely raw, complete with imperfections that I would have definitely wanted to iron out if it were a final track.

My realization: shedding imposter syndrome is about doing. Just do the work, and don’t look around at what others are doing while you’re working. In fact, I didn’t listen to any of the other songwriter’s songs until after the retreat was done – not because I was thinking that it could trigger imposter syndrome (it could), I just simply didn’t have the time!

And listening back, I’m proud of the rawness, and even though the songs aren’t perfect, it was again refreshing to have a song done, recorded and shared.

Vocal perfection

Finally, Ben’s vocal coach Dave Stroud shared some important wisdom about the voice. One, everyone is a singer, everyone has a different style, and you should embrace your own voice. Two, if you aren’t a good singer (as the pop music world would describe it), you have to make your songs even better, lyrically and musically. 

But three, you shouldn’t strive for vocal perfection – for instance, don’t try to be like a Broadway singer (unless you are singing in Broadway!). You should develop your voice only to the point that it’s serving your music, and not try to be someone else. 

What an incredible lesson indeed!

A few other things about the retreat

Beyond the challenges, there were plenty of opportunities to hear from Ben and ask questions, and he’d share wisdom from his own career and creative pursuits. He was incredibly down to earth, and also encouraging to all of us. 

We also got to hear from an industry panel to discuss the business of music and sync licensing, join a live recording of Ben’s podcast Lightning Bugs, and of course meet and socialize with all the other songwriters.

And although the retreat has ended, all of us have continued our discussions about music, songwriting, gear and more on our Discord server.  

Now, on to the music. 

Below are 3 of the 5 songs I wrote and recorded. As mentioned, I came out really happy with 4 of the 5 tracks, but wanted to share three of them here.

Goosebumps

We started by taking 45 minutes to write a short story. We were then instructed to pull out all the metaphors, and then place some of them in a pre-defined song structure (verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus). Then we had 90 minutes to finish writing the lyrics and music, record and submit. Below was my submission.

That’s Why You’re Here

Ben asked us all to improvise 9 five minute pieces, with music and lyrics. He’d give us some quick guidance — often with some interesting creative limitations (e.g. only use one note on the piano for the verse, or, only use one word per bar). After we had 9 improvisations, he asked us to go back to the one that we all thought was the worst, and make a song out of it over the next 90 minutes. 

My worst improvisation was based on this challenge: “use way more chord progressions that you normally would, or different chord progressions than you normally would”, mainly because by concentrating on the music, my lyrics completely fell apart. (It’s already so hard to improvise lyrics!)

So then I took some of the musical elements and chord progressions, and built this song.

Tick Tok

This one was based on a challenge where we had a very limited number of syllables prescribed for verse, chorus and bridge, and to stretch the song out to be around 4 minutes. Having limits like this forced all of us to think creatively, use more space, and take the less is more approach. We had 3 hours for this one, which was helpful to me because I ended up coming up with something that was challenging to perform!

The retreat was a truly wonderful experience, and if you are a songwriter and Ben hosts another one of these, I’d highly recommend you apply!