Songwriting Quotes - Page 29

• What is the character trying to say? Why? Be as specific as you can, using sense images that evoke something about the character. Try using the character's senses, even if the character is you.

  Pat Pattison

  Writing, Character, Trying

  Pat Pattison (2010). “Writing Better Lyrics”, p.17, Writer's Digest Books

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• I get some flak for and some resistance from colleagues for because I'm interested in storytelling. I mean what I like about songwriting is songs used to tell a story.

  Stephen Sondheim

  Song, Mean, Stories

  Source: www.movieweb.com

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• I've been songwriting for a long time, usually while on the road, as a way to get my feelings out.

  Camila Cabello

  Long, Feelings, Way

  Source: www.teenvogue.com

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• YOU CAN'T TELL UNLESS YOU SHOW FIRST. ... Showing makes the telling more powerful because your senses and your mind are both engaged.

  Pat Pattison

  Powerful, Writing, Mind

  Pat Pattison (2010). “Writing Better Lyrics”, p.20, Writer's Digest Books

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• The classic, quote/unquote, craft of songwriting still works; it still is relevant.

  Ryan Tedder

  Crafts, Classic, Relevant

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• I don't really know that there's any real rules for songwriting.

  Amos Lee

  Real, Knows

  "Singer-songwriter Amos Lee". "The Tavis Smiley show", www.pbs.org. February 1, 2011.

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• Songwriting helps me sort out my personal problems. With acting, you're just a tool for someone's ideas.

  Gary Kemp

  Ideas, Acting, Tools

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I think there are a lot of artists that are very traditional. I think someone can be a fan of someone like Josh Turner and then turn around and be a big fan of someone like Taylor Swift because, at the end of the day, it's all about those songs. I feel like country music has the best songwriting and the best songs of any genre.

  Charles Kelley

  Country, Song, Thinking

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• I always have to remember that I am the narrator, but it doesn't have to be about me. A lot of songwriting is about trying to use what part of me is valid in telling the story. I don't want to overcook it, you know? Sometimes it seems that's really where the work is.

  Ryan Adams

  Trying, Use, Want

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. June 28, 2007.

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• I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today...Al Stanton walked in one day and said, 'Otis, I've got an idea. Why don't you write a song called "All Shook Up"?' Two days later I brought the song in and said, 'Look, man, I did something with it.'

  Otis Blackwell

  Song, Hate, Writing

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• I think it's probably, musically, probably the most sophisticated. ("The Woman in White") There's a lot more daring harmony in it than in some of my pieces... If you know what you want to do, as I always loved musicals, and then to have been lucky enough to be successful with them, I think that's all you can ask, isn't it?... Sondheim is absolutely wonderful and Alan Jay Lerner was wonderful.

  Andrew Lloyd Webber

  Successful, Thinking, White

  Interview with Paul Fischer, www.moviehole.net. December 20, 2004.

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• Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.

  Frederic Chopin

  Music, Art, Simple

  "If Not God, Then What? Neuroscience, Aesthetics, and the Origins of the Transcendent". Book by Joshua Fost (p. 93), November 16, 2007.

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• Songwriting is something I really need to work on. I don't have very many songs but I really love it. I would love to be a great song writer some day.

  Norah Jones

  Song, Needs

  "Singer / Song-writer Norah Jones TalkAsia Interview Transcript". Interview With Lorraine Hahn, www.cnn.com. February 14, 2004.

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• To me, the guitar is a tool for songwriting, and it's fun, too. The day that it's not fun, that's when I'm not gonna play guitar anymore.

  Scott Ian

  Fun, Guitar, Play

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• Songwriting isn't always something that's directly proportionate to the experience.

  Amos Lee

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• I feel like I'm creeping closer to finding the situation that triggers songwriting, which is obviously an extreme of an emotion.

  Laura Marling

  Emotion, Triggers, Situation

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• My lesson from that [songwriting process] was that I should go back to where I was and try to make that first pure even more strong.

  Yukimi Nagano

  Strong, Trying, Lessons

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Country is bringing in a little rock element... a little '80s element. Melody is king now. But its just in the music, its not so much in the songwriting, which is still very basic to the storytelling aspect of it.

  Lionel Richie

  Country, Kings, Rocks

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• But if you want to be a songwriter-based musician, whether you play punk or rock or country or jazz, whatever, you have to work on your songwriting and you have to work on being able to play in front of people, I think. That performance is how you create the groundwork for a lasting career.

  Amy Ray

  Country, Thinking, Rocks

  "Lung Of Love : A Conversation With Amy Ray". Interview with Mike Ragogna, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 24, 2012.

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• I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 15. I think what mainly sparked my interest was just the fact that I grew up listening to Cheryl King, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, and was just always inspired by that sort of organic art, and organic songs and just very natural songwriting that came out of some of those artists.

  Kate Voegele

  Song, Art, Kings

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• Our goal is to write memorable songs. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer. Each time we sit down to write, we have hopes of coming up with something that will be remembered forever. That's our dream.

  Joel Madden

  Dream, Song, Memorable

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• Where I've arrived now is the product of mixing the very straight with the very exploratory; there's a fine line between the two, although it tends to be getting straighter and straighter because my songwriting is getting better.

  Andy Partridge

  Two, Get Better, Mixing

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• Even if you're an observer of a story that you yourself made up, you're still very much connected to it. You love it and feel it, no less than somebody's who's writing from their direct 'I' or 'me.' I'm just so much more interesting in stories than confessions.

  Regina Spektor

  Writing, Interesting, Stories

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• A lot of what has pushed me forward is desire, and I have expressed that in my songwriting - perhaps because it's safer!

  Brian Molko

  Desire

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• Everybody wants to write a hit song, but in Nashville people want to write the best song, which was my original intention as a singer/songwriter. ... I left because I could no longer make records that sounded less and less like me. I tried to please people instead of believing in my own strength, until the only thing I could do was walk away.

  Melissa Manchester

  Song, Believe, Writing

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