Calling all songwriters – am doing a podcast (hopefully) with some established artists next week and would like any questions you might have about songwriting, recording, playing out etc
Calling all songwriters
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I am not a songwriter, but as a listener to music I rarely listen to the lyrics unless it is just a man and a guitar. Justin Currie is the type of artist where I do listen to the lyrics as an example.
To me the voice is another instrument as part of the whole listening experience when listening to a band.
What’s the question again?
Probably the above re-phrased with a question mark at the end.
What comes first… 🙂
I heard Johnny B Goode today on the radio. It’s been years but, wow! what a song!! The scanning is just perfect. If you speak the words, you sing the song.
Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens, there stood a log cabin made of earth and wood, where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode who never ever learned to read or write so well, but he could play a guitar just like a ringing a bell.
That’s before the guitar kicks in.
It seemed to me that the tune probably came first, he then la-la’d in his head for a while until the words came to him.
I see a lot of weekend retreats advertised wherein you can spend time with professionals who will critique your work, help you along and make you play your songs in front of your contemporaries for their approbriation. Is this a good thing, or should you should just pitch up to your local open mic and see how you get on? Bonus points for answers from anyone who supplements their PRS income by conducting such workshops.
And that’s a genuine question. I know I need to get fit, but I can’t really get into the idea of going to a gym where someone much fitter and healthier than me will give me sensible tips about what I’m doing wrong. On the other hand, if I take their advice it just means that I’ll be doing the same exercises as everyone else.
I’m not super into the idea of those things. A pop song isn’t a symphony: you can either bring something you’re happy with to that pretty simple format or you can’t. Not sure it’s something that bears a lot of teaching.
I think the only valid reason to go on one of those things is for fun. I’d be a bit sceptical that they can turn anyone into a better songwriter, whatever that means anyway.
Well that’s a good starting point for reasons which will be made clear in the podcast, Bob
Do you need to have a knowledge of musical theory, or is it better to just move your fingers around until something sounds good?
Notebook, home studio, iPhone by the bedside or “If I can’t remember it in the morning, it can’t have been that good”? Which is best?*
*There’s only one way to find out…