In a few weeks, we’re going to add a mouth to feed around here.
No silly, not a baby that would pretty much take a miracle. Thank you Dr. “Snip-snip it doesn’t’ hurt a bit.”
A wicked lie if I ever heard one. How I drove home I’ll never know.
Anyway. You’ve heard of companion dogs, service dogs, police dogs, right?
Well we’re adding a songwritin’ dog to the fam.
These days, good breeders have a puppy cam on the litter 24/7, and my wife is pretty faithful to hop on and watch those pudgy little bundles crawl and fall all over each other.
Of course, we’re thinkin’ of names.
They’re all chocolate brown pups, and you know from an earlier post, it don’t make me no nevermind if I give a girl pup a guy name.
But we’re thinkin’ of chocolate related names…
Mocha. Jamocha. Java… that sort of thing.
So, the word has been out to our friends and fam on ideas for names.
So far we both really like Cocoa.
I was at the snack bar the other day and it occurred to me, it probably doesn’t matter the name.
I’m kind of notorious for nicknaming our furry little buddies anyway.
Some have already snuck out…
Cocoa Puff, Coco Bean, Kokomo, Coconut… there’s probably a handful more.
At the snack bar one day, I realized, it prob’ly doesn’t even matter the formal name…
I’m going to wind up calling it a nickname that suits her personality to me anyway.
Our last pup, Buster, was sometimes Busty, but often just Pal Pal. She was my little pal for sure.
And, as usual, life has a lot to do with songwriting, doesn’t it?
And titling a tune is no different.
For instance if I wanted to get a pup and train it to catch Frisbees, I could name it from just a pup: Frisbee, Wham-O, Ultra Star; and the name would fit.
So you see, with a song, you can name it and then write the entire lyric to fit the title.
Sometimes, this can feel like the tail wagging the dog.
Or you can get a dog, find out its personality, and then give it a name.
Maybe it’s really curious so you name it Snoopy, Nosey Nellie, something like that.
Same can be for a song.
Problem is, both go without a name until it’s already loved in the family a while.
So, which way is right?
I mean you’ve got animal pros saying don’t ever give your pet a nickname, it confuses them.
And, you’ve got songwriting ‘gooroos’ saying ALWAYS title your song first and write to it.
Then you have people who give pets nicknames as they get to know them and it increases the bond with their pet.
And with songwriting, there’s people saying write the lyric FIRST and let the title emerge.
Which way is correct?
Just one of the title goodies found in October’s Tune booster. Subscribe here. https://www.tunesmithtips.com/newsletter/
P.S. Quick note. If you are reading this? It is not the Tune Booster subscription. It’s just the general email list. Those of you who aren’t subscribed to Tune Booster and want in on the real meat of songwriting… go ye here: https://www.tunesmithtips.com/newsletter/ and sign up.
Forgot to mention for yawl Tune Booster subscribers… Up on the member’s area I uploaded a video of Jax, my grandstar playing his plastic guitar at two+ years old. I can’t believe he’s actually strumming it and humming along. A songwriter in the making.
Sadly, it’s reported Jax’s little plastic guitar suffered a busted neck when he stood on it. ‘Gampa’ is going to have to have a little talk with him on respect for his musical pals and maybe fix him up with a new one.