Wayne O. Chase eBooks
Wayne O. Chase was educated at the University of Alberta in the arts (music and English literature) as well as the sciences (experimental psychology, biological sciences, physics). Chase spent half a dozen years as a researcher in several areas of health before switching to the music industry in the 1980s. Since then, he has worked as a record producer, session player, writer, and instructor in songwriting, music production, the music business, and recording arts.
Chase's acclaimed book, How Music REALLY Works!, is the result of 25 years of deconstructing (“reverse-engineering”) the best, most enduring songs of the world’s greatest songwriters. The book makes accessible to all musicians, for the first time, specific details of the musical and lyrical techniques consistently used by the masters of popular music, and how they differ from the techniques used by "ordinary" songwriters and performers.
Chase also is a leading authority on the identification, measurement, and analysis of emotional meaning in language and other media. He invented a related technology (Connotative Intelligence), and holds five patents in the field. His expertise in this area informs the lyrics section of How Music REALLY Works!, 2nd Edition.
Interview with Wayne O. Chase
If you could give only one tip to musicians or songwriters, what would that be?Read How Music REALLY Works! before you do anything else, career-wise.
What gave you the idea to write How Music REALLY Works!?
When I was a producer and arranger, musicians’ lack of vital knowledge about music and lyrics struck me as seriously unfortunate. So I decided to do something about it.
Which deceased musician would you most like to take out to dinner?
Louis Armstrong.
If you had a book club, what would it be reading and why?
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. It would be a book club for experimental psychologists and evolutionary biologists.
What is the greatest challenge you have had to overcome in your music career?
About three years into full-time research and writing of How Music REALLY Works!, I realized it would probably take another two years of full-time work to finish the project. And it did. It was a difficult book to write.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a software application for songwriters, based on the principles discussed in How Music REALLY Works! It will enable songwriters to detect technical weaknesses in the music and lyrics of their original songs. It will also provide solutions. Using the application, an intelligent songwriter will be able to write brilliant material consistently, by avoiding the kinds of technical practices that doom 99.99% of all original songs to mediocrity.
