Songwriting Cheat Sheet #2

I remember going through hell. I was in my junior year in high school. That in itself was hell enough! But every day I’d get home from school, throw my backpack on the floor and pick up my shiny blue Dean acoustic/electric guitar.

I’d fire up my computer and browse through guitar tabs while listening to the songs I wanted to learn to play. The only problem was, the songs I wanted to learn were about 5 difficulty levels above my guitar abilities at the time!

For about 6 months, I kept trying to learn a bunch of Dave Matthews songs but they were deceptively hard. First of all, Dave is a groove master. He plays these funky, syncopated grooves that are hard enough on their own. Then you try to sing with it and it’s nearly impossible because the rhythm of the words and the rhythm of the guitar are completely freaking opposite!

But I just kept trying, over and over. I was convinced that if I just played one of Dave’s grooves enough times, my hands would be able to do it on autopilot and I could focus on singing.

Well…my stubborness paid off, and by the time I could play most of Dave’s songs and sing along with the guitar part, I felt like I had made a huge breakthrough in my development as a musician and songwriter.

Learn Difficult Songs = Become A Better Songwriter

Through this challenge, my guitar skills had become so much sharper and my songwriting had a professional dimension to it for the first time. And it was mostly thanks to the technical abilities I acquired in this difficult period.

You might not listen to Dave Matthews, you might not even know who he is. You might know who he is and think he sucks major ass. Doesn’t matter.

Learn to play it. Learn to sing it. Even if it’s too hard. Especially if it’s too hard! The best way to develop the “chops” you need to express yourself musically is by learning technically challenging songs that you actually enjoy listening to.

This method sure beats running through scales and chord changes like a robot for the simple reason that you have fun in the process. And that’s when you learn the most!

Here’s a resource for learning your favorite artist’s songs with guitar tabs: Ultimate Guitar Tabs

Now you and I both know there are no new chords or rhythms around that musicians weren’t playing 100 years ago. If one of the best ways to become a writer is to read more, then surely one of the best ways to become a better songwriter is to listen to other songwriters more. Then begin to incorporate elements of their music into your unique songwriting style.

“Isn’t that stealing/copying/biting another songwriter’s style??”

No. That’s impossible. Think about it…even if you dedicated your WHOLE life to it, you would NEVER be able to convincingly replicate another musician’s unique sound.

BUT…his or her music CAN help to light a candle in the room of your own creativity, which enables you to see something within yourself that was once obscured by darkness.

Even cover musicians, who strive to copy other artists note for note, mannerism for mannerism, rarely do a truly convincing job. And when they do, you only listen to them for how closely they imitate ANOTHER artist’s music.

So adding other artist’s tricks to your grooves is a MUST to expand your musical vocabulary. That being said, your personal collection of grooves is just a tiny fragment of who you are as a musician. There’s just so much that goes into creating music that you’ll never stop learning! But it’s always cool to wipe a small part of the glass clean so your listeners can have a tiny glimpse inside of your soul.

For instance, a chord I’ve been using a lot lately is the 6/9 chord. I first discovered it when I heard Jason Mraz’s song “Curbside prophet”. He also uses it in “The Remedy”. In fact, he doesn’t just use the same chord, he uses the same chord PROGRESSION in both songs (but in different keys)! And both songs are giant hits. Coinky-dink? Maybe, maybe not. But if you have an infectious groove that gets people moving, that’s priority number 1.

Another example comes from Dave Matthews, who uses the heck out of the same chord shape and it makes his sound instantly recognizable. Let’s see…how many songs does Dave use this chord in, just off the top of my head?

1. So much to say
2. Satellite
3. Warehouse

In fact, Satellite is practically an exercise for learning to play this chord as an arpeggio and it’s very tricky! Anyway, you hear this chord and you think “oh that’s the Dave Matthews chord”. Same goes for the chord he uses in “Crash”. Of course, they’re nobody’s chords….

They don’t belong TO Dave or TO anybody else. They’ve been played 8 zillion times before Dave ever smoked his first doobie. But by using it repeatedly in different musical situations, Dave managed to associate it with his ‘signature sound’.

And it’s not something you think about, it’s just an association that happens automatically in your subconscious mind. And this is just ONE CHORD we’re talking about here, not even a whole groove!

Funk – What does ‘funk’ mean? Well, I’ll tell you what it means. Here’s what it means: nothing! It’s just a word. Music is about feelings and helping people connect with the source of life and joy. So ‘funk’ is as good a word as any.

What I’m trying to say here is that a groove needs that special something. Even if you have the perfect combination of chords, melody and rhythm, played to metronomic perfection by the 3 best guitarists in the world put together…if it doesn’t completely funk up the room and funk the funking funk out of everybody listening, then it’s not ready.

Do all of your grooves need to be driving and percussive? Of course not. Do all of your chord progressions even need to be grooves? No…like I said songwriting has no rules. This is just one of many techniques to add to your toolbox. 🙂

So as I did in Songwriting Cheat Sheet #1, I’m going to wrap this here Cheat Sheet up with a few examples of musical ideas I took from 2 of my favorite songwriters and how I incorporated them into my own music without sounding like a total rip off…I think. 😉

If you have any examples of creative borrowing, post them up on the Write Awesome Songs Facebook page…I’d love to hear them!