This past Friday I went on my 5th mentor visit of the year. Every time I go on a visit I am learning and experiencing many new things and ideas. This is especially true for my most previous visit. We talked and discussed many topics, but two main ideas stuck out to me. The first idea we talked about was the concept of a countermelody. The second takeaway I had was the idea of ‘home’ within a song.
The first big thin Jonathan explained to me is the importance of having a countermelody. To put it in context, we were working on one of my songs and there was a long guitar solo. He said that while the solo was good, there should be some things added to support it so the listener does not get board. Jonathan had a really good analogy to illustrate this. He said the guitar or main melody should be like the road of a road trip. Most of the time you are focusing on the road, but every now and then you look off for a moment to see a mountain or lake. The counter melody is the mountain/lake. Its something that distracts the listener for a moment but doesn't take away from the road.
The second takeaway I had was the idea of having a ‘home’ in a song. Jonathan said that every song should have a solid home, but the song should have a good amount of time away from home so that when you return to home, it truly feels like home. He said its just like a real home, your home doesn't feel special until you have spent time away from it. Like when you go on vacation, and then return to home it really feels special to be home. In a song, Jonathan explained that you can achieve this by having parts of the song that feel unusual so that when you return to that home, it feels special and has a greater emotional impact.
