Andrew and Arnold on Songwriting
Hello People!
How’s it going? Well, I hope.
Have you ever written a song? What qualifies as a song? Can it be a simple whistle of the lips that produces a few sweet notes that are some how joined together in a melody? Or is a song a violin concerto composed by the most intelligent and breathtakingly suave European composer? Perhaps it is a 3:30 radio edit made in a Swedish Hit factory? Or is it when a bearded, tortured indie songwriter or sweet, elegant beautiful chanteuse pluck their pain away on a guitar? Any way you look at it, it’s all noise and vibration. I guess it depends on what your personal taste prefers to hear or gets off on.
I have never written a violin concerto, and frankly I would not know where to begin. However, when I sit down at the piano or with a guitar to write a song of “rock/pop/whatever” variety, it can happen in a few different ways. Sometimes it happens in one sitting, other times it can take a long amount of time chipping away at a particular song until it is finished. I wrote the song “Break the Piece” in one sitting, whereas the song “In the night” took parts I had written at different instances (2005 and 2012) which were eventually joined together.
Everyone is different in their process, which is what makes music so great. Here, in the first installment of Songwriters Circle, is legendary roots crooner Arnold Poddington. Enjoy!!
