The First Step in Songwriting

Inspiration is without a doubt the first step to writing a song. Without inspiration, no matter how much perspiration you put in, your song will - AT BEST - sound like every other song.

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On the other hand, many people (experts included) will argue that a song doesn't need to be "inspired" to be a hit, that, in fact, a formulaic approach that focuses on incorporating the "right ingredients" is the key to successful songwriting.

Researchers from Bristol University in the U.K. have made software that can predict -with 60 percent accuracy- whether a song will be a hit or a failure based on 23 different determining criteria, like "dance-ability", harmonic balance, and song duration. Some of the century's greatest bands, like, "The Cars", and "KISS" were formed on this idea, that all you need is the right formula to be a success.

Humans can now be assisted by robots to write songs. Multiple company's make software that is designed to help songwriters find both the right lyrics and melody. And robots can now write songs without any human assistance! A PhD student at Georgia Tech has built a marimba-playing robot trained over the course of seven years to understand songwriting, music, and improvisation. It has now developed the ability to write original songs on the marimba.

Scientists in Paris and the U.S. are designing algorithms that will enable computers to make up original fugues, improvise jazz solos,

or write the next hit pop song.“We are quite close now to [programming computers to] generate nice melodies in the style of pop composers such as Legrand or McCartney,” says Francois Pachet, the head of Sony’s Computer Science Lab in Paris.

Does all this put humans, and inspiration out of the equation of songwriting?

I don't believe so.

Who builds robot? Who programs them? Right, humans.

And for these humans to make these robots, they must first be INSPIRED!

Wherever you believe inspiration comes from, there are few who believe that it does not exist. Without inspiration we - the human race - would never have a reason to create anything that we do not need. We would never make paintings, or songs, or even fancy food. After all humans do just fine at songwriting, there's certainly no need to have robots write songs... unless people are inspired to program them to do so!

So feel free to be inspired and be human!

Thank you for reading, and please feel free leave a comment down below with your thoughts on this issue!

#songwriting #sailboat #inspiration