Chris Stamey – HuffPost 2.25.13

Mike Ragogna: Chris, what advice do you have for new artists?

Chris Stamey: There would be a lot of things. One thing I would say maybe is learn — in Nashville it’s called the number system — learn how the chords function, not just what the chords are, so that you know if you’re in the key of G and you put in an F chord, that’s the flat seven chord and you know its relation to the key you’re in. You can save a lot of time. You think you’re writing a different song when really it’s the same progression, you’ve just moved the capo around. I was very thirsty for music theory when I was growing up. It was taught in high school and now it’s probably not, but that’s a good thing to do. Try to know intuitively where you’re going in the scale or harmonically. I also feel that you always think when you’re writing a song, “Wow, this is easy, I’ve got to go run to the post office, but I’ll come back and it’ll still be so easy,” but it won’t be. It’ll just be gone. Part of the thing if you’re really going to work at it is you don’t get that letter mailed. You always think that second verse or the bridge is going to be easy to write when you’re in the heat of it, but if you don’t honor that brief feeling with the attention it deserves, it will be gone, and that second verse will just be hellacious to write. Those are two pragmatic soapboxes that are easy for me to get on.

MR: Awesome. What else you got?

CS: I would also say try to go different places in your songs. Learn how to modulate, it’s a really powerful way to do, instead of just stepping on an effects pedal and making it go louder or quieter, go somewhere harmonically. Let your melodies go places you don’t expect.