The original exercise taken from Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist is “Think about your favorite work and your creative heroes. What did they miss? What didn’t they make?... Go make that stuff” (Kleon 2012). My adaptation is as follows:
During my experimentation, I chose different artists to focus on including Wayne Shorter, Gregory Porter, and Kenny Wheeler but the example that stands out to me is the song I wrote when I chose John Mayer. Although I have been listening to John Mayer’s catalog since I was a teenager, I have never approached it from a critical perspective. Similarly to my process with the Habit Method, I analyzed examples from his catalog, taking a special look at form and lyrics. I noticed the usage of many different sections and that these sections were often put together in varying orders throughout the song. Additionally, Mayer sometimes writes his lyrics in the second or third person. In these cases, he writes focused on another person, usually a love interest. For example, in the song "Neon," he tells the story of a previous love interest from the third person point of view (except for the third verse) (Mayer).
Case Study, "Come on Home"
Inspired by the ostinato guitar figure in the verses of Mayer’s “Edge of Desire,” I wrote an ostinato to be the base for the melody in the verses. My original notation of this ostinato can be seen to the right. This pattern repeats in shape, changing slightly to match the chord progression similar to the figure in Mayer’s song (Mayer).
On top of this ostinato, I wrote a simple, repetitive melody. With this, while writing lyrics for the section, I thought of the perspective that Mayer commonly uses in his songs. Ordinarily, I write in first person perspective but for this, I wrote in a second person outside perspective about myself, mimicking how Mayer writes about a female love interest. I continue this until the last line of the section where the narrator reveals themself.
For the bridge, I took inspiration from the chord progression in Mayer’s “Daughters.” In the bridge section, starting with the lyrics “Boys will be strong,” Mayer uses the following progression (Roman numerals based in D major) (Mayer).
I liked the sound of the stepwise bass movement reaching a peak on the minor iv chord that frequents pop repertoire. In my take on this, I moved in descending stepwise motion to the minor iv and then resolved to the I/III chord also taken from the harmonic palette of “Daughters” (Roman numerals based in E major).
For the chorus, after a few different iterations of the lyrics, I went for a simple repetitive melody and lyric reminiscent of the chorus of Mayer’s “Come Back to Bed” (Mayer) which repeats the title lyrics five times in a row. In my song, the title lyrics “Come on Home” similarly repeat four consecutive times. The repetition adds a sense of desperation to the command showing the narrator’s desire for the main character of the song to come back. This lyric also touches on themes found in much of Mayer’s repertoire, missing someone and longing for them.
Melody/Harmony: There is balance in the simplicity versus complexity of the melodic content. The verses have more variation in the melody while the chorus and the bridge are more simple and repetitive. Additionally, there is the more involved guitar ostinato that outlines the harmony when it is most simple during the verses and the bridge and chorus have less involved orchestration where the chord progression is more complex.
Form: The individual sections of the form are ordered to tell the story. They come in a different sequence throughout the song, a tool that Mayer uses, to help the flow.
Performance: This song is adjacent to my usual style but it is a fun challenge to sing authentically within the style.
Thoughts from my reflective journal: “[It] helped to think about imitating guitar” “[I] thought about [Point of View]. Some of his earlier songs are 3rd person about other people.”
Results:
This method can be quite customizable. In the above example, I got most of my inspiration directly from John Mayer recordings as I felt it would get me closer to his style and approach to songwriting. I learned some harmonic moves, like chromatically approaching the minor iv, that I had not previously examined. I also found that writing in the style of someone else had the added benefit of quieting my inner voice/critic with thoughts that I often have regarding whether certain progressions and melodies are too simple for modern jazz. I could defend my choices with multiple examples from the repertoire I was studying and did not have to worry about it being a representation of my style. However, I am pleased with the final result and, although it is a bit more pop-inspired than some of my other compositions, I think it is a good addition to my repertoire.
It would be possible to use this method with less analysis to start. Nothing in the method instructions prescribes how to prove that one’s final result is inspired by the chosen artist. That is because the final result will be a combination of the model artist's voice and the voice of the person experimenting with the method. As Kleon writes, “a wonderful flaw about human beings is that we’re incapable of making perfect copies. Our failure to copy our heroes is where we discover where our own thing lives” (Kleon 2012). I found that changing my mindset to write from this different approach was enough to inspire new ideas, and in a style adjacent to my typical style. John Mayer may never add this to his next album but, I learned through the process and made a step towards being free of genre constraints.
