Attitude is Everything

 

Even though we songwriters tend to seclude ourselves sometimes when we’re trying to come up with another tune, there does exist a community of songwriters out there. It includes professionals and amateurs, young and old, rock, country, and all of the other genres, and male and female. Each has unique perceptions and experiences to bring to their craft; each is driven by a desire to express and create something.

What I find most interesting is the attitudes expressed and how those attitudes can completely colour my response to a songwriter‘s material. Recently I remember reading a post in the newsgroup rec.music.makers.songwriting from a songwriter who began to list the subject matter that he thought “sucked” in songs. He included any songs you write in the first person, love songs, any kind of relationship songs, and the list went on and on. I was immediately aroused from my complacency, since I most often write about those very topics! It made me think about what it is in a song that appeals to me and what doesn’t, which is a completely relative experience, but I responded with a post saying that it isn’t the subject that “sucks”, but the way in which that subject is handled. What interested me even more was how this person had essentially dismissed the majority of songs and songwriters out there with his attitude. Occasionally the “dark” side of creative immaturity and competitiveness rears its ugly head and reminds me of where I came from.

We’ve all been there. That “I can write better songs than that” string of thought that temporarily boosts our egos when we hear someone else’s material that doesn’t live up to our expectations. It’s too easy to fall into that frame of mind when we’ve had to struggle with our own writing and the self-esteem gauge has dropped below zero. I’ve been to demo critiques in which the “experts” literally devastated the songwriters who were there, and others where the complete opposite has happened.

It’s a tough world sometimes, but the people I’ve admired most are those writers who seem to roll with every punch and have enough energy left to encourage and help others. And the conclusion that I’ve come to, the thought that has helped me more than anything else, is that THERE’S ROOM FOR EVERYBODY! We won’t all make a fortune from writing, or have great recognition, but the talent that exists is extraordinary! Sure, songwriters in the “business” have to compete with others to a certain degree, but it can be done with such graciousness. I’ve heard staff writers talk about sharing writing credits with a person in the room at the time a song was written because that person came up with one line or one phrase. That’s the kind of generosity and maturity we all need to emulate. Time and experience will teach us that, when it comes to the big picture, having written the best or worst song in our lives doesn’t really amount to much, that the value is in the process and in the community we build with each other. You can’t help but be lifted up when you lift somebody else up. These days, instead of trying to figure out what makes a song “suck”, I try to understand what makes it great…if I don’t like a song, rather than getting comparative, I move on to the next one…I take a step back from my ego every now and then and appreciate the process. Songs don’t “suck”…bad attitudes do!

IJ

The Music

 

I recently had e-mail from a new, young (14!) songwriter who wanted to know how to come up with the music for her lyrics. Since I usually come from the opposite direction (i.e. I usually come up with music first), it made me think about approaching it from the lyrics first perspective. I sat down and wrote out some lyrics off the top of my head and then realized that I definitely had a rhythm going while I was doing it. Not necessarily a melody, but since I usually write to an established meter with the music already created, I think this brought out my instinct to automatically meter the words.

The difficulty was in developing a melody to them. Elton John is someone who has always taken that role, receiving the lyrics from Bernie Taupin and putting a melody to them. In an interview I saw with him, he discussed how he first reads through the words to get a feel for the “mood” of the song. Sometimes he will change things around (I guess Bernie gives him some artistic license!), making a verse into a chorus or the other way around, adding or changing lines slightly to accommodate what comes to him musically.

Don’t be afraid to let the melody do the “talking”…if the melody starts to write itself a little differently compared to the lyrics, go with it. I heard once that a sculptor looks at the work as already existing within the material…his/her only job is to remove the unwanted stuff. I think you can remove or add lyrics or adjust your meter to make it fit the music and still remain true to the essence of the song.

How to come up with a melody? I once had to write the music to a whole bunch of poems in the play “Through The Looking Glass” (realizing much later that this had already been done professionally!) in high school. This was quite a challenge for me and I worked up quite a sweat doing it! Instead of trying to come up with chords, I “sang” the words…I just repeated them and sung a melody off the top of my head until it developed into something tangible. Then I sat down with the guitar until the chord “sounds” in my head matched the melody. It took alot of patience (when doesn’t it?), and it gave me a whole new outlook into songwriting! Needless to say, I went back to songwriting in my usual way!

Recently a student came to me with a melody she had in her head, but she wasn’t good enough at playing the guitar to play what she “heard” chord-wise. She hummed and I tried all the chords I could come up with and it was pretty frustrating! In the end we still didn’t find it, but she learned more about how to experiment on the guitar until she could come up with it herself!

Coming up with a melody first is my “specialty”. I usually do this by sitting down and experimenting with chord progressions, but sometimes I’m in the strangest places when the thing hits me! Baths are great, so is a walk on a beach for me. Driving the car with no radio or tape deck playing is good too. What also works for me is learning a new song by someone else…lately Shawn Colvin‘s “Sunny Came Home” has been a source of inspiration…the rhythm of her writing is really catchy and the progressions in that song are terrific. I don’t copy it, of course! But when I learn something new, it often brings out something new because the mood of it can inspire. Or I play it wrong and come up with something else!

There are many schools of thought in terms of writing…my writing is very instinctive and never comes from a “well, this is a ‘C’ so I should be using an ‘Am’ ” attitude. But I have come across a number of songwriters who do exactly that…they come from the theory end of it. In fact alot of serious songwriters study the theory end of music quite voraciously, looking for a clue to writing a ‘hit’. There are all kinds of theories about hit songwriting. For me, I focus first on coming up with something that pleases my ear, and then I worry about whether or not anyone else will like it! Que sera, sera!

IJ

Critique and Learn

You may think you’re too new at songwriting to critique…let me tell you a good lesson I learned not that long ago. I had been writing for a number of years, and attended a songwriting workshop where, at one point, we were all supposed to critique each other’s work. Now when I was introduced to some of these writers, I found out exactly how new some of them were to the craft, and I thought to myself, rather ignorantly, how can they possibly help me? I had more “experience”!

As it turned out, they gave me some very valuable ideas, and, most of all, they were able to hear from a totally objective point of view and tell me what DIDN’T MAKE SENSE. You might think you have adequately told your story, until someone comes along and says “How did you get to there from here?” and “What does this mean?”

That’s why I’m a firm believer in critiquing as a way of learning your own craft. What “errors” can you pinpoint in a song? If you just have a feeling about some part of it, can you put it into words, and understand what needs to be corrected?

Most importantly, you will be more open to critiques of your own material! Why? Because you will begin to understand the thought and work that goes into critiquing properly and respect that.

So here are some general rules to critiquing:

1. “Critique” is defined as critical assessment or evaluation. Anyone can “trash” a song (I’ve heard and read some really bad trash), it’s easy to just say something doesn’t work. Can you say WHY it doesn’t work? That’s where the evaluation comes in.
2. Look at the song in the same way you would your own. What feels awkward or doesn’t fit?
3. If possible, give an example of what you might do to change it. This is an excellent exercise in problem-solving for you! Tell them how you did what you did. Sometimes there is not enough time to give examples of everything, but if one seems obvious to you, spell it out.
4. Never, never say “should”. “You should change this…” implies a hierarchy of some sort and that you know better. Well, if you think you know better, keep it to yourself.
5. BE SURE to include what you LIKED about a song. It really helps soften up the critiquing you’re about to impart. If you have nothing positive to say about a song, either don’t critique, or spend some good time looking for something.
6. Remember to take into consideration the style of the writer. A different style may imply a different approach. For instance, some country music works best when the lyrics are conversational but clever. Some progressive rock may imply a less straight up style of lyric-writing. Are there certain styles of music that you loathe? Now there’s a challenge!
7. The simple things are important. Does the music match the lyric? If there are minor chords, no point in talking too much about what a lovely day it is.
8. Tell the songwriter that this is JUST YOUR OPINION, and that it must be taken with a grain of salt. They may or may not agree with your assessment. That’s okay! Don’t get your defenses up, too! Be humble! Often I’ve had songwriters tell me that someone else said exactly the same thing about the song to them before. This reinforces two things, one is that the songwriter starts to realize that maybe there is a problem if more than one person points it out. The other is that it gives YOU some credibility!

I think there’s a lot to say about critiquing, and I may just add some things as I think of them. In the meantime, try it out! See how much YOU learn!

IJ