The question I get asked most frequently in my life is "How do write songs?". Obviously, that is not an easy question to answer because as a songwriter, you often develop your craft from the time you can speak, possibly even before that. A comment was made to me though, that was just very presumptuous & pretty damn silly.
Publicly in South Africa it was often a talking point that I had studied music & was a music teacher myself, primarily a vocal coach. However, I only studied in my early twenties & way before that, probably from around 5 years of age I was creating music.
The comment I received was that my music sounded rigid & lacked feel, "soul", dare I say it. Following that, this person told me it was because I was a studied musician & that me studying had caused that.
Now granted being a musician, primarily a singer I am a rather sensitive soul but I took his words well as I have learnt to do in my medium age. I thought about it a lot, as would be expected. It bothered me because I seldom hear comments like that about my music but I did need to see where he was coming from. Some weeks later, someone on Facebook sent me a message. He told me he was a student in Canada studying music & he wanted to know how I wrote songs & asked for any tips & pointers.
This got me thinking. As I started writing, it was like I was answering the very questions I was asking myself. How much theory do I put into my writing or for that matter, my music. Here's what I said:
"I've always been writing music, as far back as re-creating the theme's of my favourite cartoon show's like He-man, Thundercats, Transformers etc in the early 80's. In those days there was no musical instrument in my home so really the only way I could create the music was vocally & the rest remained in my imagination. I know it sounds strange, but i used to grind my teeth in various ways to create drum patterns. of course no-one could hear that but me because I'm the only one who can hear my teeth grinding through my bone structure. sorry for veering off, I guess its hard to explain & it probably wasn't great for my teeth in the long term although no major dental issues as yet! LOL.
From there I obviously gained influence from the pop artists of the time & various old LP's my dad had: Al Jarruea, Lou Rawls, Bill Withers, Aretha Franklin etc as well as I guess what every kid was into back then, Michael Jackson.
Music started to become my way of dealing with stressful times & this came about when money became a huge bone of contention between my mom & dad. Every time they fought, i would go outside & almost in blocking out the noise, i would let my imagination run wild & sing away creating my first real songs. I still know them remember each & every one of those songs.
Towards the end of my primary school years, my aunt gave us her piano. i was on it straight away trying to put what I had in my mind for all the years onto the piano. music was still a very private thing for me but I had a feeling that one day it wouldn't be.
An approach I adopted from the 1st time I wrote a song was how I would know that it was a good song? If I remebered the song the nexy day or many days afterwards, Almost as if it was proof that what I had written was memorable, I knew that it was a good song worth banking my mental file cabinet of songs. I still use this approachto this day. Whether or not this really works, I dont really know but to me its my way of separating the good idea's from the bad.
in my teen years, the 1st intersting change in developing my voice & my songwriting skillz was a Hi-fi my parents bought me for my 13th birthday. you know, the big thing in those days was "THE DOUBLE TAPE DECK" with super speed recording of course! they bought me a microphone with it. I figured out that i could record myslef into the hi-fi, then put that tape into the other deck, record that tape onto another tape plus record my vocal again. what this in turn created was multiple harmony. i started to expermiment with various harmonic ideas, rhythms & vocal sounds. It also helped me get used to the sound of my voice & mould it to how i wanted to sound. Those tapes are hiding somewhere in my old boxes.
At this point i had basic piano training & I frustrated most of my teachers because I relied too heavily on my ear.
A big change in my musical mind was being introduced to Prince in my 1st year of high school. Aside from the fact that he played many instruments & very well, I truly appreciated his willingness to experiment with sounds & the way he expressed himself through virtually every musical style. i wanted know why he was like this & in researching this, i discovered it was very much due to his openess in listening to all styles of music whether that be a piece by Bach, his many funk influences such as Earth, wind & Fire, Sly & the family Stone & James Brown as well as his folk & rock influences such as Joni Mitchel, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santa. There's no doubt Stevie Wonder had an influence on him too. I think it really taught me to listen & expand my music horizons which i still do to this day. The Neo-soul & Acid jazz movements were my favourites of the time in the 90's. While the other kids were into The Offspring, The Cranberries, Green day & Nirvana I was in my on world as a white boy listening to D'angelo, Maxwell, Eryka Badu & from the UK, loving Jamiroquai & the Brand new Heavies. Of course later on, I discovered many others such as Incognito, omar & the neo-soul movement - as many people will know I wave that flag in SA more than anyone else!
After school i decided to study music. I found jazz became a major influence on me. starting with vocalists because that was my 1st instrument. Artists like Bobby Mcferrin played a huge part early on. Crooners such as Frank Sinatra & emulators such Harry Connick Jr who of course is a great pianist & genuis arranger in my mind also influenced me. of course it was the research of the songs they were singing that made a big impression. Cole Porters songs still inspire to this day & the many other great songwriters of that time. Ella Fitzgerald became my next love & found myself becoming quite obsessed! I've always loved to scat as many of my colleagues in South Africa would tell you. Ella is a true queen of that art-form. I love the way she just enjoys what she's doin. She always seems so happy when she sings. her interpretations of songs are spellbinding at times. as instrumentalists go, I love Miles & Herbie as they played a big part in creating the funk movement & were so willing to try new things. Thelonius Monk was a beautiful soul for me & you could feel that through his music. Currently loving Peter Cincotti. I think he is a brilliant pianist! I just hope they dont try commercialise him the way they are trying now.
i think my approach to music has changed over the years.
after studying music & graduating in 2000, I found my approach to composition became fairly analytical. i have gone back to where i was as a child. Letting my imagination run wild & hand in hand with that using the theoretcial & analytical knowledge I have learnt to finetune those Ideas.
In my new album "Swimming in the soul of music", my production style has matured a lot. i wanted to apply something Miles davis used to say. "Music is all about space". Every instrument has its place. A lot of music tends to put all instruments in a small space & often songs come accross as sounding cluttered! i wanted to ensure that when a listener played my album, they could pick out an instrument clearly without having to strain to find it. I wasn't going to create tension either where tension was not neccessary & rather place it only in moments where it needed. Sometimes as arrangers & producers, we tend to place complex rhythms or chords in places, simply to impress ourselves. Listeners often hear the same thing cringing!
i hope this helps, i know its a lot. i think i got carried away. i think essentially, my point here is music is best when we create like a child, we have fun with it & let our imaginations run wild! the theory you learn is merely to finetune your imagination, they should work hand in hand!"
& there was my answer, in that last phrase I said it. i still write like I did when I was 5 years old. I let my imagination run wild, I "play" music & the theory is there just in case I need it.
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