Author: Christopher Lazare
It’s not hard to find an eight year old musical prodigy who can play incredibly technical pieces on the instrument you have played for years. We can all get down on ourselves as well when we struggle to play the things a music teacher has asked us to learn. Are these competitions something you want to be involved in? Will they discourage you so much that your instrument will end up in the closet or gathering dust in the corner of the room? We all have purpose & all of our lives have meaning. Sometimes we get lost seeking approval or stuck behind a teacher and forget how meaningful each of our lives are. B.B. King, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan & Neil Young never let their lack of technical ability hamper them. In 1993 Leonard Cohen won a Juno award for best male vocalist. Sometimes we are defined more by what we don’t do than by what we do. There’s a lot to be said for style. As a guitar player, I spent years learning riffs. We all do. There comes a time though when we need to put these riffs behind us & to start being ourselves and expressing ourselves genuinely. If not, we are no different than a parrot. Where do these riffs come from? If everyone just plays cover songs or repeats riffs, who then will write the songs for us to cover? Who will come up with the riffs for us to lazily fall into? Sure, it’s rewarding when we impress our friends by playing a Stevie Ray Vaughan riff, but Stevie Ray had authenticity in what he did. How far do we take this parrot like approach? Do we buy the hat, jacket and boots too? Do we start talking with a yanky drawl? We each have authenticity. It is our own. We are who we are. Live there!!! Live in that space!!! Be yourself and be confident about it. There is no other ‘you’. Share your individuality. Put your music teacher behind you. Behind you as a support structure, supporting who you are. Supporting your individuality. Yes, learn those popular riffs. Explore where they came from. As a teenager, I figured out the guitar solo for Hotel California. There were so many lessons in that one solo. There’s many other guitar solos full of lessons. Explore them. Transcribe them. Then, throw them away. Mark Knopfler is the guitar player for Dire Straits. When we hear a few notes, we know it’s him. We can hear him so clearly. His style and originality shines through anything he does. We can hear who he is. Humanity wants to hear who you are too. Stuart Copeland was the dummer for the police. His style is undeniable. We can hear him. If a drummer starts playing like Stuart, all of the other drummers will call him out on it. His style is obvious. John Bonham from Led Zeppelin is the same. Undeniable style and approach to his life’s work. B.B. King might be the best example. His music theory was limited, but he is respected by almost all of the worlds guitar players as an original. We can all play like him if we want to, but what for? I am not B.B. King. Neither are you. If B.B. chose to play like someone who came before him, in a parrot like fashion, the world would not have his life’s work to enjoy. Also, I seriously doubt that B.B. King spent any time worrying about 8 year old prodigies and I don’t think he got caught up being defeated or defeating himself because he couldn’t figure out what his music teacher was trying to teach him. One of my favourite guitar players is John Scofield. I jokingly say he is the drunken kung-fu master of guitar. His technical ability is through the roof, but sometimes he sounds like a kid who has only been playing guitar for a few days. He is playful with his instrument. Sometimes he tries to imitate a trombone solo or a trumpet. His technical ability and years of study have given him a freedom we could all envy, but why envy? That’s a waste of time. Listen, enjoy and be influenced by his work. Whenever someone tells John Scofield there is some new guitar player who sounds just like him, he laughs. It never does. A parrot may be able to repeat the last thing you said, but the parrot has no idea of where the idea came from, why it came about, or the life sacrifices made along the way before it was said. When it’s time, put your teacher behind you. INFLUENCE. Be influenced. Let the music and technique of others flow through you. In one ear & out the other. No need to latch on to anything or try to convince yourself it is your own. ABSORB. Learn as much as you can. Then put it aside & share your interpretation of music with the world. There’s a brilliant Miles Davis quote “Learn it, Forget it, then act as if you never learnt it.” You have purpose. Your life has meaning. What you do is important to the rest of us. Please don’t let us down. Be yourself and be confident in it. We can’t wait to hear what you do.
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Author: Phöenix Lazare
When studying in my introductory Lyric Writing class at Berklee College of Music, I was introduced to a concept that changed my approach to songwriting moving forward - song seeds. A song seed is exactly what you might expect: a seed from which a song can grow. In other words, the roots of a new idea. A short lyrical phrase, interesting title, melody, chord progression, groove, or concept. The possibilities are endless. The reason why song seeds are so important is that they provide a streamlined way to collect fleeting ideas. This comes in handy as a songwriter living an active daily life, as inspiration does not care where you are or what you're doing; you'll often find an idea when you're least expecting it, in the middle of a busy day. Song seeds provide the opportunity to quickly store those ideas and develop a collection of ideas to look back on when you're feeling uninspired or need a foundation to jump off of when beginning a new song. Song seeds are also particularly useful for co-writing - it allows you to bring a handful of possibilities to the table. As I mentioned, a song seed is essentially what we call an idea. This can exist in any form - you may record a melodic idea to your cell phone's voice memos on your way home from the grocery store, or overhear an interesting line from a conversation on the bus and write it down in a journal or type it in a note. Either way, if something catches your attention, it is important that you write it down or record it immediately. Your inspiration can only do half of the work - it is your job to catch those ideas and transform them into something tangible before they move on. For example - my song "Salt" was born from a voice recording I created while sitting in traffic one evening on my way home from my day job in Nashville. A melody popped in my head, then along came some lyrical possibilities, and I simply had to get it down. About a year later, I ended up recording the final tune and releasing it as a single. Moral of the story: never disregard a fleeting idea, even if you're sitting in traffic. I suggest that you create a note on your phone or in your journal titled "Song Seeds" to collect short phrases or title ideas in bullet form. Organize your voice recordings to provide easy access as well - ex. "Song Seed: 5/8 groove idea" or "Song Seed: Melody in Am." Make it easy for yourself to look back on your song seeds and develop them further without anything standing in your way. “Art is born in attention.” - Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity Author: Phöenix Lazare One of the best ways to streamline your lyric writing process is to use creative free-writing. In my songwriting education, I studied a useful exercise called Object Writing, introduced and encouraged by songwriter/educator, Pat Pattison. Object Writing is a timed, sense-based creative writing activity to creatively stimulate, gather new ideas and help to begin the songwriting process. To begin object writing, it is simple:
When object writing, it is important to remember these few things:
I'll give you an example of 5-minute timed Object Write below using the prompt, "Celebration." Celebration: Glitter covers the black and white tiled floor, sticky with Shirley Temple paper umbrella drinks spilled between amateur dance moves. The popular music, so loud I can already hear my ears ringing into tomorrow's late morning, screams through the giant-sized speakers that hug the footprint-studded stage. As I look around the dim lit room, I feel an energy, hopeful but with an emptiness overcast, shadowing like a broken umbrella above forced smiles and intoxicated lust. Yet a comforting presence, observed through the eyes of strangers seeing an evening through to sunrise, lighting a dance floor with a youthful electricity. The subtle scent of stale kettle corn and sweat follow the hallways... Now here it is again, with my favourite parts underlined: Glitter covers the black and white tiled floor, sticky with Shirley Temple paper umbrella drinks spilled between amateur dance moves. The popular music, so loud I can already hear my ears ringing into tomorrow's late morning, screams through the giant-sized speakers that hug the footprint-studded stage. As I look around the dim lit room, I feel an energy, hopeful but with an emptiness overcast, shadowing like a broken umbrella above forced smiles and intoxicated lust. Yet a comforting presence, observed through the eyes of strangers seeing an evening through to sunrise, lighting a dance floor with a youthful electricity. The subtle scent of stale kettle corn and sweat follow the hallways... To take it one step further... I'll construct a verse inspired by elements from my favourite lines: Observed through the eyes of strangers Forced smiles, electric youth Spilling Shirley Temples Between amateur dance moves Author: Phöenix Lazare To become the best songwriter you can be, you must first discover and explore your natural inspiration. This is one of the most important parts of our voices as artists; it is what fuels our creative fire. It is true that as songwriters we need to learn and continue to educate ourselves on tools to enhance the quality of our writing, but inspiration is the foundation that our work stands on. Nurture it; trust it.
I do not believe that inspiration can be forced, nor do I think you should ever force yourself to write if it’s only going to continue to frustrate you. This is often how songwriters fall out of love with the craft. That being said, I speak from experience when I say that there are ways to stimulate yourself creatively and encourage inspiration to be present with you in the moment.
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