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Do I Need to Read and Write Music?

This is another question that often comes up with beginning songwriters. The short answer is ‘no’. Many, if not most, of today’s successful songwriters neither read nor write music notation. The list of major songwriters who don’t read or write music notation would be a lengthy one. And this is not a recent phenomenon, the great Irving Berlin wrote all of his songs on the white keys on the piano (the key of C) and had them transposed. Janis Joplin was quoted as saying “I don’t write songs. I make them up!” Mel Brooks, in addition to being a comic and a director, also happens to be the most successful song composer in the history of Broadway. He was quoted as saying that he writes all his songs in the shower!

Consider this, the greatest musicians are rarely the greatest songwriters. It’s a fact. Why is that the case? Surely they would have the easiest time coming up with ideas. I have a few theories. One is that creativity is not always encouraged in music schools. There’s a certain regimentation that’s reinforced. Creativity is hard to measure and so is often overlooked in an academic setting. Another is that songwriting usually consists of two components; words and music. All that time spent learning scales was not spent on writing great lyrics!

And speaking of words, what about all the great lyricists through the years? I don’t have hard data but I would guess that most couldn’t read or write music notation yet there’s no one in the world that would say that they weren’t great songwriters.

In addition, throughout my teaching career I’ve had students with extensive backgrounds in Music Theory, students with some knowledge of Music Theory and other students without any knowledge of music theory and I have yet to see any correlation among those with or without an academic history in Music. Those with a good handle on Theory are no better or worse than those without.

That said, I view knowing how to read or write music notation and Music Theory as another tool in your songwriting ‘tool belt’. All knowledge is good and knowledge specific to music would be beneficial. I’d recommend if you have the resources that you study music. However you can be a great songwriter without a formal background in it.

If however you plan to compose instrumental for film or television or legitimate theatre you will of course have to know how read and write musical notation because that’s how musicians in those arenas communicate. On the other hand if you plan on pitching songs to publishers you’ll be fine without it.

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