Do you know what one of the hardest things in the world to do when it comes to composing music?
Collaborating with another composer.
If you want to turn gray or old or die before your time, seek out another person to write with and see what happens. I’d rather have bamboo sticks shoved up my fingernails.
Okay, so why is it so difficult to work with another person? After all, if you look through the history or pop music there have been lots of successful writing teams. Look at Gerry Goffin, who just passed away, and Carol King. They came out with some really great songs.
Ah but there is a rub here. Know what it is?
Gerry Goffin was a lyricist. Carol King wrote all the music. And let me tell you, writing music to somebody else’s lyrics is hard enough so I give them a lot of credit for pulling this off. But we’re not talking about two composers.
Even Lennon and McCartney of the Beatles didn’t really write their songs together. In most cases, either Paul or John would write the verse or chorus and the other one would write the bridge. Seldom, if ever, did they write the music for the verse or chorus together. And many of the Beatles songs, though it does say on the credits Lennon and McCartney, were written by one or the other.
And you can usually tell the Paul songs from the John songs. Paul’s songs were upbeat and catchy while John’s songs were, for the most part, very odd.
Penny Lane – All Paul
I Am The Walrus – All John
Their styles were as different as night and day. Ironically, after the Beatles broke up, John started doing more melodic and even catchy tunes. Imagine and Happy Xmas come to mind right away.
Even the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland of Motown fame split the work up between them. Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland split up the composing chores and produced the songs while Eddie Holland wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocals. They were as successful as they were because they were smart enough to stay out of each other’s way.
When you sit down with another composer and try to come up with, say a chorus for a song, here is what inevitably happens. I’ll use Steve and Rich as an example.
Steve: I got a great chord progression for this chorus. (Plays C-Am-F-G on keyboard) What do you think?
Rich: Man, I am so sick and tired of everything we do going C, A minor, F and G. Can’t we do something else? How about this? (Plays C Maj 9-D Flat dim 7-Dm 7)
Steve: Are you kidding me? That’s like out in left field from the verse. It doesn’t even fit.
Rich: At least it’s not as boring as C, A minor, F and G.
Steve: Okay, how about this? (Plays C-Am7-F-G7)
Rich: (Facepalms) God kill me now.
And so on. This continues for several hours before they finally give up and go home, having accomplished nothing.
Either that, or they’ll agree on the chorus and then one of the two will come up with a bridge that doesn’t at all go with the chorus but sounds good. Now we have a real problem. Do we scrap the bridge, even though it’s good, or do we redo the chorus?
I have seen songs go from sounding like Rush to Carpenters because of stuff like this. It rarely ends well.
But Wags (you’re thinking to yourself) I really want to collaborate with somebody so I can get some fresh ideas.
Ah, and now the truth comes out. You’re not looking for collaboration just for collaboration’s sake. You’re looking to get something out of it. You want to improve yourself as a songwriter or composer.
Trust me, there are easier ways to go about it and not nearly as painful. I have tried composing with one other person who also wrote music and have worked with no less than Six (count ’em, Six) lyricists. Let me tell you something. I’m not the greatest composer in the world and will never claim to be but these people who think they can write lyrics, trust me, they can’t write lyrics. At least not any lyrics that are ever going to make it to the Grammy Awards. And the truth is, the really GOOD lyricists are already working and don’t want anything to do with an average or above average composer. In other words, fat chance in my ever getting Bernie Taupin to write for me.
So what do you do? How do you actually improve yourself as a composer if working with somebody else isn’t working out or even in the cards?
There are a few things you can do.
1) Go back to school. I’m dead serious. I’m actually thinking of taking some classes this summer just to see if there is anything I can learn that will improve my skills. Classes don’t have to cost a lot of money. In fact, the one online class I’m taking for music production is free. You can never know enough about music.
2) Get some books. If school isn’t an option either because there are no free classes or you can’t afford the ones available, books are great. Yes, believe it or not, there are some amazing books on music out there. One of the best I ever read was Bugs Bower’s book on chords. I learned more about playing Jazz harmony from that book that just about anything else.
3) If you can’t afford either the courses or the books, listen to lots of music, especially music you’re not comfortable with. Get familiar with it. Try to duplicate some of the things you’ve heard. Analyze the music. Try to understand what makes it sound the way it does. Make note of any odd chord progressions you may have not heard before.
There are many things you can do to improve yourself without having to seek out a collaborator who, in the long run, is going to drive you to drink.
That’s if you’re not already there.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim