Developing ideas

It is obvious now that what I thought of as a frustrating weakness in my songwriting--the reputation of ideas from one song to the next--is actually just a natural way of teaching oneself anything. You should have an idea and then work out variations of it. I see now that I have been teaching myself to write by writing using various chord changes and forms: AABA. ABAB, twelve-bar blues. I realize, too, that my limitations do not prevent me from coming up with songs that are satisfying to me. More possibilities would not change my basic style very much or make my songs any better. It's nice that I can work out more complex changes, or play what I write with more ease, but some of the best ones are the earliest and simplest.