The one thing that music theory gives songwriters is vocabulary. With one word or phrase, a musician can describe and communicate an entire idea to other songwriters: “I think if we modulate to E major at that point…” The time you save is incalculable, but theory does more than offer you a communication tool. It is […]
I think I wrote some time ago about the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“, which was used by lots of performing musicians in a bid to analyze and improve their musical skills. The book has nothing to do with music (and almost nothing to do with Zen or motorcycles, to be sure). […]
It’s hard to write every day if you’re a songwriter, because you find yourself either running out of ideas for songs, or running out of inspiration. What can you do to keep creativity from drying up? Let’s deal with the inspiration part first. There are lots of sources for inspiration, but the kind of inspiration […]
All songs are about feelings. If you’ve written a song that doesn’t make the audience feel something, you’ve missed the point of what you should be doing. Generally when we talk about songs and feelings, we’re talking about the impact of the lyric. And that makes sense of course. It’s the lyric — the specific […]
If you’ve been reading my blog at all, you know that even though I love complexity in songwriting, I have a deep appreciation for musical simplicity. There’s something enticing about just letting a simple melody have its way. A perfect recent example of how a simple song can soar to the top of the charts […]
Whenever you make something — whether you’re building a chest of drawers, sewing a dress, painting a picture or composing a song, you’re bringing together two important aspects of human endeavour: craft and art. Craft refers to the technical skills involved in actually constructing something. If you’re painting a picture, craft would refer to one’s […]
