The 12-Minute Song Club

New member applications welcome

I am inordinately interested in installing my new smart doorbell. If I’d only spent the time I’d spent thinking about installing the smart doorbell on actually installing the smart doorbell, the smart doorbell would have already been installed and I’d be experiencing the giddy thrill of getting doorbell notifications on my smartphone. Instead of being smart, like the doorbell, I have neither a functional smart doorbell nor any of the other things I might hope to have by this point in the day, like the bones of a new song, or a social media post. I am Arnold Rimmer, patiently colouring in an exquisite revision timetable over the course of 8 weeks, only to find that the exam is suddenly upon him, and all possibility of success has been hopelessly dashed upon the rocks of poor time management. This is what you get when you ask an artist to do an artist’s job.

It’s time for some focus.

Thank goodness then for the 12 Minute Song Club, a supportive community offering songwriters like me a radical, practical path back into their purpose.

At its core is the transformative practice of The 12 Minute Song. Members are invited to write a song, any song, and complete it in 12 minutes. It needn’t be good, or long, or commercially viable in any way (although accidents do happen). It needn’t reach some imagined idea of its potential. It is simply a cleanse of the spirit, created and shared without apology or qualification, in an environment of safety, privacy and mutual understanding. There is no condition in which the end result could be considered a failure. Once done, we feel more ready to engage with life’s deeper goals, like the writing of A Proper Song, or the installation of Intelligent Visitor-Arrival-Proclamation Equipment.

You may be impressed, although not altogether surprised¹, to learn that I am actually the founder of this club, a growing movement that is bringing fresh creative energy to its broad range of members, who are principally composed of, at this time, rounding up to the nearest integer, me. To be honest I’d be happy to see some fresh faces in the group, so songwriters interested in the idea, and yet another WhatsApp group, do give me a shout.

It’s only fair to illustrate all this with a few examples. So here are some from the past year or so.

Tuning Isn’t Important

Stop What You’re Doing

Rock-a-bye Baby²

Here’s one I wrote today, Wednesday 6th March - The In-Between Things

Some of these try to say something meaningful, but it’s by no means a requirement. I find this helps take the pressure off somehow? There’s absolutely no excuse to get stuck, because literally anything is fair game, and the value of the song isn’t held in its objective quality, only in whether or not it got written.

What are your thoughts on all this? Could anything like this work for you in your life? Let me know in a comment!

A bit more of a life update

For the record³, I have actually been writing Proper Songs too. Progress has been a little mixed, but I’m pleased to report I have written at least one really good song, which shows that other really good songs are at least theoretically possible. I’ll share that one with you shortly. The plan is to continue until there are between 10 and 12 others, as it tradition. There have been quite a lot of other things going on, a house move, various health things, various family things, you know the sort. The stage is set now for a more productive period, but you’d be forgiven for letting out an inner snort at that. I’ll believe it when I see it too.

Hope all is well in your world.

love

Jake

Live Show

Wednesday 20th March 2024 - Chequers Folk Club, High Wycombe, UK. £10 Tickets on the door.

1. See also: Dead Fathers and COMUSIC.

2. Featuring, in her debut appearance, my daughter wondering what on earth could be more important than me being with her for every single second of the day.

3. Pun not originally intended but later noticed.