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How to Borrow from Folk Songs

How to Borrow from Folk Songs

February 7, 2012 Leave a comment (http://www.organizingsound.com/how-to-borrow-from-folksongs/#respond)

In todays exercise, were going to take whole folk songs and transform them into something new. In
engaging in this practice, youll actually be participating in the very tradition were borrowing from.
BACKGROUND
Folk song traditions are all about borrowing. The ideal of the totally original musician is a relatively
recent development. Folk musicians have been reusing chord progressions and musical phrases for
as long as such traditions have existed. Interestingly, late medieval and renaissance composers built
some of the earliest polyphonic music on the basis of melodic lines taken in whole from popular songs
of the time. This was not considered stealing; in fact, part of the interest these songs held was in the
dierent interpretations and developments of those basic melodic ideas composers brought to the
table.
These kind of practices are generally dicult and expensive to engage in these days due to copyright
laws (though there is a growing number of musicians releasing their songs with less restrictive creative
commons licenses). However, at least for the time being, huge archives of folk songs and traditionals

remain in the public domain. This means you are free to take from them what you will. I recommend
you take advantage of this possibility.
Some 20th century composers such as Bela Bartok, a favorite of mine, viewed folk music as a purified
form of musical expression. The thought was that the process of borrowing and refining over the
centuries produced a treasury of concise and powerful melodic ideas. Bartok, among others,
attempted to integrate these pure ideas into more complex pieces built on the sophisticated
principles of the European classical tradition.
Whether or not this romantic view of folk music has merit, its a fascinating idea, and perhaps one that
resonates with you in some way. The good news is that you are free to dive into the treasury of folk
music and build on the wealth of ideas to be found there in your own way.
THE EXERCISE
There are many ways to build on folk songs, but I am going to focus on a particularly easy one to get
you started. Get your hands on a folk collection of some kind and start learning a few of the songs.
When you find one you like, learn the chord progression and forget the melody. There you have it: the
foundation for a new song.
First, just try writing a new melody over the old chord progression. As always, I suggest doing this
several times, in part to explore the variety of ideas one can build over the same foundation, in part to
get the most interesting result you can.
Second, whether or not you were able to come up with something over the old progression, its time
to start tweaking it. Try varying the harmonic tempo. That is, vary how long you spend on each chord.
Spend half a measure (http://organizingsound.com/a-measure-or-bar/) on some, two measures on
others. This simple technique can really change the feeling of a progression, and opens up a wide
variety of new melodic possibilities.
Third, try making minor changes to the chords themselves. Substitute a vi for a I, or vice versa. If
youre not sure what key your song is in, see if all the chords fall on one row in this chart
(http://organizingsound.com/scale-degrees/). Bring in some secondary dominants [LINK COMING
SOON]. Use the folk song as a verse and your own progression for a chorus, or vice versa. Play the
chords in reverse. The possibilities are endless.
If you just have fun with this method, youll find that its a great way to generate new ideas. As Ive
tried to emphasize elsewhere, skillful borrowing doesnt lead to copies; instead, it can lead to
genuinely original ideas that bear only passing resemblance to the originals.
Feel free to submit (http://organizingsound.com/how-to-submit/) your genuinely original ideas
for the benefit of the rest of us, helping us keep the age-old folk tradition of borrowing and
reinterpreting alive.

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In Folk (http://www.organizingsound.com/category/folk/), The Art of Borrowing

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John Thomas Mumm

I'm a musician, writer, and professional philosopher. I'm writing this blog to help musicians gain control of
their songwriting. I'd also like to challenge some prevailing but limiting beliefs about what it takes to write
great music.

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