Crooked phrases. Deceptive cadences. Internal rhymes. Uneven meters.

Have you ever experienced a song that subverts your sense of “how it’s supposed to go” and yet simultaneously feels totally right?

Music is full of opportunities to throw off expectation and surprise, awaken, and even enlighten listeners. Despite the fact that nursery rhymes and metronomes have trained many of us to expect our music to be even and predictable, most folk traditions have always been (and continue to be) full of asymmetrical elements. Songs can defy our expectations using everything from from uneven measures to sudden shifts of tempo…from spring loaded phrasing to complete changes of groove.

Join this SOS episode as JP shares the delight of songwriting that falls outside the narrow confines of symmetrical composition and ventures into the realm where music and lyrics stay off-balance while remaining on-target.

 

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Have you ever shared your music with the wrong person at the wrong time? Can you recall the feeling of deflation that accompanied the experience? How about the surge of positive energy you may get when you share your art with someone who really understands and appreciates it?

The more aware you are of the role of positive, supportive feedback in your creative life, the more you can direct the flow of the process and attract the perfect support system. The exposure can bring you specific musical guidance, general heartfelt encouragement, or honest criticism (or some combination of all three).  Conversely, keeping your music too sheltered may inhibit its growth as much as premature criticism. No matter what the circumstances are, the act of opening up your works-in-progress to a variety of viewpoints (within a context of respect and safety) is essential in allowing your music to grow and mature.

Listen to this SOS episode as the subtleties and nuances involved in artistic incubation and conscious sharing are explored and explained. 

 

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What’s your story and how do you tell it?

Are you a provocateur? An abstract, evocative storyteller? A painter of fables? An abstract teller of tales? All (or none) of the above?

When music and lyrics are understood in dramatic terms, rather than in purely musical terms, the process of songwriting becomes less about verses, choruses, lines, or hooks and more about characters, actions, scenes, and narration. A switch of context like this can help you bring some fresh material to the table and enliven your music in some interesting ways.

Listen to this special SOS episode (recorded on the road in rural Massachusetts) for a glimpse into JP’s understanding of the relationship between music and drama. Apply the concepts to your own writing and the results might surprise and delight you!

 

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Think about DOING.

What do you do? How do you do? Do you do that voodoo that you do so well?

Actions of all kinds can be opportunities to develop your musicianship. By employing your sense of rhythm, pitch, phrasing, melody, harmony, and composition (as well as the many other innate musical sensibilities that you already use to make your music), you can live a more musical life and bridge the gap between the inspired and the ordinary.

When you allow your music to infuse the rest of your life, even mundane tasks such as tying your shoes or brushing your teeth can become musical (See Mel Brooks in High Anxiety for the most musical tooth brushing scene to ever grace the silver screen.).

Join this SOS episode and explore ways to bring more music into your life (and more life into your music).

This is part four of a four-part series of “Musical Lifestyle” podcasts.

 

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