As songwriters, we are constantly on the hunt for revitalizing inspiration - a unique experience that will awaken our creative butterflies and sweep them into full flutter. However, this is not a sustainable approach to songwriting. As Chuck Close famously said, "Inspiration is for amateurs…"
What he meant is that, as professional musicians, we need to actively seek the inspiration that will cultivate our next big hit. Exploring the music of your fellow musicians is a great place to find the seed of your next song.
Remember, if a song has a strong emotional effect on you, it’s not by chance. The songwriter is using a specific tool or technique to achieve this. Make it your mission to discover what it is to help you expand your own skill set.
How can you accomplish this? Through active listening - a process of deciphering what you hear, learning from it, and incorporating that technique into your own songwriting style in order to achieve a similar effect.
The act of active listening
Active listening is the act of careful, attentive listening to a nitpicked piece of music. It requires undivided attention and elevated concentration. With active listening, we are experiencing and absorbing as opposed to just hearing and enjoying. This makes hearing a process, rather than an afterthought.
Choose a quiet comfortable area to sit, get rid of all and any distractions (like your phone!), put your studio headphones on or switch on your monitors, open your notebook, close your eyes, and hit play… Pay attention, because you’re listening to learn something new. Be careful not to become submerged in the song - you’ll need to fight against the urge to “slip into the music.” Try to keep an objective and analytical mindset.
The goal is to explore, identify, assess, analyze and discover new methods of composing music through this exercise. To master this, you’re going to need to train your ear through practice. Time will make you an expert active listener.
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The process of discovery
Chances are you have your own unique songwriting process that works for you. I encourage you to slot active listening into that process. Perhaps you can try it at the start of your process to get some momentum and direction, or, during the experimental phase when you’re still busy gathering ideas.
To get started, you want to define what it is that you’re listening for. Here’s an example of a popular process:
- Identify a piece of music that you find interesting and impactful
- Identify the song structure
- Isolate the instruments
- Map the arrangement
- Assess what role each instrument is fulfilling
- Analyze how each role is achieved
- Analyze how each musical component relates to another
- Discover how the components work together to evoke emotion
This process will help you understand how the song was written, and give you a well-rounded idea of why this piece of music affects you the way it does. However, we don’t always necessarily want to understand how the entire song was composed. Sometimes we just have specific questions we want to be answered, such as: why does the bridge make me feel sad? Or why does the chorus make me get up and dance? Set up your own list of items you’d like to assess and your own list of questions around the parts that pique your curiosity.
What I've discovered
Active listening tends to answer all my questions. With each session, I start out by formulating a list of the things I hope to learn from the specific song I had chosen, and with each listen, I attempt to answer a new question. Here are some examples of what I’ve learnt from active listening recently:
Q: How did they elevate the energy in the chorus?
A: By raising the baseline an octave up.
Q: What is the main factor influencing the tension and release in the pre-choruses?
A: Completely pausing the drum lines and bringing it back in with rolls.
Q: How did they create so much sonic texture?
A: By adding distortion pedals over analogue instruments.
Q: How did they bring the song full circle?
A: By repeating the dominant melody in the song outro.
Q: How did they manage to make me really think about the lyrics?
A: By using an open and sparse vocal melody with clear vocals.
These are just some things I’ve learned through a few sessions. Imagine what you can learn when you invest ample time into this exercise?
All set with new discoveries
Listening is learning, and knowledge is inspiring. There is so much to learn, and so much inspiration to be found through the active study of the work of others. It’s time to train yourself to become a “master listener” if you’d like to be a masterful songwriter. Allow newly found knowledge to drive you. Geared with new discoveries, you will be inspired to translate what you found into impactful moments in your own original songs.
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Carla Malrowe is an avid alternative songwriter and vocalist from South Africa, currently residing in The Netherlands. Check out her electro-industrial project, Psycoco's single “Stay Awake.” Malrowe’s music is a haunting juxtaposition of electronic and analogue sounds with lyrics that explore a post-apocalyptic conflict between love and loss. Her solo EP, 'The petals and sand' is set to be released later this year.
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