ActoInterview With Bud Buckley

I'm on a mission to explore the world of songwriting, interviewing various songwriters and guitar teachers to get their thoughts on the topic. The first person I decided to interview was Bud Buckley, a songwriter and guitar teacher in Florida. Bud's got a good sense of melody -- something that I feel is the hardest to teach, but comes with time.

Check out a sample of Bud's new song, "Jacob's Hurricane."


You can download the full version of "Jacob's Hurricane" at Bud's site, BudBuckley.com.

Below is the ActoInterview with Bud. Enjoy.

1. On your site you list a wide variety of influences, ranging from 60 and 70s artists like the Beatles and Joni Mitchell to contemporary artists like Foo Fighters and Barenaked Ladies. Are you influenced at all by artists outside of mainstream rock/pop music? Or do you focus entirely on such melodic music?

I do a lot of the tunes you mentioned because it's what is expected in the places I play. I can't really identify any influences in the music on my CD. It just came from my heart and my experiences. I love to explore people who catch my ear and see what it is about the structure of the music that entices me. Lately I've taken an interest in Damien Rice for his melodies. Nickel Creek is another that I find interesting. My lyrics come completely from what I run into. I've co-written some lyrics with friends whose writing I admire. The music always comes after the lyrics for me and it takes a quite a bit of time. I know the influence question is a favorite but that's the best I can do. I hope I just sound like me.

2. You joke on your web site that you almost wet yourself when you first performed in front of people. Do you still get nervous?

I never get that nervous anymore. It doesn't scare me to perform. I'm more comfortable in some situations than others, of course. If it's an audition situation, there is a lot more tension. Yoga has helped me stay focused most of the time and I get over those rough moments where I might be thinking instead of feeling. Being nervous is just a head trip that can be replaced with a more useful head trip.

3. How long did it take you before you had the confidence to share your original songs with other people?

It came pretty quickly because I was rushed into it on a kind of a dare from Helen Avakian, my guitar teacher. She promised to perform at my school if I would write a song and perform with her. I had six weeks to put that together. But then it took me a year to write another one in the same situation at school with Helen when I did a good-bye concert as I was retiring. After, that, though, I dove into song writing and started performing them every chance I got. These days I sprinkle covers in between my own to get the audience feeling like they're on familiar ground. Once somebody requests one of your own, you're pretty confident. It takes time to get original work familiar enough to a regular audience before they'll ask, though. For people starting out, I highly recommend becoming a regular at every open mic you can find. Play your songs over and over to gain confidence and to let your song and your performance evolve. People will start asking you for their favs and you'll take a quantum leap in your confidence levels.

4. You comment on your site that you've come around to embracing music theory. How dependent are you on music theory when writing songs?

I'm very dependent on music theory in the music writing process. And the more I play with the theory, the more I learn about how you can "break the rules" and still come up with something interesting. I love to play with alternate chords. If I can find a way to start on a second or third instead of the one chord, I get pretty pumped. I like to experiment with minors where you would expect the major, flat sevens, out of the box chords, inversions. I like to hunt for melodies that don't begin on the triad notes of the chord. I love to hunt for riffs in harmonic intervals of sixths and tenths. It astounds me that there are people who have been highly successful at doing all of that stuff without knowing any theory at all. But for me, knowing it, takes me down other allies I never would have risked. Sight reading music notation is something that I've consciously put off because I waited too long. I think it's a very important skill to gain if it is a reasonable goal for you. I started too late in life. I can read enough to learn a tune but I don't sight read. The other extreme is that many very well trained student musicians that I know are so sheet music dependent, they couldn't improvise a note if you threatened to kill their dogs and cats. That's a pity. I hope they learn to break that fear. Some of them are going to prestigious music colleges this year. I hope that helps.

5. In addition to being a performer, you're a guitar teacher. What's the most important thing guitarists just starting out should remember to help ensure that they progress well as a student?

The most important thing for a student or anybody that hopes to succeed in life, is to have a set of clearly articulated goals. Goals that are high but reasonable. You have to write them down in the long term, medium term and short term. And you have to consult them every day to stay on the path toward your goals. If you do that and you revise them when necessary, you will always be successful. If you operate like that it isn't even necessary for me to tell you that you have to practice every day. That will just be a given. When practice seems like drudgery you need to have some fun stuff to play. Eventually you start trying bits of the stuff you're practicing in the fun stuff. I insist that my students pick a song they really want to learn that is within their reach. And we start there. Then I try to find songs with the same chords or techniques that they like. Build on the fun stuff. That's my method. But you still have to practice technique so you can play it. ++

Hard to Handle

One of my favorite examples of covering a song by transforming it into another genre of music is "Hard to Handle," originally by Otis Redding and later re-invented by the Black Crowes. Take a listen below (flash required).

Otis Redding:


the Black Crowes:



The Crowes did the time old formula to transform any song written a few decades or more ago:

1. Make it more electric
2. Add more production tracks; make the sound richer
3. Sing in a style that is rock
4. Add your own flair to it

And, given the talent of the Black Crowes and the energy they bring to all their songs, their cover of "Hard to Handle" proved to be a true rocker. The band had successfully managed to transform an old blues song into a southern rock classic. Good stuff.

ActoGuitar Interview Series

One of the coolest things about playing guitar (or any instrument, for that matter) is that everyone has their own spin on it. People have been playing this instrument for hundreds of years, but there's still so much more to be uncovered.

And with that in mind, I'll be scouring the web to find some great guitarists to interview. Someone who can share offer their unique perspective and insight on how they craft their music as well as what it means to them is who we're looking for. If you have any suggestions, email them to me.

Reworking Songs Into Different Genres

One of my favorite songwriting techniques is to take a song I like rework it into a different genre. I posted a lesson on the ActoGuitar forums about how a rap song can be turned into a country song, but there are countless examples and frameworks that musicians can use to pull off similar tricks.

Consider, for instance, the song "Why Don't You Get a Job" by The Offspring. The song has pop/punk undertones -- which is not surprising, given the musical stylings of The Offspring -- but is appallingly similar to the Beatles song "Ob La Di, Ob La Da." (Of course, as this Wikipedia entry states, the song "Ob La Di, Ob La Da" has its own copyright controversy. Looks like everyone's stealing!)

Anyway. Check out the audio clips below to see for yourself.

Why Don't You Get a Job:


Ob La Di, Ob La Da:



To rework the songs, Dexter Holland and the rest of The Offspring only needed to do a few things:

1. Add more electric guitars, and play them with some distortion.
2. Sing using a bit of harsher tone; think Axl Rose, not Paul McCartney.
3. Change the lyrics so that they are a bit more aggressive.
4. Small revisions to the structure of the song; for instance, "Why Don't You Get a Job" starts off with an a capella intro, one that is not found in "Ob La Di, Ob La Da."

Another trick that was not used in this song but is used quite frequently is to play around with the tempo of the song. For instance, there are some songs by the Ramones that fit the traditional formula of punk music: catchy, fast, simple, and high energy. By slowing down those songs, making them acoustic instead of electric, and singing in a sweeter tone, the songs can be transformed into a different genre that appeals to a different audience.

Kevin Kelly Pontificates on Art

Kevin Kelly, former editor of Wired magazine, photographer, author, and technologist, has a great post on his web site on the relationship between the artist and art. The whole piece is marvelous and a must read for any artist -- especially the one struggling to find his/her artistic identity. Here's the best part of the entry:

The lesson here is simply that courting approval, even that of peers, puts a dangerous amount of power in the hands of the audience. Worse yet, the audience is seldom in a position to grant (or withhold) approval on the one issue that really counts - namely, whether or not you're making progress in your work. They're in a good position to comment on how they're moved (or challenged or entertained) by the finished product, but have little knowledge or interest in your process. Audience comes later. The only pure communication is between you and your work.

This ties into the notion that rejection and art are deeply connected. As Albert Camus said:

Artistic creation is a demand for unity and a rejection of the world.

The point of this whole entry? Forget about what other people think. The audience is secondary to you. If you make work that you has meaning for you, you've already succeeded. And besides, chances are that the approval of others will be a lot easier to obtain once you have your own approval.

Song Comparison: Imagine and Don't Look Back in Anger

Oasis' principal songwriter Noel Gallagher has been both criticized and applauded for copying the work of other songwriters to make his own "original" songs. As a huge fan of Oasis and Noel Gallagher's songwriting, I think this is nothing short of exemplary; in my opinion, songs are supposed to be written by reinventing the music you like. For songwriters and creators of any kind, the best way to make something your own is to reinvent something that was already done.

There are countless examples of how Noel Gallagher has refashioned his favorite British rock songs to create his own original tunes; Gallagher himself admits to viewing the Beatles as his heroes, and the similarity in their sounds is hard to deny. On what is perhaps Oasis' most beloved track -- "Don't Look Back in Anger," a song used as the encore to their live performances -- Gallagher "borrows" the opening piano riff to John Lennon's "Imagine."

Compare:

Don't Look Back in Anger:


Imagine:


The lyrics to the song were also inspired by Lennon. The Wikipedia entry for "Don't Look Back in Anger" quotes Noel:

I got this tape in The United States that had apparently been burgled from the Dakota Hotel and someone had found these cassettes. Lennon was starting to record his memoirs on tape. He's going on about 'trying to start a revolution from me bed, because they said the brains I had went to my head". I thought 'Thank you, I'll take that'!

For songwriters, listening to music is just as important to writing music. Find your favorites and look for ways that you can reinvent their songs to make them your own.

Fight Test and Father and Son

There is the old adage "Good artists copy; great artists steal." It is an adage that I personally live by, as almost every song I write is simply a variation or re-interpretation of a song that I really like.

The Flaming Lips, whose album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots serves as one of the most underrated albums of the '90s, contains the song "Fight Test." The entire album is a concept album about a little girl that must go on to face pink robots, and "Fight Test" is sort of a look at how the little girl needs to look inside to muster the courage for this battle. Really weird, but a great song nonetheless. Check it out:

Fight Test:


The song does bear a resemblance to the song "Father and Son," by Cat Stevens (who now goes by the name Yusuf Islam). Islam later sued the Flaming Lips for a copyright violation, and successfully won -- thus entitling him to a portion of the royalties. Hear a clip from "Father and Son" below:

Father and Son:


Personally I question the validity of this lawsuit and of other similar ones; in my opinion, the Flaming Lips reinvented the song enough to call it their own. "Fight Test" has a much more electric and richer sound to it, something that can only be done in light of the advanced recording technology available today that previously was not available. This leads to another point that songwriters should bear in mind: one great trick to copying a song is to take an acoustic song and make it electric, or vice versa. Many great songs from the '60s and '70s are waiting to be reinvented by a modern rock band that have the luxury of adding a lot of layers to the song and giving it a richer production that in previous times was not available.

In the end, the best way to do something new is to repackage something old.

The Importance of Being Simple

It took me a long time to learn how to write a song that I actually thought was decent enough to share with other people. While part of the problem was just time -- there is no shortcut to being a good guitarist, as practice, and lots of it, is the only sure fire way to becoming proficient -- the other part of the problem was the music I listened to. I was and still am a big fan of artists like Guns n' Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix; when I was first learning to play guitar, I listened almost exclusively to those three. While they are nothing short of inspirational, their music is quite complex for the novice, and hence not the best material to start out emulating.

As I grew older and my musical tastes expanded beyond hard rock, I found a lot of music that was simpler and easier to play. Here's a short list of artists whose songs are perfect for studying for the musician just starting out:

the Beatles -- It's been over 40 years since they dropped their first album, but their influence is undeniable. Early Beatles contains quite a few songs that are simple and great to play.
Oasis - Given that they openly admit to being Beatles copycats, Oasis is a prime example of how simple chord changes can be used to create melodic songs that still rock.
Green Day -- Simplicity is one of the fundamental principles of punk music, as the genre consists largely of songs that have just three chords in them. Green Day are the kings of three chord glory.
Weezer -- Like Green Day, Weezer also excels in making the most out of three chords. Both bands focus on creating great melodies while using simple chord progressions.

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