SONGWRITING ON DEMAND -Amethodology
Martin Carlberg
Original title: SongwritingOnDemand
©2025 Martin Carlberg,Twangster MusicAB
Allrightsreserved. No partofthisbookmay be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever withoutwritten permission from thepublisher or author except in thecaseofbrief quotations embodied in articles or reviews.
Editingby PatrickRydmanand John Woodall
Proofreading by MariaEk
Layout by MariaEk
Publisher: BoD· BooksonDemand, Östermalmstorg 1, 114 42 Stockholm, Sverige, bod@bod.se
Print: LibriPlureos GmbH,Friedensallee 273, 22763 Hamburg, Tyskland
ISBN:978-91-8080-954-2
”Fora songwriter,you don'treallygoto songwritingschool; youlearn by listeningto tunes. Andyou trytounderstandthemand take them apartand seewhatthey're made of,and wonderifyoucanmakeone,too.”
—Tom Waits
THANKYOU!
Thankyou allwho hasinsomeway assisted in thewriting of this book. Themostimportant namesmustsurelybePatrick Rydman,John Woodalland of course my love MariaEkwithout whosesupport Icould neverhavedonethis. Ialsowanttothank everybodyinvolvedinthe production of themusic accompanying thebook. Thefivesongs are foundonthe EP "Skywriting"onall streamingplatforms.
Thesongs on "Skywriting"wererecordedinSpinroadStudios by Pedro Ferreira.
GoOutOnYourOwn
Drums- Abbe AbrahamssonPiano-StefanWingefors
String arrangementand recordingby MattiasBylundatBylundStrings
Cello-David Bukovinszky
Violin-Hanna Helgegrenand MattiasJohansson
Allother instruments– Martin Carlberg
CanIComeOver&CrazyTown
Drums- FredrikOscarsson
Fender Rhodes -JoonaToivanen
Hammond B3 -Dan Helgesen
Backup Vocals -MajaNorming,LisaLjungberg,Per Strandberg
Allother instruments– Martin Carlberg
BeStillMyBeatingHeart
Drums- Abbe Abrahamsson
Piano- Stefan Wingefors
StringsarrangedbyMattias Bylund andErikArvinder
PerformedbyStockholm Studio Orchestra
ConductedbyErikArvinder, Engineered and Recorded by William BleekerinIMRSV Studios
Violin -AnnaRoosStefansson, Danial Shariati,Daniela Bofiglioli, Henrik NaimarkMeyers, JannikaGustafsson, JonnaSimonsson,LolaTorrente, OscarTreitler, Paul Waltman, Simona Bonfiglioli, Veronika Novotna, Viola- ChristopherÖhman,ErikHolm, JamesOpie, VidarAndersson Meilink, Cello -DanielThorell, FilipLundberg,Pelle Hansen
Allother instruments– Martin Carlberg
LandOnMyFeet
Drums- Abbe Abrahamsson. Grandpiano-JoonaToivanen
Hammond B3 -Dan Helgesen
Backup Vocals -MajaNorming,LisaLjungberg,Per Strandberg
Horns- Anders Carlsson
Allother instruments– Martin Carlberg
INTRODUCTION
Ithink Master Classesare absolutely great. Just to hear and/or seea true master of acraft,any craftreally,speak abouthis or herrelationshiptothese skills andalsoabout theinsightsheorshe hasspent an entire lifetime developing andgathering,issomething Ifindtruly inspiring.
Butmyobservation is that thesewonderful people, although beingmasters of theirartform,needinnoway necessarily at thesametimebeverygoodteachersofthat said artform. Notatall.
It seemstome, that in spiteoftheir musicalmastery,they more oftenthannot areprettyuseless at actually explaining what it is that they really do,and howitisthey really do it.
Iespeciallyrememberaninstructional videofromthe absolute genius,legendary guitar player/singer/songwriter George Benson,sitting with hisguitarinhis home,infront of hisfireplace,playing aI-VI-II-V (Inthe keyofC Majorthatwould be C-Am-Dm-G).
He then movesontotry andexplain somethingabout how to re-harmonize that chordprogression in achromatic fashion.
While trying to explainthisconcept,hegets extremely inspired by themusic that is simply andeffortlessly pouring outofhim,muchlikewater poursfroma well. You couldalmostsay that he gets high on himself :)
He findshimself quiteunabletoexplain howthatmusic just …”happens”…. in him, or even “to” him, sincefor himitisa thingofpureintuition.The creative stateheentersismuch likea hypnotic trance.Hecontinuesinstead to go ever deeper into this creative state, andinrealtimeand right before oureyes... Allthe while making highly exited exclamations like:
“Oooh, thepossibilitiesare endless!!”
He goes on to play onere-harmonizationofI-IV-II-V after theother,while still failingtoprovide asingleshred of new informationabout exactlyhow this is done or just howany of it works. This is probably,because George Benson and othermasters like himthatperform on this forusmere mortalsunreachable level, they aredoing whatever it is that they do on an intuitivelevel,muchmoreso, than on a technicalone.
Ibelieve that theseexceptional people have long ago passed thelevel of “how”todowhattheydo. Allthe necessaryknowledge andtechnicalskills have already
been long acquired andhavebeeninternalized so deeply that they arealmostforgotten.
When reminded of a“howto” techniquetheir eyes might turn unseeing fora moment,astheyremembersome ancientlearning.
Then they mightnod theirheads,reminiscing in silence, that once,maybe they thoughtabout it in such a mechanical way. Much likewhenBen Kenobi forthe first time in many years, hear thename“Obi-Wan”,inthe first (IV) Star Wars film.Withexactly thosesameunseeingeyes he whispers in remembranceunder hisbreath: “Yes,once Iwentbythatname…”Therefore,inany andevery traditionalmeaning of theideaofhow to teach, George Benson andhis likes (GeorgeBensonhas no "likes", butyou know what Imean) is,perhaps,useless.
Butfar more important, in anotherway,justtobeableto observethese geniuses at play in real time like this is somethingabsolutelypriceless andholds aworld of learnings. Learningsmuchdeeperina waythanany traditional“proper”teachingofthe sort of “first this,then that”. It is thesameaswheninthe 8-hour long TheBeatles “Get Back”documentary,wefindJohnLennonlatearriving at thestudio, andPaulMcCartney,while strumming and fiddlingwithhis bass andsinging nonsense lyrics,before ourveryeyeswritesthe basics of thetitle song forthe documentary, theclassic “Get Back”.
Anotherperfect examplefor me,iswatchinganother giant
at work,namelythe greatHansZimmer’smasterclass, on masterclass.com . It is actually amasterclass Iwould highly recommend.I trulyloved it,along with Zimmer's highly philosophical approach.You should know this though about it:The 10 hoursorsoweget to spendwithhim in this piece, doesn´thavethatmuchof“handson” tips or techniques (there area few, butjusta mere handful.)It leansmuchheavier on Zimmer’sphilosophyoffilmmusic composition.
This to me is thesignofa true master,thatthe person has, afteraccumulatedenough knowledgeand techniqueand whatnot, have movedonfromthe practicalities of “how” youdosomething,tothe more esoteric “why”you do something.I absolutely love watching thesemasters at work. Thereissoinfinitelymuchtolearn from just watching them andlistening to them.
As formyself, Imustadmit that Iamnot oneofthese masters. Iamthough, if Idaresay so myself,inmybest moments, pretty good.Perhaps even once upon ablue moon really good.Maybe,ona fewspecificthingseven almost great. (Easynow,tiger!)
This must be made perfectlyclear:I am definitely no master,and Iacceptthisasfact.
So,I don’tjustlovetoconsiderthe deep philosophical discussionsand ponder on theissue of the“why”.I also love the“how” andaminnoway finished with it.I love to learnnew things.I constantly actively seek learnings. Still
we areall different, andwhenI recommendedthe Hans ZimmerMasterClass to aMixer/Producerfriendthatlives in andworks outofNashville,hethenwas so absolutely underwhelmed by it, sinceitdid NOThaveall the”how” bits,thathewrote an angryletter(email, of course)to masterclass.comdemanding hismoney back.(Whichhe did!). This wasbecause he didnot care onebit forall thesephilosophical rantsand ramblings.Hewantedthe nuts andbolts.Hewantedstuff like:“if thereistobecello, at the same time as conversation,the celloneedstoplay in this rangeand notthatrange to make both musicand wordsaudible”.
He wanted that kind of specific information, whichisvery valid stuffindeed,but more of somethingyou mightget from aregular teacherand notfroma true master.
This is becausethe true mastersare past that.Being merely an aptstudent myself,and as Inow have stated clearly, not atruemaster, that mightina strangeway make me just theright person to writea book likethis. Imight be the rightpersonsimplybecause Iloveboththe “how”todo things andthe ”why”todothings, just aboutequally. Be that as it may, Iaminthese fewmodestpages goingto give it ago!
What then ismusic? Imean, what is it really?Toattempt to explainthat, is almost liketryingtoexplain theuniverse. (Accordingtothe Japanese American string theory physicist, TheUniverseismusic!) Sometimesyou just have to humble yourself.
Sometimesyou have to say: “I don’tknow.”
Or...you say"To hell with modesty, let’stry anyway!" Since that soundslikemorefun,let’s do that!And if nothingelse just becauseitissuchgreat funtotry to figure things out! We’llmostprobablyfailinsolving allorany of thegreat mysteries, butsowhat? If we assume thereisaninfinite number of “wrong”choices andexplanations, andonlyone “right”choice, then theoddsare clearlyagainst us.Even so,let us make some assumptionsthatare againstall the odds together!Wewillhavefun alongthe wayand will probably learnatleast something, maybeevensomething of value!
”Nevertellmetheodds!”
—Han Solo
Ihavemanystupendouslytalentedmusicianfriends whoI feel,inmanyways, area lotmoretalentedand skilledthan Iam. They mightsingmorefreelywitha more naturally pleasing voice. Quiteoften they mayhavemuchgreater vocalrange than Ihave.
They mightplaytheir instrument better andmore expressively than Iplaymineortheymight play multiple instrumentswithseeminglyand disturbingly littleeffort (these people areprobablythe worst!).
