Interesting that they selected to be in a songwriting class and each week I’m dreaming up songwriting exercises yet often find myself trying to persuade them to behave like songwriters. Sometimes they groan about not having something to write about. Yesterday, we discussed three types of perspectives found in many songs, from first person to omniscient narrator to the surprise character perspective as in the world of Randy Newman’s writing. Broke them into groups of three and asked each to tell a story featuring a beginning, middle and end. Then assigned them to write three versions of the story, one from each perspective of our discussion. For my own amusement, added the twist that there’s no marks attached to completing this. I’m curious who finishes it when the only thing to gain is acting like a songwriter in a songwriting course.