I believe "Self Expression" is the
pinnacle of all art. Anything less, “is less” in my opinion. I’m not
going to debate that view or try to persuade any of you to also
believe it. Instead I am going to assume you already hold that view
and discuss ways in which I may be able to offer you both
philosophical and practical advice.
How do you see yourself?
If self expression is the pinnacle of art (or if you at least agree
it is very important) and if you desire (and attempt) to express
yourself in art (music), you are an artist. In the past, I would not
have used the label “Artist” to describe anyone that was not already
great at creating genuine art. I typically reserved the words, art,
artist and musician for only the highest levels of excellence. But
as a teacher of music composition, songwriting, and self expression
I have changed my use of these terms for the benefit of all
students. So…..
The first step is to stop thinking of yourself as merely a
guitarist. I’ll take this one step further and recommend against
thinking of yourself as a musician! You are, or are at least
learning to become, an artist. Music just happens to be your medium
and guitar just happens to be your instrument, but YOU are the
artist. From this day forward when someone asks you what you do or
who you are, don’t reply by saying you are a guitarist or musician.
Tell them (in a non-arrogant way) you are an artist. If they want
more details than that, go ahead and tell them music is your medium
and guitar is your instrument. I guarantee you will put an entirely
different impression in other people’s minds than if you were to
say, “Yeah, I play guitar”. But beyond the impressions of others,
you will begin to put stronger impressions in your own mind that you
are in fact an artist (even if you are still in the learning stage
of fully becoming one). The way you view yourself (as an artist and
not merely someone who owns a guitar and plays it sometimes) is very
important to the way you will think about what you are doing
musically. The way you see yourself will also effect the results you
will get as you are expressing yourself.
What do others do?
Ok, so now you are an artist. Think in the way artists traditionally
do. If we could watch a sculptor work on a new sculpture carved from
marble, stone or wood, what do you think we would see? (Think about
the last sentence before reading any further – its important.) The
sculptor visualizes what he/she wants to create. The act of carving
away at the raw material is a form of “destructive creation”. In the
beginning there is only a block of marble, stone or wood. The
sculptor must remove all the material that is not needed so that
only the finished sculpture remains!
Now think about the way most guitarists write songs. Here is what
usually happens with most players, A player will pick up his/her
guitar, begins aimlessly improvising with chords, melodies or riffs.
This may go on for hours all in the hope to stumble (by accident)
onto something that sounds good. If you have tried this, you know
that it can take a long time to find something you like and many
times you don’t like anything you try that day.
The real problem comes after a part (say a verse or a chorus for a
song) is created and now he/she will try to connect other (usually
unrelated) ideas and make them fit together. Did painters (such as
Michelangelo, Rembrandt or Delacroix), paint in this way when they
wanted to express themselves (or anything else)? Did they paint
something on one side of the canvas of some arbitrary lines or
shapes and then paint some other unrelated lines? Modern art
sometimes does do this, but we aren’t using them as an example here
because you can probably write vague music. It is in the fine
details and specific descriptions that most musicians need help
with.
Of course I do believe virtually any process you use to create music
is valid. However the typical way in which guitarists try to create
is very limiting and, even worse, tends not to work well for
descriptive self expressive purposes.
Stating the obvious:
This paragraph shouldn’t be here really since this is just plain
common sense for everyone. It is because this idea is so simple that
many people completely overlook it. - To be truly self expressive
one must actually know what one is trying to express! (sorry for the
necessary redundancy that follows here). It is not enough to pick up
your guitar. Begin improvising with some riffs, melodies or chord
progressions. Then stumble upon some ideas that sound good and
assemble those parts into some form of song and say, “I am
expressing myself with this music.” Yes, of course it was you who
wrote the music, but what did you express really? Nothing very
specific. Even when you write lyrics for your song, if the music
came first, the meaning of the words were not taken into account
prior to writing, so the music doesn’t really express what the
lyrics do. There is nothing wrong with writing music before the
lyrics as long as you ask yourself, at all stages during the writing
process, “what am I trying to express? What feelings, thoughts,
events, etc.?
A comparison of classic popular vocal songs
Those of you who write vocal music should pay particular attention
to this next point. Many vocal songs that have good lyrics often
times have mediocre music behind the words. In my opinion, Bob Dylan
is a classic example of this (I’m not trying to pick on Bob Dylan,
I’m only using an well known example here based on my own
observations and opinions of his music.). Listen to the song
“Knocking on Heaven’s Door”. It’s a nice song with some decent
lyrics. What would happen if you removed the singing/lyrics and only
heard the music? Its pretty boring partly because the chord
progression goes on and on and on, and because the chords are the
same simple voicings, with a simple rhythm that never really goes
anywhere musically.
Listen next to “Stairway to Heaven”. The lyrics are equally as good
as the Dylan song (maybe better for all you Led Zep fans). What
happens if you remove the singing/lyrics from this song? We can
still listen to and enjoy some really good songwriting. It doesn’t
get boring, its not as repetitive as the Dylan tune, there are more
chords with a lot more color to the voicings (notice the cool
descending chromatic bass line in the verse (A, G#, G, F#, F) , the
texture is more diverse, the articulation (picking and strumming
patterns)of the chords is more interesting. There is a great guitar
solo. Lots of dynamic contrast and interest. And most importantly
the music is much more expressive on its own than the music of the
Dylan song when we remove the vocals from each song.
An exercise:
The next time you begin writing a song, try these steps:
1. Choose a topic to write a song about.
2. Write lyrics for the new song (even if you don’t like writing
lyrics, try it anyway.)
3. Plan out, before you attempt writing actual music, how you will
divide the lyrics into sections (verse, chorus, etc.)
4. Consider what types of keys, scales, chords, etc. would best fit
the feeling of your lyrics.
5. Keeping all of the above in mind (actually it is best to have all
of this written down on paper and keep it in front of you while
writing) begin writing (in any method you want).
6. After you have created some possible ideas for your song, ask
yourself if these musical parts tend to express what the music is
about without the lyrics. In other words, does an instrumental
version of your song still express the feel and mood of your
topic/lyrics? If it does, that’s great! But if not, ask yourself in
what ways could you modify your music to make it more descriptive?
Try your ideas with a different rhythm, in another key, changing
some of the chords, at different dynamic levels, with a thick or
thinner texture and density, at different tempos, etc, etc, etc,
What Else?
What else can you do to improve your self expressive songwriting
skills? Many things are possible, at the top of my list of
recommendations are the following:
1. Take lessons from
someone who teaches songwriting / composition. Of course it is
usually best if this teacher is familiar with the your musical
style. (check out my previous article on Choosing a Teacher.) There
is no substitute for learning from someone who has many years of
experience and education on the subject!
2. Team up with other songwriters and write some music together
using the ideas already discussed above. Working with another writer
can be very valuable because you can learn how he/she approaches the
same musical situations differently than you do. Other writers often
have different ways of finding solutions to compositional problems.
By observing and learning from these differences you both can grow.
3. Write music everyday! When I was a music composition student at
Roosevelt University, my professors always pushed us composition
majors to write something everyday. Mastering writing is the same as
mastering anything else, it takes frequent practice to gain the
experience. Its strange to me how many players will practice their
instrument everyday, but not practice the art and science of
creating (writing) their own music.
4. Don’t wait until your physical guitar skills, knowledge of
theory, aural skills, etc. is better before writing music. As I just
stated above, you must practice writing, just as you would practice
anything else in order to improve. You probably know some really
good musicians that can play very challenging things on their
instrument, but can’t write a song.
For more writing approaches and
ideas read (or reread) my articles,
Creativity and Expression ~ Part 1 & Creativity and
Expression ~ Part 2.
No matter what styles of music you like, understand and remember
that your guitar, and all the musical knowledge you have now (and
ever will have) are only tools. YOU are the composer. YOU are the
artist. Learn to USE your skills, knowledge and talent because
simply acquiring them is not enough.
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