Songwriting Quotes - Page 11

• I compare songwriting to childbirth. How many kids can you have before your uterus explodes?

  Billy Joel

  Kids, Uterus, Compare

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• Anything that happens after I write a song...that's fine with me. It's up to the listener to read into it what they need from it. And that's part of the reason I write like I do, so I can leave the holes in the right places so people can say, 'Yeah, that happened to me,' and they're able to have their own little fantasy about it.

  Guy Clark

  Song, Writing, People

  28 Copy quote

• Once I went into songwriting, I figured I had to - I couldn't be a hellfire rock 'n' roller. But I could write hellfire lyrics.

  Bob Dylan

  Writing, Rocks

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• I respect country music because I feel like it's more about the talent and the songwriting and I put on a big show and we have a lot of stuff, but I feel confident in myself enough as an artist and a singer that I can have all of those fun toys and know that we don't need all the bells and whistles either.

  Carrie Underwood

  Country, Fun, Artist

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• I've never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I've only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.

  Taylor Swift

  Growing Up, Loneliness, Sadness

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• Songwriting is like working on a jigsaw puzzle, and it doesn't make any sense until you find that last piece. It has to make sense or it doesn't work.

  Chrissie Hynde

  Writing, Jigsaw Puzzles, Pieces

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• The more I compose, the more I know that I don't know it all. I think it's a good way to start. If you think you know it all, the work becomes a repetition of what you've already done.

  A. R. Rahman

  Music, Thinking, Done

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• Any quick analysis of a Beatles tune or a Cole Porter tune will reveal often simple but unexpected chords, chords that chromatically shift between keys, or between major and minor.

  Paul Zollo

  Writing, Simple, Keys

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• I love when rappers have a off-beat, very abstract timing, and he certainly did.And any rapper who really approaches rapping with the art form of songwriting melodically - I know a bunch of rappers who actually go in before they write the lyrics and come up with the melody. And you can hear and feel that difference so much when that's the case.

  Solange Knowles

  Art, Rap, Writing

  Source: www.npr.org

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• While I was there, I was just gathering images and names, and ideas and rhythms, and I was storing all of these things - which I didn't realize I was doing - but I was storing them all in an attic in my mind somewhere. And when it was time to sit down and write songs, when I reached into the attic to see what I was gonna write about, that's what was there.

  Robbie Robertson

  Song, Writing, Names

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• Anyone involved with songwriting will testify to the fact that each song, no matter how pure or from the heart, has its own story, its own peculiar way of getting written.

  C. Sigman

  Song, Writing, Heart

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• Songwriting requires some sort of ceremony to even get the process started, and it can be somewhat arbitrary.

  Andrew Bird

  Arbitrary, Process, Ceremony

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• The trick to songwriting is writing in a poetic enough way that other people can identify with it.

  Lights

  Writing, People, Way

  Source: coogradio.com

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• The best songwriting comes from being as creative as you can and editing it down to the good bits, essentially.

  Alex Kapranos

  Editing, Creative, Bits

  "Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand". Interview with Andy Battaglia, www.avclub.com. February 14, 2007.

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• I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record. Originally I was not writing songs for myself. ....And I can say this, most of the people who have recorded my songs are songwriters themselves. ... Even if I don't release it myself, somebody else might hear it and want to record it. When you write a song, it gives it that potential. When you write a song, a song has longevity. ... So I wanted to sing inspirational music, and that's exactly how I approached it-only the words have been changed to declare my relationship with God. Songwriting is my gift from God.

  Smokey Robinson

  Song, Writing, People

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• My head translates emotions into song. Songwriting is cathartic for me.

  Antoniette Costa

  Song, Emotion, Cathartic

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• Obviously I attach myself so much to my songwriting. If I didn't attach myself to that being my sole attribute, then I would be fine with those.

  Luke Temple

  Would Be, Attributes, Sole

  Interview with James Rickman, therumpus.net. June 30, 2014.

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• I'm more critical of my songwriting than anybody, but I've worked really hard in the last five to 10 years to improve.

  Beck

  Years, Lasts, Critical

  "Beck: 15 Years". Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. August 17, 2011.

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• I think what I wanted to do was meet someone who knew more than me about songwriting structure and progressions and middle eights and things that more traditional writers write and I don't usually employ.

  Bat for Lashes

  Writing, Thinking, Progression

  Source: www.coupdemainmagazine.com

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• We are really in a rut with the three-minute song. You know where it's going to go. If you're trying to get your message across sometimes it's wise to say, Why don't we stop here and have a moment of silence, then go in a completely different direction?

  Jimmy Webb

  Wise, Song, Silence

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• I got signed with the songwriting deal when I was sixteen and they were really great - my publishers, who to this day are still my publishers and are like my musical family, my second family - they took me in and taught me what a good song is.

  Lights

  Song, Musical, Sixteen

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• I've been thinking about songwriting more in terms of playing it live, and how it will sound as a band.

  Florence Welch

  Thinking, Sound, Band

  "Florence and the Machine Announce New LP". Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. August 23, 2011.

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• I started meeting the right people, like [producer] Dave [Okumu], who explained to me how songwriting is really simple - "just like shitting," he said. "You gotta let it all out." When he put it like that, however disgusting it is, it made a lot of sense to me.

  Jessie Ware

  Simple, People, Dave

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director. ... (when asked who wrote 'Some Enchanted Evening') Rodgers and Hammerstein, if you can imagine it taking two men to write one song. ... Good authors, too, who once knew better words now use only four-letter words writing prose. ... Brush up your Shakespeare and they'll all kowtow.

  Cole Porter

  Song, Inspiration, Writing

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• Obviously I've always loved singing and performing, but I fell in love with songwriting and then I enjoyed doing that for other people and getting coached. But then I kind of stumbled into the right group of people that really started to create some unique music for me and what I wanted to say, so then it made me want to be an artist.

  Kacey Musgraves

  Artist, Unique, People

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