Kathryn Roy Smith Learns To Write

The Fledgling Songwriter Takes Her First Steps to Writing Songs

Sep 21, 2007

Karyn Roy Smith learns how to write songs, continuing her journey to become an accomplished songwriter. From Paris, France back to Los Angeles, her heart travels.

In this second part on independent Christian musician Karyn Roy Smith, we continue on the road that brought Smith where she is now; a happy mom and wife that happens to have a phenomenal record, When the Stars Come Out.

Paris, France – Karyn Roy Smith Finds Herself

While in college, Smith spent some time in Paris to study French. There came a point when Smith had what she calls a “come to Jesus moment.”

About this time she says, “I had to make a decision about whether I was going to stay in Europe or come back to the states, and my husband, we were dating then, we were high school sweethearts, he wanted to marry me. He was tired of waiting; it was like six and a half years by the time we got married from when we started dating, I made him wait. I also knew that I really wanted to do music.”

Karyn Roy Smith Takes the First Steps to Song Writing

Smith came back to the States, finished college and got married. With the love of music still burning in her heart, she decided to take a course at the community college. She caught the eye of the teacher who was, as she puts it, “some surfer dude and I think he liked me so he gave me a little extra attention.” This was a turning point in her musical journey.

The extra attention she got helped her learn how to form a song. Smith tells us, “It totally worked to my advantage because he spent a little extra time with me and taught me some chords and he gave me a format and said, ‘This is your format, A minor to G to C,’ and he said, ‘Take this home,’ and he would spell the chords for me because I didn’t know really much about music.

“I didn’t know how to build a chord and he would say, ‘A, C, E, these are the notes.’ And so I would go home and come back with a song. He gave three assignments like that and at the end of that whole six week session he came up to me and said, ‘you know, Karyn, you have some kind of,’ he didn’t call it a gift, he wasn’t religious or anything. He said, ‘you have the talent for this,’ he said, ‘you have some hokey choruses, you have to work on your verses, but I have a friend who has a little studio in his garage, let’s make a demo. It won’t be too expensive and it will be good for you.’ That’s kind of how the whole song writing thing started.”

The copyright of the article Kathryn Roy Smith Learns To Write in Christian Music is owned by Shane Werlinger. Permission to republish Kathryn Roy Smith Learns To Write in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.