Beyond the lyrics: now you can learn to strum and sing any Scott Cooley song quickly for free!

I am pleased to let you know about a significant project I’ve recently completed that you may have interest in and benefit from.  A while back, you may have noticed I posted the lyrics for all of my songs on scottcooley.com.  Now you can find out the chords for them as well.  There is now a Scott Cooley songbook, believe it or not.  It’s available now to anyone, and it’s absolutely free.  Why would I produce such a thing, you might wonder?  Read on to find out.

This is more of a long-form news item covering in greater detail what I previously covered in the more condensed post on the News page of scottcooley.com "The new songbook is here!".

As a guitar player, if I ever want to learn how to play a popular song, I do what most of you probably do:  I google it.  Typically I’ll put in the song title, followed by the word ‘chords’ and click on the results.   We all have our influences, and learning from listening to recordings alone can be a tedious process.

There are issues with these guitar chord sites.  One is that they’re often wrong.  Another is that they don’t use the screen real estate smartly.  What happens is you get a bunch of annoying introductory information, and then usually the first verse and the chorus, but that is all that appears “above the fold,” which means you’re forced to scroll vertically down to see the rest of the song. 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could see the entire song on one screen or page?  That’s difficult even when you are trying to learn a song from printed sheet music.  You have to turn the page.  It impedes your progress to have to scroll or turn the page. 

I know some people back in the day would write with pen on paper the lyrics with chord above word where played, and they’d try to write small enough, sometimes using a two-column approach, to get it all on a single sheet of paper.  The online chord sites often try to cram in a bunch of tablature as well, sometimes tablature-only, when you expected lyrics and chords, presumably to satisfy the apparent demand for the lead guitarists of the world who want to master the riffs, solos and melodies.  The sheet music publishing companies throw in a bunch of notes on staffs to satisfy the people who read music. 

All that said, the average joes of the world just want to know the chords and words so they can play the song and sing it to close family and friends without the subtle detailed nuances of notation and tablature.  This is the dilemma for most, I suspect.  A great way to start is by knowing the chords and words and basic structure of a song first, and then you can always figure out the melodies, riffs and solos later on.

I realize a few people out there in the world will spend like a whole year learning one song on guitar, perfecting every single note exactly like the recording, becoming a true master before moving on to another one.  There are kids on YouTube who can play Eruption by VanHalen perfectly all the way through, for example.  Nothing wrong with that.  

I'll never be that kind of person.  If I learn part of a cover song at all, it's from looking up the chords with words online.  I have recorded and released for free recordings of me covering songs I like by other artists, however, and find it a fun thing to do when the songwriting muse is temporarily absent.  You can check some of those out here if interested.  

It's an extension of studying songs you like to become better at songwriting.  You try to figure out what about a song you like makes it good, which can inform your knowledge when you write your own originals, and then attempting to record a song you like by another artist takes it a step further and is always great practice and a learning experience.

With the internet, you typically don’t waste your time paying for sheet music or guitar books anymore.  I did buy one once though:  it was called The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook, and although it was too thick to hold it open to any song due to the binding, I thought it was designed and laid out well.  Most songs spanned two pages, though some were only one, while others were up to four.  Then an idea occurred to me.

What if I used the same way of notating the lyrics, chords and song parts as that book, but made sure every single song spanned exactly two pages?  Further, what if I then printed and bound it with a coil ring binding that would allow it to stay open?  I thought it would be possible, so I set out to make it happen – with my own songs.

The result is a book containing the chords and lyrics of every song I’ve released on my first 10 studio albums that can be opened to any page, set on a music stand, and have the even numbered page at left be the first half of the song, and the odd numbered page on the right be the last half of the song.  As a bonus, the electronic pdf version of it can be used on a computer, while taking advantage of search, electronic table of contents and index, so you can find and display any song in the same way – provided you have it set to show two pages side-by-side.

I’ve never memorized any of my own songs really, enjoying just writing them and recording them, then repeating, but never revisiting any of them to be able to learn them and play them live for people.  I’ve just always thought it was more fun to spend my time writing and recording new songs rather than be able to perform past songs from memory.  People think that’s weird.  They hear you write songs, hand you a guitar, and want you to perform them, understandably.  When you can’t do that, it’s embarrassing.

My motivation, therefore, was to properly type up both the words and chords so that I could at least open a book on a music stand in front of me and be able to perform my own songs in their entirety in front of people.  If I dedicated time to do that alone repeatedly, I may even be able to memorize some of them.  I guess since I’m not a live performing type of musician, I never gave it much attention.

In the back of my mind I thought someday, I’ll get out the scraps of paper I scribbled lyrics on and type them up, try to remember the chords and type those where appropriate on there too.  I guess I always thought I’d wait until I had a bunch of really good original songs first, before I even bothered attempting to actually learn them.  Still not sure if I’ve attained that yet!

For many non-musicians they figure that if you wrote a song yourself, well then you certainly should know how to play it from memory.  For me, that’s not the case.  I have it fresh in my head enough right when I complete it to get it recorded, then I promptly forget it forevermore thereafter.  Most of my songs I only played through once or twice before hitting record.  It’s hard for people to fathom, but that’s just how I’ve always approached the hobby, never intending to be a public performer.

Like most people, eventually, I could actually play several popular cover songs all the way through when I first started playing guitar.  That was the original goal – to just get good enough to play songs you liked by other artists.  Singing and playing at the same time was no problem for me.  I also knew a lot of little parts of famous songs, never learning how to play them entirely.

When I did jam with duos and groups, I always just sort of naturally gravitated to being the lead guitar player, the role in the band where all you had to know was the key the song was in, and you were good to go.  Classic rock and blues were the main types of songs we played, and playing some variation of a pentatonic scale worked well enough to entertain most crowds and appear somewhat competent.  The solos were no problem, and throwing in a few fills between chords here and there were adequate enough.  Somehow, I instinctively knew how to make it sound good and not interfere with the singer, while sounding like I knew what I was doing.

So, the background of being a lead guitarist, rather than a lead singer or rhythm player, was such that I could play with people and never need to know all the chords or words from memory.  After a few years of jamming with others playing covers, I realized I loved trying to make up my own songs.  Being primarily a songwriter and home recording hobbyist has always been what I love most about music.  Probably in the back of my mind I thought that some day when I had a bunch of really good songs, I’d learn them so I could play them in front of people, but I’ve just never gotten around to it.  The motivation just isn’t there.

Now the only excuse I’ll have for not learning my own songs is procrastination.  I’ll still focus on writing and recording new songs as my primary hobby, but now that I’ve got a songbook, it will be way easier if I ever decide to learn a few of my own songs.  I’ve heard you have to play them regularly too, or else you’ll forget. 

It’s why famous bands have to rehearse for a month before they go on tour.  Lots of famous bands and singer/songwriters actually use teleprompters when you see them perform live these days.  Practice and rehearsal would allow me to be the person who claims he’s a songwriter to be able to back it up when handed a guitar and play from memory some of the best originals.  Maybe enough to play a live set at a bar or coffee place sometime.  You never know, but the point is, if I had the desire, it’s more possible now for it to become a reality due to the tool of having everything properly typed up.

Publishing companies are traditionally into charging for songbooks and sheet music for their artists’ and songwriters’ songs.  Going against that norm, I thought in this modern age, why not make it free and easy for people to learn my songs?  It was never a motivation, and there’s never been any demand for it to speak of yet, but maybe, just maybe, someone other than me might want to learn how to play and sing my songs someday. 

Maybe in the future someone might want to record and release a cover of one of my songs one day.  It would be really cool to hear someone else’s version of a song I wrote, so why not make it easy if anyone ever had such a desire?  If that someone is you, you can easily fill out the simple form on the Licensing page of scottcooley.com to get official permission - that is, only if you intend to try to commerically sell your cover recording of one of my songs.

Check out the songbook here:  www.scottcooley.com/songbook.

It’s got 126 of my original songs in it.  It’s professionally done, and I should know, since I’ve been a professional technical writer for over 23 years now.  This is what is possible when you’re a skilled technical writer who has a period of unemployment. 

I did 100% of it myself – the design, the layout, the formatting, the typing up of the lyrics, the perfect placement of the chords, the electronically linked page numbering, table of contents, index, and discography, the acknowledgements, preface, and introduction.  A ton of work went into this – particularly listening back to the recordings with guitar and figuring out the chords and words I never bothered to write down for many of them, so it was a labor of love. 

It’s a passion hobby of mine.  I love doing it all myself – the writing, the singing, the multiple instrument playing, the recording, the mixing, the mastering, the cover art, the packaging design, the arranging, the producing, the web site design and maintenance, the social media and blog posts, copyright registration, various label and distribution duties, the production of videos, the rights administration, and now this expansion of song publishing in the form of a book.  It’s a passion to write songs, it’s fun to record them, and all the rest is in support of that hobby, including this songbook, and I’m proud of all of it.

Hope someone, someday (maybe you?) will actually want to learn one of my songs, and if so, find this book and appreciate the ease at which they are able to use it to do so.  If not, maybe I’ll learn some of my own songs as a result.  It was definitely worth the hard work, because at the very least I can lug a music stand and my printed version along to any place and open to any page, and have a complete song in front of me that I can perform in front of people.  Pretty cool.

Why Lyrics Matter

I am of the belief that lyrics matter.  Although there are times when I love a good instrumental, be it rock, classical, or jazz, when the subject of songs comes up, I am of the opinion that I prefer the types that have lyrics most often, and I tend to value those whose lyrics I particularly appreciate.  Good lyrics make songs good because they are capable as standing alone without music, but are supported well by the music.  As opposed to songs in which the music makes the lyrics stand out, there is no risk of unintentionally remembering lyrics you don't like when the thing you like best is the lyric.

I saw a documentary of the 70s rock band called Kansas recently on TV, and a moving statement made about one of their songs Carry On My Wayward Son, was that every part of the song was itself a hook - the intro, the melody, the solo, the verses, the chorus, etc. as well as the philosophical lyrics.  Indeed it seems to be a song where the whole thing arguably hooks you into wanting to continue to listen to it all the way through.  It's rare that a song fires on all cylinders like that.

Fluff and filler without meaning or intrigue can be present in a good song, no doubt.  Often there are only portions of lyrics you like, just as with the music.  Great songs however seem to have memorable lyrics that move you to feel certain emotions and have the power to provoke thoughts in addition to having pleasant music.

A part of me agrees with people who say the lyrics don't matter.  Particularly with danceable music, if you love the instrumental hooks and the groove, you don't care what the lyrics are about, nor do you even notice much of the time anything beyond a catchy line or phrase from the chorus - usually the title.  Let's face it, lyrics aren't always the most memorable part of a song you like, but another part of me nonetheless believes that they are important.

Your interpretation is unique, and you create your own images, maybe from subliminal messages, or maybe from indirect things the subliminal messages lead you to think about.  Even with words that just sound cool and are not meant to have a particular meaning, words intended to flow together with other words well, or words strung together in a stream-of-consciousness style that conjure memories or visions in one's mind are all making contributions to the song's likability.

When music videos were a new thing, it was like sensory overload.  Sometimes the video was so interesting, you found yourself focused on it so much, you almost didn't notice much about the song.  It can arguably detract from the music listening experience.  Maybe in the future we'll have robot massages or even smell maker devices that accompany music, who knows?  Watching a live band is exciting, but sitting in a room with your eyes closed while listening to a record is the best way to enjoy music for me.  And music with lyrics is just enough take me away to a happy place.

Instrumental breaks within songs with lyrics give you the joy of instrumental music along with that of music with words.  That's why I usually include such a passage when recording music myself.  It gives the listener time to reflect on the words so far, and get lost in thought for a few moments.

As a songwriter, you can make lyrics fit music, or you can make music fit lyrics.  Every single time, however, it's a little of both, depending on how you think of it.  Maybe Bob Dylan has the lyrics typed out ahead of time, and maybe Paul McCartney has the music completed first, however, when fitting one to the other to form a song that has both lyrics and music, some of the making it fit work happens in Bob or Paul's head.  This means that whether putting pen to paper or finger to guitar string, there is thought involved which serves as a chicken/egg scenario in my way of thinking.

Sometimes it's obvious when listening to music the lyrics fall short in comparison to the music, or vice versa.  Either can be disappointing.  I don't know if you can call it a poem or not if you're just reading lyrics without music, and certainly a karaoke track of a song without the singing of lyrics would qualify as music.  When both can stand alone and be considered good, then when they are blended together, you've got greatness.

Subjectivity trumps universal truths when it comes to what makes a good song good.  Computer programs can only analyze so much about hit songs, and these analytics don't enable them to automatically create hit songs.  Your opinion counts, your taste matters, and your tastes change based on many factors.  Maybe unconsciously, a song's lyrics have an effect on you even when you can't recite them from memory.

Conversely, it's easy to recite verbatim terrible meaningless lyrics from songs you've heard before.  Whether you wanted to or not, they get stuck in your head.  Often I find a classic rock radio station while in my car and realize I know all of the words of some dreadful song from the 80s that was popular when I was in high school or something.  It's hard to admit, but these have other things going for them musically that made them memorable, despite them making you cringe.  So bad, they're memorable, perhaps.

The introductory overview of the wikipedia entry for the word "lyrics" has a couple sentences that prove my point:

The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression.

Some come right out and say it, while others allow you to guess at the intended meaning.  Some don't make much sense, but just sound great with the music.   Some spark your imagination of what a music video for the song would look like.  Some are like hearing someone tell you a great story.  Some make you see the world in a different way, while others sink in from repetition alone.

You can easily study, read, play a game, or just think your own thoughts while instrumental music is in the background.  It's not so easy when the song has lyrics.  When songs have lyrics, you tend to take notice, listen more intently, and have the opportunity to be more fulfilled as a result.  This is why I think lyrics matter.  There is potential for more gratification.