Originally Posted by Michael Zaneski
Hi Big Jim,

What about all the "self-taught" musicians and lyricists whose only training was and is listening to and appreciating the kind of music and lyric that one wants to write?

Your definition seems to ignore this fact. Many people first listen, then appreciate, and then emulate, and then, after writing and writing and writing, create their own style...and all of this without any, how did you put it, "idea of music theory, rhythm, and melody and how their words can be set to music..", nope. All they did was listen, then appreciate, then emulate, etc. Well on down the line, they might learn that what they were doing intuitively was a "perfect rhyme" or a "consistent meter", etc.

So one can then argue that "a primitive" does know music theory, rhythm, etc,. intuitively, at some gut level, from going through this (listening...emulating) process... smile

If your definition does cover the extreme informality of many lyricists who intuitively write well without being able to "label" what they know, then I'm having a hard time finding much value in your definition of what makes a lyricist. To me it's the same as saying "anyone who wants to write must have some idea about the language they are writing in." Kinda...silently understood, I think. Most people "know" their home language. Much fewer can "articulate" what it is, exactly, that they know, cuz it never really comes up in life that much, just in school.

Mike



I think you misunderstand my point and obviously have not read my other posts. Any lyricist who is any good has to have a certain knowledge of music theory and melody, meter, rhythm etc. This can be intuitive, self taught, formally taught or just by copying or emulating what has been done before. However learned it does not matter it is still knowledge.
I do not quite get your point about articulating. Language is absorbed as well as learned at school, college and university. Lots of people can write good stories, poems etc without having any specialist training or education. They know the theory behind writing through everyday experience and a basic education. We hear the spoken word and listen to music from cradle to grave so it is no wonder that we understand more than we appreciate even if we do not realise how we know these technicalities.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687727&songID=5238055