What I learned from Jonathan Coulton about songwriting ... and monkeys
Folks who follow me on Twitter know that yesterday, I had the great pleasure of talking with JC for over an hour about music stuff. There was a little drama involved when at first, we couldn't connect on Skype, and again when I discovered that Call Graph didn't record the call - despite much testing beforehand. (Argh!) So, I did the next best thing. I wrote down everything I could remember and posted it on my LiveJournal blog. Enjoy. :-)
P.S. I put this in the Joco Music category, because, well, it's about his music. Does that seem appropriate?
ETA: BTW, JC said to say hi to everybody here. :-)
P.S. I put this in the Joco Music category, because, well, it's about his music. Does that seem appropriate?
ETA: BTW, JC said to say hi to everybody here. :-)
Comments
ETA: I've also come to the same conclusion that he did: namely, there's only so much musical material you have to work with, and the trick is finding new and interesting ways to combine it.
Thanks for posting that Colleenky, as an aspiring songwriter I found that very interesting. You asked about chordal instruments for songwriting, and I do think that it does help - I can't muck around and improvise multipart things because the only semi-chordal instrument I've got is the viol, which can only do a limited selection of double stops. As a result, I'm far more confident (and competent) as a simple tune composer.
Although I am going to have a go at learning the lute, so maybe that'll help.
I tell ya, it's been a banner year for this fangirl. I couldn't ask for anything more. :-)
Two things I thought were funny: the question about, what's he doing with his thumb and him having to look up what a Walk down was. hehe.
In my experience you can generaly spot self taught guitarists by that thumb. Guitar teachers emphasize proper technique to new players and tend to stamp out fretting with the thumb. Look up a Richie Havens video sometime, I swear that guy can fret at least three strings over the top of the neck with his thumb. (btw...I kid you not, as I was typing this a Richie Havens song started playing on Pandora...hmmm)
Also, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring goes into that weird meter, right? And it caused a riot when it premiered?
Maybe it's the fact that playing with the thumb works best when you have exceptionally large hands, and many teachers tend to discourage the use of techniques they can't demonstrate themselves. Sour grapes?
For instance, newbies often have a problem fretting cleanly. The tend to fret with their finger pads rather then their finger tips which causes the fingers to brush the other strings damping them or making them buzz, etc. This happens because the neck of the guitar is in the palm. One needs to put the thumb behind the neck and curl the wrist farther around which allows you to press down with the fingertips.
A teacher would say, do that all the time and you'll never have a problem but someone teaching themselves would find their own solutions, probably using this "correct" technique only when they need to. But the thing is, a teacher is trying to give you techniques that work in all instances. If your teaching yourself, you have to be motivated to persevere to find your own way, otherwise you'll set it aside because it's too hard.