Stephanie G. Mathis As writers, we’re always on the lookout for a new source of inspiration. We want to find a way to stoke our creativity and send us into a frenzy. This is not an effective way to write songs. Chuck Close once said: “Inspiration belongs to amateurs …”
He meant that as musicians, we should actively search for inspiration to create our next big hit. You can find inspiration for your next song by exploring the music of other musicians.
It’s not a coincidence if you feel strongly about a song. To achieve this, the songwriter uses a certain tool or technique. Discover what you can do to expand your skill set.
How can you achieve this? Active listening is a way to decipher what you hear and incorporate that technique into your songwriting style.
Active listening is a form of listening.
Active listening is the act of attentively and carefully listening to a piece of music. This requires complete concentration and undivided focus. Active listening involves more than just hearing. It is about experiencing and absorbing. Hearing becomes a process rather than a mere afterthought.
Select a comfortable place to sit and remove all distractions, including your phone. Close your eyes and put on your headphones or monitors. Open your notebook. You’ll want to resist the temptation to “slip in” to the song.
This exercise is designed to help you explore, identify, and analyze new ways of creating music. You’ll need to practice to develop your ear. You will become an expert active listener with time.
Discovering something new is a process.
You probably have a unique process for writing songs that you find effective. I urge you to incorporate active listening into your songwriting process. You can start your process with active listening to gain some direction and momentum or during the experimentation phase when you are still gathering ideas.
You need to know what you are listening for before you can begin. Here is an example of how a popular method works:
Find a piece of interesting music that has an impact on you.
The song structure can be identified.
Isolate instruments
Map the arrangement
What role does each instrument play?
Analyze the roles and how they are performed
Analyze the relationship between each musical element
Learn how to create emotion by combining the elements.
This will give you an idea of how the song is written and why it affects you in the way that it does. We don’t necessarily need to know how the song was written. We may have specific questions, like: Why does the bridge make you feel sad? Why does the chorus get me up and dancing? Create your list with items that you would like to evaluate and questions about those parts.
What I have discovered
Active listening answers all of my questions. Each time I listen to a song, I make a list of what I want to learn. I then try to answer each new question. These are some of the things I have learned from active listening in recent times:
Q: What was the secret to the chorus’s energy?
A: By increasing the baseline by an octave.
Q: What’s the main factor that influences the tension in the prechoruses and the release?
A: Stop the drum line and then bring it in again with rolls.
Q: How were they able to create such a rich sonic texture
Add distortion pedals to analog instruments.
Q: How do they complete the song?
Repeat the dominant melody from the song’s outro.
How did you manage to make your listener think?
A: By using a sparse and open vocal melody with clear vocals.
Here are some of the things I have learned from a few sessions. Imagine how much you could know if you invested enough time in this exercise.
Discoveries are waiting for you.
Listening is learning, and knowledge is inspirational. Actively studying the work of others can provide a wealth of inspiration and knowledge. If you want to be a great songwriter, it’s important to learn to listen well. Let your newly acquired knowledge drive you. You will be motivated to create your songs by incorporating discoveries.
