Originally Posted by
VAisForEagleLovers
Since seeing Glenn at the songwriter's event at NYU, and listening to some of his interviews, particularly with Art of the Song, where he talks so much about songwriting, I've realized that people who write songs, at least good ones, have a different idea about what songwriting entails. He talked a lot about chord progressions in his interviews and I'll be honest, it was like he was speaking Greek. A friend of mine, who is a musician, told me he feels the same way when I start my 'techno babble.'
In the movie last night, regarding VOL and wondering why Felder had thought he should sing it, Don mentioned that Felder didn't bring them the complete song. He said there were no lyrics or even a melody, just chord progressions. I assume that whatever a chord progression is, it's like a foundation for a house? The lyrics and melody are the structure and siding? If this is all true, I have to wonder why Felder has the prime songwriting credit. I guess this chord progression-thing is pretty important, and I feel like an uninformed bozo that I can't figure this out. I love music and always have, but until recently have never given any thought to how a song comes together, and so how anyone could hand something over that has no melody or lyrics and still be given song-writing credit, let alone primary, baffles me to no end. Does anybody have any insight or ideas on where I could get enough of an education on this to at least understand what the heck Don was talking about?