First-- I subscribe to the old-fashioned notion that composers should know MORE than instrumentalists, rather than less. There is a lot to know about music-- a lifetime of study, really-- but music theory and compositional/analytical concepts are not as hard as they may appear. Often these things are presented in books in a very confusing manner, and the uninitiated get the impression that it's not for them.
I recommend that anyone who is serious about songwriting take community college classes in music fundamentals, and basic music theory (chords, melody, rhythms, reading and writing music, etc. ) There are two arguments for this approach-- community college is reasonably cheap, and music theory is difficult to learn on your own from a book. (It can help a lot to learn this stuff in a classroom setting, with a teacher walking you through the concepts, playing examples, etc. ) I am going to use music theory in these posted lessons, and I'm not going to post an entire music theory-from-scratch tutorial-- partly because it's a ton of work for me, but also because fundamentals are available many different places already. (If anyone would like to pay me to put a music theory basics package together for them, it probably wouldn't be too hard to talk me into it--)
Even for those who have no theory background, these posted lessons will be valuable. I will try to provide some help along the way, defining terms and giving some basics alongside the more advanced concepts, and in most cases the musical examples and analysis I provide should be useful even if you don't have a ton of jargon under your belt. However, the more theory you know, the more you'll get out of all this. (I'll certainly be interested in feedback-- if it turns out there's a huge demand for remedial information, I'll see what I can do. So don't panic! Just remember, songwriting is hard work.)
My goal is to talk about the craft as I understand it-- I've essentially combined what I learned in my music education bachelor degree program with everything I've learned writing songs over the last twenty years. Songwriting is like architecture-- it's a creative outlet, certainly, but there are also certain fundamentals to learn. Architects want to design a house that will be aesthetically pleasing (the artistic side) but they also want to design a house that won't blow over in a high wind. It's true that there have been great songwriters with no formal background in music. Some people (the Beatles and Bob Dylan come to mind) have worked magic with little or no training in the academic sense. It's necessary to remember two things, however. The Beatles and Bob Dylan may not have gone to school to learn about music, but they did obsessively study the music they loved, learning what they could about songwriting by playing and singing other people's songs. They also had their eyes and ears open, and when musicians were explaining their secrets, they were likely to shut up and listen.
Much of the material in these lessons will involve my analysis of various songs, based on close listening. I'll typically discuss theory in the context of specific songs. This enables even a student with shaky knowledge of theory to hear it in practice with examples. The most important ingredient in all of this is listening. I knew a little about chord theory when I was very young. I was in the right place at the right time-- when I was fourteen or so, my uncle's friend Steve Rudnick took pity on me and my struggle with the guitar. He showed me the basics of diatonic chord progressions, and this information was the foundation of all of my songwriting almost from the beginning. He also advised me to work on songwriting along with guitar, if I wanted to make money in the business. (If those two things weren't enough, he also showed me the first Fender Telecaster I ever saw. ) After this brief (but very productive) couple of informal lessons, I mostly played by ear and learned by writing and listening to other writers. The fairly small amount of music theory I had learned essentially got me through many years of writing and playing.
Essentially, I'm suggesting that you can accomplish a fair amount by learning a little bit of music theory and listening heavily (and closely) to as many songs as possible. And when people are trying to show you something, pay attention! Many times I lucked into situations where I could learn something from someone who was way ahead of me.
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