What It Takes To Write

There a lot of things that teachers, musicians and other people are going to tell you about music. A lot of it will be good advice. Don't discount any of it without adequate reflection. I'm just going to tell you something that has served me well in my musical endeavours and is hardly talked about. The most important factor in my musical writing. No, it's not amassing a truckload of heroin or wearing the tightest pants you can find (I am convinced they are only effective for potato stuffing your crotch). The secret that makes a musician incredible - is emotion.

Yup. People will go on and say talent is indispensable, but it's not. It's beneficial, sure, but the ability to convey emotion effectively is going to determine whether or not you will make a connection with whomever you are singing to. The talent will come, eventually. Knowing the rules and when to break them will come, eventually. Feeling it is something that, even with all the knowledge, without it you'll have only chords and words. Flat and boring as black chords on white paper.

C G F# D.

How did that make you feel? Pretty lacklustre, huh? I guess there must be more to it then. I wholeheartedly believe this(my first opinion, I feel like a Canadian kid in a British candy shop).

Imagine your favourite artists had no idea how to convey emotion with their art. Would you feel the same about them? Do you think that emotion is just a by-product of great music?

Just feel it. Don't write to hope you feel something. Feel it first. Get emotionally intoxicated and write. Get emotionally intoxicated and play on stage. The more you believe and feel what you are writing, the more it's going to seep out through your music, no matter what your instrument is. Feel it enough, and it'll gush forth like several African elephants stomping on squeezable mayonnaise. There is no limitation on the number of elephants or the amount of the mayonnaise.

So, don't worry about wearing skin tight pants, on stage, that you sewed together from a chopped up, yellow raincoat that you hang dangling skulls from. That will come later, although I don't envision a time when it will be appropriate (but hey, Mindless Self Indulgence exists, so there possibly is a time/place where all anti-social attire can be appropriate).

Right now, learn to feel it through and through. If music can't make you bust a tear now and then, listen to something different (Even hardcore, tough-stuff metal heads get emotionally charged with feelings other than anger) . If your own music makes you frequently bust a tear, it's possible you'll need to knock a few blocks out of your own pedestal and shorten it up.

I'm not lying. If you care first, the inspiration will come, and it will flow at its own speed - but it'll flow.

Phew, first post. I'm sweating like a featherless duck on a grass plain where International Hunter's Appreciation Day is being celebrated.