The Off-the-Chain Songwriter

by Gary Powell

The musical landscape has been flattened, the crooked has been made straight and“Trick or treat?” is now only“Treat?”.

“The more we move toward issues of the heart, the further we move away from the tools which would benefit us most in expressing that heart.”- Gary Powell

If dropped into any shopping mall in America there would be no way to discern in what city you were spending your money. There are libraries full of smart and dusty books which explore the homogenization of our culture. Below is what that looks like in musical terms.

The chain is mediocrity. GET OFF IT!

Gary Powell Composition

Song Prologues…………………………..out!
   Repetitive Choruses…………………….in!

Mode Changes…………………………….out!
   Upward Key Changes………………….in!

Dynamic Melody Lines………………..out!
   Step-Wise Melody Lines………………in!

Chord Substitutions…………………….out!
   Chord Predictability……………………in!

Dynamics…………………………………..out!
   Compression……………………………..in!

Four Bar Phrases……………………….out!
   Two Bar Phrases……………………….in!

Harmonic Vocabulary…………………out!
   Vulgar Vocabulary……………………..in!

Ring Cycles…………………………………out!
                  Navel Rings……………………………….in!

Most do not see any of this as an obstacle to our higher selves. However, our minds are smarter than we are and they are a bit disenchanted with the current administration. It seems our brains reach their pinnacle when we are involved in a unified campaign WITH them. Right now they are feeling the fatigue of working solo.

Gary Powell Quote Image

(Copyright 2005 Jesmax Music, BMI)

Lecture Level and Requirements
Songwriting as an art, a skill-set and a trade. Learn to connect musical terms wtih the language of the heart.
Students may either perform or offer recordings for evaluation. Can be adapted for any level of songwriter secondary and above.

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

by Gary Powell

The musical landscape has been flattened, the crooked has been made straight and“Trick or treat?” is now only“Treat?”.

“The more we move toward issues of the heart, the further we move away from the tools which would benefit us most in expressing that heart.”- Gary Powell

If dropped into any shopping mall in America there would be no way to discern in what city you were spending your money. There are libraries full of smart and dusty books which explore the homogenization of our culture. Below is what that looks like in musical terms.

The chain is mediocrity. GET OFF IT!

Gary Powell Composition

Song Prologues…………………………..out!
   Repetitive Choruses…………………….in!

Mode Changes…………………………….out!
   Upward Key Changes………………….in!

Dynamic Melody Lines………………..out!
   Step-Wise Melody Lines………………in!

Chord Substitutions…………………….out!
   Chord Predictability……………………in!

Dynamics…………………………………..out!
   Compression……………………………..in!

Four Bar Phrases……………………….out!
   Two Bar Phrases……………………….in!

Harmonic Vocabulary…………………out!
   Vulgar Vocabulary……………………..in!

Ring Cycles…………………………………out!
                  Navel Rings……………………………….in!

Most do not see any of this as an obstacle to our higher selves. However, our minds are smarter than we are and they are a bit disenchanted with the current administration. It seems our brains reach their pinnacle when we are involved in a unified campaign WITH them. Right now they are feeling the fatigue of working solo.

Gary Powell Quote Image

(Copyright 2005 Jesmax Music, BMI)

Lecture Level and Requirements
Songwriting as an art, a skill-set and a trade. Learn to connect musical terms wtih the language of the heart.
Students may either perform or offer recordings for evaluation. Can be adapted for any level of songwriter secondary and above.

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

4 thoughts on “The Off-the-Chain Songwriter”

  1. How would you say this applies to modern compositions? I have played in a number of recitals for graduate students studying composition, and for the most part they have been full of unusual (and difficult to play) chord progressions, sounds, etc. that follow no theory rules that I’m aware of. How do you feel about such contemporary pieces?

  2. Colleen, if I cannot hear the organization of a musical piece then my brain tends to disconnect. I can appreciate compositional devices even while expanding the idea that organized music could include thoughfulness to texture, voicings, individual instruments tessitura, anything. However, if I don’t hear it then I tend to check out pretty quickly unless I’m analyzing the piece for some other reason. I prefer discernable tonal harmony or at least recognizable patterns. But, that a piece is hard to play just for the sake of hard to play baffles me.

    Thanks for the comment. –Gary Powell

  3. “just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s art”….somebody I know said that -Mark

  4. As regards your quote above….The heart is the first feature of working minds. -Frank Lloyd Wright

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