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I'm a basketball fan, and you hear over and over and over again how today's top stars in the NBA ALWAYS watched tapes of previous NBA stars to help create and develop their own skills. Kobe has said countless times how he's spent hours on end watching old tapes of Jordan. How he moved, how shot, how he did everything, and then he incorporated that into his own repertoire.

As musicians, shouldn't we be applying this same principle to our songwriting? I'll be quick to admit that I've never sat down with some lyrics from my favorite artist just to study them. To see how the arrangement of the song. To see the rhyme scheme being used. To see the sentence structure, etc. I've NEVER done that. And now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I'm considering myself crazy! Why wouldn't I be using a resource as abundant as that? All of the amazing songs out there, with all of the amazing lyrics. Why wouldn't I devote some of my time towards reading, and studying these lyrics to find new devices to add to my own lyrical repertoire. What do you guys think? Is this something that musicians should begin practicing? Have some of you already done so, and if yes, has it been beneficial for you?

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DreamChasers