A note from your unruly blogger

Thanks for sticking around and reading my Unruly Beast of a Songblog! When I launched this blog, I optimistically imagined that it would only take a year or two to share everything I knew about rock songwriting. It's been almost a year now, and we've barely scratched the surface. There is so much to say, and so little time to spare for blogging between all of my other activities.

I still plan to cover melody, song structure, lyrics, the creative process, and a whole host of techniques for coming up with ideas and systematically building a song. I'm considering doing at least some of that material in audio or video format. Sometimes listening to a musical example is better than reading a thousand words.

For the immediate future, August is going to be the Month of Inspiration. I suspect that some of you will find August's posts powerful and eye-opening. Others might find that it has no connection to the practical musical techniques that you're hoping to learn about. If you're in the latter group, that's fine. You can sit this one out, but please come back in September for a new season of songwriting techniques. But if you're one of those artists whose work revolves around that mysterious, unreliable, aggravating, and uniquely rewarding phenomenon called inspiration, please stay tuned.

Free Songwriting Lessons

Over the next few years, I will reveal, in this blog, every secret of rock songwriting. I'll cover everything you need to know to write whatever kind of songs you want to write.

Note: I use the word secret loosely. There are no secrets in songwriting, because anything that actually matters is clearly audible to the listening audience. If it's audible, it's not a secret: you can measure it, define it, and imitate it. And if it isn't audible, it doesn't matter.

I'll explain how you can write songs that are guaranteed to please your audience.

Note: There are no secrets to this process either. After I explain it all, you'll say "well, duh!" Yes, you use this stuff already in other areas of your life, and there's no reason not to use it in your songwriting life too.

I will reveal hundreds of clever songwriting techniques — which is massive overkill. No one needs that many different techniques in their toolbox. But I believe that each one of these techniques is needed by someone out there. So don't sweat over trying to pick up the whole huge body of techniques. Just collect a handful of them that you find useful.

I will of course cover the nuts-and-bolts of chords, melodies, structure, lyrics, and the writing process.

All for free!

There should be no mysteries in songwriting. I often compare songwriting to playing guitar. If you want to play guitar, you can get lessons, books, videos, magazines, software, and if you want to be a great player it's all up to you to practice, practice, practice. Same thing with songwriting, except there's rather a shortage of helpful teachers, books, videos, magazines, and software. The shortage of clear information makes it seem as though songwriting is mysterious. But it's not. Songwriting is something anyone can learn, and, same as any other skill, it's up to you to practice, practice, practice.

So stick around! Bookmark this blog. Better yet, become a follower of the blog. That's your visible way of lending me encouragement, and like all creative people I need encouragement at least now and then. Tell your musical friends! Post questions and comments. Let's see how this all shakes out.

The adventure "officially" starts on Wednesday.

Why so unruly? Why can't art be quiet and well-behaved?

Yes, what is it about artistry? Why so eccentric and uncivilized? Why is art such an unruly beast?

Or we could turn this question around and ask why anyone assumes that art should be neat and well-behaved.

Art can be civilized and polite — at the end of its life cycle, after it's already dead, carved up, and put on someone's plate. All the risk is gone by this point — why wouldn't it seem tame? For many people, this is the only face of art they ever get to see.

For those who have gotten a look at art earlier in its life cycle, it's a different story. If you, as an artist, want to create something new, it's a messy and dangerous business. You must get outside the proverbial city, hike into the deep forest, trudge through the swamps, climb up the mountains, delve into the depths of the oceans. You must find those untamed places that are free of the dominance of human plans, rules, and intentions.

The unruly beast is the totem of living art. As an artist, you must make friends with the beast, you must gain its trust and cooperation, but you can never control it.