There’s a craft to doing anything really well. In songwriting, part of learning is doing it over and over, yes; but another part of it is figuring out how other songwriters created effects that made a song thrilling and inspiring.

I started as a bass guitarist and I went through this same process learning my instrument. I transcribed great bass parts and practiced playing them as exactly as possible. By doing this I was able to get a glimpse into how a great bassist ‘thought’ on their instrument, how their hands found their way around, what note choices were made and (sometimes) why. Then part of that instrumentalist’s vocabulary became a part of mine.

There’s an ‘inner game’ to anything. People who do anything really well know what it is. By studying their moves closely much can be revealed about that inner game.

It’s not magic… Or at least it’s mostly not magic. Every song has a series of choices about where to put which words and notes. And by looking and listening closely to the choices that a great songwriter made in a great song, some of the ‘magic’ can be uncovered. Really.

This is where we come to Breaking It Down. To understand how a writer made something happen, I’ve found it’s best to break the work down to its component parts and then to reassemble it, with the benefit of the deeper knowledge that’s been gained from the disassembly.

After I’ve listened and played everything together, I check out closely just the melody… just the chords… just the words… Gaining awareness of these elements, I then, words and music together, look at the section(s) of the song that move me the most (sometimes just a bar or a few beats, sometimes more) very closely and try to comprehend what the writer is doing.

It’s amazing what can be revealed by doing this. After going over the section repeatedly and intimately, I can often internalize the ‘moves’; making them, to some extent, my own. 

The results can be astounding. But I have to go under the hood of the song energetically, with an open mind. I don’t know what I’ll find but I know something’s there – because it moves me. There’s a reason why.

Useful elements of craft and style can be discovered, then analyzed, then emulated, then internalized. Not ‘how did he or she think of it?’. Who knows the answer to that? But if what they did is broken down and carefully considered… the song will usually yield some of its secrets.

Break it down! It’s worth it.

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