The English language is not universal but music is

Rob Roper in his blog wrote an interesting comment in his blog about playing music in the Netherlands.

“Almost all the Dutch speak English--some very well. But I could tell when I was singing my songs that, for many of them, they missed the nuances of the lyrics-- slang words, metaphors, etc. So in choosing which songs to play, I started using the songs where I created a good melody, and/or had an interesting rhythm. The English language is not universal but music is”

Rob hits the nail on the head here and I think his statement holds true at home. People connect with lyrics and rhythm. I've noticed the same thing playing out. A few of my throw away songs lyrically (songs that I put placeholder lyrics until I came up with the perfect words), are some of the best crowd pleasers.

As songwriters we are always in search of the perfect lyrics. Maybe instead we should search for the perfect melody and rhythm?

Songwriting - You've got the song, now what?

Stopped by and saw a friend that I had talked with a few weeks ago. At that time he was struggling with lyrics. Today he played two newly completed songs. Pretty impressive and what was even more impressive is that they are both good musically and lyrically. It's amazing what happens when you get the internal critical out of the way and just write.

Now that the songs were done, I gave him a few suggestions on what to do next. My first suggestion was to make a recording and ask these questions?

• How long is the song? My general rule is shoot for around three minutes. Over 4 minutes look for a place to cut.
  
• How does it flow? Think about a journey, where do you build, where do you get quiet?
  
• Do you play you're favorite riff too often? Where would it have the most effect?
  
• How often do you play the chorus, can you get to it quicker? Lately I've become a big fan of concentrating effort on the chorus, giving people a place to sing along. I try use a chorus three times.

My final piece of advice was to not consider the song finished, instead think of it as evolving. The last few months, I've been going back and reworking some of my older song and actually applying some of the comments above. It's much easier to give advice that to do it yourself.

Songwriting - You've got the music now what

I was working with a friend that has the music and melody for a number of songs, just no lyrics. He's has guitar skill that I wished I had. He made two comments that I hear a lot, "I really want the perfect lyrics for this song," and "I don't want my lyrics to sound ____ (childish, goofy, sappy, conceited ....)." These self judgments limit songwriters more than any negative feedback they will ever receive.

The best advice I ever got was, "to write crap." To write and write a lot is the key. Get yourself out of the way. Self judgement keeps your lyrics prisoner. Almost every writing class I've been in has some variation on free writing, where you write as fast as you can, whatever pops into your mind. If you wait for the perfect phrase, you end up with a blank sheet of paper or music and no lyrics.

Another comment I heard was "that if I actually finished this song, I would have to play it for someone and expose a part of me."

No doubt about it, singing your songs for other people is a scary thing. Face it! That's what's so cool when someone shares a song they wrote.

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.

Opposite song

I started working on a new song that starts with the lines,

"I know the answers,
but the questions aren't so clear,
Don't have any problems,
until they appear."

As I started working further on this song, I got into the opposite mode and writing the rest of the song was easy. I've used this technique in writing the song "Contradiction Blues" and find it an easy way to write.

One of the best examples of this is the Tom Waits song, San Diego Serenade. Each line in the song has the structure, "I never saw the ...., til I ..."

"It's not what you say, it's how you say it"

This expression holds true for songwriting as well. Just think about how many times you understand the words in songs on the radio, yet you often understand the meaning of the songs. This week I worked with Ben Senterfit on creating colors with my voice and lyrics. Here are some of my take home points

- Low density (breathy) vs. high density (resonate, bassy) - Low density creates a sense of vulnerability. Deep and resonate singing shows more confidence. A great example of low density is Van Morrison's Crazy Love (he's got a whisper tone to his singing). For high density, just listen to anything by Frank Sinatra.

- Singing high vs. low - High notes tend to impart more energy and be used to be more aggressive. Low notes are more laid back and somber.

- Lots of words vs. few words in the same time - More words yield a faster pace. Less words a slower pace.

These are neat ideas, now all I have to do is apply them to my songwriting.

Songwriters - take your listener on a journey

Good songwriting takes the listener on a journey. A good way to think about it is taking a road trip.

- First imagine a long flat road with endless corn fields, your car on cruise control.
- Then imagine a hilly road with peaks and valley, occasional glimpses of waterfalls or snow covered peaks.
- Finally image going high speed on a torturous four-wheel drive road, with tons of sharp turns, steep drop offs, endless ruts and obstructions to avoid.

What kind of journey are you trying to achieve in your songwriting? In the first case, the flat road, a song like this would be great for meditation or getting ready for bed. In the last case, the crazy drive, you're trying to build the crowd into the frenzy, like in my old punk rock days. I tend to shoot for the middle case, taking my listener up a mountain, back down again and occasionally give them glimpses of a waterfall or rainbow.

What tools do you have as a songwriter?

1. Melody or chord changes (this is your landscape).
2. Volume of your voice or instrument - Start quiet and build (like climbing the mountain). Many bands add instruments as the song builds.
3. Changing your strum (but not your beat) - Fingerpick vs. strum. Number of beats in a measure (in 4/4 time take 4 strums/measure or take 1 strums/measure). The key is to keep the metronome going in your head.
4. Number of words - Wordy phrases = rushing, few words = more relaxed.
5. Pause - Stop playing for a count of 4, or don't say something when people expect it. People tune into what's next.
6. Add a bridge ( a departure) - It's like stopping to get gas, hitting a home run, or falling off a cliff.
7. Going up an octave or changing key - Take the melody up an octave (the elevator to the top).

In the song I'm currently working on, my first draft was almost like the corn field trip, one chord pattern, strong but consistent melody, no bridge. In my rewriting process, I added dynamics and ended with a journey. The trip looks like this:

- Start with a quiet intro. (get in the car)
- Build through the verse and chorus (climb a mountain)
- Quiet down for the next verse ( a little louder than the first verse) and again build to the chorus (a slightly higher mountain)
- Add a rocking bridge (base jump off the top)
- Add a pause (the parachute just opened)
- Next verse is almost a whisper (enjoy the beautiful valley on the way down)
- Build back to chorus (drive home)
- Slow down in the outro (back home)

I'm tired just thinking about the journey, but hopefully my listeners will enjoy it. If not, no refunds!!

Economy of words

Today I talked with Ben Senterfit about the economy of words. We were analyzing the lyrics to a song I'm working on. The discussion centered around how much detail do you need? and How to describe something with one word instead of two? An example is hot water heater (do we really need the word hot). Ben's point was the less words you use, the more weight each word gets. Also, the less you define, the more the listener can develop their own image.

A example from today was:

I started out with "The first drop of rain falls on the mountain top,"

then went to "A drop of rain falls on the mountain top,

we ended up with "a drop falls on the mountain top."

I'm not sure if I like it, but its an option. The key to crafting a song is to have options and then pick the one that works best.

P.S. I cut the number of words in half when editing this post. It works in writing too!

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.

The listening room - great for songwriters

On Saturday night we went to "The Listening Room" at Cafe Cero in Denver. The listening room is a concept hatched by Rop Roper to have place where you can listen to the lyrics and have a drink. Unlike a rowdy bar, the concept is to really relax and listen.

This month's show was excellent with three local songwriters Jenn Cleary, Marty Jones and the man, Rob Roper himself. Each of the performers had distinctive styles, and that alone added a lot of variety to the evening.

Jenn has an exceptional voice and great stage presence. In many of her songs, she repeated a single word over and over. Because she was able to change things up with her voice, it continue to sound good, not overly repetitive. It made the songs memorable. The point for songwriters, is use the repetition technique if you can change it up with your voice or melody.

I was very impressed with Marty Jones's songwriting. He's an excellent lyricist and had exceptional hooks like "next time you see me, I'll be dead," "I got over you, when you got under him." and "now we barely pass for a couple." You could really see his personality in the songs and his witty way of looking at life. I'm going to study Marty's lyrics, there's a good lesson there.

Rob played last and because of know him, I knew his songs. Rob had the most interesting guitar of the evening. Also, in the selection of his own songs and covers, you could really see his philosophy. A dry wit and social commentary.

A few points of the evening:

1) All performers performed a few covers. A few comments I noticed about covers:
- The crowd was much more likely to sing along.
- I relaxed more, because I didn't have to concentrate on the lyrics. It was more like and old friend coming into the room.
- When performing covers, nail them! There's more expectations with covers.
- Select cover that fit you're personality or what you're trying to say. Rob did "A Two Paper Town," from Steve Seskin. It was a song that I could see Rob writing.

2) Jenn and Marty used basically three or four chords in almost all their songs, yet I was not bored. It's more about the songs and performance that how difficult a guitar you play.

3) Keep it simple on stage, even if you're setting up the stage. For a few songs, Rob switched over to the piano and had a guitarist join him. They struggled with mixing the instruments, so it hurt the performance of that song. It also took him a while to regain his momentum, after the change over.