Present-Day Songwriting: Writing Songs Like John Prine, A Veteran In The Field.

If you don’t know John Prine, then you should up your music game.

John Prine happened to be an American singer and songwriter, that started his career in the early 1970s. He’s late now; the music world lost John Prine to COVID19 on April 7, 2020, at the age of 73. His legacy will surely outlive him as he’s known as one of the best songwriters to have ever tread the planet earth; people dubbed him the Mark Twain of the Present-day songwriting, and if you know Mark Twain well then you’d know how much of a genius John is when it comes to music. Below we will be taking our time to analyze John Prine’s unique songwriting style.

THE JOHN PRINE’S SONGWRITING METHOD

John Prine’s songwriting style can be described in a few separate sections, and we will be taking our time to walk you through these sections coherently:

1. PERSONA CREATION: Most times, songwriters in their pursuit of excellence are always forced to create a character when crafting lyrics that will be sung. In one of the interviews John Prine honored, he spoke about the importance of writing from the first-person perspective when creating a persona. He further expatiates siting an example with one of his songs “Angel From Montgomery”; John Prine said he wrote it from a woman’s perspective, which he said made the song a classic that it is today. When a veteran of the game speaks, I guess it’s best to conform, no wonder the A class songwriters and singers today take after this same style.
   
   
2. PROGRESSION: John Prine, spoke about progression; John Prine said he always try to visualize how he wanted his song to be rolled-out before embarking on the writing process. He said this is very important for the cohesion and coherence of the song as a whole, which catches listeners’ attention the most. To buttress his point, he spoke about his song “Far From Me,” he said when he wanted to get started on writing “Far From Me” he first visualized how the song would go before filling in the gaps.
   
   
3. TAKING INSPIRATION FROM REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE: To conclude, he spoke about his song “Souvenirs”, John Prine wrote it for his brother, Doug. He said “Souvenirs” was a scenario that happened during his childhood which is a perfect representation to what he laid in his music. You’re best at telling a story that’s your own.

Do you want to write songs like John Spine? Do practice these three main components the legend emphasized on and you’ll be regarded as one of the best too!