CREATE: The Art of What Matters — Because the World Needs Great Songs
No artificial ingredients have been added to this column. Since 1972, I have created music and lyrics. I was motivated to write since I was learning to use two organic instruments — the six-string acoustic guitar and a new voice that I was given through the aging process. On Broadway, at a sheet music store, I picked up a portfolio of Don McLean's American Pie, with songs like "Winterwood," "Vincent," "Empty Chairs," and "American Pie." Complete with music, lyrics, and chord diagrams, I started to play them each day — sometimes along with the record, but most times just me, my guitar, and my voice.
In 1972, influences in the singer-songwriter genre were plentiful. Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, Don McLean, Danny O'Keefe, and those who preceded them had an organic influence on me. When I left Musical Theater on Labor Day 1972, I was already learning and writing with chords in first position, learning to use my voice, finding my range, and developing new songs that I had written. I was always part of a family trio with my brother and sister, and I was always interested in what my older brother Bob was learning on guitar and writing. We were part of the Folk Mass at the time at St. John Nepomucene in Bohemia, New York. I played tambourine and maracas, and by the fall of 1972, started to play my six-string Harmony at the 10:30 Mass. Fifty-four years later, I am still writing music and lyrics and singing professionally.
Teach Your Children
At Music Mountain Instruments in Westcliffe, Colorado, my wife Jill asked me to teach a couple of men guitar and songwriting. These students have been learning guitar and songs and have started writing music. I asked each of them what their goals are. Both had similar answers regarding performing, singing, and playing songs. And then, a similar goal from each of them shocked me: "I want to be able to learn how to play and sing my songs — songs that I wrote the words to and had Artificial Intelligence write and perform." I listened to the recordings AI produced, and they are clean imitations of artists, with safe enough differences to be legally defensible. The other thing these two students shared was a sense of frustration — that they felt the artificial ingredients had made their intimate songs feel hollow.
The World Needs Great Songs
I went back and listened to the interviews I have done regarding the creative process. I also reflected on the long arc of my career as a singer-songwriter and guitarist. There have always been threats to the performance and recording aspects of writing music and lyrics. The more I work through it, the more I can see how MIDI, multi-track recording, and digital processing have "perfected" the human fragility of our art. There is even a button you can press — "Humanize." Indeed, what is missing is the heartbeat and soul of our songs. Richard Rodgers once encouraged me to be a good songwriter — "Because the world needs great songs!"
Heartbeat and Soul
There are times when I sit in my studio and write. I match a mood, I phrase and rephrase, and the fretboard still has so much more to teach me. When I work with my students, I return to the rudiments and the root of writing music. I think of deaf patients I have played for, who put their hands on my guitar to feel the rhythm and pulse of my songs. I think of blind patients who can see a picture in their mind from what I have described in a song-poem or story. And I think of the young woman who, through an accident at age 16, lost the ability to walk, speak, sing, and breathe naturally — who spelled out to me on a letter board, "I want to write a song." That is why I continue to learn, sing, and play. Because the world needs great songs — with music and lyrics and a heartbeat.
