Songwriter Peterik Inspires Sheboygan

Now here was an inspiring workshop for someone like me, who appreciates (and has tried my hand at writing) many kinds of music.

Thirty-eight fans, friends, and songwriter-types paid their $10 (a steal!) and took a seat on stage at the Weill Center for the Performing Arts in Sheboygan facing rock icon Jim Peterick for his workshop, “Pennies From Heaven: How to Make Money as a Songwriter” last Saturday prior to his evening concert with band Ides of March. The long-time singer-songwriter - his wiry form displaying a timeless energy - greeted us by shaking our hands and asking our names.

During the next hour, Peterik discussed and demonstrated songwriting techniques, while peppering his talk with plenty of vignettes from his own life. He and band buddies Bob Bergland and Larry Millas also rolled out bare-bones (but exciting) acoustic renditions of some of his well-known tunes, including “Vehicle,” “Hold on Loosely,” “The Search is Over,” and of course, “Eye of the Tiger.” During one song, he called out structural points - part A, B, chorus, bridge - as he sang.

“How do you know when a song (you are writing) is done?” asked one person. “Ask what does it do to you? It’s got to make you feel,” answered Peterik, who said too much revising usually makes a song worse. Go back to the second or third revision for the best one, he said.

Here are two of Jim’s tips that were especially interesting to anyone who writes poetry or vocal music:

To get a song started, get a riff going, then just “sing gibberish to get the syllables going.”

Keep a daily log of ideas, things people say, newspaper headlines, anything that strikes you. Jim has been keeping idea journals since the 7th grade and showed us his current thick notebook. He revealed that the title for his song “The Search is Over” was sparked by that same phrase in a newscast reporting the search was over for a missing 6-year-old girl.

More songwriting tips and advice can be found in Peterik’s book, Songwriting for Dummies. When asked to write the book about ten years ago, he said he had not really thought about his process and had to figure out what he was doing instinctively so he could share it. Of course, there is no way Jim could tell us how to have a song come to us in a dream, which he sometimes experiences. And when asked how he writes his melodies, he said, "I hear them...It's a gift, one of my birth packages."

Even for those who do not have that songwriting "birth package" this was a fascinating opportunity to rub elbows with a colorful veteran of the music world. Besides his musical talent, the workshop showed that Peterik has the ability to convey the technical aspects of his craft while encouraging others. We listened, asked questions, and basked in the glow of the man’s creativity. Even Jim’s blue-tinged hair added to the sense he was on fire.