Memorable melodies

We were listening to some local songwriters last night. While all were good, Julie and I agreed that two of them could be great, not just good. However, there was something missing. It took the whole ride home but eventually the question was asked, did you remember any of their songs? The answer was no, OK maybe one funny one. We remembered the stories that were told to introduce the songs and their performance, but not the songs themselves. To go from good to great, their songs need to be more memorable.

This morning we listen to their CD's and have a few suggestions for them. We asked, how can we tell if we are creating memorable songs. Some of the ideas we came up are:

- Melody - Is there a melody that lives on without the lyrics or guitar? Chords are not a melody. A great tip is to sing the lyrics without the guitar. Is there a melody?

- Rhythm or groove - Are feet in the audience moving in time to the beat? When you play to a metronome, does it feel natural? Can you stop playing and still feel the groove?

- Lyrics - What is the hook or the lines that people will remember? Is it sung clearly? Does the music lead you to this line? Is there anything musically that stands out when you sing this line?

- Dynamics - Does the music and lyrics move in a direction? Is there a peak or valley? Do these coincide with the hook?

These are a few that came immediately to mind. If you have other suggestions, let us know.

4 approaches to writing a song

I picked up the book, How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby. The first section, even though very basic, helped me crystallize some thoughts.

His formula for a song is:

Song = lyrics + melody + harmony + rhythm

For myself, I've used the chord progression for the melody, harmony, and rhythm. Rikky defines the chord progression as harmony only. Ouch!

He then goes on give four different approaches to writing a song

1) Write the lyrics first then set to music. In this approach the lyrics set the mood for the music. They may suggest chords and a melody. You don't need to play an instrument to write lyrics. A frequent commenter on this blog, Mark, only writes lyrics and is looking for folks to add the music. Check out his site.

2) Start with the melody then add lyrics and chords. This is probably the least common approach. Julie is my melody person. Playing the a melody instrument (violin) it comes more naturally to her. We worte both College Years and Slow Down by starting with the melody. The lyrics came last. We're working on a new song that I started with some chords and Julie heard a melody. Unfortunately, the melody required me to change to some more difficult chords, but it sounds great. Next stop lyrics.

3) Start with the harmony (i.e. chord progression) - This is my most common approach and I assume for most other guitar players. It's really easy to string a few chords together and thing you have a song. The problem becomes that the chord progression can limit the melody, especially after you fall in love with a lick or two.

4) Start with a rhythm - Use a drum machine or keep a beat by clapping. To me the sense of rhythm, more than anything separates the quality of singer/songwriters. In general, this is the area that most need improvement on, myself included. (See my past postings on groove). One of my first really good songs was written on an airplane, by keeping time on my leg. Eventually I added the guitar. My daughter and I commonly use this approach in the car, we wrote Going to the River This Way.

In learning songwriting, I've spent the majority of my time on guitar progressions and lyrics, my weaker areas are melody and rhythm. Guess where I need to work???

Six key songwriting tips

Happy New Year! In keeping with the New Year tradition, I reviewed my blog for 2006 and posted a summary on my website, "Top songwriting tips from 2006."

My favorite six tips are given below:

1. Keep your songs short (3-4 minutes). Most songs you hear at an open stage are too long!

2. Focus on the groove (the pulse of the song). This separates musicians. If my foot is not moving in time, then the groove is missing.

3. Make sure there’s variety. Variety is the spice of life. If the same sound happens for too long, I’m asleep.

4. Make your songs memorable (melodic or lyrical hook). Success is when a line from a song gets stuck in your head.

5. Have daily songwriting practices. Daily practices are essential into getting into the flow of the muse.

6. Always be a student. The more you know, the easier it is to express yourself. Write a song with each new tip you learn. If you’re not learning, you will be writing the same song over and over.

Check out my other tips.

In search of the groove, finding Bill Withers

I'm still on my quest to get more of a groove in my music. My teacher, Ben Senterfit turned me on to Bill Withers. Best known for hits like "Ain't no Sunshine" and "Lean on Me," Bill Withers typifies the groove that I'm searching for. Check out his Live at Carnegie Hall album (1973).

In analyzing the music, its interesting how simple the chording and rifts are. There's strong base lines which provide an underlying pulse to the songs. The music by itself is pretty predictable. The reason his songs are so great is that the focus falls on the lyrics and phrasing.

This was a great insight. I'm a guitarist first and a vocalist last. I've been trying to make my guitar parts the focus, which in turn leaves little room to be too creative in the vocals. In other words, to make the lyrics more prominent, I need to think of the guitar as providing the pulse only, with the lyrics being the place for the expression.

Now back to the drawing board. I'm going simplify guitar parts with a focus on strong, consistent base lines. The challenge somes in making the vocals interesting. Of course my lyrics better be really good!