By Lowry Olafson

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what then is the value of a medium that can simultaneously tell a story, paint a picture, touch your heart, tap your toe and get stuck in your head forever?

I’m talking about songs of course. What if it was your song, telling your story, painting your picture, from your point of view? What if it was your tune you were dancing to?

And what if you helped create it?

That’s the idea behind ThemeShop – a guided songwriting experience for organizations and businesses to write their own theme song.

“Me, write a song?” you say. “I haven’t got a creative bone in my body, and you don’t want to hear me sing, and for that matter, that goes for Dave down in accounting too!”

Just the idea is enough to trigger self-doubt, terror possibly, skepticism certainly.

While no one has to sing, once we get going I never do have to sing alone. We start off slow – talking about your work, your organization, what it stands for, what your vision is, what a day looks like. We get so caught up in the process, that people forget to be afraid. In fact, when push comes to shove, which it generally does, they have pretty strong opinions about which word, which metaphor accurately describes the contributions they make in the work they do every day.

It’s no secret that music has been a powerful force for thousands of years: for building community, for creating harmony, for inspiring people. Maybe you didn’t know that there is a chemical called oxytocin which is released in the body under three circumstances – during childbirth, during orgasm and when people sing together. That might explain why everyone always lets go a little scream of delight when we finish recording the song we have created together.

ThemeShop uses music, yes, but even better, it uses songwriting. Why? Because the process of songwriting is one of the most powerful ways to gain deeper understanding and insight into your subject, yourself and the people you co-write with.

When you co-write, whether with two people in a room or 35, you have to create consensus about what you want to say. Before you can do that, you have to discover what you have to say. Songs need to make sense. Writing a song forces you to explore the topic and achieve clarity in your shared purpose.

People have to listen to each other. What does this organization mean to you? What difference do we make? How does Dave’s job in accounting fit into that? What sets us apart? What kind of music will feel right to communicate our vision and values to the wider community? What metaphor might inspire us and give the world a deeper understanding of where we are going, what we offer, what we have achieved so far?

The time frame for a ThemeShop is about 5 ½ – 6 hours with time for breaks and lunch. – This allows time to write the song, make a recording, and then allow for people to discuss the process – what they learned, and how they can carry this forward into their working life.

Obviously, creating a finished song in such a short time still requires intense focus. No one said it was always easy. I tell participants up front, “Expect some heavy lifting. We’ll have moments where we get stuck, searching for just the right line, the right word, and we’ll face those fears and doubts head-on. Just like real life.”

That said, we never give up. We’ll change tack, take a break and laugh (smiling is known to stimulate creativity). We’ll stretch and get some oxygen to the brain. Maybe even get a little oxytocin circulating.

And when we’re done, you’ll have more than a song of your own. You and your colleagues will have a stronger bond and see each other differently. You will have had a conversation that goes to the heart of the value of the work you do every day, a chance to hear other perspectives and to be heard yourself.

As for what you do with your song? Different people do different things.

InSightful Visions Eyewear plays theirs in their store and office, and had me record a studio version for radio promotion. Blind Beginnings – an organization that supports unsighted youth and kids, used theirs in their promo video; then they got together and sang it for the Masons as part of a presentation to get funding. The Masons were so moved, they signed up on the spot!

UBC’s Speech Science’s Aphasia Mentoring Project is using theirs to help create awareness of this disabling condition (people with Aphasia have lost most of their ability to speak, but we wrote a song anyway!) Their song “What I Mean To Say (May Not Be the Words You Hear”) has been adopted by a sister chapter in California.

You’ll hear Sechelt Rotary Club’s song when they’re flipping burgers at their kiosk in the park. COHA (Okanagan Hospice) released our studio recording on CD as fundraiser – sung by one of their talented volunteers. Living Big Retreats uses theirs as the welcome at their seminars and website home page to instantly let people see what it looks like, and feels like to attend.

The possibilities are endless, because you own your theme song. It’s yours to use as you wish. And even if it doesn’t get past hearing someone humming it at the water cooler, it’s still working hard.

Next time you lose sight of the big picture, and your place in it, it might just be the song that pops into your head, to lift your spirits and remind you of what you are a part of.

And when someone says “They’re playing our song” – they really will be.

Lowry Olafson tours worldwide and has released nine CDs of original songs. Businesses, government, and other organizations have commissioned him to create theme songs for their unique projects. Through his Canada Council-sponsored school songwriting program, From the Page to the Stage in One Day, Lowry has also written some 300 songs with over 7500 students across western Canada. For more information, please call 604.865.0888, email lowry@themeshop.ca  or visit www.themeshop.ca