Picture from the event
Tonight we had CRAS Director of Admissions Ghery Fimbres and CRAS Session Musician Chris Gough host an AES event on songwriting. Ghery did not waste any time to get down to business by taking concerns from students about what they would like to discuss. He wrote down the topics that were suggested on a whiteboard. A couple that were listed were arrangement of a song, overcoming writers block, inspiration, muse, and key shifts.
One of the first questions was answered by Chris. A student asked "what is the difference between harmony and melody?" Chris replied "short and simple, melody is what you whistle after hearing a song, and harmony are the supporting characteristics of a song" Ghery made an important statement "to get to the advanced songwriter's level, you need to be able to communicate your idea musically, not just play some notes".
The first topic they tackled was Muse. "Musically, you have to be able to be naked and unedited." Ghery stated very uncensored. He made it known that a song is a moment of time, the right now. An important remark he made was that there are different types of writers: music and lyrics. Ghery then broke out his acoustic guitar and did a quick performance one of his songs "Aim For My Head" to demonstrate muse.
They brought up the "I writers," which they explained are writers who say "I" throughout songs. Through quick talk they make it clear that having vocabulary is a very important skill to contain as a songwriter, making it more relatable for listeners. Chris then continued with some intricacies of music theory and how subtle changes in notes and chords can change the whole feel of the song. Ghery complimented Chris by saying it's very important to find a partner who "you trust to kill you." Meaning that it's a necessity to find someone who is not afraid to tell you that whatever you wrote is not good but then follows up with constructive criticism.
Another topic they covered was writers block. Ghery showed his method to avoid this common problem. He blossom writes, which is where you start with a central topic and his example was "truck" then branching out from that is "dashboard lights," then would branch off of that and continue branching off of the last idea. They brought up being naked again, saying that you MUST be naked about lyrics and cannot write in fear. They covered many subtopics within these two. Chris made the comment that you must take what is common and change it in a unique way to differentiate your song from everyone else's. Ghery closed out by saying songwriters need to live with a clean conscience and not be afraid to say how you feel.
CRAS AES is very grateful to have such experienced instructors, engineers and musicians to have taken time out of their day to come speak to us about a topic that a lot of students are interested in.
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