Musings

McCartney: The Consumate Showman

Posted on by IJ
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney (Photo credit: darioferrini)

All the way to the Paul McCartney concert in Vancouver BC last week, my family listened to old Beatles and Wings songs in the car.  That was when it occurred to me that this one person has the song catalogue of a thousand of us menial songwriters out there, and not only that, but SO MANY of them were hits and became classics over almost six decades of writing and performing.  And even beyond that, at the age of 70 he can still go out there and outperform even the youngest and spryest of artists and bands.  The guy barely stopped for a full 3 hours.  He continually and genuinely appreciated and acknowledged each and every one of the 40,000 or so of us there who were equally as thrilled to see him come to Vancouver for the first time since 1963.  It was an epic and unforgettable experience.
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I Like Songs

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Well, I do. I like all kinds of songs, old ones, new ones that I discover through my students…all kinds of ’em. Which is why I started a blog just about the songs I like. You can find it here.

Songwriters Circle
Songwriters Circle (Photo credit: AndyRobertsPhotos)

As a songwriter, I quite often find myself listening to a song with a “critical ear”, which isn’t always a good thing! If the song really appeals to me, however, I notice that this critical ear shuts off. Why is that? It’s because the mind has shut off and the emotions have taken over. I don’t care if there is anything wrong with the song from a critical viewpoint, I just love the song.

When you think about all of the songs you’ve fallen in love with over the years (and yes, it’s like falling in love), you notice that any time you hear them again it almost brings back that initial “rush”, just like seeing an old flame. If you stopped for just a second and listened to it as a songwriter and not just a regular listener, you’d probably notice some flaws in it. There are flaws in just about every song, but when you’re crazy about the song, you push all of that aside, just as you look past the flaws of a person you’re in love with.

So I decided that I’d take a look and listen to all of the songs that I’ve really loved (and the ones I’m learning to love) not so much from a critical viewpoint, although there is some of that, but from a music lover’s perspective. I actually started to write those articles for this blog but realized that I didn’t just want to critique, I wanted to listen and enjoy! And that’s how ILikeSongs was born.

I don’t want to spend all of my time listening to songs with a critical ear any more.  I, like the rest of you, fell in love with a whole bunch of songs before I even knew what songwriting was.    So if you’re interested, join me on my other blog, won’t you? 🙂

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Diary of a Music Producer

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Okay, that sounds somewhat pretentious.  I am not a big time music producer by any means.  But the last few months I have been deeply entrenched in my studio for hours at a time working on a new theme for a local television news show.  It is not the first time I have done this;  my music ran on that show for three years in the early 2000’s and was then replaced by a corporate decision to brand a number of television stations across the country with the same music, produced somewhere back east.

The CitrusTV control room during a taping of C...
Image via Wikipedia

This time, I was given a musical piece to emulate…not “copy”, but essentially create a similar feel and tension to.  At first what I came up with was too much the same and I knew that, but it eventually morphed into something much more original.  The most difficult part was creating the drum track.

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Inhale, Exhale

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News Bulletin:  I have been working on a song.  You might think “big deal, you write songs”, but this is the first time in a long time that I have really focused on my own songwriting.  I found a little piece of a guitar progression that I had recorded maybe a year or two ago on my handy dandy mp3 recorder, and it struck me as interesting so I decided to go further with it.  That sounds easy enough, but it hasn’t been.

A storyboard for an 8-minute animated cartoon.
Image via Wikipedia

I realize that I am very distracted by many things during the day whether it’s reading emails, checking on stocks, prepping for my students, teaching, making calls;  and the list goes on.  The majority of my songwriting “life”, I didn’t have the same distractions.  I used to just sit in my bedroom on my bed and write.  So I decided that in order to really give it the attention it needs, I was going to turn everything off for an hour a day including the tv, phones, computers, etc. and just sit with my guitar in front of a piece of paper.  I’ve done this a few times now and have had mediocre results.

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Songwriters – Are You Too Self-Centred?

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For the umpteenth time this week, I received a “hello” from a songwriter on a popular music-sharing website I have a page on.  It’s nice that people say hello, but I know what they’re really saying.  Usually it is a disguised request for a critique.  “Come and listen to my songs” or “I sure would like to know what you think of my music” is what they really mean.  Sometimes they come right out and ask;  well, at least that’s honest!

Songwriting Class
Image by Shazari via Flickr

Part of being a songwriter is connecting to others and getting feedback, as well as getting advice on what to do with your songs.  But you are already somewhat self-involved simply by BEING a songwriter (I mean, who else do you write about except yourself or someone you’re infatuated with?? 🙂 )  so there comes a time when you have to not only step away from yourself, but do a little bit to help others along their path.  So consider the following etiquette:

1. Don’t Be A Spammer – when you sign up to a place like Soundclick or MySpace, don’t spam everyone else on those websites with a “listen to my new song!!” message.  Seriously, doesn’t it suck to get spam like that from others?  And when you do, do you go off and listen to their songs immediately and with wild enthusiasm?  Okay, maybe some of you diehards do 🙂 .  But think about how YOU would feel if someone made you feel obligated to listen to their music all the time.  You’d probably feel like they were pretty full of themselves!  Isn’t it nicer to discover other people’s music on your own?

2. Don’t Be Offended – if somebody doesn’t like your song, get over it!  This is a big world and it’s utterly impossible to please all of the people all of the time.  Do you like every song you hear?  Of course not.  Which leads me to my next thought…

3. Take a Step Away – when you are too close to your songs, you can’t possibly be objective enough to fix what ails them, let alone listen with any objectivity to feedback you receive about them.  If you find it difficult to remove yourself, then don’t make every song you write all about you!  Mix it up a bit, make some of it fictitious.  I’ve given this advice before in other articles, but it can’t be said often enough…it’s only about you when you’re in the bedroom by yourself writing it, once you take it out the door, it’s about everybody else.  Think about that.


4. Take The Time To Listen To Your Peers – join songwriting circles, open mic nights, anything that exposes you to other songwriters. You’ll learn a lot from them, including what NOT to do. Listen to their songs and give them feedback. This also goes for online songwriting websites where you can post your songs to be critiqued. If you post a song, then critique two others. Make it a habit. And of course, critiquing is a great way to learn, so what can you lose?

5. Be Polite – the songwriters who get the most exposure, the most connections and establish strong relationships with people in the business are those who know how to be nice. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Be polite and thank anyone who gives you advice, directions, suggestions. They’ll remember that.

I used to critique songs years ago. It took a lot of time and sometimes it was the last thing I wanted to do at the end of a long day, but if somebody asked, I critiqued. I finally stopped one day when I got a nasty response to one of my critiques. Imagine that…I took the time to give a detailed response to somebody’s song and they blasted me for it!

That’s a self-centred songwriter. Don’t be like him!

IJ

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