How many songs do you currently know?

[tapper mike]

It's not uncommon for a classically trained musician who primarily is playing an instrument which either cannot or can in only limited degrees produce harmony. They usually only get sheets in notation for the single note lines of which they are intended to play.

On the other hand I've seen quite a number of itinerant musicians who survived by ear alone. Listen to it and then try to repeat it. They are near useless when it comes to actual writing or improvising.

I do not have fond memories of working with people who by mere whim of wanting to sing or write songs think they can without any sensibility to timing/rhythm rhyme or reason and yet they think they are singers/songwriters. Some can learn a little along the way and some can learn nothing.

These days I'm happy when I get to explain something about general music knowledge and specific guitar music knowledge.

[pekbro]

I only have musical ability, no actual skill. I believe my ability is quite capable of anything. Not the norm though, for sure. My brain has the skills built in, it's a mechanical ability actually, i can do anything mechanical. I am unusually artistic as well, so that covers the improv I guess.

This may sound like bragging, but it's not really. It's hard for me to focus on stuff like
the guitar or the piano or whatever, they are are practically the same to me. I also
don't really listen to music, since it's difficult not to memorize or be influenced by it.
By that I mean it can be hard to tell if I wrote something or heard it somewhere and
then reproduced it. I don't have a musical staff in my head, I have a full keyboard or
guitar fingerboard, they are 1:1 with their RL counterparts and that's it.

Most of the really successful musicians I know, know surprisingly little about music actually.
Not all of them, but the really successful ones definitely.

[Download SOphist]

at my age, when I learn a new song I forget an old one. so it´s actually one song at any given time.

[tapper mike]

Using chord progressions as a starting point isn't the only way I write. That being said having an idea of what key a particular melodic line is in allows me to create or borrow chord progressions that move the song along.
Basslines are generally based on chord progressions. It's a heck of a lot easier to give body to a general melodic idea when you can write a progression that somehow aligns to the melody.

Chorale writing is a common classical technique where you harmonize a melody. Though it's not common at all in any "popular" styles of music and is considerably less popular as a means of arrangement.

When I first started playing I learned a few chords and could count out the beat and play along with that beat. Learning keys and the chords that fit those keys shaped how I learned songs and how I wrote them. It also made it more possible to translate my ideas to other musicians. With slight variation of rhythms and tempos and keys a single chord progression can aid in learning 100's of songs and can also be used for writing complete songs.