A Mini Master Class With Billy Joel

THOUGH BILLY JOEL stopped writing songs long ago, he’s remained devoted to the art of songwriting. Going back to the mid1990s, Joel has regularly conducted master classes at colleges across the country, during which he takes questions, performs, and shares advice about his craft—like he’s done here. Speaking from his home in Long Island, the man responsible for 33 Top 40 singles offered the following insights.

- David Marchese

What’s the most common advice you give to songwriters?

Songwriting 101 is being able to play an instrument. It helps you to understand how music works. I try to get people to concentrate on that: Maybe you won’t have a good idea lyrically, but there’s nothing to prevent you from having a good idea musically. The basis of good songwriting is song, not story.

Your process for writing lyrics was to decode what specific emotion or situation inspired the music and then write to that. Was it always easy to zero in on the lyrical themes?