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Michael's method for writing songs

analogue

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I've always found Michael's songwriting methods very cool and intersting. He isnt your typical songwriter where he sits by a piano or strums away on a guitar (There's nothing wrong with that btw), he just uses a tape recorder and sings/beatboxes the music into it. What's great about that is wherever Michael was he could just come up with a new song idea right there on the spot. I'm not saying that Mike never played any instruments when he wrote his songs, i'm sure he did but his main method of songwriting seems to always be his own voice and a tape recorder and i just think that's cool

I just wish that those recordings of Michael beatboxing would have seen kept so that we could listen to it today but that will sadly never happen because Michael has said that he never knew where all of his recordings went because he wasn't very organised with them
 
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I agree. I was always fascinated with how Michael writes his music..He doesn't need instruments; his voice is the instrument. Now, THAT, is truly genius!
 
He really is the master of music. It's all right there in his head laid out for him. It just really blows my mind how he can do that. He is a gift from God.
 
What's sad is that because of the way Michael writes his music a friend of mine says that he's not a real songwriter cause according to him you need to be sitting by a piano or strumming away on a guitar to be a real songwriter
 
analogue said:
What's sad is that because of the way Michael writes his music a friend of mine says that he's not a real songwriter cause according to him you need to be sitting by a piano or strumming away on a guitar to be a real songwriter
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Funny I thought that he was using his voice as an instrument. I thought that could be considered genius.
 
analogue said:
What's sad is that because of the way Michael writes his music a friend of mine says that he's not a real songwriter cause according to him you need to be sitting by a piano or strumming away on a guitar to be a real songwriter
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That is SO not true...Actually, to me, Michael is MORE of a songwriter because he writes not only the lyrics in his head, but the music as well in his head...As I've mentioned before, he's his own instrument...
 
Arklove said:
That is SO not true...Actually, to me, Michael is MORE of a songwriter because he writes not only the lyrics in his head, but the music as well in his head...As I've mentioned before, he's his own instrument...
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Many musical prodigys like mozart beethoven ect. tchaikovsky come up with melodys in their head, or at least its said. Then they take them to the piano to modify them, but it all starts with the head, and that where all the parts are arranged, same with michael. It makes him more talented if he can do it that way, rather than just sit at a piano. You really have to study music to understand it. There are loads of people who act like the know it all's, but actually dont have a clue what they are talking about. Michael is definantly a song writer and an amazing one at that
 
What makes Michael's songwriting ability more incredible is that he's a natural songwriter. I mean, he didn't have any formal education on that matter as far as I know. In fact, he said he started writing songs by the age of 8 or 9.

He had the music inside him, and his body was his instrument. Later on he played a few instruments (I don't know which. If anyone knows, please, tell me =D). But mainly his body was the means to make his music come out and the dancing was another way to do it.

I wish interviewers had asked Michael more about his art than his personal life. I cling to every word he said or wrote about songwriting. In fact, this was the best way to understand him, in my opinion. And you can't lose the chance to learn music from a true genius just to ask who he goes out with. I still dream he left a diary where he'd wrote about his ideas on songwriting and music in general. The way he thinks about art really inspires me.
 
I remember in an Oprah interview he was demonstrating the beat and rythm of Who Is It when it first came to him. And he starting beat-boxing the song, like EVERYTHING that we hear in the song.

I thought to myself, people can make music like that???????? Then I thought, it's Michael Jackson, who also likes to "take a sound, put it under a microscope and manipulate the characrer of it."
 
kasume said:
I remember in an Oprah interview he was demonstrating the beat and rythm of Who Is It when it first came to him. And he starting beat-boxing the song, like EVERYTHING that we hear in the song.

I thought to myself, people can make music like that???????? Then I thought, it's Michael Jackson, who also likes to "take a sound, put it under a microscope and manipulate the characrer of it."
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who also likes to hear The Way You Make Me Feel being played like "you are dragging yourself out of bed" Love it!

Paul McCartney said MJ wwasn't techinical when explaining his music. He was poetical. Well, just watching This Is It made this all clear.
 
There was a great video on youtube (It's sadly been removed now) of an audio recording of Mike writing and composing The Girl Is Mine and singing all the music parts to the musicians in the studio

He would say things like ''Ok here's the drums'' (Then he would beatbox the drum parts), ''Here's the strings'' (Then he would sing the string parts) etc
 
analogue said:
I just wish that those recordings of Michael beatboxing would have seen kept so that we could listen to it today but that will sadly never happen because Michael has said that he never knew where all of his recordings went because he wasn't very organised with them
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wasnt very organised with them ~aw bless him :huggy: :lol:
 
Michael's method was quite similar to James Brown's.

James Brown could play a few instruments to a decent standard but always hired superb musicians and let them do the leg work.

Then he would do what MJ did - beatbox/hum/scat each person's part to them.
 
ani_geleia said:
What makes Michael's songwriting ability more incredible is that he's a natural songwriter. I mean, he didn't have any formal education on that matter as far as I know. In fact, he said he started writing songs by the age of 8 or 9.

He had the music inside him, and his body was his instrument. Later on he played a few instruments (I don't know which. If anyone knows, please, tell me =D). But mainly his body was the means to make his music come out and the dancing was another way to do it.

I wish interviewers had asked Michael more about his art than his personal life. I cling to every word he said or wrote about songwriting. In fact, this was the best way to understand him, in my opinion. And you can't lose the chance to learn music from a true genius just to ask who he goes out with. I still dream he left a diary where he'd wrote about his ideas on songwriting and music in general. The way he thinks about art really inspires me.
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Well said..! I have the exact same thoughts as you..I always wished that interviews would focus more on his art, maybe Michael wouldn't have been so leery of interviews had they focused on his genius as opposed to be so nosy about his personal life. It's really sad, a lot of people (namely non-fans) who never understood his talent and in saying that, just how amazingly gifted he really was. Even my boyfriend who loves Michael, but wouldn't consider himself a major fan, had asked me the other day if Michael wrote Billie Jean...I was floored..I really thought he knew that Michael wrote it!

But, people would have been more aware and inspired by him if only given the chance!
 
There are actually people out there who think that Quincy Jones wrote all the songs from Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad
 
ani_geleia said:
What makes Michael's songwriting ability more incredible is that he's a natural songwriter. I mean, he didn't have any formal education on that matter as far as I know. In fact, he said he started writing songs by the age of 8 or 9.

He had the music inside him, and his body was his instrument. Later on he played a few instruments (I don't know which. If anyone knows, please, tell me =D). But mainly his body was the means to make his music come out and the dancing was another way to do it.

I wish interviewers had asked Michael more about his art than his personal life. I cling to every word he said or wrote about songwriting. In fact, this was the best way to understand him, in my opinion. And you can't lose the chance to learn music from a true genius just to ask who he goes out with. I still dream he left a diary where he'd wrote about his ideas on songwriting and music in general. The way he thinks about art really inspires me.
Click to expand...

I completley agree. How inspiring and intruiguing to hear Michael talk about how sounds 'pop into his head' or 'fall into his lap right out of space'. I love to hear about his art...wish we had more of that to learn from.
Yesterday I was watching something on YT where Michael is being asked about songs he's written (mexico depostion) and I was just flabbergasted at the sheer number of songs the man has written even BEFORE Off the Wall. There's so MUCH of it. Here's some of them:

Going To Rio
Iowa
Kentucky
Sunset Driver
Thank You For Life
What Lonely Way To Go
Carousel (Circus Girl)
Got The Hots
Hot Street
Nite Line
Trouble
Buffalo Bill
State Of Shock (with Freddie Mercury)
There Must Be More To Life Than This (with Freddie Mercury)
The Toy
Victory (with Freddie Mercury)
Why Can't I Be
Al Capone
Bumper Snippet
Chicago 1945
Crack Kills
Streetwalker
The Price Of Fame
Tomboy
Bottle Of Smoke
For All Time
If You Don't Love Me
Men In Black
Monkey Business
Pretty Faces (with Stevie Wonder)
Satisfy You
Serious Effect (with LL Cool J)
Seven Digits
She Got It
What About Us (Earth Song)
Work That Body
Cry
Face
Fear
In The Back
Another Day (with Lenny Kravitz)
Do You Love Me
Do You Want Me
Ekam Satyam (The One Truth)
Fall Again
I Have This Dream
Maybe We Can Do It
On My Anger
Seeing Voices (with Ray Charles)
She Was Loving Me
The Gloved One
This Is Our Time (with Lauryn Hill)
What More Can I Give
A Baby Smiles
Bad Girl
California Grass
Cheater
Do You Know Where Your Children Are
Fantasy
Far Far Away
Free
Get Around
I Forgive You
I Have This Love Of Me
In The Valley
Little Girls
Llama Lola
Lonely Bird
Lonely Man
Lucy Is In Love With Linus
Make A Wish
Make Or Break
Michael McKeller
Much Too Soon
Neverland Landing
People Have To Make Some Kind Of Joke
Red Eye
Saved By The Bell
Scared Of The Moon
She's Not A Girl
Shy Shy
Sister Sue
The Children's Hour
The Sky's The Limit
Turning Me Off
Tragedy Of A Cheerleader
We Are The Ones
What's Your Life
Who Do You Know
Who Is The Girl With Her Hair Down
You Ain't Gonna Change Nothing
You Are A Liar

The most incredible thing about Michael's songwriting, was his ability to be a 'channel' for the music to come through, or in his words 'an instrument of nature'. If Michael, didn't use instumnets in his songwriting, it's because he was one himself....a finely tuned one, in the hands of a great creator. The result, as we know was sheer musical magic.
 
i heard a clip of him doing it for tgim on youtube. i'll try to find it.
 
analogue said:
There are actually people out there who think that Quincy Jones wrote all the songs from Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad
Click to expand...

Arklove said:
Even my boyfriend who loves Michael, but wouldn't consider himself a major fan, had asked me the other day if Michael wrote Billie Jean...I was floored..I really thought he knew that Michael wrote it!

But, people would have been more aware and inspired by him if only given the chance!
Click to expand...

It's sad that recently I've heard people saying what an excellent dancer he is and totally overlook his other talents. He was so much more than that. Revolutionary dancer, but an amazing songwriter, producer, also revolutionized music videos not to mention that the man could draw really well. I was totally in awe when I found his drawings on the internet. But I'm going off topic here. Sorry. lol
 
analogue said:
Here's a video of Brad Buxter explaning how Michael wrote Who Is It and Will You Be There

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wyxEM1_f4s&feature=player_embedded
Click to expand...

Thanks for the upload.
I wish (actually I should add this to my wild dreams list) Bruce Swedien wrote a book about Michael's songwriting and producing and that book should include MJ's notes about the songs and an album full of demos or whatever he's got from his recording sessions with Michael.

There's a video of Bruve talking about Michael. I'll find it and post it later.
 
MJultimatemusiclegen said:
Many musical prodigys like mozart beethoven ect. tchaikovsky come up with melodys in their head, or at least its said. Then they take them to the piano to modify them, but it all starts with the head, and that where all the parts are arranged, same with michael. It makes him more talented if he can do it that way, rather than just sit at a piano. You really have to study music to understand it. There are loads of people who act like the know it all's, but actually dont have a clue what they are talking about. Michael is definantly a song writer and an amazing one at that
Click to expand...
Yeah!! Beethoven finished his works his symphony after he turned deaf!!
Music is IN you, you FEEL it you KNOW it............it's there inside of you :agree:

MJ had music in him.....born with the gift and worked hard to bring it into realisation..............God bless his sweet tender talented heart and soul...............xxx
 
analogue said:
I've always found Michael's songwriting methods very cool and intersting. He isnt your typical songwriter where he sits by a piano or strums away on a guitar (There's nothing wrong with that btw), he just uses a tape recorder and sings/beatboxes the music into it. What's great about that is wherever Michael was he could just come up with a new song idea right there on the spot. I'm not saying that Mike never played any instruments when he wrote his songs, i'm sure he did but his main method of songwriting seems to always be his own voice and a tape recorder and i just think that's cool

I just wish that those recordings of Michael beatboxing would have seen kept so that we could listen to it today but that will sadly never happen because Michael has said that he never knew where all of his recordings went because he wasn't very organised with them
Click to expand...

Simply amazing!!!!
 
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