These days, boredom is getting a lot of attention. It used to be that boredom was considered to have no redeeming qualities. Being bored simply meant being disinterested in whatever you were up to, and that you haven’t found anything to grab your interest. More recently, psychologists have been conducting research into the benefits of […]
Like anyone else, songwriters look for ways to improve what they do. How to improve as a songwriter is a topic that gets discussed a lot, and there are many, many opinions. If you want to improve as a geologist, everyone will agree that the best way is to combine studying at a university with in-the-field […]
Improvisation is an important part artistic creation. Who knows where those very first ideas come from — the ones that pop into your mind as you’re walking down the street or sitting on a bus. But almost everything that follows, at least for most songwriters, happens through improvisation. In that context, improvisation means using your […]
More than many other creative endeavours, songwriting is largely an improvisatory art. That notion of improvisation largely happens on two levels: The writing of the song, which is often the spontaneous, “on-the-fly” generation of musical ideas. The performance of the song, which involves players reacting spontaneously to the ideas of bandmates. Every kind of creative activity in the arts […]
Improvising happens in every genre of music you can name, some genres more than others. A jazz concert will likely feature improvisation as a key element in practically every song. In that case, we usually mean a sax player or guitarist that might take a solo. But improvisation, of course, happens in every sub-genre of pop music, […]
Songwriters are correct to think a lot about how to start the songwriting process. How you start often has a strong influence on where things end up. But songwriters typically worry, not so much that they’re starting the wrong way, but more that they’re possibly missing out on a better way. You need to look […]
