I truly believe you need to change your perception when creating music, over just listening to it.

There is a distinct song writing quality good artists and musicians have that is not in use when just listening to music. Learning how to use and train that ear is very difficult.

i was listening to "i want you" and i was struck by this one vocal harmony marvin did.
i called up my sister and said, you know that part in "i want you"
where he does that crazy vocal harmony?!

it goes like...

_at which point i did my best to hum the entire arrangement of "i want you"
toggling back and forth from bass to melody to horns to rhythm track to background vocals to the lead vocals and back to the bass until i got to the harmony i was trying to point out to her

and then i held that one slightly discordant note in the harmony.
she knew the spot i was talking about.

then she said "yea that's dope how he did that."





my point is, i don't think normal ppl listen to music that way.
and the fact that i do i think made it easier to learn piano and guitar.

i hear arrangements in my head before i can get my fingers to find a way to play them.
that helps with songwriting too, i think.

take it for what it's worth, because i am not a genius level musician or songwriter.
but i can write listenable songs and i think the way i hear music as a listener
has something to do with that.




one time questlove talked about how his favorite parts of the song
were the background parts. and i believe him because
even his best stuff sounds like all the background parts.

that's his gift and his curse
and it's also why he has about as good a chance as me
as ever being as popular as jay-z.

that's not a diss or a slight.
i hear music the same way, even if he's a trillion times the musician i will ever be.