Fire Your Slacker Band! Part III: Songwriting For Rock Musicians

HHowdy, soldiers! Are you ready to take the world by a storm with your solo act? Good!

Last time we talked a bit about the different frameworks for such acts, as well as the benefits of adding vocals to your shows. This installment furthers the cause of what I call the evolution of teaching. Mainly “Zurg, don’t fall in sinkhole! Hurts! Zurrrrg! Zurrrrrg!” Yes, yes, that’s right – learning from my Neanderthal mistakes puts you further along the path of musical evolution and enlightenment. After singing, this next topic was my biggest obstacle as a musician!

And what cliff did I tumble off, only to emerge with some newfound skill cleverly disguised as a goose egg on my head?

Songwriting!

But first, a story… (As always)

I had decided I wanted to try a solo gig. I had just wasted a few months in a basement rehearsing with a go-nowhere band, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I thought “Hey, I’ll record a demo CD, and get some gigs playing jazzy stuff at restaurants!”

A great idea in theory, but it didn’t quite work out.

I dusted off a little digital recorder (I think it was a Boss BR-532), and started putting some tracks down. And then I hit that proverbial brick wall – HARD! I was a halfway decent guitarist, making a living teaching guitar, and had played live professionally, but… I couldn’t write any songs. Everything I did turned into a formless blues jam. As I write this on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s birthday, let me be the first to say that blues jams rock – But not the ones I was putting down. The lack of any structure, and the absence of vocals made my first “studio” effort something I’d rather not discuss. Well, I got several neat ideas, but all in all, it was a very weak venture. Sure, sure, I could do covers, but to be the artist I wanted to be, I really needed some originals as well.

I shopped the CD around, and only got one or two gigs. Mannnn! After tumbling off that metaphorical cliff of ignorance, I was able to see something that I had missed during my years of practice:

Typewriter on Flickr

Songwriting is a skill vital to a musician of any style.

Since I had been playing electric lead guitar, I was able to get away with not writing my own stuff. One of my teachers looked at me one day and said “If you don’t write your own stuff, you’ll always be playing somebody else’s songs.” Well DUH, but it actually sank in that time. I had always thought guitarists who sang and wrote their own songs where… gasp!… Singer-Songwriters! I considered my arpeggios to set me far above those saps who played Ben Folds covers and stole all my girls. (OK, sorry, but I’m STILL burned about that) It slowly dawned on me that a lot of the heavy songs I liked were actually very well written, too. Another DUH, but hey, I guess I needed to learn this stuff the hard way. Another thing that had always made me think twice about songwriting was that when people said the song was very well written, it usually didn’t rock. It wasn’t a logical train of thought, but it still seemed to be the case. My dad would put on some lame song, and I’d promptly state that the band’s guitarist was lousy. “Yeah, but they’re such good songwriters!” he’d say. Hence my trepidation with setting foot into the arena of songwriters. Would I lose my magical rock powers? Once again, Ozzy Osbourne has a lesson for us.

Listen to any of his tunes, and notice how they’re structured, coherent, and interesting without losing any of the power of rock. Indeed, the structure only adds to the ferocity! Bark at the Moon is a great example of what I’m talking about. Not only are the songs well written, but they’re arranged snazzily too. For those scratching their heads in puzzlement, arrangement refers to what instrument plays which part, and when. Listen to Green Day’s Wake Me Up When September Ends for an idea of how arrangement plays an important role in a song. They take two or three themes, and repeat them on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, and even bells! It keeps things interesting and fresh.

Good songwriting equals good songs, and we have no excuse not to learn this unique skill. And a skill it is, just like alternate picking or string skipping. The more we practice it, the better we get. “But Josh!” you say, “I should just be inspired to write a great tune!” Sure! But practicing the skills make it easier to express the inspiration, and can sometimes show you where to go when you’re at a loss for notes. “But Josh!” you pipe up again, “My wicked awesome sequence of diminished arpeggios will blow the crowd away with the sheer skill required to play it!” It probably will! But here’s something I noticed, and maybe it will help you:

There seem to be three camps of musicians:

• Camp 1 includes great writers who might not be top flight musicians, or if they are, don’t usually show it. A lot of country, pop, and alternative rock artists fall in with this crowd. Even if they can play their butts off, they usually don’t for the sake of the song.
• Camp 2 consists of the super shredders like Yngwie Malmsteen who are phenomenal guitarists, and absolutely own the top of the technical mountain. Their songs almost always feature their dazzling fret work, but usually aren’t as catchy as Camp 1, and hence not as popular (ever wonder why it’s called “pop” music?)
• Camp 3 consists of folks who recognize the following: Camp 1 has it’s brilliance in the set up and the writing (think Smells Like Teen Spirit: Simple, and devastating; a bullet doesn’t have to be complex to kill you, and neither does a hit song). Camp 2 is jam-packed with the best guitarists ever, and they can play absolutely anything. Their skill is in the execution, but not in the planning stages.

So the folks in Camp 3, like Ozzy Osbourne, Rammstein, Van Halen, etc, are well versed in both planning (writing), and execution (playing.)

Starting Off

1. I was a bit puzzled at how to start songwriting, but here’s a few things that helped me:
2. Realize songwriting is a skill, just like sweep picking.
3. Realize that (most) songs have a clear, identifiable structure – verses, choruses, a bridge, and so on. Listening to your favorite tunes, and picking out which parts are which can go a long way toward understanding composition.
4. Don’t try to write an epic tune on your first try. Pressure kills creativity!
5. Just like other guitar skills, daily practice is very helpful.
6. Education is important! I bought a few books, and attended a local songwriter’s group. I got inspired to give it a good shot. Maybe these ways will help you, too.

If interested, be sure to check out the full version of the article over here!

Josh Urban is a solo guitarist and vocalist living near Washington, DC, USA. When he’s not attempting to blow up stages with his iPhone backing tracks and brightly colored guitars, he’s busy teaching guitar to over thirty students per week, adding zany videos to his youtube channel, or blogging about music. He just released his first “real” EP, Signalman, and is responsible for every single sound on it. Check out his website at www.joshurban.com, and say hello!