One thing that I love about Lou Reed’s songwriting is that even though the guitar playing for his songs are so simple and basic; however, it’s his vocals that makes his songs very challenging! Do you think me performing the three Velvet Underground songs I did for youtube were easy? Lou only used easy chords for his songs but trying to get the vocals down were a real bitch. Singing those three songs, “I’m Waiting For the Man”, “Sweet Jane”, and “I’ll be Your Mirror” took me a lot of practice to sing. I didn’t want to upload them to youtube until they were perfect.

Next song I’m doing is another Velvet Underground song called, “Heroin”. I’ve been working on that song all day. Even though it’s two chords throughout the entire song, the vocals are real tough to get down… I’m getting the hang of it, though. Lou’s songwriting may have been simplistic but his vocals were pretty crazy.

You shouldn’t knock musicians for writing songs with easy chords. All you really need to write a really good song is just 2 – 4 chords… that’s it. You don’t need to be all technical. It shouldn’t matter how many chords you use or how difficult the song is. It’s about the melody of the song.

I’ll have “Heroin” uploaded as soon as I get good enough at playing the song. This will be a tight one… I’ll try to make this one intense and passionate. If not this weekend, then definitely sometime next week.

Kev