Learn Songs or Write Your Own?

[SkipBone]

Okay, I am having a slow day at work... is it obvious?

 

For those of us who (and I don't want to sound like a pretentious wanker here but) listen to and play stuff by Don Ross, Andy McKee, Blind Blake, etc, and where learning a song by one of these cats can take weeks and perhaps months, is it "better" or more productive to just write your own songs? I'm not really talking about pop songs here because it takes a day to learn most pops songs, I'm talking about the benefits of taking a month to learn one piece to the exclusion of doing other things such as studying theory or simply practicing right hand picking patterns.

Ultimately I think it should be guided by your goals: do you want to be a "cover" artist or do you want to write your own songs? Even if you do want to write your own don't you benefit from learning other people's tunes, so you know "how to do it?" You can learn by example... but most of us learn by doing it ourselves, not by seeing how others have done it. Then again, maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe we learn by ripping off the success of others around us. I suppose you can do both, learn others songs and write your own but it can take months to learn "Drifting" by Andy McKee at at the end of the day all you've done is cover a song. What if you spent those months developing the techniques necessary to play *like* Andy and then write your own "Drifting" and be supercool? Isn't that how it works?

[Freeman Keller]

I'm just a poor cover artist. However people usually assume I'm writing my own since they never sound like the original. I would give a lot to have a "sportin' right hand" like Blake.

[happy-man]

I'd write my own if I could. When I try - nothing happens. Someday I plan to take a song writer's class. I only do simple stuff, so it doesn't take me months to learn a new song. Last song I learned was a few days ago. I heard g6120's Melissa cover and thought I'd like to learn it. So I clicked on another guy's youtube cover, then on the real Allman Bro's clip, downloaded some chords, figured out how I wanted to do it, and that's it. Only rarely do I learn one that requires much work. I go over it enough so that if I do it at an open mic I get claps instead of tomatoes.

 

Scott O

[babablowfish]

For years I believed that because of my lack of knowledge of music theory that I could not write songs. Also, the thought intimidated the hell out of me because I was sure that anything I wrote would be crap. I finally took a stab at it last year and found that I could do it. If I had any one thing that I would say I found to be "the secret" it is what Ernest Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is s**t." If you accept this, then just write anything that comes to mind and don't worry about rhyme or meter; just let it flow. Then go back and start revising it. I now have 22 songs under my belt and several wound up being totally different from what I started out to write after I got through with all the revisions. I signed up with TAXI and have submitted 6 of my songs for review. The feedback has been helpful. They say my songs are good, but not quite good enough to get sold. I'm not giving up though.

[Michael Martin]

 

I signed up with TAXI and have submitted 6 of my songs for review.

 

 

Baba: What's TAXI?

 

My story is like Baba's. I discovered belatedly that I could write songs, and now I do it as a matter of course. But the "first draft"--whether music or lyrics--is usually very different from the finished version. I do lots of slicing and dicing, and then buffing and polishing. And then I play it 5 million times in order to be ready to do it on a stage.

 

But I do still attempt to learn a cover now and then. I just met an accordionist and a lead guitarist who both want to play at open mike with me, and I want us to learn Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms". Great song, one my all-time favorites.

 

Also, my 14-year-old alerted me to a new-ish song by the band Trice called "Red Sky" that I love. Fantastic song, very very strong and evocative melody. The original is of a type that you hear often these days from younger bands: begins ballady and then ramps up to a rocker. But it really lends itself to acoustic treatment, as long as there are harmonizing vocals. I think I'm going to try that one live too, if I have some help...

[babablowfish]

Baba: What's TAXI?

 

TAXI is a service that costs $300.00/year. You sign up and they send you industry listings for songs wanted 2x/month. You send them songs and they review them and if they are good enough and meet the criteria of the listing they send them on to the record company. The advantage is that these guys listen to music all day and they give you good feedback with suggestions for improvement. If they send your song through to the record company supposedly, (and I believe this part,) the song will actually get heard whereas songs sent by individuals will most likely get thrown on a big pile and may never get heard. I figured I was serious about song writing and it was worth the investment. Of course others might disagree. Their address is www.taxi.com. If you sign up let us know.

[Terry Allan Hall]

I do a bit of both, as I have something to say, but also appreciate the works of others...

 

It's all good!

[Stackabones]

As a songwriter, I do both--write my own and learn other songwriters' tunes.

 

Sometimes when I learn a song, I take it apart to see how all the various parts fit together ... lyric, melody, harmony, rhythm; but often I just learn a tune for the pleasure of playing it and having it in my head and at my fingertips. I think when you memorize a tune you can carry a bit of that songwriter around with you where ever you go.

[pk1fan]

Write my own instrumentals . I play fingerstyle in few alternate tunings , never was very good at playing other folks stuff .

[moctzal]

I'm learn other people's songs. At the moment I'm concentrating on becoming a better guitarist and fingerstyle. The best way for me to learn new techniques is to learn songs that use them. I've been playing a few John Mayer songs lately and it's been challenging. Been learning more fingerstyle and slapping/rythym techs. I'm happy that my playing has gotten to the point where I can play his stuff after about two years.

[CountryBlues]

I play fingerstyle guitar, and although I am not great at learning how to play other's music, I love doing it. I rarely learn something note-by-note, but learn it well enough to play the general idea, mostly for my own amusement. But by doing this I get ideas for my own music, and learning other's music has made me a better guitarist. I have written a few dozen instrumentals playing styles I have picked up by learning other people's music, with my own melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. Are my pieces any good? I have no idea, but I don't really care, because I love doing it so much that it is an end in itself. But if learning the note-by-note version of a piece of music turns you on, then by all means do it. I for one am amazed and fully appreciate those who can do this...Ernie Hawkins for example amazes me. It is all about the journey anyway...you need to figure out what gives you the most pleasure, and then do that, and not worry so much about the product. That's my 2 cents.