Best book about composing

[gorch]

Well, I'm in the mood to improve in theory and practice. Improvising and fiddling around is one thing, having a thought, idea, and some techniques at hand is another. In order to give it an entry I had ordered the following book from Amazon.

Composing Music: A New Approach by William Russo, et al

First cross-reading, I see this is a great book with lots of exercises asking the reader/student to actively compose in a smart and guided way. The book seems to be quite old, but delivering what it should, basic techniques of composing.

Asking not only our teachers in the HFC, are you recommending the book or is there another, better, whatever book I should check? Is there any website to recommend?

Still, I would have the chance to send the book back to Amazon.

[zorrow]

I'm also very interested on this. I've been in countless bands, but I've barely written four or five songs in my entire life. That's why I always say I just play covers, because I always play stuff written by other people -if you exclude some freedom I've been given to arrange some parts, or to compose some solos.

Looking forward to your replies then -TIA!

[gorch]

This tiny little post needs a ping before it gets lost in the HFC space.

[burningyen]

I didn't post before because I don't much useful to offer. I'm sure just about any book on composing couldn't hurt. If you're just looking to write songs for your typical rock band, then just picking apart the songs of your favorite songwriters should be enough of an education to get you started.

[BlueRedWhite]

I don't consider myself a composer...is not something i do systematically, I'm more of a writer that like to put music on texts. I have around 15 texts with melodies already worked out (but always improving), waiting for the right time to do something with it (waiting for the right time for my sister to record with me)

Most of my melodies are based on common chord progressions. And this book just confirms a bit that. Find what you want your song to sound like, then find the patterns that fill that criteria, and then, there is a lot of "working and put away for a while". A professor of mine used to say that musical creation and creative writing should be treated as a good bottle of wine, it will get better when you put it away for a while before tasting it

Edited to add: I find more difficult to make musical arrangements for a band for example. I was precisely talking about that some time ago with a friend at a concert. It requires some musical training. I may have an idea how i want some of my songs to sound, but musical arrangement is for sure the difference between a hit song or a bland song. take a look at covers, sometimes covers are better than originals...

Hope this helps

[zenmindbeginner]

Wow... songwriting is a total b**ch. I started writing songs in my early teens, I entered a recording studio when I was 13 and recorded my first one man band song (played guitars, bass and keyboards). Looking back, that song was really sophisticated and interesting... I pretty much started out running before I could walk.

Songwriters are both made and born. I was born with it, so I'll prolly have a hard time explaining myself, but I'll try.

Songwriters are just "writers" like any book author or poet. What are the qualities and unique abilities of a writer?

All writers have photographic memories... by photographic, I mean the ability to store absolutely large amounts of data in our memory banks. As songwriters, we must take that a step further and be able to store precise melodies and rhythms with a fair amount of accuracy and be able to recall them at will.

It's the song that you are hearing in your head... at what resolution are you hearing it? Can you replay a familiar song in it's whole form in your mind?

I've always had an excellent "recorder" in my brain and frequently practice guitar in my mind. I can recall whole pieces of music in their entirety virtually without the need to actually hear it. You need this ability to be able to write songs. The good news is that all humans have built in recorders in their brains that store all sorts of visual, audio, smell and touch information that they encounter in their environment. This "recorder" can be toned and honed into a faster and stronger machine through concentration and meditation. The harder you think about the music, the more your brain builds up the infrastructure for having a more 3D experience when listening to the music in your mind.

So, listen to music harder and with as much depth as you can muster.

Now, you can learn to write songs the hard way and bang them out "tin pan alley style" like they did before the age of the singer/songwriter. This requires an enormous amount of musical knowledge and years of theory and memorization.

or

You can receive them from "the muse" which is nothing more than a very complex and seldom understood system that filters all of your sensory perception into useable chunks and bits of information that is weaved through your conscious and subconscious, picking up valuable emotional "material" along the way. This system then sort of mixes and blends your sensory data with your emotional data to create a "song" that is unique to you as a person. It's basically no different than the hip hop producers who borrow and sample musical ideas then lay down an emotive vocal track that is unique to the individual rapper.

So, the sensory information that you pick up is borrowed and occurs outside of your consciousness. This information is then blended with your feelings and experiences to form a song.

This is akin to coming up with a musical idea in a dream or dream state.

Now don't get this process confused with arranging and editing, a great songwriter usually has some arranging and editing ability which allows them to figure out the proper musical voicing of the piece and if their ideas are not that great. Jim Croce didn't need to be an arranger but did need some editing skills in order to cut the wheat from the chaff.

One of my favorite songwriters is DJ Shadow who doesn't even play an instrument but is a sampling artist. He searches through bin after bin in record stores around the country for albums that have the right musical atmosphere and vibe for the song that he is hearing in his head.

The music is out there, but you have to let it move through you. It's a massive neurological undertaking that consumes a great amount of energy and requires a great amount of intellect.

Sorry for the cryptic advice...

[BlueRedWhite]

You nail it Zen

[gorch]

I don't consider myself a composer...is not something i do systematically, I'm more of a writer that like to put music on texts. I have around 15 texts with melodies already worked out (but always improving), waiting for the right time to do something with it (waiting for the right time for my sister to record with me)

Most of my melodies are based on common chord progressions. And this book just confirms a bit that. Find what you want your song to sound like, then find the patterns that fill that criteria, and then, there is a lot of "working and put away for a while". A professor of mine used to say that musical creation and creative writing should be treated as a good bottle of wine, it will get better when you put it away for a while before tasting it

Edited to add: I find more difficult to make musical arrangements for a band for example. I was precisely talking about that some time ago with a friend at a concert. It requires some musical training. I may have an idea how i want some of my songs to sound, but musical arrangement is for sure the difference between a hit song or a bland song. take a look at covers, sometimes covers are better than originals...

Hope this helps

Thanks BlueRedWhite. How To Write Songs On Guitar (Rikky Rooksby) looks promising too and seems to complement the Russo book I had found.

Rooksby also wrote The Songwriting Sourcebook: How to Turn Chords Into Great Songs to complement the songwriting book.

[zorrow]

I don't consider myself a composer...is not something i do systematically, I'm more of a writer that like to put music on texts. I have around 15 texts with melodies already worked out (but always improving), waiting for the right time to do something with it (waiting for the right time for my sister to record with me)

Most of my melodies are based on common chord progressions. And this book just confirms a bit that. Find what you want your song to sound like, then find the patterns that fill that criteria, and then, there is a lot of "working and put away for a while". A professor of mine used to say that musical creation and creative writing should be treated as a good bottle of wine, it will get better when you put it away for a while before tasting it

Edited to add: I find more difficult to make musical arrangements for a band for example. I was precisely talking about that some time ago with a friend at a concert. It requires some musical training. I may have an idea how i want some of my songs to sound, but musical arrangement is for sure the difference between a hit song or a bland song. take a look at covers, sometimes covers are better than originals...

Hope this helps

Thanks BlueRedWhite. How To Write Songs On Guitar (Rikky Rooksby) looks promising too and seems to complement the Russo book I had found.

Rooksby also wrote The Songwriting Sourcebook: How to Turn Chords Into Great Songs to complement the songwriting book.

I bet that Chuck Ragan read those books.

[gorch]

...

I bet that Chuck Ragan read those books.

He used to release on No Ideas Records. Does that have any meaning?

[BlueRedWhite]

...

I bet that Chuck Ragan read those books.

He used to release on No Ideas Records. Does that have any meaning?

[gorch]

Wow... songwriting is a total b**ch....

OK, nothing new hear since. I decided and acted already to order the two Rooksby books for about 30 quit. Not much for ~500 "b**ch" (citation) pieces of paper. Winter's coming closer. I need food for thought.

Since I am finishing up my Kal David 2 DVD course right now picking up one latest song from Kal that I have left to learn. The William Russo looks really interesting, introducing general ideas, tools and concepts. Decided, that'll be my practice winter course.

Achievements to be anticipated:

- more fluent note reading and playing

- writing (little) structured pieces of music

- improve general playing on lessons learned

- improve on chord incorporation

- investigate recording to make things stable

Sounds like I'd want it all, does it?

I'll see how far I'll get.