Hello,
I was not sure exactly how to word this or where to post it, so move it to another forum if needed.
While reading Neil Young's biography "Shakey" and trying to learn some of his songs from the Anthology book,
somehow I cannot picture what I read about and also seeing Neil sitting down with blank sheet music and drawing all the sqiggly lines.
He mentions in the book about writing a song on a napkin at a cafe.
He writes one sitting on his porch and hours later the band is playing it.
Since I don't understand this, I hope you all understand my question. :?
Neil Young quote probably didn't sit down with manuscript and write little black dots and squiggly lines.
He probably wrote down some words and some chords, and scribbled down a few ideas for fills and twiddly bits.
Then he'd have taken it to his band and told them how he reckoned it should go. The band would have worked on it, and put some of their own ideas into the interpretation. Somebody somewhere along the line might have scribbled out a few ideas for bits of the song in standard notation.
Then people like us sit down with blank bits of paper and write out it Tab or Little Black Dots what the band ended up doing.
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
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Ok, I sorta understand what you are saying and sorta don't?
I know that a suprising amount of 60's - 70's rock musicians did attend some music school.
Neil Young did not, he dropped out of high school.
The book says he could tell (and get quite pissed) if any band member missed even one note in any songs.
Yet they had no music sheets?
Great musicians sure, harmony of the band, sure, but still?
I guess my question is, at what point, and how does his "Anthology" book end up on my coffee table?
he writes some lyrics, maybe some chords to go with it. the melody's probably in his head. he shows it to the band. they run through it a few times. they go to the studio and record it. until the final recording, the lyrics, melody, and arrangement are probably not set in stone, so you could say the band also writes the songs. some one else puts the notes to paper after listening to the final cd.
as for missed notes, you can hear it when someone makes a mistake or misses a cue.
Thanks for the answers.
