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Emily Burns
Have you ever sat down and listened to Beatles records (particularly from their early days) and thought to yourself, man, these songs are simple but so good and so catchy? I know I have and sometimes, it really drives me nuts-in the sense that they just churned these songs out like a factory. It almost seems as though writing great, hit songs came as naturally to the John Lennon and Paul McCartney as breathing. In my own personal songwriting experience, I may take three weeks to three months or more to come up with a song I feel is acceptable (good chours, good melody, nice hook, etc...) and I sometimes get very frustrated at the process. Is it possible to LEARN to 'churn' songs out like the amazing songwriting duos? Is it something that really has to come naturally to a person or can it be acheived through much persistence, practice, and perserverance? It goes without saying that songwriting duos such as, Lennon and McCartney, Page and Plant, Jagger and Richards and many others most certainly had something "magical" and special about them. But through my own trials and tribulations in songwriting, I'm beginning to find that just like learning to play an instrument requires a lot of dedication and practice, so does songwriting (or at least to those of us who aren't a regular, old, McCartney or Lennon...). I have been writing songs since I was about 15 and am now going on 25. In all that time, I have written maybe 30-40 songs. When I first started, I used to believe that songs just had to come to you. You had to suddenly start singing them and then you would sit down and figure it all out. My thoughts on that, have now changed for the better. I now realize, as I said before, that just like with anything else you want to be good at, practicing doing that task on a regular basis, is the key. I'm not saying that great songs don't seemingly materialize out of thin air sometimes, they most certainly do! But in between those magical moments when your pen doesn't leave the paper from the time you write the first verse till you write the last notes of a song, force yourself to sit down, write, and fully finish ten or more other songs. Some of which you may love, or you may hate, but remember that every song you write, may put you one step closer to having the ability to churn out one hit song after another....
Below is a link to Berklee College of Music online courses website. Here you can take free (yes I said free) sample lessons on songwriting. If you REALLY like the sample courses, sign yourself up! The free sample lessons opened my eyes to some interesting and helpful ways of thinking differently about songwriting...go try it out. Can't hurt, right?
http://lms-intro.www.berkleemusic.com/course/view.php?idnumber=5303999_sample
Till next time-
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