The Wisdom of Songwriting

Songwriting is indeed an art. It's an art in the sense that you can learn to play the instrument, and you can learn to sing, but no one can definitively teach you how to write a song. This is because there are no right answers to this. Writing in any form truly has no rules behind it. And when one tries to follow those man-made rules to a tee, he limits his creativity, locked away behind the thought of breaking the rules. The secret? Break the goddamn rules.

When I first started playing acoustic at 14, I worked my way from learning beginner songs all the way up to some hard stuff. For the longest time, I judged skill by how technically difficult the song was to play. This is where people get mixed up. Technicality does not define greatness in writing a lot of times. I realized that when your inspiration for a song comes from just trying to make it difficult to play, it limits its aura. And while most people love music, only a select few can even understand the true value of where difficulty is measured. So if the goal is getting people to appreciate and listen, a good balance between skill and sound is key.

Technically hard and abstract - Attracts the wisest of people, but a lot smaller of a crowd.

Simple, yet easy on the ears - Attracts clueless people, but a larger crowd.

So my theory is this: A smart balance between technically difficult, yet a simple melody at the same time. An equal balance between attracting appreciation between more than one crowd of people. Whether aware or not, majority can hear and recognize something different, something that stands out with a balance of talent between multiple genres.

When you learn to appreciate each chord as a sound, and each sound as a color, you can paint the appropriate tone for interpretation through emotion. Minor keys are generally more sad/dark setting, Major for a happier theme. The imaginative setting a certain color of sounds can provoke coincides with the theme your lyrics are about. The lyrics and the guitar progressions compliment each other on emotion feel. Lyrics should be symbolic, never truly defining what is literally happening, but is open for the listener to interpret into  their own meaning of it.

Even further, songwriting is born through your influences. Who you follow, who you worship musically the most..? Those influences are going to shine through you. Everyone you choose to study and learn from, will be a factor in who you become. A talent itself is being able to recognize true talent and being able to learn from the right people. People's opinions on who are the right people to learn from are often different because we often relate music to our own lives, and what we want to associate with, hence being entirely in our hands and decisions. This is why a true artist is respected so highly for real talent, because many factors are involved in becoming a person in theory that well-rounded music will match a well-rounded individual. If you are an aspiring singer-songwriter; you are a modern day shepherd, a traveler, explorer, poet. An artist. You are these things first, rather than a money-maker. You write because it is your passion to live, and money is just a lucky reward if you follow a path of passion.

It is recognizable in someone who pursues the money first rather than the art. Neither way is wrongheaded, but there is more truth in one path than the other.

With that said, great songwriting is painting imagery of real emotion through who you are, while looking at the sounds as shapes and colors, rather than limiting oneself in the binding of too much theory rule. There are no true laws on art, except that it is a self-reflection of who you are. Correct balance of genre-blending is also important for uniqueness.  Uniqueness is necessary for innovation. Music innovation is necessary to push the human race forward, rather than recreating another sound in an already defined category. That is great songwriting.

Great songwriting is not a classroom subject, but it is a philosophy. You want to write and perform wise and well-rounded songs? Then you should strive to become a wise and well-rounded individual, who's music clearly coincides neatly with its composer.

Only when you truly live life and let experience flow through yourself, and into your words and sounds and voice, will it set you apart from attempting to create from following a rule book. There is no rule book.