Ideally, each one of us would be able to hire a world-class vocal coach, instrument instructor, and a songwriting teacher to tutor us. Unfortunately, almost nobody can actually manage that, because good teachers are not only expensive, they’re also scarce.
But that’s not cause for despair. If you don’t have access to a teacher, there are plenty of books and other learning materials out there that are designed to help. Being self-taught doesn’t mean that you ignore the accumulated knowledge of the generations that came before you! Learn everything you can about the craft.
Online Resources
We live in a time when online information is widely accessible and excessively abundant.
Unfortunately, the quality of online information varies. Some websites are great about research and accuracy. Others are sloppy and inaccurate. Some websites are well-organized; others are haphazardly structured and crawling with advertisements.
With that said, though, there are a lot of really helpful resources on the web.
Probably the biggest challenge of using free web resources is the lack of structure. It’s easy to pick up bits of knowledge and wisdom here and there online, but it’s a lot harder to work out a clear path for yourself that really includes all the topics that are useful to a songwriter.
Coursera is an especially great resource. They currently offer some short, sample-sized online courses from Berklee College of Music that offer great structured starts to several topics related to songwriting.
So if you’re self-teaching, I suggest that you rely on books, textbooks, and courses as your first source of information to make sure you’ve got a structured path to follow, and then use free web resources to supplement that.
Self-taught songwriters face unique challenges, including many traps that I’ve wandered into myself over the past ten years. We’ll examine some of these traps in detail as the course unfolds over the next few weeks.
Teachers
If it’s at all possible for you to hire yourself a good music instructor, please do. A great teacher can give you encouragement, inspire you, keep you in the habit of practice, and can give you specific, one-on-one feedback and attention. She can help you enhance your strengths, shore up your weaknesses, and open up whole new areas of study to you.
Even if you can’t hire a teacher to give you lessons each week, you may be able to pay a teacher to just do occasional “check-ups” where you can show her what you’ve been learning lately and ask her to observe and correct your technique. Even one check-up per year is better than none at all.
Equipment
Fortunately, practice requires very little aside from time and energy. Here are a few things that will help you on your way:
Notebook: to use as a practice journal.
Music stand: If you’re a musician, you’ll need some kind of sturdy, adjustable music stand to put your books and sheet music on. It should stand at eye level so that you see it when sitting (or standing) naturally with your instrument, without having to lean or bend.
Metronome: For instrument practice. These are easy to find in app form, but if you can get a handheld digital metronome, that’s even better. A separate, dedicated metronome doesn’t come bundled with all the distractions and temptations that a cell phone does.
Books and other learning material: Read as much as you can about music, music theory, songwriting, poetry, and creative writing in general. In case you’re not sure where to start, I’ve listed some excellent and highly useful books below.
Essentials for lyricists:
◾Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison
◾Songwriting Without Boundaries by Pat Pattison
Essential for guitarists:
◾Matt Smith’s Chop Shop by Matt Smith
◾Chords & Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar by Arnie Berle
For all musicians:
◾Composing Music by William Russo
◾The Musician’s Guide to Theory & Analysis from Norton (expensive, but worth it!)
◾Theory & Harmony for the Contemporary Musician by Arnie Berle (in case the Norton guide was too expensive)
◾The Elements of Music by Jason Martineau
I apologize for not having any piano books to recommend (or books for other instruments), but I’m not formally trained on those instruments so I’m not qualified to make recommendations on those. If there’s a text you recommend, please drop me a line and let me know!