On the processes of songwriting: A case study of popular music songwriters in Singapore

Music composing has been regarded to lie at the heart of music pedagogy (e.g., Winters, 2012) as it has been argued to underpin the development of musical skills and understanding (Glover, 2002; Odam, 1995; Paynter, 1982). P. R. Webster (2013) went as far as to say that music composing increases musical intelligence. Music composing has also been argued to promote the development of imagination, inventiveness, and creativity (Paynter, 2000; P. R. Webster, 2013). Additionally, music composing promotes agency development (Cape, 2014; Mantie, 2008). Moreover, music composing (particularly songwriting) has been shown to contribute to mental health (Baker, 2016; Baker et al., 2009; Dalton & Krout, 2006; Kinney, 2012; Kumm, 2013; Palidofsky & Stolbach, 2012; Rio & Tenney, 2002; Silverman, 2013; Wolf & Wolf, 2012). Finally, music composing contributes towards national economy when individuals become professional music composers in the realm of popular music.

Despite these benefits, music composing is insufficiently taught in schools (e.g., Hogenes et al., 2015; Juntunen, 2011; Lum et al., 2014; Makris et al., 2022; Menard, 2015; Suomi et al., 2022; Westerlund & Partti, 2013) due to a lack of teaching confidence and know-how among other reasons (C. Byrne & Sheridan, 1998; Lum & Dairianathan, 2014; Strand, 2006; Westerlund & Partti, 2013; Winters, 2012). The manner in which the subject is taught is also a cause for concern for it tends to focus on procedural aspects rather than creativity (Wise, 2016). Additionally, there have been advocacies for more use of popular music in general music education to bridge the gap between what students enjoy outside schools versus what is taught in schools (Colquhoun, 2018; Dimitriadis, 2009; Ng, 2018).

To help address the above concerns and to inform pedagogy, the present case study examined the lifelong learning and music-songwriting processes of five professional popular music composers (including me as one of the participants) in Singapore. The specific research questions for the present study are: (a) What are the thinking processes of professional music-songwriters when composing popular music? (b) How are lived experiences, attitudes towards music, beliefs or anything else involved when professional music-songwriters compose popular music? (c) How do professional music-songwriters learn to compose popular music? The study involves two components: (a) narrative biography; and (b) music-songwriting task. For the latter, the Stimulated Recall (STR) method (Burden et al., 2015; Calderhead, 1981; Collins, 2005, 2007; Lyle, 2003; Pohjannoro, 2014, 2016) was used. Data collected consists of interviews and autobiography (for me as participant) as well as artifacts (Musical Instrument Digital Interface [MIDI] files, audio files and Digital Audio Workstation [DAW] session files) as stimuli for the STR method. Dual Process Theory (DPT) which attributes human information processing to System 1 (S1) and System 2 (S2) thinking modes (Frankish & Evans, 2009) was adopted to underpin the present study.

Themes emerged from the data of the present study include: (a) Music songwriters employed S1-S2 synergy with agility for creativity; (b) music-songwriters employed imagination and adaptation to create novelty; (c) music-songwriters worked under constraints and trade-offs defined by client specifications, design integrity and music theory compliance; (d) music-songwriters considered affect as an impetus for music-songwriting; (e) music-songwriters adopted composing strategies often involving digital technology; (f) music-songwriters learned through lifelong engagement in a wide range of musical activities; and (g) learning motivation of music-songwriters was contingent on five social factors.

The present study is novel in that by studying both the composing and learning processes in a single study, it established the relationship between the modes of listening (distracted, attentive and purposive) during learning and the modes of thinking (S1 and S2 according to DPT) during music-songwriting. Findings from the present study implicate the need for teachers to perform two roles: (a) to help learners build a foundation for learning music-songwriting; and (b) to facilitate the process of music songwriting.