Gene McDaniels and Tom Snow Write 'Speak Gently'

Yes this is the Gene McDaniels… you know I figured since today is Friday I wouldn’t be selfish and horde this gem all to myself(I, kid, I kid) but this right here… this is a clinic ladies and gentlemen. Gene and his co-writer Tom Snow exhibit what is most important about writing music: The melody, the lyric and the palette of colors that surround it all.

I don’t give two(insert your fave noun here) what program, app, or yet to be developed tool you use… if you don’t have a melody, something to say and harmony that compliments and goes somewhere you don’t have a song. You want to figure out what’s wrong with music? What’s wrong with music is you have too many people creating music who don’t know the fundamentals. The sports analogy would be that everyone wants to dunk, but no one takes the time to learn how to dribble and pass.

Now certainly what is displayed here is way beyond the textbook dribble and pass, but in order to arrive at this point both our writers spent an enormous amount of time shoring up the mechanics of writing. In my perfect world all the folks who incessantly tweet or post FB status updates about what they are writing or “producing” should have to watch master craftsmen like this at work and then report back what they just witnessed and then compare what they are working on apples to apples. In other words I want to hear what you are doing with just a piano and a vocal and see how it holds up. The arrangement and the tools you choose to use after that are up to you but how does the song hold up with just the core elements?

Anyway enough with the soapbox enjoy the vid and check out Gene talking about his hit song “Compared to What”