My Creative Process

I just watched a video by Shirley Serban from a couple years ago about how she composes song parodies, prompting me to put down my thoughts on how it works for me. I posted them as a comment:

Interesting. It's a much more intuitive, organic kind of process for me. I've composed 24 parodies to date (8/23/23), all but three of them since August '19, but I've never thought systematically about the process. I think it usually starts when I realize that some song I'm hearing or thinking of has lyrics that could have a different meaning, or that rhyme with something that particularly interests me, and I gradually build around that starting point until I've got something of satisfying length. Often the entire process occurs in my head. Sometimes, if I don't actually know the original lyrics by heart, I'll print it out on a sheet of paper so that I can write what I've thought of alongside the corresponding lines. If I'm not sure I know the whole melody, or discover that I don't after I've started composing, I'll watch a lyrics video a whole bunch of times until I can recite at least the whole tune, if not all the words, without fault. This process can result in a parody that's longer in terms of unique lyrics than the original, though the running time may be the same since I don't care for repeating verses without variation. So, for instance, my parody of "Windy" would probably play about the same length of time as The Association's classic recording, even though it has nearly three times as many unique lyrics (eight verses versus three in the original). It takes no effort to review what I've composed since it's pleasurable and more or less compulsive to review my creation over and over in my head for several days thereafter, in the course of which I'll sometimes realize there's a tweak to be made that sounds more natural or achieves a more perfect parody of the original.

The video: https://fstube.net/w/w9BDWVdswbnefux2Jb22Lw