Ryan Tedder Quotes

If you listen to a lot of the songs that are popular now, there's very little melody in there. People love the beat. But to musicians, it's melody, because we understand how elusive it is and how hard it is to hold.

We really like having songs where we think the arrangement is just as important as the melodies, even though they're typically not.

A melody without the right rhythm hardly exists.

I really believe in melody.

I could tell it was a popular move as a writer to walk down the bass lines while you were writing a song.

When I hear the piano played in a compositional way, like in a songwriter's way in a compositional way, there's a certain arc to that that I love.

I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures.

If you can say the lyrics almost like a poem and they stand up, that's a great thing. Some songs have great lyrics and I don't like the melodies, and vice versa.

All my songs were made at the end of the neck, 'farmer's corner' chords.

Yes, basically, like you said, I'll work out a chord pattern and work out the lyrics over that.

I played trumpet in the school bands. I learned things I liked to play on my trumpet, but I didn't learn why this note goes with this note and why it produces that sound. Or how to create tension in the composition.

What came to me as a revelation was the use of rhythm in developing an overall structure in music.

Harmonies are nice.

I'd never written a song before 'The Blood'; I didn't know it was going to be a song.

I love classical music; I love the way it's worked... all those chord sequences so I often use that sort of effect in my solos.

With music, it feels natural that, in my head, I can pull things apart and then put them back together very quickly.

There are no rules to writing a song.

People don't realize you're blowing over changes, time changes, harmony, different keys. I mark a point in my solo where it's got to peak at point D I go to A, B, C D then I'm home.

It's hard to decide how to match words to music. It's not like it's twice the work. It's always difficult for me to explain to the composer what I'm looking for. I'm not a professional; I lack even basic knowledge about writing music.

I really love writing themes and melody.

I am really heavy into songwriting.

Doing the instrumental thing, you're really looking for the power of the melody to carry the record.

If anyone asks me about songwriting, I guess I'd say that you just gotta do it.

The basic idea is always constructed around piano or guitar and a voice, that's what we live and die by, because if you build up from that foundation, it's going to be strong.

Music is made up out of these building blocks. Studying how these blocks go together and what they consist of and the math of how it works - it's all the same stuff; it's just different aesthetics that we're talking about.