The Best Songwriting Class You Will Ever Take...

...is in your ears.

There are countless courses out there to help you write "better" songs. I taught one at University Of The Arts in Philadelphia and heard with my own ears some of my students literally write better songs as the course went on. A thrill for me, to say the least.

The more I taught, the more we listened to their favorite songs. Because listening is really where I learned how to write songs in the first place.

While driving and jamming to the radio tonight, with my wife, I narrated (as usual) on why the song we were listening to was so great. Why it works.
The song we were grooving on and analyzing was a huge dance floor/radio #1 smash hit, classic, iconic, universally acclaimed masterpiece that almost everyone loves.
The theme musta been pretty damn over-the-top genius, right?
Nope.
The song had a crazy, unique, cool phrase as the title/hook?
Nope.
Well, obviously the music part of it had a chord change that had some unexpected musical genius twists and turns?
Nope.

There are 2 chords in it. The verse and chorus are the same chords, in fact. The title has 4 words in it that we've all heard before. The theme or story is, well, about having a feeling of beginning....something.
The song was "Wanna Be Starting Something".

The simplicity is the "genius" of it. When you want to make something simple you have to go all the way. You can't just simplify a complex idea or make something fairly simple a little less wordy. The whole simple-equals-genius thing is an all or nothing thing.
"Wanna Be Starting Something".
The verses are fun and they simply support the concept of the one-line chorus. It's all about feeling under and over and being stuck. Being stuck is the verse, starting something is the chorus. THAT'S simple.
How bout something more current like "Happy"? "Clap along if you feel that's what you wanna do". THAT'S simple! Simple thought, executed simply.

Listen to the radio when you're driving, but really listen. Get inside those songs. Take a look around. 
Great songwriters aren't Gods (though they tend to act like ones). They're more like children that never grew up. And that quality gives them their edge. They have the experience and wisdom of a grown-up with a child's simple perspective and wonder.

Songwriting Bonus Tip:
My first songs were almost like using tracing paper. You know how you can lay that transparent paper over, say, the Mona Lisa and "draw" it?
Well you can do this with songwriting too? I would take the basic structure and even the feeling of a famous song, or a song I loved, and write my own over it. How? Well, I would "play" the song in my head but sing different words and/or chords over it outloud. I used the "famous" song a blueprint in a way. A model. Once i got enough to hear just my song I forgot all about the famous song underneath and found myself with a really cool song that all my own! So, use the past as a tool to get to the future. And your ears!!

Who's Writing This Song Anyway?

This past week I've been watching the interviews play back to me at the film editing sessions for my upcoming documentary "Platinum Rush". 
Oliver Wood, Eric Bazilian, Julie Gold and Steve Forbert in particular.

One commonality that I am hearing from these accomplished songwriters is how their strongest songs seem to "write themselves". In other words, there's not the usual "i have an idea" followed by trying some chord changes out, writing down a handful of lyrics, scratching out the bad ones and eventually getting a ruff sketch recorded to be worked on later. I'm talking about a killer song literally existing with minimal effort in minutes!
But wait, there's more....and less!

Julie said she placed her hands on the newly-delivered childhood piano her parents shipped to her then first apartment and "From a Distance" was written by the time she lifted her hands back up.
Bazilian, in an effort to show his wife how multi-tracking works literally sang "One Of Us" straight through into the microphone. Yes, "what if God was one of us" and all the other amazing lines in his million selling Joan Osborne hit simply fell out of his mouth in one take. ONE TAKE.
The others had similar stories.

But here's the catch:
Before and after their worldwide smash hit songs were "magically born" they wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. Some of those other songs were good. Some make Rebecca Black seem like Paul Simon. Regardless, an endless parade of songs were being written.

Their stories only support what I've found myself to be true over the years. Eventually your songwriting "muscles" will be so well-oiled, by regularly writing, that the potential for divine intervention is greatly heightened. If and when the stars do align for a moment of mind-blowing sheer brilliance, your skills will be ready to execute it like a mother (you-know-what-er)!
If you don't write regularly, even when you're not inspired, the magic may come but you will be caught with your pants down.

And a naked no-hit wonder is no way to go through life.