Here's some songwriting tips inspired from our last meeting.
It is often effective to start your songs with musical riff or hook. If this riff comes from the chorus or bridge, then it can draw the listener as they wait to hear again or are pleasantly surprised when the riff comes up in the later context.
Tip #10 Break your song into its component parts.
I've been thinking that a stronger song shouldn't be dependent on guitar (or piano) riffs like in Tip #9. Try breaking down the songs to its components to test the strength of each. Try singing the song without instrumentation -- do you get lost or does the melody stick? Try humming it or plunking the melody out in single notes on an instrument you are unfamiliar with. Try also reciting words as if they were a poem. Is there a natural rhythm there?
Tip #11 Make your weaknesses your strengths.
Unlike classical (and jazz) music, singer/songwriting is an amateur art form. Of course, some musical training can make a world of difference. But most of the time we "make do" with our weaknesses. Even better is when we can turn our weaknesses into our strengths.
If you a weak guitar player, keep your guitar work simple so that you can feature your voice.
If lyrics are your strong point, make sure your melodies, chord progressions and instrumentation are simple enough that your lyrics can be easily followed.
Conversely, if you find lyrics difficult to write, take your best line (or steal it from a better writer -- a famous novelist or poet) try seeing how many times you can repeat it a keep it interesting.
Please if anything irks or pleases you in these tips, do not hesitate to leave a comment. Our next Forge is June 11th. Please contact me to showcase.
4 comments:
Mr. Wilson,
I would take some issue with Tip 11, though it is a far from irksome 'tip.'
From your words ('Unlike classical (and jazz) music, singer/songwriting is an amateur art form'), it seems you are contrasting the classical and jazz worlds of professional music with the unprofessional music of song-writing; frankly, I don't know if it can be divided that simply. What is amateur -- or "loved," etymologically speaking -- defies professional and unprofessional categories. Classical and jazz music exhibits the same weaknesses and agonies that song-written music has and can be as amateur as song-writing (apparently) is. Finally, many great composers wrote volumes of lyrics and songs, folk and otherwise, drinking deeply from the fountains of local tradition and colour and immeasurably enriching their music and the transcendent toward which it attracted its hearers; songwriters, you are in good company with a vibrant, living tradition.
To conclude, we are better off reading T. S. Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent,' which can be found at http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html than anything else. Reviving tradition -- and finding a home in the mutual worlds of classical, jazz, folk, and other genres -- is crucial for continued musical life.
Regards,
Joshua Weresch
http://joshuaweresch.ca
Here is my 2 cents:
I don't think I would lump a whole genre into the world of amateur. I think what is unique to the singer/songwriter in the history of pop music is that songwriter sings their own songs.
In the days of Elvis or Sinatra, or the Tin Pan Alley pop songwriters, one professional song-smith would write the tune, some times another professional lyricist would write the lyrics and then a performer would record or perform the song. All of them being professional.
The advent of the singer/songwriter rolled all 3 into one, bringing it into the relm of personal expression a kin to a poet.
Just like their are professional and amateur poets their are also professional and amateur singer/songwriters that go beyond genre boundaries. I also think the singer/songwriter title has arisen in contrast to "THE BAND." In the pop tradition someone who didn't play in a band but plucked out some tunes on an acoustic was a folk singer, but not all solo singers who write their own songs fall into the pure folk tradition; that is where the term "Singer/Songwriter" is useful. The singer/songwriter could be adult contemporary, rock, folk, country, pop, punk (think Billy Bragg), emo (think early dashboard confessional or Hayden). The singer/songwriter is a description of a mode of creation not a ranking in professionalism.
I think in stead of using the word amateur I would have spoken of how many singer/songwriters are self taught. We may or may not have taken lessons for our instrument of choice but we just taught ourselves how to sing and strum out a tune of our own.
In the Visual Art world, amateur and professional are divided by many people as to who is trying to make their are their profession and who happy to make their art a hobby. I think the same could apply to singer/songwriters. Are you performing? making CDs? sending out press releases? actively engaging in your craft of songwriting? Then you should consider yourself a professional regardless of your training or monetary profits.
That all being said Tom, You are doing a great job in both your music and the workshop, keep up the good work, there is nothing amateur about what you do.
Thanks for your comments Josh and Randy!
I agree that the divide between classical and jazz composition and "songwriting" is largely a contrived one. I think the distinction I was trying to make had to do with formal training. I assumed that because classical and jazz musician are so thoroughly trained that they didn't struggle as much with their musical limitations. But this obviously isn't so.
The point I was trying to make is counter-intuitive: that the best art comes not from our aptitudes, but from the limitations we struggle with.
Classical music becomes boring when the players only see the techinical limitations, limitations which anyone with formal training can overcome.
Actually, no matter one's level of training, there are struggles which can bring out evocative and powerful music.
So to recap: when I call singer/songwriting "amateur" I do not mean to put it down, but the highlight how a lack of formal training can sometimes bring out other strengths.
But then again, I've always regretted quitting piano lessons at 13 and not practicing my guitar as diligently I could've, and even writing this I realised I've had much more musical education than most -- and then there's my university education, too.
Hmm... I guess in classical/jazz you can follow a formal educational route to livelihood, whereas today singer/songwriting is still out in wilds of the commercial world. These last sentences are tangental, but I guess I will not delete them.
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