Which Songs Should I Learn?
Seeing a little more of the sonic forest from the trees.
Stuck in a Rut
We've all experienced the writer's block. This can be felt in music, writing, painting, and really any form of artistic composition. I find that writer's block creeps in on my practice sessions when I don't have a clear goal to work on. Let's call that "practice fatigue".
Getting back to basics can help remedy these situations, but sometimes it takes a little more. Taking a step back from my guitar and thinking about goals, or what I feel I am lacking musically, can help me to identify what I should work on. I also talk about things with my wife and let her give me honest feedback. There are times where she says something that I find almost offensive, but what she says is honest. At those times I need to take yet another step back any look at my approach through her eyes. Doing this keeps me grounded in honesty no matter how I feel about the task at hand.
Learning Anything in Every Key
Feedback, constructive criticism, open communication, and focusing on goals are great ways to overcome writer's block and practice fatigue. But there is one basic activity in music that helps me to move forward, which is learning a song.
As I work on a song, I always notate chords and movements with Roman Numeral Analysis (which is a way of numbering chords in a scale to represent functionality). This allows me to learn the song structurally and also in every key. Now I can relearn the same song twelve different ways and nothing has really changed. Being able to see the music unfold in a variety of keys gets my brain thinking about how I could use parts of songs in my own composition.
A few articles ago I wrote about Solar by Miles Davis. After learning the flow of this song it's really a series of 2-5-1s (which is a type of musical movement) that move in series to a minor tonic. It's kind of like saying that Solar was discovered by asking, "How many 2-5-1s can I do to get to the tonic?" The song also takes less and less time to play the parts of each 2-5-1 as the song approaches the tonic. With simple, yet powerful ideas coming to my brain, I can use the process of learning a song to be the inspiration for trying something new. In this case, I tried to use 2-5-1s to find other ways to approach a tonic. No matter what your artistic goals are, take a lesson from those that came before us and be brave enough to ask yourself, "What if I did it like this?"
Looking Back to Move Forward
When I first started learning music I was into rock and metal. I would read guitar magazines and hang out at music shops to learn anything that I could. Consistently, I found that people playing current music would refer to the players that they listened to. So I started listening to those musicians as well. I discovered that there is a chain of listeners. I listened to rock bands in the 80s and 90s. Those bands listened to musicians from the 70s and earlier.
Here’s another way of thinking about this with a more pointed example. No matter what your musical interests are, take a leap and listen to Overkill by Motörhead. Focus on the melody sung in the first verse with a straight forward approach to rock. You'll find it's essentially a four count beat, with a simple chord movement, and a guy belting out the words.
Now check out Twist and Shout by the Beatles. This song is also a four count beat, with a simple melody instead of a chord movement, and a guy belting out the words. Everyone listened to the Beatles and I'm not saying that Twist and Shout inspired Overkill. What I am saying is that what we listen to is connected to our own musical choices.
I love Metallica and can get lost in Chet Baker tunes. Because of this, and other factors, I'll play an easy going jazz progression while looking forward to all the dissonance that I can fit in. I could play a long progression like iv7, iv7♭5, ♭VII, ♭VI6, ♯iv°7, V7♭9, i∆, i as a slow instrument pieces and enjoy all of those gritty tension points because that's what makes metal so interesting to me. I could even got a step farther and use degree movements like ♭2 to 1, ♭9 to 1, ♭6 to 5, and ♭13 to 5 and draw out the main tension points in metal, but apply it to a laid back minor scale jazz feel.
If you’d like to play the progression above but aren’t into roman numerals, then try out these chords and modes in A Natural Minor. I rooted all of the modes in A to line them up with the tonic note.
Try listening to who your favorite musicians listened to in order to find your own inspiration. Then listen to what those people listened to. If you're into any kind of rock, then you'll probably trace listening tastes back to the Beatles. This will lead you to Bob Dylan and then Woody Guthrie. Depending on who you focus on will take you on a journey through history. You might even find portions of songs you love in works by Johann Sebastian Bach. If you do, then check out Toccata in D Minor. If a metal band plays just the first 30 or so seconds of that and then hits a big D5 power chord with fireworks, then you know things just got real and you better be ready for a wild night.
Many things can be inspirational for creating and learning. If there is something that helps you, then please let others know in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one!
