I just finished reading a book on songwriting called "Head, Heart and Hands" by my friend Clive Ridgeway. Clive is a songwriter, producer, and teacher in South Africa. He is the director of Cape Town School of Songwriting. I hope to conspire with him in the not-too-distant future. Clive and I see songwriting the same way. Here are the two biggies I learned from his book:
One - I have always struggled with talking about “Music and Song”.
I’ve tripped over the language I use when discussing them because of a gap in my understanding of the distinctions between them.
Clive says song is more than music, because a song is a composition of both words and notes. In other words, artist songwriters carefully compose words to pair with music to create meaning and connection. While music is in and of itself is moving and cathartic, songs, when written in a certain way are moving, cathartic, and transformational.
This distinction blows my mind. I knew it, but I didn’t know it, if you know what I mean.
Two: I’ve also tripped over some deeper truths around the performative aspects of music and song. Clive writes, “Songwriting is not the domain of the virtuoso, but the brave. The virtuoso’s focus is on performance, perfection of craft, with the intention to be in the limelight, to impress, to be applauded, while the songwriters focus is on dissolving the separation of stage from seating. For artist songwriters, music assists in pulling the listener closer; their songs confide.”
YES!
Virtuoso’s, prodigy’s, diva’s, crooners, vocal powerhouses, and maestro’s wow an audience with their prowess, their superior ability. They impress, bedazzle, do what regular people cannot do. Their work is performative by nature, extremely well-rehearsed and often competitive. Like a sport, it's about execution, skill, triumph, and noteworthy achievement.
But artist songwriters are primarily in the business of human connection. The job is simple expression of complex thought. The mission is to close a gap in the world, an aching hole longing to be by filled with compassion and love. For the artist songwriter, message comes first, music is employed to amplify truth and message.
What is the message? The message is this: I am not better than you, and we are all in the same boat. We need each other, so, let me confide in you. I will expose my hopes, and dreams, wins and losses, strengths and weaknesses, so you might recognize yourself there. We then become us - you are not alone, and neither am I. The purpose of songwriting as an art is not to bedazzle, it is to generate compassion, which leads to empathy, and empathy leads to action.
Onward!
Happy Easter everyone.
(I took this picture of the Guthrie Center in 2019 at 6am from the inside window of my Tulsa hotel room. Seems like the right photo to accompany these thoughts).