Ten Hitmakers on Songwriting

V8

Some words of advice from ten legendary guitar-slinging songwriters. (Hendrix, Bonnie Raitt, Keef, et al.)

"Painters paint what they see, and I’m just trying to write about what I see." - Chrissy Hynde (The Pretenders)

https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/ten-hitmakers-on-songwriting

wern101

DUKE ERIKSON
Garbage

“A lot of songs evolve by trial and error. We always have a recorder that records everything just in case something goes awry. Any number of sounds on those recordings are mistakes that turn out to be better than what we were doing in the first place. You must be open to let accidents happen.”

I think this is golden! I always want to 'get it right' on the first go, and rarely do.

KEITH RICHARDS
Rolling Stones
"There’s no point in writing songs on a sheet of paper, going verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and regarding it as a song. No, it ain’t. A song is music, and I’d rather start with the music..."

And then there is this. I've always approached writing as 'verse, chorus, verse, chorus' - maybe it's time to change it up...

Thanks for the insightful post!

V8

wern101 I've always approached writing as 'verse, chorus, verse, chorus' - maybe it's time to change it up...

Not that the stones don't do that...? I reckon they've heard and jammed enough that they have a style that inevitably does have some kinda structure - even if it was spontaneously jammed.

I've got three basic formats that I'm familiar with : verse/chorus/middle8, buildup/peak/breakdown and 8/12/16 bar (blues/blues jazz). Though mostly it ends up being just a endless noodle into obscurity ?

warrenpridgeon

The songwriter in the band I'm in now doesn't have any sort of "formal" training... He plays "made up" chords... and he writes as he feels led... But he has an amazing ability to come up with cool stuff (I will hopefully get some demo tracks soon to post on the forum).

For example... sometimes we'll start working on a song and something that would normally have been a verse becomes a chorus and then we end up with a bohemian rhapsody type of song which is actually a whole series of songs in one... But other times a song will be verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, end or whatever.

There's always this balancing act between delivering what the audience is expecting (i.e. what they've been "trained" to hear next) and something different that makes them go "oh wait that was interesting".

NorioDS

I jam with @Deaan-Vivier from time to time and he has that natural "untrained talent" for making great music and riffs. It's fun to jam with someone like that. Things go in whole new directions I couldn't have imagined. Tons of fun.

(But, also, I'm secretly jealous of all his natural talent ? I guess it's no secret now, hey? ? )

warrenpridgeon

NorioDS I jam with @Deaan-Vivier from time to time and he has that natural "untrained talent" for making great music and riffs. It's fun to jam with someone like that. Things go in whole new directions I couldn't have imagined. Tons of fun.

(But, also, I'm secretly jealous of all his natural talent ? I guess it's no secret now, hey? ? )

I detest people like that... lol.... Nah I'm just super jelly. I've been jamming guitar for something like 15 years now and guys like that are geniuses!

NorioDS

warrenpridgeon I know what you mean!

At our latest jam, @Deaan-Vivier picks up my bass. He's never played bass before. Lays down an awesome bassline for us to jam to ?

Why do I even practise? ?

V8

warrenpridgeon guys like that are geniuses!

...I used to think the same!

But then I started with rudimentary ear training when I picked up the bass again. Tell you what...the old school method of figuring out tunes from scratch - really does work. Time consuming and frustrating (My advice : start with nursery rhymes or melodies you know well) - but it pays off in time.

Some people DO have a natural talent, but if that isn't you (wasn't for me) - it IS something you can work on and improve.