Monday, June 16, 2014

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!!

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