How a Custom Song is Created and Why it Might Be
Exactly What You've Been Looking for
By Steven Gary
June 20, 2020
I suppose the craft of songwriting is a mystery to some people. “How do you DO that? How do words and music just somehow magically appear and make sense and beauty?” So in this article, I thought I would give you here some idea of the process of how your personalized Wedding Song gets created.
First off, I don’t know if I would call writing songs a gift – much more it’s a passion. Singing, songwriting, music is something I simply HAVE to do. This is true for any artist. That’s how it starts. Where it goes from there depends on dedication and a LOT of hard work. Thousands of hours of practice. Training. Failures. Then more practice.
But in the end, being able to craft something that never was is extremely satisfying in itself, but to have that piece of art that connects with someone else is really what I believe music is all about. Such as this piece I made called "Rainbow" you can listen to below.
Rainbow - Steven Gary
Steven Gary Performs
Rainbow
I recall making up songs starting when I was about 5 years old, singing about the sand castle I was building. My next recollection was a little waltz composed for my Music Merit Badge in Boy Scouts at about age 12. Songwriting in earnest started when I was 17. At that point I had a notebook and every song idea went into that. I still have that notebook and there’s a lot of silly stuff in there that will NEVER see the light of day!
And then there was this girl... The first really good songs were written for her. I remember putting the lyrics to one of them on the windshield of her car for her to find. I still play that song today and it appears on my latest album.
What’s followed is a lot of guidance from top songwriters, workshops, and a lot of writing. A lot.
Since then I’ve had songs performed by platinum-album recording artists, top vocalists in England, Italy and the Caribbean Islands and my songs have appeared on radio stations around the world. Most recently I have a song on a compilation CD released by a British Record Company, another appearing on the latest CD from a well-known local artist and another that is awaiting release for a new singer out of South Florida.
All the Year- Steven Gary
Steven Gary Performs
All the Year
So what will I do for YOU?
You tell me about yourselves. How and where you met. What you like to do together. Pet names and phrases. Your favorite songs. And what message you would like the song to communicate. Above all a song is a communication and what’s important is what YOU want the song to communicate. It’s my job then to interpret that into something beautiful. Any of these might trigger an inspiration for me to take off from and from there I go to work.
The first wedding song I wrote was for my boss at my first job. The important thing to her was that they believed in each other. So that became the chorus – “you know if you believe in me, like I believe in you, the shadows will recede and we’ll be making our dreams come true”.
For another – She had a title –“Love Conquers All”. From there I crafted a narrative of overcoming obstacles – “Love conquers all. There is no space, no time, no height we can’t climb…”
Let’s see if we can make some beautiful music together.