Songwright

Earlier today I was twittering a few random thoughts on future blog posts. I floated the idea of writing ‘The Songwriting Crimes of Bob Dylan’, and ‘The Songwriting Crimes of Stock, Aitken and Waterman’.

A couple of twitterers (tweeters? Tweetmates? Twitees?) raised an interesting opinion or two

Marie Tueje said (I’ve paraphrased and edited a few tweets, purely to [...]

1. Everyone else will be, you don’t want to follow the crowd do you?

2. Love is a cliché – songwriters have been writing about love for centuries

3. Love songs aren’t moving – the shallowest of songs are the ones that say ‘I Love You’. I don’t know why it is that so profound an emotion [...]

There is no excuse for laziness. There just isn’t.

Now, let’s get a few things straight.

1. Songwright.co.uk isn’t about the songwriting business. I’m not interested in whether a song makes money, I just care about the craft being done well.

2. Amy Winehouse has no redeeming features. She could never sing, she has never recorded an above [...]

After trying valiantly, but only moderately successfully to voice my disatisfaction with songwriting being described as ‘communication’, I feel I’ve little choice but to leave you with the thoughts and comments that other’s have sent me:

T.C.Elliot, whose songs can be heard here and here, said:

To me a rock or a carving or a beautiful sunrise [...]

Interesting post over at Eric Beall’s Songwriting and Publishing blog.  He talks in his post about songwriting as a form of communication, and contrasts this with music as a kind of personal expression.

He admits that songwriting very often begins as a form of personal expression, and this passage had me nodding in agreement:

In fact, when [...]

Twice in recent days I’ve come across the notion that music is a form of communication. One was on an interesting thread over on this website, the other was in the new Uk national curriculum for music.

I know what people mean when they say this, but I don’t think it’s quite right, or at least, [...]

The real songwriter writes what moves him.
The real songwriter hones his craft.
The real Songwriter knows conventions, but isn’t bound by them.
The real songwriter respects the listener.
The real songwriter builds on the work of others.
The real songwriter uses chords and melodies you’ve never heard.
The real songwriter develops.