Into the Woods

Why does music move us so much? Where do songs come from? Why do some melodies sparkle while others miss the mark? And why, for years, could I never tune a damn guitar properly?

Questions like these have chased me through a lifetime of playing and wondering. They led to the writing of The Musician, to a workshop called a Meander Through the Metaphysics of Music, and now to this: a cosy cabin in the woods that we’ll call E major.

Imagine the seven chords of the key as well-worn paths through the trees. A song is a walk along them — out from home and, more often than not, back again. Stay on the paths and you’re safe to wander. Stepping off into the bramble and bracken brings the shivers and the sparkles.

Here we take that idea apart and make it playable, with graphs (yes, graphs!) and a pocketful of classic songs, all circling the same two questions:

How do you go from silence to song?
And why do some songs just work?

Start anywhere. Nothing needs doing in order, and none of it is a test.

And hold it all lightly. This is a playful enquiry into why some songs sparkle our minds — getting under the hood to see how the engine purrs. The paths we find here can guide you in your songwriting, but the golden rule is playfulness and flow: the best songs are felt out rather than written, arriving with their own shape and direction. They already know what they’re yearning to become when you first catch hold of them.

Your guide on the walk: I’m David Green — musician, songwriter and workshop facilitator (Kindling Songs). Years of chasing these questions turned into a novel about music, a recorded song or two, and this workshop, which I run live with a guitar and a room full of voices. These pages are the cabin’s address on the web: a companion for the room, and a door for anyone wandering in alone.

Get your musical boots on — we’re off to the woods.