Monday, December 8, 2008

CD Release - Setting a PR/Marketing Timetable


I've been taking a few weeks off from songwriting as I process the boxes containing many copies of my second digiPack CD that I just received from DiscMakers. The PR/Marketing process is a little bit easier the second time around, because I have a bunch of notes from the last CD. This got me thinking about suggesting how to go about making an action plan timetable for your CD marketing efforts for those who may be doing this for the first time.

1. The first thing is to get the CD sounding perfect of course. This usually means first being satisfied with the tracking, then being satisfied with the production and mixing, and lastly being satisified with the mastering, whoever is performing these roles. If you are not progressing through any of these stages, get help (producer, (multi-)instrumentalist, engineer, mastering engineer) and/or a fresh set of knowledge ears involved.

2. Once the 'product' per se is done on the audio side, you of course need to get the CD packaging done, which may involve a designer who specializes in this sort of thing. If you have the chops and want to attempt it, download the templates and have a go. Remember you will need to use 3 main inks on the CD, include the fonts and images used, note the song order and durations, get the bar code art.

3. At this point (and to get the bar code), I go the CDBaby route and fill out as much of the CD info I know and pay for the CD and the barcode, which gets me the bitmap UPC code I need to finish the design.

4. I send the audio CD and data CD off for replication, which takes about 2 weeks or so. I try and get 50% of them poly-wrapped. It's up to you, but some stores and places like Amazon require the wrap. As soon as I get them back, I send the 5 that CDBaby requires (which starts the 3 week process of digitizing the CD for digital distribution), and I send copies to Amazon as well, separately uploading the higher-res CD art and 30 second sound clips Amazon wants. At this point, I assume the music will show up on iTunes in 2 months or so from when CDBaby receives the CDs, this is only a guess, but in terms of setting the actual 'release date' of the CD, it seems sensible to pick a date when people can hop over to iTunes and find it.

5. For the next 3 weeks while I'm waiting for CDBaby to do their thing, I start to focus on reviews. Though sources like the Indie Bible are useful for this, I find it helpful to make a priority based list of where would most like to be reviewed and work down from that. Of course, may reviewers only want mp3s and don't want you to follow up and probably will never respond or review your work. But this is part of the drill. So I start by listing all the review sites that would influence me to buy something (about 20 or so): a combination of blogs, podcasts, web sites, local press, weeklies. For this, you have to switch hats and regard the situation from their point of view - they want good narratives, interesting stories, something exciting, different, coupled to an event, with an attractive picture. Imagine also they get 100 CDs a day. Pick your targets carefully, think about what your larger goals are (driving traffic to iTunes?) and proceed.

6. A subeffort of (5) might be directly soliciting a few quotes that you would like to use on PR material. Once you have something in hand, many artists make up posters and start planning a CD release party and date. The assumption is you can do your songs justice when playing them live. Oasis has a whole CD about CD release parties.

7. The next step would be to start booking shows corresponding to places where you have some fan base or draw or other connections. If you are just starting out, try organizing a show with performers who already have some fans - everyone likes an organizer...

Hope that provides some food for thought. Look me up on CDBaby, Amazon and iTunes if you are curious.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Songwriting Tips: Major/Minor Modulations and Interesting Progressions

I'm always looking for interesting harmonic progressions in my songs, and some of the most satisfying results are subtle modulations that appear simple but are actually more complex than they appear. Growing up as I did on the songs of The Beatles, I do of course take a lot of my inspiration from their examples in this vein, which have been scrutinized in great detail by Alan Pollack.

Take this example from a song I wrote last week. It starts off with a I - ii - V progression, much beloved in all of Jazz and used in songs like Home (as recorded by Bonnie Raitt) and I Shall Be Released (where iii and V substitute for each other).

section 1: A Bm7 E7 A

section 2: Dm7 - C B/G Am7 - , Dm7 - C B/G Am7 - - -, G - , F - - -

which can be written (with the 7ths omitted and 6 implying 3rd in the bass) as:

I ii V I

iv III VII6 i VII VI
( or written as modulation as if it were a modulation to III/C: ii I V6 vi V IV)

What's interesting here is the ambiguity created by the I / III relationship. On the one hand, it could be that the sunny A major of section I gives way to a change to A minor in section II, with the relative major (C major) substituting as the perceived tonic instead of A minor.

Composers since Wagner and Beethoven have been exploiting modulation by a third because it brings with it all kinds of interesting properties. Going from an A major chord directly to an A minor chord (David Gray is a big fan of this, see also the song I'll Be Back) is dramatic but a bit predictable. Going from A major to D minor (minor iv instead of major IV) is interesting because it serves as pivot chord, and following it with a C sounds like ii - I now in the key of C, a third away. Changing from section 2 back to section 1 uses a similar F > A movement by a third where the net effect is the sudden sharping of the C note (FAC > AC#E), a minor>major shift that is also more interesting than a parallel minor/major (same chord) change.

In terms of the structure of the song then what I had so far was

section 1 I ii V I
section 2 iv => aka ii I V6 vi V IV (all /III)
section 1
section 2

I decided the best end of the song (as usual trying to keep under 4 minutes if possible) was to use an extension followed by a slight variation of section 2:

F -
- - - -
C - B/G - Am7 - F G
C - B/G - Am7 - F -
G - F - - - -
G - F - - - -
C

the extension on F is a classic way of making a final push to the end. The harmonic rhythm of the section 2 chords are here elongated to a full measure each (C , B/G, Am7), twice the duration of before. The last variation is the F G C (where before we had Am7 G F), finally making it clear that C and not A minor has become the key we are in.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Twyla Tharp on Creativity vs. Recognition

I saw this on LifeHacker and thought the Twyla's message was definitely worth thinking about for songwriters..

Choreographer (and author of The Creative Habit) Twyla Tharp briefly discusses the roles of failure and money in creativity in a short video interview below. There are several good tidbits here, but in the instant-publishing internet age where everyone seems to be competing for the most YouTube views or highest web site traffic, I especially love the bits about how being creative for the sake of admiration and recognition is different than being creative simply because you want to make something. Here's the three-minute, 22-second clip.



How do you get your creativity on without getting obsessed with whether or not it's made you a superstar? Let us know in the comments.

[via Kung Fu Grippe]

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

MusoWiki: A Wiki for musicians


Here's another well-intentioned entry with the idea of creating a Wiki space geared for music community, resources and sharing. I think the measure of success for ventures like this is if they achieve a critical mass of ongoing participation, and certainly, understanding the psychology of what motivates people to contribute to such enterprises is an art not a science that many of us would like to have the answer to. As musicians in this era, I think we all are working on how best to redefine and redirect our efforts at community building, so case studies like this are always interesting to watch and learn from.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Songwriting Competitions and Song Contests

It must be Fall again because all those announcements of song contests just keep coming. Personally, I think it's the same as buying a lottery ticket and there really are better ways to develop an audience. But having said that, I thought I'd go ahead and summarize some of the ones floating around at this time anyway:

Deadline: Ongoing
Mountain Stage NewSong Contest
Sponsored by Folk Alliance. Seems a worthwhile cause.

Deadline: 10/10/08
Great American Song Contest
They promise written evaluations and no competing against professionals.

Deadline: 11/15/08
21st Annual International Folk Alliance Conference
In Memphis, TN and via SonicBids.

Deadline: 11/15/08
SongDoor International Songwriting Contest
Claims to judge only the song not the performance or production.

Deadline: 12/15/08
Session II - John Lennon Songwriting Contest
They sure have a nicely painted bus.

Deadline: ?
International Acoustic Music Awards
Factors in performance and production. Somewhat folk oriented.

Deadline: ?
The Nashville International Song and Lyric Competition
This seems dubious.

Deadline: Annual
USA Songwriting Competition
Lots o' Sponsors.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Song starters: Straw Man

I worked out a basic musical idea for a tune this weekend and started floating around for words and a narrative idea. I don't think I'll be going in the 'story song' direction necessarily, but that's what came up first:

The straw man boarded a bus in the winter of '85
With a pint of jack, a pack of smokes, and a little girl by his side

A do kind of like opening a bunch of narrative possibilities like this, despite some of the obvious clichés involved. I was looking into how to connect the idea of a Straw Man logical fallacy with this possible title for the song. Perhaps studying some Dylan lyrics would help.

Normally, I would probably reveal the singer as the little girl some time later, and try to find a perspective where some positivity can resolve the initial tension of a deadbeat kind of Dad going off on a journey with his young daughter. Overall, though, I would find it very hard to write a song like this because of the immense number of narrative pitfalls to be avoided. Perhaps the 'Clark Rockefeller' story is a bit too fresh at the moment.

On the other hand, who knows? Maybe they would up world famous playing in a band together...

This week's handy web links:

Tips for Songwriting - How to Write a Song
Andrea Stolpe: Where Did Our Craft Go?

Monday, September 29, 2008

Free plug-in: Rough Rider vintage compressor


I usually discuss the freeware audio plug-ins on my All Sounds Considered blog, dedicated to electronic and bent music, but it occurs to me that an important part of songwriting is making demos and finished tracks that sound interesting and distinct, and a big part of that is production, instrumentation and timbre. Listening to tracks by artists as diverse as Gomez, Iron & Wine, Dr. Dog, Radiohead, Peter Bradley Adams, or The Weepies - I'm always struck by the command they have of an array of interesting sounds. So, if you're feeling a bit stuck with the same old sounds, by all means try some interesting recording and instrument techniques first (more on that later, I promise), but it never hurts to fool around with these plug-ins and try to see how you can alter your dry sounds...

So the pick of this week is the Rough Rider plug-in from AudioDamage. Try it on your drum submix and feel free to generally experiment, it is, after all, free (and not all of us can afford a Distressor...)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Useful Web Links

A few internet tidbits for the week:

Jodi Krangle's Reference Guide for Beginning Songwriters [ Muse's Muse ]
The articles are a good place to start

Harmonic Progression of the Beatles
An extremely in-depth academic analysis of the innovative and distinctive harmonies underling the songs of Beatles and how those innovations are a key part of the songs

Songwriting articles at TAXI

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

50 Great Lyrics Writing Resourcs

    From Joel Falconer [AudioTuts]:

    Tools

  1. Rhymezone is a rhyming dictionary and thesaurus that sorts its search results by the number of syllables.
  2. An online dictionary, since Rhymezone is bound to give you results that might work, but you’re unsure about.
  3. If you’re not interested in using Word to write lyrics, there are dedicated apps like MasterWriter out there that integrate rhyming dictionaries and the like.
  4. For singer-songwriters in particular, this tool page may beat all the others since, alongside the rhyming dictionary and thesaurus, it has a chord finder.

  5. Photo by BdwayDiva1

    How To

  6. This Hotsource article gives some basic pointers for getting started with a lyric.
  7. Robin Frederick’s How to Write a Song is one of the very few similarly titled articles out there that actually touches on all the basics.
  8. Quamut offers an introduction to basic song form and structure.
  9. Carla Starrett goes into adapting poetry into lyrics.
  10. Berklee Shares has a free PDF on Basic Lyrical Elements.
  11. This series of videos teaches you how to write an alternative pop song—some videos are about composition, but there are several on lyrics.
  12. The BBC presents a page on lyrics in its songwriting guide, including interviews with successful lyricists.
  13. Rock Guitar World gives an overview of the entire songwriting process with a focus on lyrics and structure.
  14. Ken Hill has 21 tips on songwriting at Music Biz Academy.
  15. The Muse’s Muse, a songwriting site that’s been around for ages, has an extensive beginner’s resource section.
  16. If you like online courses, SongU.com has several on lyric writing.
  17. There’s a selection of similarly priced songwriting courses at Musician University.
  18. Lyrical Line has an extensive set of articles on the topic.
  19. Music Radar has a piece suggesting 24 lyric-writing tips.
  20. The page may still bear a design from the 90s, but Charles Wolff’s article is a fairly long and extensive introduction to the craft.
  21. Your attitude to songwriting is just as important as your technique—Andy Roberts talks about which attitude is the right one.
  22. And of course for the ultimate guide to songwriting, Scott Adams shares his advice on the Dilbert Blog.
  23. This article is on dealing with rhythm in your lyrics, though I suggest copying it into Notepad to read it (the colors are terrible).
  24. Berklee Music Blogs has an interesting career songwriter blog.
  25. Performing Songwriter has a bunch of case studies looking at how hit songs were developed.

  26. Photo by SAM_FORD.

    Communities

  27. Great Songwriting has a community for songwriters who wish to have their lyrics critiqued by other songwriters. The cost of entry is to critique lyrics for other songwriters.
  28. The Hip Hove Ave forums are a place for rap and hip hop lyricists to improve their skills, critique work and engage in online battles (doesn’t that take the fun out of it?).
  29. Here’s a free songwriter’s forum with a particularly active lyrics section.
  30. The Songwriter’s Forum has a wide range of message boards ranging from lyrical technique to lyrical business, and has a contests section in case you feel competing with other writers will help you improve.
  31. The SongStuff Music Resource Web site has a forum with an active lyrics and songwriting board, and this one may be a good choice to get involved with over the others if you want a community that will cater to lyricists while giving you a place to talk about studio gear, instruments, synth design and so on.
  32. The Just Plain Folks community claims to have a membership of 51,000 songwriters and music industry professionals.

  33. Photo by Sister72.

    Books

    Sometimes reading articles on the web isn’t enough—you need an immersive, in-depth and comprehensive book to get you started. Here they are.

  34. Lyrics: Writing Better Words For Your Songs by Rikky Rooksby
  35. The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook by Karl Coryat & Nicholas Dobson
  36. Songwriting For Dummies by Jim Peterik, Dave Austin and Mary Ellen Bickford
  37. The Craft & Business of Songwriting by John Braheny
  38. Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo
  39. Songwriting: Essential Guide to Rhyming by Pat Pattison
  40. The Business of Songwriting by Jason Blume
  41. Popular Lyric Writing by Andrea Stolpe

  42. Photo by [nati]

    Inspiration

    It’s often said that one should learn from the masters of a given field, and this is especially true of songwriting. You should dissect and rip apart every hit song you can get your hands on. To get you started, take a look at the lyrics of some of these songwriters, who are considered among history’s best. All the masters give this advice: study the greats. Nobody takes it seriously because it seems like a cop-out answer, or because it’s too hard to get out a lyric sheet and analyze it for yourself when you could simply read an article.

    Take this advice seriously, and do it.

    These are links to lyrics sites; if there’s a small child sleeping in your house, watch out for the noisy banner ads!

  43. Prince
  44. Joni Mitchell
  45. Elvis Costello
  46. Brian Wilson
  47. Leonard Cohen
  48. Paul McCartney
  49. John Lennon
  50. Tom Waits
  51. Bruce Springsteen
  52. Neil Young
  53. Bob Dylan
  54. Billy Joel
  55. Eric Clapton
  56. Jimi Hendrix
  57. Bernie Taupin (Elton John’s lyricist)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Songwriting Links for the Week

A collection of links to chew on for the next week or two:

Creative Writing Resources
Groups of links for writers, such as character name generators and writer's tools.

Beatles Songwriting Database
Album by album annotated recollections by John and Paul, mostly about who wrote what and how they felt about each song.

Lyrical Ling Songwriting Articles and Songwriter Community Web Site

Several useful songwriting tips articles

Irene Jackson's Songwriting Tips


Lifehacker: Why Ryan Adams is so Prolific

Songbridge
A Canadian organization that puts out a weekly pitch sheet of songs needed

Submit your CD for review by the Muse's Muse

Monday, August 18, 2008

Common Song Structures

It never hurts to have a quick refresher on possible song forms. Today, I wrote a song (Soliloquy) and began by first writing the three verses. The first verse sets the stage and touches on the idea of an imaginary epic LOTR-esque narrative:

An illuminated manuscript, A sword of the finest steel
A mission fraught with peril, as I savor my last meal
And it feels to me It feels like my last
Breath should really be an endless soliloquy
So I better write it Better write it down

The second verse initiates another similar imaginary and equally familiar spaceman narrative, carving out the start of a larger context for the parallel verses:

The stars look so peaceful As I glide along through space
Looking for a planet That might save the human race
But it’s been years since I’ve been gone From the planet I called home
I miss my wife and family I wonder if they still remember me

For the third verse, I opted to be less "particular" and also to blur together the different references to narratives and performance:

The stories have no endings The speakers have no lines
The costumes all are borrowed and the music’s out of time
And when the final dancers stop to take their bows
It feels like that should be my final soliloquy
So I better write it Better write it down

Repeating the eponymous concept of the Soliloquy as a unifier. At this point, I considered making the song with only the three versions (at just under 3 minutes and with some instrumental extension ending each verse) but decided for the sake of contrast to add a bridge between the second and third verse, taking the oppotunity to mirror the parallel of the initial verses and refer somewhat subtly to the Soliloquy:

Someday I’ll go home
And when the dragon’s dead
I will let my weary feet head to the road

Someday I’ll breath that air that I need
And slowly start to read aloud
The words that for so long have been my silent reverie

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Rewriting clinic: the double meaning love song

I thought I'd record here the process in generating a song I wrote yesterday and today. I began by leafing through my book of songs and demos, and looking at one older song (a popular live number many years ago) that I did a quick demo for that clocked in at a weighty five minutes in length ( AABAAB format ). I began singing the first line in an improvistory manner which led to the first few lines sung in a much slower tempo, and I worked out new chords behind what I was singing, taking some care to make them extra colorful using a droning open G string throughout a descending chord sequence (C minor, C11 no3, Bdim +6, A/F add2, F add2, Gs4->3).

I wound up with a somewhat depressing and cryptic first verse after banging on the words for a little while:

There’s a dark stain on the windowpane
That you can not wash away
Some thing in the morning light
That makes you turn and say
It makes you turn and say goodbye

Not wanting to write a downer song I came up with a more optimistic easy to get along with refrain:

But suddenly there’s a reason
Everyone seems so alive out on the road
If I knew what I could believe in
Could be my comfort someday when I grow old?

Though with a little unnecessary doubt in the third line, an unanswered question in the second (why is the person out on the road? this rates high on the cliché meter as well...). Proceeding along I wound up with the stock formal dilemma of what do about another AABAB song.

First I added a bridge, originally after the 2nd refrain. This came out as:

Every night I fall down on my knees
And slowly breathe
I can’t keep they sky from falling
I can’t improve on make believe
Every day I’m dreaming when I call you on the phone
When I listen to your message
And I know you’re not alone

Putting some deliberate double meaning in the verse. Being a big fan of Nabokov's Pale Fire, I continue to debate the idea of a narrator who is not what he seems at first, not a romantic pitch but possibly someone who just doesn't interpreting rejection properly. Is the woman not alone because she is with someone else or with the narrator per his feelings and imagination?

I made a few refinements to resolve the formal dilemmas:
- Bridge after the third verse and before the final refrain
- An extra line tacked on to the first verse that partly anticipates the bridge
- The intro is connected to the song by being used before each verse and is also the 2nd chord
- The outro Csus -> C at the end of the refrain is in a different meter
- The 4th line of the refrain contains a perfect cadence back to C, speeding up the harmonic rhythm of the last 3 chords

and then rewrote the song as a love pitch with points of double meaning intact:


There’s always hope in wanting
Always waiting on a dream
Some things I trust you’ll never understand
Always waiting patiently for our lives to agree
That you and I will make the perfect team

In your ten dollar shoes and your fifteen dollar hat
The world is yours to lose
But you never think like that
You never think that the world will happen to you

But suddenly there’s a reason
Everyone seems so alive out on the road
You are the truth that I believe in
So won’t you be my comfort when I grow old?

I often seem to change my mind
Refine my point of view
And some times when you speak to me
The words just sail through
But give me one more chance so I can make it up to you

Every night I fall down on my knees
And slowly breathe
I can’t keep they sky from falling
I can’t improve on make believe
Every day I’m dreaming when I call you on the phone
When I listen to your message
And I know you’re not alone

But suddenly there’s a reason
Everyone seems so alive out on the road
You are the truth that I believe in
So won’t you be my comfort when I grow old?

Now, what should the title be? The working title is "Be My Comfort" or just "Comfort".

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Video Songwriting Tutorial

Larry Seyer, who has been writing songs for along time, decided to document his process of putting a song together by video recording himself in what he calls "Song Birth". Worth checking out...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Lyrics: Something Else

I've been working on three new songs in the last few days, one of which I just recorded a quick demo of and is of the poetic abstract sort. This second one is more of a character study / story about a girl returning home to her parent's house after many years when she left to the big city to pursue her dreams. Not exactly the most original story, I realize, but certainly one that is easy to relate to.

I've just been working with the lyrics somewhat and here is the current draft:

SOMETHING ELSE

Walking down that old dirt road
To the house in the woods
You remember from so long ago
Where you grew up fast and full of soul

Traveling home is a simpler thing
When your hands are empty, when all you bring are
Memories to the door
Though long forgotten everyone still adores you
In spite of what you put them through

You think you might say something
About a friend who lived near by
As you help them put their dishes on the shelf

Now fences are for mending
Not to keep the world outside
When you’ve left it all behind for something else

It’s nineteen years ago today
That you made your mind up and said OK
The city is the place to be
it’s everyone you want to be with
When you’re famous everyone will know why
You left, will they understand you best?

You think you might say something
About a friend who lived near by
As you help them put their dishes on the shelf

Now fences are for mending
Not to keep the world outside
When you’ve left it all behind for something else
For something else
When you’ve left it all behind for something else


July 16, 2008

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Best of the Rest: Andrea Stolpe

I find Andrea's Stolpe's Career Songwriter blog is one of the most useful songwriting blogs. In this blog she offers up some ideas on how to avoid getting into ruts by subtly challenging some of your normal habits.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Literature and Songwriting

During the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, singer-songwriter Joe Henry participated in a panel on the connection between music and the written word. In this piece for the LA times, Joe elaborates on this question and writes about how literature has helped shape his songs.

Interview with John Braheny



John Braheny's Comprehensive book The Craft and Business of Songwriting is one of the most useful business oriented songwriting books on my bookshelf. Check out this YouTube interview with John to hear more of what he has to say.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Recording the Revision Process: Baby

I wrote a song called "Baby" over the weekend and I thought it might be insightful to record the revision process I went through between the song initially coming out and the final draft, which you can listen to a demo of here for reference.

Here are the lyrics as recorded:

Baby, I think I’m tired
Baby, I think I’ve tried to say that
I can’t stop thinking about
I can’t stop thinking about you

Baby, is it too late?
Baby, am I made to break?
Your heart all over again
It’s so hard just staying a friend

So don’t think it’s true baby
That everything is maybe in my heart

Is it wrong to think I’m wise
I’ve lived too long to be surprised that
I can’t stop hoping now
I can’t stop the way that I’m the way that I’m
Running away from the things that I can’t change
The way I’m trying to feel about half my age

So don’t think it’s true baby
That everything is maybe in my heart
Everything is maybe in my heart

and the form is intro-V1-V2-Riff-Refrain-Riff-V3-extension-Refrain-RepeatedLine-Riff-Outro

In the first verse, I made the following changes:
- 2nd line "tried to tell you" -> changed to "tried to say that" which seemed stronger
- originally the 3rd and 4th lines were just"I can't stop thinking now" twice which was a bit meaningless. I really wanted the song to have an optimistic edge and be more about falling in love than out of love so I added the "you" to "I can't stop thinking about... you" in the 4th line
- originally the verse had a 5th line similar in format to the end of verse 3. I cut it for conciseness.
- I'm still playing with the arrangement, but I opted to add a lower harmony to the 2nd line and a doubled higher harmony to the 3rd line where a piano, vibraphone, and accordion all play sparingly (A guitar and upright bass play from the beginning).

Verse 2:
- The 2nd line was originally "Baby, I think I'm made to break" and the 1st line was "Baby, I think it's late". These felt too weak despite their strong connection to the opening of verse 1. Instead, I used a timeworn strategy and changed them to questions which increased their impact.

Verse 3:
The 4th line was originally "I hope you'll see that I'm too blind to be ... " which I changed to "I can't stop that way that I'm the way that I'm". This meant I could use the repeated initial phrase "I can't stop" in both the 1st and 3rd verses making the 2nd line of the 3rd lead coda-like to the extension which is based on the refrain but adding more resolution (back to the tonic D) as well as a new passing chord sequence (Bm - A). I'm also playing with repetition at several levels - I've always been one to avoid repeating phrases but after working out songs like Company in My Back which is filled with repeats, I thought I'd try and borrow some of Mr. Tweedy's techniques - the held out initial words are similarly inspired by the video of "Sunken treasure" which is the initial point of departure for the song.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Getting Better at writing shorter songs

Like many other songwriters, I think I have my favorite song forms that tend to lurk around in the background of my psyche during the songwriting process. For me, in particular, the one I use the most probably can be thought of this way:

(INTRO)
VERSE 1
VERSE 2
REFRAIN
VERSE 3
BRIDGE
REFRAIN

which is a variant on what Sheila Davis calls 'Verse/Chorus/Bridge' except with 2 verses before the initial chorus or refrain. I've noticed that one of my major role models, the Indigo Girls, also tends to use this form a lot, and when I cover some of their songs which are like this ("Galileo", "Least Complicated", "The Wood Song", "World Falls") I find that a variety of techniques that need to be employed for making the song seem too long: sustaining and building energy, providing contrast in the bridge, bringing in different harmony parts and changing the harmonic background rhythm.

This formal archetype tends to produce songs that are in the 4 - 5 minute range and lately I have been looking to write shorter songs for impact and brevity, so I decided to go back and analyze "Getting Better" by The Beatles which has a form like this:

INTRO MOTIF (distinct rhythm pattern + octaves)
VERSE 1
REFRAIN
VERSE 2
REFRAIN
REFRAIN-CHORUS
BRIDGE > VERSE 3 (half verse)
REFRAIN
REFRAIN-CHORUS (repeat 1st chorus line at end)
OUTRO (repeating rhythm pattern of INTRO)

and all this in 2:40 give or take. The REFRAIN and REFRAIN-CHORUS use essentially the same chords and harmonic rhythm but the CHORUS part adds a true CHORUS on the very 1st line.

This is a pretty neat form with lots of subtle tricks (the end of the 1st refrain contains a few measures with the hand claps that foreshadow that great moment before the BRIDGE where the Sitar comes in).

Monday, June 9, 2008

Lindsay May: Bronze & Blue

Elvis is coming to town. As singer songwriter Lindsay May’s entourage, the miniature apricot poodle, won’t be hitting the stage, but offering behind-the-scenes support as May makes her way through B.C. and Alberta in support of her new album, Bronze & Blue.

Read more

Asking Questions: Songwriting Zen

From Songwriting Zen:

John Cowell blogs on asking questions to improve your lyrics and get people more involved.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Start your own Songpull!


I don't happen to live near Parkersburg, West Virginia, which is too bad because it sure would be fun to attend one of John Radcliff's songpull events wherein a bunch of songwriters sit in a circle and "pull" the guitar along from person to person, each playing a new song of theirs. I do think songpulls are a great intimate vehicle for songwriters to share, a little less formal, more democratic and perhaps more qualitatively consistent than a songwriter's association critique. If you have the ability to organize one, by all means consider it. John adds some value by videotaping a short interview with each songwriter and then uploading these to the web for dissemination and archival purposes.

Speaking of songpulls, I was listening to a Music Business Radio podcast with illustrious Ken Mansfield (former US manager of Apple Records) who described an evening at George Harrison's L.A. home that turned out to be the ultimate impromptu songpull with George followed by Eric Clapton, then Jack Casady, and lastly Donovan, after which no more could be said or played.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Quotes from the Best Songwriters

QUOTES FROM THE BEST SONGWRITERS
From Lone Wolf Sullivan:

Irving Berlin: "Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies."

George Gershwin: "Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come."

Cole Porter: "My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director."

Richard Rodgers: "It took about as long to compose it as to play it." (said about "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning", the opening song in "Oklahoma!")

Oscar Hammerstein II: "I hand him a lyric and get out of his way."

Stephen Sondheim: "Clever rhyming is easy, anybody can do it...Oscar Hammerstein II taught me that a song should be like a little one-act play, with an exposition, a development and a conclusion; at the end of the song the character should have moved to a different position...Cole Porter wrote a valid but entirely different kind of song, in which you take a particular idea and play with it and develop it in terms of cleverness, wit, intellectual or romantic intensity...The fact is popular art dates. It grows quaint. How many people feel strongly about Gilbert and Sullivan today compared to those who felt strongly in 1890?"

Jule Styne: "I thought he might hit me over the head, knowing that he wanted to do the whole show. He was young, ambitious, and a huge talent. But he was also very gentle, and we got along fine." (On meeting Stephen Sondheim while working on "Gypsy")

Kurt Weill: "I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music."

Andrew Lloyd Webber: "I think it's probably, musically, probably the most sophisticated. ("The Woman in White") There's a lot more daring harmony in it than in some of my pieces...If you know what you want to do, as I always loved musicals, and then to have been lucky enough to be successful with them, I think that's all you can ask, isn't it?...Sondheim is absolutely wonderful and Alan Jay Lerner was wonderful."

Alan Jay Lerner: "You write a hit the same way you write a flop.”

Frederick Loewe: "It won't be long before we'll be writing together again. I just hope they have a decent piano up there.”

Burt Bacharach: "Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it. You may not feel like it, but you push yourself. It's a work process. Or just improvise. Something will come."

Hal David: "I tended not to be concerned about whether a song was going to be a hit when I wrote it. Because it became evident that none of us knew what was a hit and what wasn't. So I thought if I just write what I like, why shouldn't people like what I like?"

Leonard Cohen: "I wish I were one of those people who wrote songs quickly. But I'm not. So it takes me a great deal of time to find out what the song is. I am working most of the time."

Neil Diamond: "Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest."

Hank Williams: "If a song can't be written in 20 minutes, it ain't worth writing."

Donovan: "With songwriting, it all comes out in one flash. Then you work it, then you craft it."

Joan Baez: "It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page...People don't want to hear anything that they don't want to hear...You have to package it in a certain way so that it can break through the wall people put up."

Willie Dixon: "People have been brainwashed into believing that it's got to be down or it wouldn't be blues. But it's not so. It's got to be a fact or it wouldn't be blues."

Dolly Parton: "Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams...all of them are different styles, but those are the songs that make the times...they're the songs that last through time."

Johnny Cash: "I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realize when I get into them, they're no good. I don't throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight...When I record somebody else's song, I have to make it my own or it doesn't feel right. I'll say to myself, I wrote this and he doesn't know it."

Kris Kristofferson: "Johnny Cash's face belongs on Mount Rushmore...I don't write as much as I did back when I was writing songs every day. I've come to know when I've got a good one, although sometimes it takes the world awhile to catch up with me...If you're in it because you love it and you have to do it, that's the right reason. If you're in it because you want to get rich or famous, don't do it."

Sheryl Crow: "A song that sounds simple is just not that easy to write. One of the objectives of this record was to try and write melodies that continue to resonate...Everything that happens to you influences your writing...The writing process for me is pretty much always the same--it's a solitary experience...I have yet to write that one song that defines my career...Beck said he didn't believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent."

Ray Davies: "I've written so many songs about Englishmen, I have to go elsewhere."

Stevie Nicks: "It was my 16th birthday--my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do--write songs and sing them to people."

Lou Reed: "You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it...I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it."

Ozzy Osbourne: "I didn't think anything we did was spectacular. I remember we thought, 'Let's just write some scary music.'"

Paul Anka: "I had this talent for these stupid little teenage songs. I just couldn't get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my own tunes."

Smokey Robinson: "I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record. Originally I was not writing songs for myself. Songwriting is my gift from God."

Lamont Dozier: "I don't think about commercial concerns when I first come up with something. When I sit down at the piano, I try to come up with something that moves me."

Kate Bush: "When I'm writing I've been playing something for a couple of hours and I'm almost in a trance. At two or three in the morning you can actually see bits of inspiration floating about and grab them...I think probably the only thing that is around in these songs is that I was really lonely when I wrote a lot of them. But it was really by my own choosing because I was devoting myself to songwriting and dancing and I wasn't really going out and seeing people."

John Lennon: "I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then, "Nowhere Man" came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down...Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed sleep. "

Paul McCartney: "Somebody said to me, But the Beatles were anti-materialistic. That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, Now, let's write a swimming pool."

George Harrison: "We worked the medley on side two of "Abbey Road" out carefully in advance. All of those mini songs were partly completed tunes; some were written while we were in India a year before. So there was just a bit of chorus here and a verse there. We welded them all together into a routine."

Buffy Sainte-Marie: "As a teenager I started painting and playing guitar...Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel...This song ("Until It's Time for You To Go") popped into my head while I was falling in love with someone I knew couldn't stay with me. The words are about honesty and freedom inside the heart."

Michael Jackson: "“I wake up from dreams and go, "Wow, put this down on paper." The whole thing is strange. You hear the words, everything is right there in front of your face.”

David Bowie: "Strangely, some songs you really don't want to write...Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I've seen on some of the songs that I've written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in."

Stevie Wonder: “I really do seek to create music that is timeless, ... Each project takes on its own life, and the songs from "A Time To Love" are the most appropriate for the statement I wanted to make...The most important thing is, when I do give the music, I'm satisfied with it, that it speaks for what I want to do...It is a different kind of lyric; it's very picturesque. I can see everything that I'm writing, I can visualize all those things happening.”

Henry Mancini: "Decide what kind of piece you're going to write...slow, fast, minor, major, moody, happy..."

Janis Ian: "I write a lot from instinct. But as you're writing out of instinct, once you reach a certain level as a songwriter, the craft is always there talking to you in the back of your head...that tells you when it's time to go to the chorus, when it's time to rhyme. Real basic craft... it's second nature."

Freddie Mercury: "People are always asking me what my lyrics mean. Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. F**k them, darling. I say what any decent poet would say if you dared ask him to analyze his work: If you see it, dear, then it's there."

Robin Gibb: "The Bee Gees were always heavily influenced by black music. As a songwriter, it's never been difficult to pick up on the changing styles of music out there, and soul has always been my favourite genre."

Johnny Mercer: "I could eat alphabet soup and s**t better lyrics."

Michael Hutchence: "What we try to do with all of our albums, is live out our musical fantasies in the most honest fashion we know how...We want to include songs that lyrically cover subjects ranging from the heaviest things we’ve ever done to light-hearted experiences that can best be presented through sentimental bluesy ballads that are usually good for a chuckle or two."

James Brown: "I've outdone anyone you can name: Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500."

Phil Collins: "You know, a song is like a kid. You bring it up. And sometimes something you thought was going to be fantastic, by the time it's finished, is a bit of a disappointment...Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours."

John Denver: "We must begin to make what I call "conscious choices", and to really recognize that we are all the same. It's from that place in my heart that I write my songs."

Laura Nyro: "There are no limitations with a song. To me a song is a little piece of art. It can be whatever you like it to be. You can write the simplest song, and that's lovely, or you can just write a song that is abstract art."

Jackson Browne: "It's not like I'm looking to describe something that's only true of my own circumstances. It's beyond. It's way inside, you know. It's reaching inside to something that you have in common with many."

Van Morrison: "I write songs. Then I record them. And later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple. I don't feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music, and writing songs. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it...Music is spiritual. The music business is not. Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag.”

Billy Joel: "I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter."

Randy Newman: "If getting on the radio was a major motivation, I'd be one of the worst writers of all time. I admire people who do it, and I think it's a nice way to work, but I try to do the best I can and write what I like. I don't worry about it."

Harry Nilsson: "It happens so quickly it seems like it's coming from somewhere else. It's not. It just means that you're in sync with yourself. And whatever your goal is, in terms of hearing a melody or a lyric, the closer you get to it, the faster it comes out and the easier it is to "spit it out", as it were."

Deborah Harry: "I really, really like writing songs. Capote wrote every day. He said that's the only way, you have to sit down every day and do it...Something that's written out is okay, but it's not always a clear indication of what a person means."

Little Richard: "I was washing dishes at the Greyhound bus station at the time and I said, 'Awap bop a lup bop a wop bam boom, take 'em out!'"

Bernie Taupin: "'Captain Fantastic' was the first album in history to enter the (American) album chart at number one. We did it for a second time after that. Now that's not a boast, that's frightening...The process of doing it was unique because I wrote the songs in the order they were recorded, so it was written like a story."

Elton John: "It turned out so well because it was the first album that I could identify with in terms of lyrics. ("Captain Fantastic") It was passionate...I could associate myself with every song...It's a unique album in our history. This was the story of us..."Curtains", the lyrics to that are so beautiful because it sums up our friendship so much, and our relationship."

Moby: "It just seems like musicians want to sell a few records and put out a perfume line, and I think it's so sad that there are so many musicians who don't want to change the world."

Tom Petty: "You're dealing in magic--it's this intangible thing that has to happen. And to seek it out too much might not be a good idea. Because, you know, it's very shy, too. But once you've got the essence of them, you can work songs and improve them. You see if there's a better word, or a better change."

David Byrne: "Often I don't know what the song means until it's finished. Sometimes months later. I don't think that's bad. It implies that I don't know what I'm doing but--I think if you're able to follow your instincts, then that's knowing what you're doing."

Jimmy Buffet: "You know, as a writer, I'm more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down. And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them."

Angus Young: "I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same."

Barry Manilow: "I am nervous that the craft of songwriting is taking a nose dive...And since I‘m a songwriter and I connect with an interpretative, you know, interpretation of a song, I miss it. I just miss it."

Carly Simon: "Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music...I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing."

Pete Seeger: "I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically."

Robbie Robertson: "It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable...Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass...Music should never be harmless."

Sammy Cahn: "I don't write songs, songs write me."

Jimmy Page: "My vocation is more in composition really than anything else--building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army."

Robert Plant: "The essence of my lyrics is the desire for peace and harmony. That's all anyone has ever wanted. How could it become outdated?...We are trying to communicate a fulfilled ideal...I am a reflection of what I sing. Sometimes I have to get serious because the things I've been through are serious...The way I see it, rock n' roll is folk music."

Paul Simon: "It's very helpful to start with something that's true. If you start with something that's false, you're always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin."

Melissa Manchester: "Everybody wants to write a hit song, but in Nashville people want to write the best song, which was my original intention as a singer/songwriter."

James Taylor: "I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could...To be a musician, especially a singer/songwriter--well, you don't do that if you have a thriving social life. You do it because there's an element of alienation in your life...I wish I could say, 'Oh, that would be great to write a song about.' But what I'm doing is assembling and minimally directing what is sort of unconsciously coming out. It's not something I can direct or control. I just end up being the first person to hear these songs. That's what it feels like...that I don't feel as though I write them. Then there's a phase when you button it up and finish it. But it all starts with a lightning strike. A melody will suggest itself in the context of whatever I'm playing, and then the cadence will suggest words. And those words don't come from a conscious place. I typically will work on a lyric in a three-ring binder. On the right side, I'll write the lyric, and on the left side, I put in alternate things."

Tracy Chapman: "Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control."

Peter Townshend: "What I took back, because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father, was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh...Songwriting is best. It's the hardest--finest--tightest. It also requires the most discipline."

Todd Rundgren: "I don't have the same restrictions that other people do because I never painted myself into a corner. I've always done things that didn't necessarily fit the form. I've never felt limited in that respect in terms of songwriting."

Linda Ronstadt: "I can draw with sound. That's the most useful thing I learned in terms of what my craft is...The arrangements were mine. They were little lines and stuff that I had written myself...And I was locked into this idea that vocals didn't count, melodies didn't count, songwriting craftsmanship didn't count. The only thing that counted was high arching guitar solos."

John Fogerty: "For years I walked around with the phrase "Green River" because I had seen that on a soda fountain drink when I was probably 8 or 9 years old, and I went, 'Gee, I like that.' Another one was "Lodi", which I thought sounded really cool. I got this cheap little empty plastic notebook at my local drugstore, and bought a little slab of filler paper and the very first title I wrote in it was "Proud Mary". I had no idea what that title meant."

Brian Wilson: "The idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio...well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else...My state of being has been elevated, because I've been exercising, writing songs...No masterpiece ever came overnight. A person's masterpiece is something that you nurture along."

Cab Calloway: "You don't think it was because a white man wrote it, a black man wrote it, a green man wrote it. What--doesn't make a difference!"

Carole King: "I'm a songwriter first...In my career I have never felt that my being a woman was an obstacle or an advantage. I guess I've been oblivious...Sensitive, humbug. Everybody thinks I'm sensitive...There is a downside to having one of the biggest-selling albums ever."

Bob Marley: "One good thing about music, when it hits--you feel no pain...My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die."

Ann Wilson: "All the songs that were written for that album are just all our first sophomore songs. So they're all from real life. Very sweet and very innocent."

Willie Nelson: "I like myself better when I'm writing regularly...I was influenced a lot by those around me--there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields."

Prince: "I try not to repeat myself. It's the hardest thing in the world to do--there are only so many notes one human being can master...One of the reasons we’re going out on the road and why we’re titling this tour as "Musicology" is because we want to bring that back. We want to teach the kids and musicians of the future the art of song writing, the art of real musicianship.”

John Prine: “I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was...I've never had any discipline whatsoever. I just wait on a song like I was waiting for lightning to strike. And eventually--usually sometime around 3 in the morning--I'll have a good idea. By the time the sun comes up, hopefully, I'll have a decent song.”

Ian Anderson: "Martin, Dave, and I get together and rough out a few songs and put them on cassettes for some reference...With the actual music, I'm not interested in objectivity, quite the opposite. I want a solely and totally subjective experience...A lot of pop music is about stealing pocket money from children."

Neil Young: "I don't force it. If you don't have an idea and you don't hear anything going over and over in your head, don't sit down and try to write a song. You know, go mow the lawn...My songs speak for themselves."

Eddie Van Halen: "Everything comes to me while I'm sitting on the pot (toilet)...David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon--Van Halen doing "Dancing in the Streets"? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music."

Boudleaux Bryant: "As far as my creative urge is concerned, I do sit down and write my own music...I'll tell you a writer who I think is a genius: Ray Stevens. He comes up with some of the most fantastic novelty ideas. Dolly Parton also writes well. I like a lot of songs, a lot of writers."

Felice Bryant: "The only style God has blessed us with is what people seem to like...It doesn't bother me if a song doesn't get recorded, because I feel somebody down the road, maybe not even born yet, has his name on it."

Janis Joplin: "I always wanted to be an artist, whatever that was, like other chicks want to be stewardesses...Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. You can fill your life up with ideas and still go home lonely. All you really have that really matters are feelings. That's what music is to me."

Chrissie Hynde: "I've done lots of songs for film soundtracks and things like that--stuff I'm not ashamed of, but that doesn't represent my legacy with the Pretenders...I think domesticity certainly doesn't make it easy to write, you know, because you've got a lot of distractions and I think a writer is always looking for distractions."

Beck: "Originally, the lyrics to "Girl" were really upbeat, and then it didn't work for me somehow. You need the dichotomy. If you're doing something happy and light, you need the shadows."

Grace Slick: "Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable...(on "White Rabbit") I have lived her (Alice's) story, and I admired it as a little girl...I believe the White Rabbit represents her curiosity. She has no idea how that chase is going to turn out. I admire that--when people have the guts to follow their hearts, their curiosity."

Ric Ocasek: "I could never be a country person, sitting around trees trying to write a song. I would rather be in the middle of society, whether it's growing or crumbling."

Steve Earle: "Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."

Townes Van Zandt: "I don't think you can ever do your best. Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best."

Loretta Lynn: "I don't know what it's like for a book writer or a doctor or a teacher as they work to get established in their jobs. But for a singer, you've got to continue to grow or else you're just like last night's cornbread--stale and dry."

Syd Barrett: "I was sleeping in the woods one night after a gig we'd played somewhere, when I saw this girl appear before me. That girl was Emily." (on how he wrote "See Emily Play") "Chapter 24"--that was from the "I Ching", there was someone around who was very into that, most of the words came straight off that. "Lucifer Sam" was another one--it didn't mean much to me at the time, but then three or four months later it came to mean a lot."

Mariah Carey: "A lot of people are singing about how screwed up the world is, and I don't think that everybody wants to hear about that all the time."

Jimmy Webb: "I usually know what kind of song I'm after. I know what I'm trying to do when I start. I don't always get there. But I try to visualize what it's actually going to be."

Lenny Kravitz: "I never sit down to write. When I'm moved, I do it. I just wait for it to come. You just hear it. I can't really describe writing. It's in my head. I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs...A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics, really. A lot of people pretty much only listen to the chorus."

Kid Rock: "I've just really been into melody and lyrics and songwriting. Writing a rap, to me, is easy. I could write a rap like that. But writing songs and melodies and s**t that's hopefully going to stick around for 30, 40 years is f**king hard...If you have good songs and you're talented, people will eventually come to your shows, people will buy your music."

Axl Rose: "I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it."

Sly Stone: "My only weapon is my pen, I'm a songwriter."

Joni Mitchell: "You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it's just complaining...I can't remember anything I ever wrote...Not to dismiss Gershwin, but Gershwin is the chip; Ellington was the block."

Duke Ellington: "If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original."

Jerry Leiber: "We didn't write songs, we wrote records."

Mike Stoller: "But if you can't, can't put the words immediately, why stay around? I have a jaundiced view of bands that can't really write but sing. We didn't write everything we produced, whoever the artist was we always went for the best song and we would bring in other writers like Doc Pomus and go for the very best songs we could get."

Doc Pomus: "I didn't want to be the crippled songwriter or the crippled singer. I wanted to be the singer or the songwriter who was crippled. I wanted to be larger than life and a man among men."

Patti Smith: "If I have any regrets, I could say that I'm sorry I wasn't a better writer or a better singer...When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep...An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn't know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch."

Arlo Guthrie: "We would turn everything into songs in those days...A lot of people think "Alice's Restaurant" was an anti-war song. It's not. It's an anti-idiot song,”

Otis Blackwell: "I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today...Al Stanton walked in one day and said, 'Otis, I've got an idea. Why don't you write a song called "All Shook Up"?' Two days later I brought the song in and said, 'Look, man, I did something with it.'"

Cynthia Weil: "It was kind of like songwriter's boot camp. You had to produce. You had to produce fast. You had to learn...The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer/songwriter, or find a singer to develop."

Jimmy Cliff: "It was the vehicle that propelled me to international stardom. ("Harder They Come") I was known as a singer/songwriter before that, but people did not know me as an actor. It showed the world where the music I contributed to create was coming from. It opened the gates for Jamaican music, internationally."

Peter Tosh: "I don't have to say I'm going to make a song. A song is always there. I just have to open my mouth and a song comes out."

Emmylou Harris: "I was the audience he wanted to reach. Gram Parsons' writing brought his own personal generations' poetry and vision into the very traditional format of country music, and he came up with something completely different."

Gordon Lightfoot: "'If You Could Read My Mind' was written during the collapse of my marriage. It's a great song. No one has any gripes about it. I wondered what my wife and daughter might think. My daughter is the one who got me to correct 'The feelings that you lacked' to 'The feelings that we lacked'."

John Mellencamp: "It's my responsibility as a singer/songwriter to report the news."

Jorma Kaukonen: "I was writing a lot of true love songs--true love almost gone wrong but saved at the last moment...Many of the best songs get written in a state of abject misery. I prefer to write fewer songs and have less cataclysmic events in my life...Some hit songs are really stupid, and who knows why they're hits. But a lot of hit songs are really good."

Bjork: "I love being a very personal singer/songwriter, but I also like being a scientist or explorer"

David Crosby: "My songs emerge unbidden and unplanned and completely on a schedule of their own...We have, all of us, over the years, written things that responded to the world as it slapped us in the face. Me and Nash, singing "To the Last Whale" and "Find the Cost of Freedom". Stills coming up with "For What It's Worth". These came right out of the news. People have accused us of taking stances and the truth is we don't."

Billy Idol: "Rock isn't art, it's the way ordinary people talk."

Frank Zappa: "All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff...Basically what people want to hear is: I love you, you love me, the leaves turn brown, they fell off the trees, the wind is blowing, it got cold, you went away, my heart broke, you came back, and my heart was okay...Modern music is people who can't think signing artists who can't write songs to make records for people who can't hear. Most people wouldn't know good music if it came up and bit them on the ass...If lyrics make people do things, how come we don't love each other?"

Johnny Rotten: "I don't listen to music, I hate all music...You'll find that empty vessels make the most sound."

Bono: "I have never tried to write this thing called a song that's played on radios all around the world, that window-cleaners hum, that people listen to in traffic jams. I was never interested in song: U2 came about through a sound."

Sting: "Songwriting is a kind of therapy for both the writer and the listener if you choose to use it that way. When you see that stuff help other people that's great and wonderful confirmation that you're doing the right thing."

Bruce Springsteen: "I didn't know if it would be a successful one, or what the stages would be, but I always saw myself as a lifetime musician and songwriter...I was always concerned with writing to my age at a particular moment. That was the way I would keep faith with the audience that supported me as I went along...I'm a synthesist. I'm always making music. And I make a lot of different kinds of music all the time. Some of it gets finished and some of it doesn't...The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with."

Elvis Costello: "You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer; I have my reputation as a songwriter and a performer."

Annie Lennox: "I knew that I wanted to be a singer/songwriter when I was much younger and, um, I've been able to, you know, to realize that dream and I'm very pleased with that...I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry...Music is an extraordinary vehicle for expressing emotion--very powerful emotions."

Jim Morrison: "Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you...I believe in a long, prolonged, derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown...I like any reaction I can get with my music. Just anything to get people to think."

Mick Jagger: "A lot of times songs are very much of a moment, that you just encapsulate. They come to you, you write them, you feel good that day, or bad that day."

Keith Richards: "I don't think rock n' roll songwriters should worry about art. I don't think it comes into it...as far as I'm concerned, Art is just short for Arthur..."... I don't like to go into the studio with all the songs worked out and planned before hand...you've got to give the band something to use its imagination on as well."

Ron Wood: "There's a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music, kind of an unwritten rule. I don't know what it is. But I've got it."

Billy Gibbons: "My discussion with Keith Richards about the creative process led me to believe that there's an invisible presence of a stream of ever-flowing creativity that we overhear--all you have to do is pull up the antenna and dial it in. This presence allows you to maintain your sense of origin and move forward."

Jimi Hendrix: "Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction...All I'm writing is just what I feel, that's all. I just keep it almost naked. And probably the words are so bland...I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be put as only a guitar player, or either only as a songwriter, or only as a tap dancer. I like to move around...Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music."

Eric Clapton: "The writing of the song is the therapy. The toughness is doing nothing. It's very dependent on your state of mind. And your emotional state as well. And a lot of it comes pouring out, you don't really have that much control with it. I've felt that the only way to survive was with dignity, pride and courage."

Bob Dylan: "My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie...It's not me, it's the songs. I'm just the postman, I deliver the songs...I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet."

Chuck Berry: "For many years I've been reluctant to make new songs. There has been a great laziness in my soul...All those m- words and f- words, don't blame me for that. I'd rather hear Tommy Dorsey or Artie Shaw any day...Look, I ain't no big s**t, all right? My music, it is very simple stuff. I told you all this before. I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters...I was in Australia, and I found out they wouldn't even let a black man become a citizen there. That's why I wrote that song. You know 'Back in the USA,' don't you?" don't you?"

Monday, May 12, 2008

Typical Mistakes Made By Beginning Songwriters?

So says the readers of the Muse's Muse in this collection of responses to that very question.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Robert Hicks: A Guitar and a Pen (Book)


Ron Wynn in the Nashville City Paper gives a positive review to Robert Hicks' latest venture, co-editing with John Bohlinger and Justin Stelger this new anthology of stories by some of the songwriters of Country Music. Sam Houston of Book Chase gives a more detailed review of the book in his blog.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

John Mayer on Songwriting



Then again - John Mayer tells us how it's done. Pretty funny.

Detholz Songwriting Blog


Chicago-based Detholz! posts a pretty interesting and detailed songwriting blog every Wednesday. The writing style is easy to follow and they get a decent amount of comment traffic so it might be a good study in running a songwriting blog for an established act.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Humber songwriting workshop July 2008


The Toronto-based Humber songwriting workshop sponsors two three day songwriting workshops July 20-22 and July 22-24. It seems like they have good support for different levels of ability and an chance for participants to bond and share their stuff.

Monday, April 28, 2008

2:42 the ideal song length?


Listening to Ryan Adams' latest album, Easy Tiger, I was wondering just why it was that my two favorite songs Two and Everybody Knows both use Verse-Refrain-Verse-Refrain format and clock in on either side of 2:30 by a few seconds. Another song I'm also performing lately— Getting Better—clocks in at just 2:47. Reading Joshua Allen's piece about 2:42 being the ideal song length, I wonder if he's on to something about songwriting economy.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Overused chord progressions

chrisjh rails against overused chord progressions on everything.com.

Free online rhyhming dictionary


I sometimes use a free online rhyming dictionary like Rhymer / WriteExpress. The desktop version I have (it came with Finale) allows one to constrain the syllables of the results as well.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Writing Songs is Easy?

Matthew Ryan posted a short essay called Writing Songs is Easy in which he talks about starting the process with a little self-examination about your niche and what you are hoping to get out of songwriting. Take a look around the KnowTheMusicBiz.com web site if you visit.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Brian Kelley's RoughMix Podcast and Blog



Brian Kelley has an interesting "behind the scenes" podcast about the songwriting process called RoughMix and also has a blog devoted to supporting and annotating the podcast.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Lead Sheet Thursday

Thursday is the day I pick songs for my band (28 Strings) to play during our weekly rehearsal. If we can figure out how to put a gentle drum beat around it, I'd like to try the Jayhawks' song 'All the Right Reasons' from their Rainy Day Music album and maybe the song 'Blue' (from Tomorrow the Green Grass) but also well covered on the Thorns' eponymous CD. Speaking of the 'Hawks, frontman Gary Louris' new CD, Vagabonds is pretty nice — I definitely recommend checking it out if you're a fan. There's also a Terry Gross fresh air interview with Louris lurking around on iTunes.

I just remixed Suspended in Alarm for the gazillionth time, trying to give the opening some bunch - I added a very subtle harp flourish in the beginning. I'm quite happy with the drum sound on this track, I'll have to document that one and use it elsewhere.