By almost any definition, I should not be a songwriter. I have played guitar for over thirty years and have never had any extensive lessons or touched on intense theory. Sometime back in the mid-nineties, when I lived in Chicago, I did try to take a group lesson at the venerable Old Town School of Folk Music, but I found that everyone was so far beyond me and that I was frustrated that they seemed to know all the chords and could play along to any song put in front of us. It almost stopped me from playing altogether.
Over the years, I managed a few periods of intense playing where I learned enough to fake it. I could follow along and pick up songs, either by reading the chords on a song sheet or watching somebody playing it. Though no virtuoso, I even got to the point of coming up with interesting chords, and combining these, and the melodies would come out. But it took me about ten years of just playing around to get to that point.
After years of playing the same, not so great sounding guitar, I decided to upscale to a serious and wonderful sounding Martin D-16E dreadnought. Before that, after the initial surge of songwriting almost twenty years ago, and recent forays into electronic music1, I might have played my old guitar once every few weeks and, uninspired, put it aside. I hadn't quite been as into it. But the new guitar has opened the door again. Lately, I've returned to songwriting.
I've often wondered where these songs come from. Of course, I love music, and have strong opinions about it. But as I said, I have never learned theory. I just know several dozen chords and can hear melodies and songs form as I play. It always amazes me when chords, rhythm and melody conspire to produce something rather beautiful, or stirring, and this resonates into the air. There is a purity to songwriting that I can't explain how to arrive at. I have learned that if I play for any amount of time, I'm likely to write something.
The one trick to this might be how, because I don't know any better, I make chords up. Now, I'm not making them up so much as I'm finding them. And putting two or three distinct chords together yields surprise. And surprise might be one thing I know to strive for in any writing.
The process is mysterious because I don't know where to find these chords. The best way I might explain this is having an ear for it, though again, I'm not sure how much I can claim to have a more attuned ear, or any exceptional aural capacity. I think mainly it is a process of trial and error. If you strum enough combinations of chords certain notes resonate, and call out for attention, which in turn somehow arranges into a song.
Maybe there is something to maintaining beginner’s mind in this process. I do this with my usual writing, after all, letting my mind land where it will without worrying about what I am coming up with.
Ask for theory, I have tried to gain some proficiency by watching Rick Beato's Everything Music YouTube channel, but I usually come away more perplexed, as if a foreign language is being explained to me in hieroglyphics. Though I know all the strings on my guitar are tuned to EADGBE, I can't yet tell you why I could land on an Asus7 chord and that it works in a song structure. Of course, I could likely learn all of this if I put in the time…
I occasionally try out new tunings, which can yield surprise in combinations of chords I have no idea that I'm playing. I have hardly ever tried to figure out the names of these chords when I do a drop D tuning, for example, DADGAD. But I have managed to come up with interesting song structures using alternate tunings.
Maybe, given the above, I cannot really call myself a songwriter. I'll certainly never be Erik Satie, or Nick Drake, or Sting or Neil Young. And if I can't fully grasp the intervals of fifths, and how to resolve a diminished chord (a lesson I have watched and feel, at the very least, that I should understand), or can't make chords from scales, how can I call myself a songwriter?
Music, I would say, belongs to everyone. It is in the air. It’s democratic. And if what I'm coming up with—dare I say—is slightly more interesting than the typical pop song, that's because mine did not take eleven people to write it (that’s apparently what it takes to make a “hit” these days; my guess is that more people want to get their hand in that pie). Watching Rick Beato’s videos, I do wonder what I might be able to do with years of theory and training, but I also think my approach is just as valid because it is intuitive. Certainly, an expert might tell me I am doing it wrong. Here’s one recent demo, “The Way Back":
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