Originally Posted by Jack Swain
Well,

I happen feel like you can learn something from almost anyone if you pay attention to what they have to offer. The lesson may be something they themselves haven't even grasped, yet.


Jack Swain, sir, you get it!

Here we study an art, not a science. Is a certain song "good?" According to whom? To the professional critics? Your friends? Your family? The songwriters you know? The guy on tv? The radio announcer? No, who decides if a song is good...is you. So, as songwriters, we owe it to our work to develop our taste. Learn the genres, get inside of them.

If a song is popular, if it gets played on a jukebox or downloaded a lot, there's a reason. Listen to it, study it. Listen to it in context of other songs in its genre and style. Then learn how to "hear." Shouldn't a songwriter be able to tell a major from a minor chord? How about a minor seventh? A thirteenth? Should a songwriter know what iambic pentameter is? Or simile or metaphor? A verb from a pronoun? At what point should the learning stop?

Again, again, again, I recommend to all songwriters...to all musicians, all artists...fill your pallette. Fill your "bag of tricks." Sharpen your tools. Songwriters, learn as much as you can about music, about language, creative writing, songwriting, dance, acoustics. Seek teachers (both instructors and demonstrators...lecturers and performers). Read books, magazines, articles.

I also highly recommend that artists teach. Teaching is one of the best methods of learning. Use the "Socratic Method," or teach a child to play "Stairway to Heaven" on the guitar. Or teach them to write a song.

Is a teacher trying to make money? You don't have to pay them if you don't want to, if you determine they are valuable, do so. Good teachers do a lot of free teaching (because they want to learn, good teachers haven't stopped being students). Is the teacher not a great guitar player? Doesn't mean the teacher isn't a great teacher of guitar. There are great coaches who don't play the game. I've taught Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption" to students...but I can't play it...they can.

Please. Don't stop learning. Don't fall for the argument that learning isn't "cool" or "necessary." Learning is the greatest thrill on earth, video game designers figured that out, you go through the game then your character gets foiled several times until eventually you reach your "goal" then you jump up and shout "Hooray!" Why? Because you learned how to do it.

Learn. Be good. Do good. Let the critics fall where they may.

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music