168: How the Beatles Came to Be, with Scott Freiman

Welcome back to Beatles Month!

Today we're talking with Scott Freiman, the creator of Deconstructing the Beatles, a series of uniquely revealing multimedia presentations about the composition and production techniques of the Beatles. Scott has spoken about the Beatles to sold-out audiences, on college campuses and for companies around the USA. He skillfully draws on original multitrack recordings to reveal exactly how the songs we know and love were put together, drawing out new and fascinating insights about the Beatles and their music.

Scott is also a professional composer and distilled some of the songwriting lessons he'd learned from the Fab Four into a terrific online course, "Learn the Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles". It's a great resource even for those who have no aspirations to write songs themselves but just want to understand music better.

As a composer himself he said that what the Deconstructing the Beatles project really showed him was how much work went into this music that we know and love. Just how creative the Beatles were and how that creative process happened, step by step - not just individually but collaboratively.

That's what we dig into in this interview: If these songs didn't magically spring into being overnight, what were the elements that made the band so unusually able to consistently write incredible songs that have stood the test of time. Scott has fantastic insight and there's a ton to learn here for song writers, composers and for musicians and music fans as well.

We talk about:

• The development and growth the Beatles had already gone through as musicians before their recording career began

• How his training as an editor has influenced how Scott sees their music and how the Beatles themselves combined editing with experimentation

• One specific technique you can listen for in any music but which the Beatles utilised in new and unusual ways.

There's some really instructive and inspiring ideas in this conversation that you will benefit from in your own music making and music listening. And it will make you hungry to go watch Scott's full presentations and maybe check out his songwriting course.

You're tuned in to Beatles Month at Musical U.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 168

Links and Resources

• DeconstructingTheBeatles.com

• Save 10% on any Deconstructing The Beatles presentation with coupon code: DTBFRIEND

• Qwire, revolutionising music licensing

• Learn the Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles

• About Active Listening

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