Very cool. I love your points here. After decades of playing drums professionally, I became a songwriter in my 50s and never thought I had that special something required to write a song. Turns out I do. I LOVE studying music theory but have also found my own way into it. I now study with a great jazz piano teacher who studied with Gene Harris, so a lot of blues approaches. I took piano in high school with a classical teacher who was very good, but I couldn't see how writing four-part Bach style choir parts was going to help me write the music I wanted to make. In the end I've patched together my own education with youtube videos and my piano teacher filling in the gaps. The one thing that was true from my first music theory lessons as to take pieces of music you love and analyze the heck out of them. Take any pop song and figure out the notes in the key they use as the melody and the bass line. You can study the chord progressions that move your heart and see if you can understand why? This has been the basis for a lot of my songs studying Prince, Peter Gabriel, Bill Withers, and so on.... I'm glad to hear about your new book and music first. Will have to check that out. BTW, Sound design is another area I think people could study and learn so much from.
One of my axiomatic beliefs is that everyone has that special something, it just has to be supported and encouraged. Writing Bach chorales is a good way to learn the conventions of tonal counterpoint, but I agree, it's pretty remote from songwriting as I experience it. I'm teaching pop theory and aural skills at NYU this semester. I'm having the theory kids do a lot of structured songwriting (add chords to this bassline, add a bassline and chords to this melody, etc) and having the aural skills kids do a lot of transcribing (some tunes chosen by me, some by them.) Some music schools do an aural skills class that's more about audio engineering, and I would love to teach a class like that sometime.
I love that sentiment. Everyone has a special something, indeed. Songwriting is amazing therapy.
I also love your focus on aural skills. I think if you only work on ear training, you can do a lot for your songwriting. Transcribing tunes, licks, melodies, and chords are teaching me a lot now and then I find my own melodies much faster.
Related to your finding the baseline comment... I recently had a cool insight when a friend pointed out Jacob Collier's 5-levels of harmony video, and at this particular point in level 4, he talks about how any melody note can be harmonized to any of the twelve tones in the bass. I was like what? Here's a link to that moment. https://youtu.be/eRkgK4jfi6M?t=397 Of course context is key, but I realized then that I know nothing and a lot at the same time. I took a new melody I came up with the other day and then only chose the bass harmony note first (not the whole chord). Then I started thinking about the chords that support it (the context). Maybe this is common for you but I had always tried to add the full chord to my melody and it really helped to just work with those two notes (melody and bass). Anyway, You have some lucky students!
Very cool. I love your points here. After decades of playing drums professionally, I became a songwriter in my 50s and never thought I had that special something required to write a song. Turns out I do. I LOVE studying music theory but have also found my own way into it. I now study with a great jazz piano teacher who studied with Gene Harris, so a lot of blues approaches. I took piano in high school with a classical teacher who was very good, but I couldn't see how writing four-part Bach style choir parts was going to help me write the music I wanted to make. In the end I've patched together my own education with youtube videos and my piano teacher filling in the gaps. The one thing that was true from my first music theory lessons as to take pieces of music you love and analyze the heck out of them. Take any pop song and figure out the notes in the key they use as the melody and the bass line. You can study the chord progressions that move your heart and see if you can understand why? This has been the basis for a lot of my songs studying Prince, Peter Gabriel, Bill Withers, and so on.... I'm glad to hear about your new book and music first. Will have to check that out. BTW, Sound design is another area I think people could study and learn so much from.
One of my axiomatic beliefs is that everyone has that special something, it just has to be supported and encouraged. Writing Bach chorales is a good way to learn the conventions of tonal counterpoint, but I agree, it's pretty remote from songwriting as I experience it. I'm teaching pop theory and aural skills at NYU this semester. I'm having the theory kids do a lot of structured songwriting (add chords to this bassline, add a bassline and chords to this melody, etc) and having the aural skills kids do a lot of transcribing (some tunes chosen by me, some by them.) Some music schools do an aural skills class that's more about audio engineering, and I would love to teach a class like that sometime.
I love that sentiment. Everyone has a special something, indeed. Songwriting is amazing therapy.
I also love your focus on aural skills. I think if you only work on ear training, you can do a lot for your songwriting. Transcribing tunes, licks, melodies, and chords are teaching me a lot now and then I find my own melodies much faster.
Related to your finding the baseline comment... I recently had a cool insight when a friend pointed out Jacob Collier's 5-levels of harmony video, and at this particular point in level 4, he talks about how any melody note can be harmonized to any of the twelve tones in the bass. I was like what? Here's a link to that moment. https://youtu.be/eRkgK4jfi6M?t=397 Of course context is key, but I realized then that I know nothing and a lot at the same time. I took a new melody I came up with the other day and then only chose the bass harmony note first (not the whole chord). Then I started thinking about the chords that support it (the context). Maybe this is common for you but I had always tried to add the full chord to my melody and it really helped to just work with those two notes (melody and bass). Anyway, You have some lucky students!