[[Notes]] - Topics: [[Creativity]], [[Self-understanding]], [[Self-expression]] - People: [[John Mayer]] - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cNRDWEXnrQ --- ## Summary - A song is the successful combination of idea, music, and lyrics that can be expressed authentically through the singer's voice. All of these factors must feel **believable** to the listener - like they've always belonged together. - Coming up with individual pieces is just the start. You have to go through a process of synthesizing them together. In this process, you will **discover more about the song and more about yourself**. - The pieces must **resonate** with each other and with you at that moment. - Not only should the song feel authentic to the listener, but it has to feel (and be) **authentic to you**. - Do not be afraid to ditch pieces that do not belong together. It is part of the process - Greatness doesn't come purely from the creation of a song. It comes from the **relentlessness of not giving up** until they can create one. - Your growth as a creator comes from exploring areas that you've either briefly visited or not yet ventured. - You are **exploring yourself** through the vehicle of **your craft**. ## Notes ### Discovery - "It's like matching socks. One sock is the music, and one sock is the lyric and concept - **words and music**". - "Music is very easy to come up with. Words are harder to come up with... And coming up with words and music that match each other are very very difficult". - "Once you're done with your A+ song, **you once again know nothing about it**... you once again know nothing about writing" - Them articulation of the song is just the start. You then have to find the rest of it in searching within your creative self. - [[Search within yourself to discover the totality of your self expression]] - "It's like being reincarnated every time as an infant." ### Synergy - "It's a **mathematical process**... where you take a musical idea and you try to match it with a lyrical idea... At some point, you either have written something you song, or... I'll just blurt something out". - It's a process of discovery through the mechanics of **elimination** and comparison/**pattern matching**. - [[At every step, at every failure, you learn a little bit more about what you're looking for by identifying what you're not]]. - "I can write music and lyrics all day" - "When the music sounds like the the lyrics and the music and the lyrics sound like the idea, and the music and the lyrics and the idea sound like the singer, then you got a song." - A song, the expression, is a successful combination of all 4 factors. ### The practice of letting go - "I am a student forever. You know how many songs I've gone through and ditched?" - You have to be practiced in the techniques of that medium so that you can simply express your imagination and creative spirit. - [[What makes someone great isn't that they can create something remarkable. It is that they don't give up until they do.]] - "I've taken people on a trip and then threw them out of the car... right before they were about to get to Disneyland." ### Honestly expressing yourself - "Keep trying... Keep editing. I'm just going for the stuff that **sounds believable**." - Just like there's colour in music, there's colour in lyrics. - The most important thing is **authenticity** and **naturalness**. The combination of idea music, and lyrics should sound like they were always meant to be together - expressed authentically through you. ## Original ![[John Mayer describes his song writing process-1.jpg]] ![[John Mayer describes his song writing process-2.jpg]] ![[John Mayer describes his song writing process-3.jpg]]