Excellent post from John Mayer

Recording, Mixing and Producing
#1

Saw this on Instagram last night. Just some great advice on songwriting, producing and general musicianship.
I offer this list as a challenge to all of you!

Songwriting Reminders to Myself by John Mayer

  1. Be brave. You’re not here to line up behind what’s cool, you’re here to share what you truly love even if people aren’t into it at the moment. Walk alone and gather a line behind you.

  2. Sing real words even if they’re nonsense. They usually hold subconscious truths.

  3. Write lyrics in total silence for at least 20 minutes each day.

  4. Set aside time to practice production but then return to organic song craft - then when you have a song, apply modern production techniques.

  5. If you’re cool, beats are cool. Everyone is beat-shy. If it makes you move, it’s a good beat. Plus trash beats are kind of amazing.

  6. Pretend you’re purposely trying to fail. That should free you up to be great.

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#2

Solid advice. It would be nice for that advice to drown out all the nay-saying keyboard quarterbacks.

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#3

This is great songwriting advice? On what level? What does it even mean?

What nonesense.

If it floats your boat go for it, but I can’t see it helping much.

To be fair, this is “Songwriting Reminders to Myself by John Mayer” - it’s not necessarily meant for anyone else.

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#4

Yeah, that piece of advice was nonsense.

This part of his advice is off the mark.
“Everyone is beat-shy?” …In what world? Seems to me, since the invention of the drum machine, multitudes of songwriters have been starting their songwriting from a beats first perspective.

This piece of advice I somewhat agree with although I wouldn’t word it the way he does.
I would just say “Don’t be afraid to fail”, “Just create, just do it and don’t try to to be good. Simply create for the sake of creating”. For me it’s like unclogging a blocked pipe (or toilet)…I need to flush out the shit or the blockage in order to really get the creativity flowing, to get to the good stuff. I think that’s what Mayer was trying to get at…, maybe.

Sing anything even if they’re not words. All that’s required is either a groove, pattern, melody or any combo of the three. Not sure I agree about the words holding subconscious truths. Maybe they do occasionally.