Composing for dummies

'Say what you have to say as simply as possible and then leave before they have a chance to figure you out.'
That was Paul Simon's advice to a songwriting class he taught at New York University and the quote comes via David Browne's disappointingly earthbound chronicle of the music of 1970 Fire and Rain. Elsewhere Simon and Garfunkel are beyond cool.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Also on Facebook and Twitter.

Comments

Joe Shelby said…
I always liked Richard Thompson's take on getting good at songwriting: write a thousand songs and throw them all away.

Recent popular posts

Does it have integrity and relevance?

Why new audiences are deaf to classical music

The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

The paradox of the Dalai Lama

Classical music has many Buddhist tendencies

Master musician who experienced the pain of genius

Vonnegut gets his Dresden facts wrong

Nada Brahma - Sound is God

Music as a wave of probability

Classical music must break through the electronic glass ceiling