Hello folks,
I've noticed something that most of the people I know in music don't seem to take into account when they work their craft.
A songwriter is an author.
What does this mean exactly? Well in my humble opinion a song writer is similar to a novel writer in some regards.
They are writing someone's story.
For most songwriter's they are writing their own story bit by bit song by song.
Religious songwriter's may write stories from whatever sacred text they follow and put it to a melody.
Other's however write the stories that other people go through. This is one area I like to delve into myself. One of my favorite things to do when writing lyrical music or thematic instrumentals even is to go to my local library and pick up a history book.
Keep in mind that most feel history is a very dry and (bad pun) dated subject. However I'm going to attempt to change your minds today.
The first thing you need to know about history is that it's the most human subject of study you can imagine. History for the most part deals with the actions and consequences of people. Okay most of us can agree with that on some kind of level, however it goes much deeper than that!
Take for example Alexander the Great. You can look at his historical biography and you can try and put yourself in his shoes in your imagination. The more you do this the more you can start to identify with that particular character in history. Because for the sheer fact human emotion is similar in every human being. We all feel love, passion, ambition, distress, confidence, pride, fear, all of it. Imagine the pride Alexander must have felt while conquering much of the known world. Imagine any part of his life and how he would have felt in that moment.
History isn't some kind of dusty old group of stories. It's humanity at it's finest and it's worst. You can literally find inspiration at a moments notice with a simple history book in your hands. After doing something like this I've found myself writing music I didn't even know I was capable of. Such a variety of sounds that can come from writing music based on a story is much more powerful than just playing notes that fit with music theory textbooks.
Music like History is an intimate, grand, passionate, emotional experience. Most of all it is a very human experience.
The combination of the two is a very powerful concept.
I hope everyone can enjoy their time with music and find inspiration daily!
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