If you write tunes, why do you?
Aren’t there enough?
Is it for glory?
Immortality?
The reason I ask is that I recently wrote a tune (not my first, by far).
It was written for Roy Watrous, whom I have only met once. Roy is probably the most gifted and prolific contemporary writer of “ancient-style” fife and drum music. The tune was written a week ago when I heard that he was dying of cancer. I could not visit Roy, but sent my tune via email to a close friend of his, who had her fife and drum corps play my tune for him this past Sunday. What an incredible honor for me.
Roy lost his battle early this morning. Roy’s tunes will keep him alive in the hearts, minds and ears of the fife and drum community for probably hundreds of years.
This is why I write tunes.
“Music comes from – but mostly through …” - Billy Jonas
Bits of tune just pop into my head from time to time. I didn’t write anything for about 3 years when the children first came along , too bussy and tired. Appart from that period I can’t remember a time when I didn’t come up with the odd tune now and then. I used to keep a dictophone to save them but I’ve started to learn to read and write music to cut out the tape mountain.
After the initial inspiration , I might come back to the manuscript paper several times a day for a week or so , adding the odd bar here and there.
The titles come from whatever is going on around me at the time, for example I saw “grind an apple…get lost” scratched into the lid of a school piano a few weeks ago, it’s now a tune.
In short ,I write because I always have and I enjoy it.
I’ve been known to write the odd tune, mostly because they just come to me.
But I’m gonna digress a little. Some people write music who SHOULDN’T. Does anyone think Susan McKeown’s original stuff is ANYWHERE NEAR as good as her trad stuff? She has a knack for picking tunes, but I got some discs of hers for my wife that I didn’t realize were original material. What a disappointment. (Anyone who’s not familiar with her, go to the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage site and search for her and/or Johnny Cunningham. They did a series of Christmas concerts that were wonderful.)
There are many others. Joan Baez comes to mind immediately.
Sure, just like there are enough poems, books, and movies out there. Heck, my wife has been cleaning the basement, and I’m pretty sure you could get her to argue there are more than enough books in the basement, thank you very much, if she wasn’t a librarian.
Is it for glory?
Immortality?
Yeah, right. I’m sure that more Irish tunes have been forgotten throughout history than there are people who could name three great Irish tunesmiths.
Brian Pickell (who wrote “Sourgrass and Granite” and “Waiting For Emilie”) says it pretty well on his “Composing” page.
Though I supposed if you pressed me for an answer, I’d say, A) tunewriting is an important part of the tradition, and B) it’s a simple way to make something nice. Or at least what you hope is nice.
Are you implying that Frank Zappa wrote “Prelude to the afternoon of a sexually aroused gasmask” just to give it that name? Or as some sort of spoof of Debussy? Heretic!
(There’s really not much to it; I think he really did write it [if you can call it writing] just for the title. In any case I like “Evelyn, a modified dog” much better.)
One is that you have to, this is often said about poets, they have to write or they will burst. I often use music to process difficult events such as the hurricane. The emotions that might otherwise overwhelm me, can be channelled into something beautiful and lasting.
Another is that while few people like writing, they like having written. That is true for a lot of endeavors. Some examples might be running a marathon or climbing a mountain. The actual doing and training for can be arduous even painful, but having done is marvelous and a celebration. Keeping this in mind, participants need not worry that they did not complete the 26.2 miles this time (50 songs), they have done what they can, and will do better next time.
A third is the idea of practice. No one can learn to play a musical instrument without practice. Yet, many would-be songwriters think they can write songs sans practice. One prose writer put it bluntly, the secret to writing is glue, as in glue your butt to the seat until you have written something that day (every day). If someone wants to be a songwriter, practice and repetition are key elements to the craft.
Fourth is the challenge concept, being part of a community engaged in a creative endeavor. So much of the Internet is filled with flame wars and people engaged in petty arguments it is refreshing to see a group that focuses on creativity and encouragement.
For me songwriting is a spiritual endeavor. My best work comes from a greater consciousness. By practicing on the craft side, I become more in tune with that greater consciousness, and better able to channel that spirit for others to share. (Yeah, I know it sounds hokey to some, but other songwriters such as John Lennon and Joni Mitchell describe songwriting in similar terms.)
For me it was egotism, mostly. I wasted decades being
a song writer, and never a particularly good one,
which I could have spent becoming a good musician.
That is sad. However, there is a chance that your conclusion is in the category of the “grass is always greener.” I can imagine your twin saying, “I spent years trying to become an outstanding musician, and I made some progress towards that goal. However, I now wish I had pursued songwriting with a fraction of the energy that I put into practicing my instrument.” In my experience only a very few songwriters do. There are a ton of musicians that practice an hour or more a day, but very, very few songwriters who are so consistent with practicing their craft. Practice of songwriting results in improvement, just as surely as practice of playing an instrument results in improvement.
Considering that you have certain physical ailments that may be related to repetitive stress of playing instruments, you can take the secure thought that you gave all your body was willing to give to music, at least on the instruments you choose to pursue.
I am tempted to be cheeky and say that I wasted decades trying to become a good musician when I should have been writing songs, but that is not true–I am doing both. I do wish for more talent (don’t we all), but in my case, perspiration has resulted in some amazing songwriting triumphs.
It has taken some time, but I have decided that ITM is for the most part a waste of my time–it just isn’t my cup of tea, at least not at this point in my journey. I have neither the natural talents or the inclination for ITM, so I go elsewhere and thrive.
Without getting too wierd about it - sometimes a song finds you. When we live our life in the music - practicing and playing constantly, and stay open to possibilities, new ideas come to some of us.
I have always found the start is easy, it’s finishing a song which is difficult - like raising children. Also, not all the ideas are good ones - I have a folder full of “starts” that didn’t make it.
I wrote in the spirit of your last two sentences. I lack the talent
to be a good song writer. I’m already a better musician than
I was ever a song writer. Just as I lack the talent to be
a good poet or short story writer. I thought I was another Dylan, you know. Sheesh!
What I didn’t do was sit down and master my instrument,
which was the guitar. Didn’t take lessons, just waited for
my natural genius to shine through. Ego. Youth is
wasted on the young.
I might have gotten further with songwriting if I had become
a competent musician. Not that it matters, of course. I’m certainly
not making the same mistakes about the flute. And other
pursuits than music matter to me a good deal.
I’m not making claims about anybody else.
Just answering the question that begins the thread,
at least in retrospect.
We don’t need more tunes. We have enough. In fact, with careful analysis, you’ll find that most tunes in Western music are derived from either “Greensleeves,” “The Theme From Peter Gunn,” or “The Wind Beneath My Wings.”
Now that you put it that way, it is a good thing you gave up songwriting .
The last thing the world needs is another no-talent songwriter with a big ego that plays guitar. I hope your singing voice is better than Dylan’s. Mine unfortunately, is not .
I can only imagine if I aspired to be Dylan2, that I would be glad I gave it a shot and came up short instead of spending my days strumming cover tune after cover tune and never trying to wake my muse from slumber.
Another secure or cynical thought is that the world is chock full of competent guitar players. In my travels, I meet 20+ competent musicians/singers for every competent songwriter. Perhaps you had the same romantic aspirations for your guitar playing and imagine yourself at the level of a Hendrix or Clapton, but the odds of that are about the same as being another songwriting Dylan. You made the best decisions available to you at the time and they were the right ones at the time. Looking back is sabotage. However, your experience and wisdom might be helpful to some others reading this thread.
Changing the subject, the problem of all the great melodies being taken is a serious one. The odds approach near certainty that the opening refrain for any tune I come up with duplicates or approximates the sequence of notes for an existing song. My phrasing may be different but the sequence of notes almost surely has been used before by someone. The problem is worse on diatonic instruments because almost everyone writes in the same key.
