So last week I wrote a little bit about what I'm doing here in Bath and why I decided to come such a long way to get a Masters in Songwriting. I do see, however, that there could be a real white elephant in my last entry, particularly if another songwriter was reading it. What comes to my mind is "yeah that's great that you wanna be a great songwriter, but can you really teach someone how to write a song?" It's a hell of a question, and I think one that is worth asking over and over again (if you care about that sort of thing). See I think one of the reasons that this question has come up a lot is that everyone has varying ideas on the concept of song. Surely you've walked down the street and hummed a tune that seems familiar but you can't place it, maybe a stray bit of melody. Hmm, did I come up with that? Is that a New Kids on the Block single? It sure can be hard to tell sometimes. But how different is that from writing a song . . . I mean really? Most people tend to agree that solid instrumental playing and interesting lyrics help them dig into a song but it must have a catchy tune or they will never even pay attention in the first place. And even someone who can't play an instrument, or even really sing for that matter, can invent a melody on some level. How is that possible? It's because melody is around us all day everyday, even when we are completely unaware of it. Obviously, most people aren't gonna hit twenty-one and shit out "God Only Knows" like Brian Wilson did, but on the most basic, nursery rhyme level, sure any one can write a song. The point here is this, any one who has ever written a song was taught how to write a song. I wrote my first song when I was 15. Whether or not he knows it, Dave Matthews taught me how to write that song simply for being available in my cd player to show me how a song should work over and over again. I do think some people are naturally predisposed to songwriting and thats why you end up with with people like Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys and the killer Boston songwriter Ezra Furman. Both very young and very amazing. But, I also believe that any one who has written a song was taught how to write a song. Some people are face to face with their tutors, others are simply face to speaker.