The biggest stumbling block is you, your bad self, period, end of.


I’m a self-taught writer producer, I had it pretty much worked out after about five or six songs were in the can, in a year or so, maybe a tad longer.

I didn’t know the laws of harmony, nether the less my voice leading was spot on from the word go, I’ve heard a lot of great music so I knew what it should sound like I suppose, monkey see monkey do eh.


This is par for the course, as a large portion of the greatest 20th songwriters had no theory, an already experienced John and Paul were amazed when shown a 7th chord.


Here’s how I simply, organically, completely ignorantly, with absolutely no prior knowledge or experience at all, managed to write riff after riff, and then turn those riffs into songs immediately.


I played guitar, only covers, couldn’t write, tried a couple of times, a duo phonic Yamaha synth was dumped on me by a young ’un who wanted me in his band, he showed me a key, C minor, and said something like, your song’s in there.

I had never played, er, fingered, a keyboard before.

Not sure of exact time took, but first day, a few hours maybe, I’d got a great spiffin’ bass line, simply by auditioning every note available, one by one ‘til I found the right one, the one that sounded the ‘best’ to me, it’s pretty intuitively obvious, that helps or guides, but is dependent of influence, as I feel, in many ways, I’m just copying what I’ve already heard, influence.

I was amazed, chuffed, pleased as Punch and totally surprised with my new found ability, I knew I wasn’t a songwriter, yet, just an ordinary working bloke, but I’ve just made this strong, memorable, harmonically perfect riff, me, on my own, without anybody’s help other than the C minor advice, which I suppose was crucial, as I knew not to touch any notes outside C minor, hmm, writing that down now has made me just realize that was the crux of it, my first slice of knowledge, a huge chunk at that.

After I’d written five or six, in about a year or so, I was curious, so set myself a test, I wondered how many songs I could muster before I ran out of ideas, so I decided if I could write twelve songs, double the amount I’ve already written, and there’s say a million other songwriters spread around da world, that’s twelve million songs, so I figured if there’s twelve million songs that can be written, I should be able to find/write many more.

I was right, and now to this day, many many moons later, I’m still writing songs.


Proof that all you need to write music is an instrument, period, end of, what’s stopping you?


I’ll make it easier for you, no black notes, all the white notes, D to D, that’s D minor, and if you manage to knock out a decent riff, write the next one in C major, all the white notes C to C, if successful go back to D minor or stay on C major and write a few songs in the same key.

If you can’t, ask yourself, why can’t I, what is it you lack?

Is it something you need to acquire, then do so?


After I’d been writing a good few years a mates wife commented, favourably, ‘Did you write that?’ I replied, Well, I made it up. She replied to everybody, ‘It’s true isn’t it.’

So even after a decade or more I still felt/knew that I just make ‘em up, not now though, I very much write them.

My humble basic first experience proves categorically that absolutely no prior knowledge is needed to write music, so you can’t blame that, and the only prior knowledge you possibly need is which notes are available to you, you now know that.

So, all you need to do to become a songwriter is play, period, end of.




You may be interested to know:

I didn’t know at the time, found out about a decade or more later, that the chorus part of the first riff I found, changes from C minor to C major, very unusual, quite tricky to muster too and it’s that alone that really gives the riff and song a strong lift, I’ve tried a few times to pull it off again, not sure what’s preventing me, but will still look into it now and then as it bugs me, and only interested cos of the huge lift it gives and it also bugs me that it’s not, logically straightforward. Anybody know?

Listen to, Runaway by Del Shannon, minor to major, gives big lift into chorus, and Norwegian Wood by Beatles, major to minor, opposite of a lift? Up to down, or happy to sad maybe, just as effective.

Far out eh.

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2025 at 8:16 AM

This has F O S T E R written all over it......pfffff, man.... if you'd only spend as much time on music as you've spent on all these nonsensical messages, you'd probably had yourself some hits by now

 

'it a nerve did I?

You assume far too much.

A producer indeed, reveals all I need to know about you eh.

 

That "major to minor" thing is a borrowed chord from a parallel key in diatonic harmony. If you want to get buried in theory look up "minor 4th" and "borrowed chords". It's not too unusual, there's plenty written about it, look up harmonic analysis of songs like "Comfortably Numb" or "Creep".

I'm not too sure if Norwegian Wood is diatonic as such, I think it's more of a modal interchange (there's another term to look up) thing, but the same basic methods apply.

 

A lot of endings.
Looks very reactionary to me.

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2025 at 10:59 AM

Cheers Will,
it just seems whenever i've tried it, the lift isn't there and i was suspecting that i need to be on a particular interval for it to work, which would make sense, but not necessarily true. I say that because there's always an optimum 'next' interval to choose, depending on where you want the direction of the melody to end up on.

I'll take a gander to see which interval I departed from, but i think i've already tried that, if i know me, we'll see.

For a decade or more it bugged me that a C minor chord was outta tune yet i played that in that in the first part of the riff, very frustating, but sometimes frustation brings out the best in you.

Thanks again man

 

wait, im confused. i thought miner and major chords were the same thing, just with different automation on??

 

Yeah, and aren't 7th chords just chords played on the 7th fret?

 

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What the heck are you talking about?

The only "all white notes" minor scale is A minor, not D.

You come on here calling everyone an amateur, then you spew this ignorant BS?

 

Stalkers don't seem to get bored of it.

 

No it isn't

 

Help, the egoists are coming! The egoist is selfish and self-absorbed and treats his fellow human beings like dirt.

The egoists are coming: Why Generation Alpha expects everything to revolve around them

What are egoists?

In 2012, child psychologist Dr. Stephan Valentin coined the term "egoists" to describe a generation confronted with immense pressure to perform. According to Valentin, young people often lack teamwork skills and the ability to interact socially. In stark contrast to this is Robindro Ullah's new definition of the term:

"We are encountering a generation of egoists," says the managing director of the Trendence Institute in an interview with the HR marketing agency Raven51. "They are not egoists, but people who are 100 percent accustomed to everything being individualized and adapted to them."

Heike Leitschuh: Me First! A Society on an Ego Trip

Things are getting pretty rough, especially in big cities. People barely notice each other anymore, and when they do, it's more as an obstacle. Everyone seems to be primarily concerned with themselves. Self-referentiality and egotism are taking over.

The cause: neoliberal competitive behavior is growing into everyday culture and making us increasingly less supportive. The media and advertising are promoting egoists, who are thus gaining too much influence.

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2025 at 11:47 AM

Some of you guys don't understand notes and it shows.

 

For your information...D minor key holds a B flat as the 6th note,so D minor is not just all white keys from D to D.

 

Yup... I also wonder why that mentor showed him c minor instead of the all white keys a minor. Somethings fishy

 

Hahaha..i ve read someone was calling him Foster..i dont know him,but by just reading the posts eversince, this Foster is full of BS.
he exposes himself evry time..again n again.How dumb can one be? LOL

 

I'm not a big music theory brainiac...though I believe that D Dorian is considered a minor scale and without sharps or flats.

Ask @Somnambulist .. he's got a doctorate and can fill us in.

In this piece that I wrote I did it it D Dorian and not one black key was abused in my playing.

https://whyp.it/tracks/257012/nana-noodle

Piano begins at about 1 minute 5 seconds.

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2025 at 1:52 PM

Dorian mode makes sense now...its from D to D but using only the tones of the C Major scale..but thats not the D minor key.