Songwritingideas.co.uk – the new site

I’ve started blogging about songwriting again!

But not here. Instead, you can find my brand new site by clicking here.

There’s a new ebook there, 10 Ways To Start A Song which you can get for free too.

 

More than 32 bars – Structure in Songwriting

In between work on my solo album and the updated 2nd edition of 10 Tips for Songwriters I’ve amused myself by editing and improving some of my posts into a brand new free ebook.

The book looks at songwriting structure and gives advice on how you can use structure to make your songs interesting, engaging and original.

When I say free, it does require you to sign up to my mailing list. You can unsubscribe to this any time and it is only ever used to let you know what’s going on with this website. I don’t share your email with anyone else, I don’t spam and I don’t abuse your inbox.

So if you’d like a copy, just sign up to the mailing list using the subscribe box on the right.

More Than 32 Bars – Structure in Songwriting

More Than 32 Bars – Structure in Songwriting brings together all the sposts on form and structure that I’ve written on this blog over the years. There are three sections:

1. What is structure, and are you writing songs like a 12 year old? In which I discuss what structure is what the basic popular song structure consists of and how important it is to be creative with your use of it.

2. 5 Structure models in which we look at at 5 different common models for structuring a song.

3. 6 Blog Posts on Structure in which I share 6 of the best blog posts about structure I’ve written for indiesongwriter.net

More than 32 bars – Structure in Songwriting brings together all the ideas about structure so far explored on indiesongwriter.net and hopefully will give you lots of new ideas for structuring your own songs. You can download it free by joining the indiesongwriter.net mailing list – just enter your email in the box to the right.

Friday is a crap song. Don’t say it isn’t, it is.

I’ve seen more than one blog post that suggests Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ is good pop songwriting.

It isn’t and I’m sick of people saying it is. It’s an awful song, but what’s worse is it isn’t exceptionally bad. It’s averagely bad, because the average in pop song writing has been brought down to meet the level of crap that this represents.

For

Randy Lewis for example suggests that it’s good because it uses tried and tested harmonic material – It makes use of the I vi IV V progression which has been successful in countless of songs.

Jay Frank points out the ‘engaging’ intro, simple repetition and walking beat as evidence if not of quality, then at least of craftsmanship.

Yes, it uses simple harmony, it has a very standard pop song structure and even uses the ‘What do we do after the second chorus? No idea? Get some bloke to rap badly, that’ll do’ middle 8 solution.

I might, if pressed, even be able to admit that Jay Frank’s ‘future hit’ short intro, songs-for-the-marketplace ideas might be songwriting virtues (They aren’t, they’re a path to anodine bland songs of exactly this ilk).

Against

But this song is still garbage.

The lyrics are awful. You might as well sing the phone book or a shopping list. In fact doing so would be more interesting than this banal idiocy. I often say that songwriting isn’t lyric writing – people often interprete that to mean I think lyrics don’t matter. This isn’t the case, lyrics do matter (they’re just not the only thing that matters) and the lyrics to this song are awful.

The most vile crime of this song though, is one that is being repeated over and over again. Gaga, Bieber, Rihanna, Aguilera, Spears and before them legions of other pop acts have sung songs that commit the same crime.

No Suprises

They never suprise you! They never attempt to do anything out of the norm, to confound your expectations in a pleasing, musical, artistic way.

Gary Ewer recently wrote that there should be an 80-20 rule in songwriting. 80% of what you expect versus 20% of what you don’t.

The exact proportion is debatable and depends on the context of genre and audience expectations, but the point is spot on.

The amount that’s original and unexpected in ‘Friday’? 0.

The same could be said of everything in top 40 pop – that’s why sales for this have flatlined. As both Lefsetz and Godin have said recently, there is a dearth of quality.

Pop music needs quality if it is ever to be viable again. Friday is the nadir, or the beginning of the nadir. The death knell, the sound of a nail hammered into pop’s coffin.

10 Tips for Songwriters – Second Edition

An Open Letter to 10 Tips for Songwriters Authors

Dear Songwriters,

It’s been a year since our little collaborative ebook went online with moderate success.

After kicking the idea around on the http://www.fawm.org forums, I’ve decided to publish a second, far awesomer edition.

Are you in?

If so, here’s the plan:

1. Previous contributors. You may change your contribution as you see fit – leave it alone, make some typographical changes (There are some errors in the first edition that need revising – please have a lookat your entry), write a completely new set of tips, or create one bonus second edition tip. Up to you!

2. New contributors. I assume you’ve had a look at the first edition. Now’s the time for you to have a go at writing your own 10 tips.

3. Dedicated website and newsletter. The book will of course remain free, but this time round I’m going to create a dedicated website for the book so we can have an accompanying blog.

I’d also like to create a mailing list with a bi-monthly newsletter – the idea with this is to update people with 10 tips related news eg. new releases by the authors. To this end I’m thinking of either a. offering the ebook free with an email address or b. Offering the book downloadable free with no strings attached, but collecting email for people who want to download a bonus version – eg. book plus audio extras (or summink).

4. I’ve lots of other ideas, like a compilation album of authors songs plus some spoken word tips, or a 10 tips podcast of some sort – but I haven’t fleshed those out yet. Any ideas would be appreciated.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the above and anything else you think is relevent (or irrelevent but interesting).

Yours

Tom Slatter

tomslattermusic AT gmail.com

Why You Should Be Writing Chord Progressions Backwards

There’s a sure-fire way of writing killer chord progressions: Write them backwards.

Thinking of the end point of your chord progession first, and then working towards it, ensures that you’ve got a progression that makes sense and doesn’t ramble.

In essence, you can come up with a working chord progression if you make sure it sticks to these steps:

• States the tonic chord
• Moves by a series of logical steps to a ‘tense’ chord
• Resolves that tension by returning to the tonic via a cadence

What does a chord progression usually do?

Often they start with the tonic, then move through a set of different chords before finding there way back to the tonic.

So C Am F G C starts on the tonic C, then moves through others before returning to C.

Em C G D Em (used in a lot of pop songs at the mo.) starts with the tonic Em then moves through others to return to Em.

Both of these end in what we call a Cadence.

The Cadence

The cadence is the end of a musical phrase. Think of it as the last two chords of a progression. V to I (Eg. G to C or D to G) is one of the most common cadences, and playing that is a great way to make a progression sound finished.

Lots of very common chord progressions work towards just this cadence.

For example, the classic ii V I used in many jazz songs eg. Dm G C – the G and C at the end form that cadence.

IV to I is another well known example.

C G/B F C for example ends in this cadence.

There are others too – in the minor key you often get the seventh chord moving to the tonic – eg. D to Em or G to Am.

Why am I mentioning cadences?

They’re the perfect device to put at the end of a progression, but how does that help me write a chord progression backwards?

Here’s the idea. Choose a cadence, let’s say G to C. Makw that the end of your chord progression.

Now all you need to do is move logically towards that G and you’ll have a chord progression that makes sense.

As an example, let’s decide we’re going to have a progression of 5 chords. I’ve just decided that the last two are G and C.

I’m also going to choose C as my first chord, because that’s the key I’m in.

C ___ ___ G C

I have two blanks to fill in. As the movement from G to see is a fall of a fifth, I’m going to approach the G in the same manner.

Fall of a fifth?

G is the fifth note of the C scale: C d e f G.

So moving from G to C is a fall of a fifth.

I want two chord that fall in fifths towards G, so I’ll extend the scale:

C d e f G a b c D e f g A

D is a fifth above G. A is a fifth above D.

In C major it just so happens that the D and A chords are both Minor.

So here’s my chord progress:

C Am Dm G C

Sounds okay. What’s the point?

The point is that by using logical principles I came to chord progression that works.

Chords that fall in fifths like this are very common, particularly in Jazz and early 20th century popular song. They can sound a bit dated, but maybe that’s what you want.

The most common of all is the simple cycle of fifths chord progression:

I – IV – viio – iii – vi – ii – V – I

C F Bdim Em Am Dm G C

The chord progression I used in our example is just an extract of this longer common chord progression.

It also follows the ideas I set out at the start. It:

• States the tonic chord (C)
• Moves by a series of logical steps (of a fifth) to a ‘tense’ chord
• Resolves that tension by returning to the tonic via a cadence (C to G)
  

Do I have to use fifths?

Not necessarily. Falls of a fourth for example, are very common.

I mentioned this chord progression above:

Em C G D

The cadence here is unfinished – on a D – which then finishes when the chord progression goes back to the E minor on the repeat.

(This is also a modal cadence slightly different from the ‘main’ four cadences that more classical music might focus on, but still just as effective)

Let’s look at what happens leading up to that D:

G is a fourth above the D. C is a fourth above the G.

So this chord progression also:

• States the tonic chord (Em)
• Moves by a series of logical steps (of a fourth) to a ‘tense’ chord
• Resolves that tension by returning to the tonic via a cadence (D to em)

Alternatives

There are lots of different ways of doing this – different cadences with different sounds to them – more interested chord choices you could make (Try the cycle of fifths, but make every chord a dominant 7. It’ll still work)

The basic point though, is sound. Decide how the chords are going to end first, then work out how you’re going to get there.

 

How is Music Theory like Human Evolution?

The third article in my ‘Basic Theory Every Songwriter Needs to Know’ series is up at www.songwritinglab.com

Basic Theory – How is Music Theory Like Human Evolution?

How to Write a Song that Pisses People Off

Many thanks to @ravenousraven @markusrill @NateHevens and @lostcharisma for getting me thinking…

Should everyone like your songs?

No. Or at least, you shouldn’t be aiming for songs that everyone in the world will enjoy. if it happens by accident, great, but it shouldn’t be a goal.

If all songwriters aimed for songs that everyone loved, Bohemian Rhapsody and Paranoid Android would never have been written and Bob Dylan would have been stopped from making music decades ago.

And the Beatles would never have composed their more interesting albums, Pet Sounds wouldn’t exist, Hip-hop would never have got started, there would be no protest songs no progressive rock…

Art that aims to please everyone has to bland – the musical equivalent of biege. It might sell (Although not for long, the mainstream music market is dying after all) but it won’t last and it won’t excite.

Good art appeals to a niche and challenges the audience. The albums we’ve had to listen to more than once before we get are alwasy the ones that stay with us longer.

So how might you challenge you audience?  What can you do to piss some people off?

1 Take a Stand

Write about something that people will find difficult to deal with – something politcal, something satirical. Lyrics that take a stand on an issue will offend people, no matter what the issue is, but those who agree, or at least admire your guts, will love you for it.

Oh, but do talk about something you really care about – people can smell a fake a mile off.

2. Don’t Spell Everything Out

The song above, Yes, is a great example of lyrics that don’t compromise (Although the Band did over the years mellow considerably). The lyrics also don’t spell everything out. You need to think about what they mean.

Having to think pisses some people off.

3. Suprise

Yes also uses odd time signatures. More challenging rhythms, harmony or timbres (Heavy metal screams anyone?) will piss people off no end. And excite others.

I’m not a fan of hip hop, I really don’t like it. In particular I don’t like it because harmony is almost irrelevent to this kind of music – as long as you’ve got a decent beat underneath it, the only important thing in hip hop is the vocal. Harmonic development? Interesting chords? Any chords at all? A lot of the time you just don’t need them for a good hip hop song.

Great for the hip hop fans, but enough to really annoy me.

Those are just 3 ideas. How else can we piss off listeners?

3 Great Songwriting Sites

There are lots of good songwriting sites out there, full of useful resources and insights.

Here are 4 I’ve come across recently:

 

 

Beatles Songwriting Academy

Matt Blick’s blog about the Beatles songwriting is very useful. While I’m not persaonlly a fan of the Beatles, I would never deny the craft that went into their songs. There’s a hell of a lot to learn from them.

In particular, I’d recommend his ‘Tickets to Write’ section which has some great ideas you can steal from the Beatles.

 

 

Basement Universe

The Basement Universe Songwriting Podcast is a fun new podcast from two American Songwriters, John Goberish of The Distractions and Jeff DeSantis of the Troubled Saints.

They’ve both been taking part in FAWM, and the recent episodes cover their songwriting for that. It’s always interesting to hear songwriters talking about their art.

(Declaration of interest – I heard about their podcast when they asked to play one of my songs, so yes Episode 3 does mention yours truly and my new song Shoot Every Ghost)

 

 

Songwriting Lab

 

Songwriting Lab is another great songwriting resource, run by the enigmatic songwriting Twitter addict Ravenous Raven: @RavenousRaven

It’s full of great articles, including some of mine, and the twitter based songwriting exercises are great fun.

It’s also worth joining their mailing list and downloading their free lyric writing checklist.

So there we have it, 3 great songwriting sites that I’ve come across in recent months, crammed full of songwriting ideas for you to steal.

Songwriting Workout 1

The first Songwriting Workout – Adding Melody to Chords is finished and available for a donation.

Songwriting Workouts – How to Add Melody to Chords

• Learn how to identify the key of a chord progression and what scales to use
• Learn the difference between riff, verse and chorus melodies and how to compose them for a given chord progression
• Learn how to find Melodic Pathways through your chord progression

Have a look at the info page for all the details by clicking here.

Songwriting Rules and How to Break Them Part 2 – there are better motivations than market appeal

In the first article in this series I argued that those who say you should write songs for the market are wrong. They’re wrong because writing for the market makes you think about what will sell rather than what will move the listener. They are also wrong because the very idea of a mass market for music is simply out of date.

In this article I’m going to argue that most songwriters aren’t motivated by the need to write mass market songs. Instead their writing to express themselves, and that means a wholly different relationship with the listener. I’m going to argue that a song isn’t a product, and the listener is not a customer.

Why should you write songs?

If you are not going to write for a market, what are you going to write for? There are all sorts of motivations, both good and bad. Some people write songs to express a religious or political opinion. Some try to change the world and others to attract members of the opposite sex. Whenever you ask songwriter’s their reasons for writing, ‘to meet the demands of the market’ is rarely at the top of their list.

My interest at indiesongwriter.net, and I assume yours as well, is good songwriting. If you’re motivation is ‘let’s write something that will sell’ I’d argue you’re less likely to write a good song than if you have a better motivation.

A while ago I asked readers what motivated them to write. Here are some responses:

Jeff Shattuck said:

I started as therapy for my brain injury, but continued because I simply felt compelled to. Now, my strongest motivation is simply that I enjoy it.
Sure, I would love to sell some songs someday, but that’s not why I do it.

Susan Wenger from Cinderbridge said:

I write songs to make sense out of things that have happened.

I write songs to make connections with other people who understand.

Kerri Arista said:

I write as a creative expression. I write to understand myself and the world better.

Rose said

Its creative, great to be able to make something that didn’t exist previously.

Artistic fulfilment

What about the songwriter who writes for self fulfiment, for an audience outside the mainstream or for any other reason?

There are entire communities on and offline that exist to encourage and promote songwriting that have nothing at all to do with the music market. Edwin Songsville says ‘songwriting is a nourishing activity in itself, regardless of the output’, and that certainly is the case if you take a look at the flourish songwriting communities on and off-line.

From FAWM (February Album Writing Month) and 50/90 (The challenge where songwriters try to write 50 songs in 90 days) to the twitter songwriting community attached to http://www.songwritinglab.com, the web is full of songwriters, very few of whom are interested in writing the next top 40 hit.

Off-line there are countless songwriting circles and the newly accessible recording technology has led to an explosion in home recording and DIY independent artists. Most of these songwriters would never think of selling their work, and those that do aren’t going for a homogenised mass market. The relationship these indie artists have with the audience is something quite different to the relationship the mass music market had.

Product or Artwork?

We all know how products are developed. You start off with an idea of what the customer wants, then you test that idea with market research. You make changes to that product based on the results of that market research – what colour should the toy be, what sizes of coffee will sell the most, what shape should the packaging be? The motivation is to come up with the product that sells the most.

This creates a certain relationship with the customer – they are there to be catered to, but also to be categorised. Mass markets ignore individuality in favour of wide stereotypes – hockey moms, mondeo man, yuppies, tweens. Once it has categorised the customer like this, it works to create products for them. Everything is homogenised, dehumanised.

Can songs be created this way? Absolutely. You could focus group a song – get a bunch of teenagers in to listen to a draft of your RnB song and ask them if the hook is catchy enough, the lyrics interesting, the video captivating. Is this a song you would bluetooth to your friends? Would you download this, share the video on facebook?

You could do it, and I’m sure this or something very much like it does happen. It’s certainly true that record companies have a long history of releasing ‘me too’ songs that model closely recent hits, and there are plenty of music business ‘gurus’ on the internet talking about the web 2.0 methods of market research.

A song can be written as a result of market research and developed like any other product, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with doing that if you want.

It’s just that most songwriters don’t want to do that at all.

Most songwriters would like to think of their work as art. Not great art necessarily, not the songwriting equivalent of Michaelangelo’s David, but art nonethless. The ideal of artistic creation is the exact opposite to product development. Art is created for it’s own sake and presented to the audience to be enjoyed or ignored. Real art has to be able to fail, in a way that would not be acceptable for a product.

But that model of song as artwork ignores the reality that artists have to make a living. How can the artwork be free to fail if it has to sell for the artist to live? The good musician, even if they are an artist, wants to entertain and will be surely composing with at least one ear on how the audience will enjoy the music.

Should the artist be motivated by the need to sell or the need to express themselves? Should they worry only about entertaining themselves and their audience, and not on turning a profit?

The fact is, the majority of songwriters like you or I would never dream of creating a song in the same way a toy company develops a doll or a food chain markets a new fizzy drink. As we’ve seen from the quotes above, songwriter’s just aren’t interested in that kind of relationship with their songs or their listeners. That approach might work if you’re worrying about the mass market, but the mass market is all but dead anyway, and we’re writing for a different listener.

Being motivated to create a product isn’t wrong, but the necessary business to customer relationship this creates doesn’t fit with music and most songwriters practice it.

A better relationship is one of arts patronage, which is a theme I want to explore in the next article.

What do you think?

Are we better off thinking of each listener as a mini-patron who might enjoy our work, and might patronise us by listening to a song, downloading an album, coming to a gig or even (gulp) buying a cd?