In college, I wrote a report on a song by opera composer Bellini. In my research, I learned that Bellini was known for creating melody lines that sounded remarkably like speech. That tidbit of information revolutionized my concept of what’s possible. It opened up the idea that a song could begin with lyrics, and the melody could be formed by the natural inflections of the words involved. Without knowing one chord on the guitar or one note on the piano, the world of songwriting is still open to you.
(Note: The inspiration for my report was Filippa Giordano’s rendition of “Casta Diva.”)
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