Jack Pribek is a guitarist and songwriter for over 30 years. His first CD "Trouble Ain't Over" was released in 2006. Read all about his interesting experiences and inspirational moments on his blog Pribek: Trouble Ain't Over.
Are you a guitar player or a songwriter? It’s really two different worlds, you know?
It can get inside your head. Sometimes, when I’m practicing some technique or harmonic device, feeling like I’m making some progress and, I’ll hit on some little idea and think, “I need to stop right now and write a song." Other times, I’ll be writing a part and ask myself, “Is this really helping the song or, is it just a clever lick?"
You might think of some guys like Bob Dylan or, I don’t know say, Elvis Costello as songwriters. I mean, you aren’t going to hear either one sweep picking through arpeggios at lightning speed or doing a bunch of dive bomb, whammy tricks but they are solid guitar players. They keep good time and make all the chord changes. Stuff that works in a band, works for the song. It takes some serious practice to get to that point.
Then you have guitar hero types like Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Satch, Vai. They all have good songs. That’s one thing that sets them apart from the guy in the guitar store that can play a million licks.
Years ago, a producer friend told me this, “All these guys come in here wanting to do the Stevie Ray thing. They have the tone, the licks. They got the clothes but, they don’t have the songs. If that’s what I was trying to do, I would break those records down. I would study the length of the songs, number of verses, whether or not there is a bridge. I would count every cymbal crash.”
How many times have you heard the term “practice routine?" That’s what a lot of guitarists do. They establish some type of daily routine. If you have a routine and stick to it, you are able to gauge progress and that is very satisfying. Now, the routine is going to change as you master different elements but even in that you get a sense of accomplishment.
Songwriting is more mysterious though, more intangible. How do you develop skill as a songwriter? One way is to study songs. It’s different than music theory, different than how chords are constructed and how voice leading works. That’s all part of it and all worthwhile but theory is more of an overview.
Any time you are listening, you are studying on a subconscious level. However, it might be helpful to study songs on a more conscious level. Here is something you might want to try. Take one of your favorite albums and break it down song by song. Get a notebook and for each song, break it down in to sequence and sections. Intro, verses, pre-chorus, chorus bridge, solo, outro etc. You can use the letter system of assigning a letter for each section as some will repeat (AABCABD for instance). Note the overall tempo and the length of each section. Note anything that catches your ear. If a cymbal crash occurs at 1:41 write it down. If the background vocals come in at a different spot on the second chorus, write it down. It’s really just a sort of organized listening.
Make a routine out of studying songs the same way you make a routine out of practicing technique and it will make you a better musician. If you do this, you will start to recognize some trends, the same way you recognize fretboard shapes and patterns when you hear somebody else playing. You will start to recognize what works and what doesn’t work for your personal tastes. Even if don’t aspire to be a songwriter, some time working on organized listening will make the process of learning songs a lot quicker.
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