Results of My Survey

© I.Woloshen

For the past several months, I have had a survey up on my main songwriting tips page with some basic questions on your experience, preferences, goals and others. The survey brought some surprising results, at least to me! What I want to do here is go through the questions and responses and evaluate them! The company that provided the poll changed around and as a result, the poll is no longer valid. However, I'll be creating new polls in future so stay tuned! As for the results I received from the last one, here are the results:

The length of time most of you have been writing surprised me a little. I usually hear from people who have only been writing for a short period of time...but according to the survey, MOST of you (36%) have been writing longer than 10 years, followed by 2-5 years (32%), less than one year (19%) and 5-10 years (13%). What is interesting to me is that although I started 32 years ago, I realize that it is only the last 10 years that counts to me. Why? Because I don't think I really studied the craft until then. Before that, I could have cared less to do any rewriting or to step outside of myself and think about what an audience response to my song would be. So I've come to the conclusion that the length of time we've been writing is probably not all that relevant! Have we spent that amount of time REALLY studying songwriting? I have read some great lyrics by people who have only been writing for a short while...and some equally weak lyrics from some who've been at it for some time!

Most of you who responded write both lyrics and music (67%), more write just lyrics (25%) than just music (8%). This was a newer question on the survey and therefore has fewer responses than some of the others, but seems to confirm my suspicion that MOST songwriters aim to do both.

The majority of you are what I call "sporadic" writers (42%)...I include myself in that category. I can go a long time without writing, and then suddenly spew out a long list of songs. This is why I don't believe in "writers' block", at least for me! Because there's a time that I'm in the songwriting "mode" and a time I'm not...sometimes I have nothing to express! 25% of you write daily! I wonder if you have written daily for all of your songwriting life? My guess is that there are probably some who responded this way because you THINK you should write daily :-) 25% write weekly. This seems fairly reasonable. 8% of you write monthly.

The next question is one I took particular interest in..."What do you feel is your biggest weakness in your songwriting?" My guess would have been lyrics, since the majority of songwriters I hear from seem to find difficulty in coming up with fresh and original lyrics. But most of you (24%) responded that "structure" was your biggest weakness! I'm wondering if this is because the definition of structure isn't all that clear? What I call 'structure' is also defined in songwriting terms as 'form'. This is the ABABCB (or any combination of those) that you always hear about, where A=verse, B=chorus and C=bridge. There does seem to be some confusion by newer writers about what a "bridge" is, or a "pre-chorus", and where they belong. But considering that most of you have been writing for more than 10 years, the confusion about structure does come as a surprise! 19% find melodies the biggest challenge and the same number say that "conveying a message" is their biggest weakness. I DID say to pick more than one if necessary, so the demo may be a little skewed by that. Another big surprise...only 1% of you said that uniqueness is your biggest weakness...now that's a shock! For the most part, many of the songs I listen to or lyrics I read from newer writers really lack the uniqueness quality! Nobody thought rhyming was their biggest problem...this is also very interesting. Is that because it's easy to rhyme words, or because you practise rhyming more than anything else? :-) 14% thought your lyrics were your biggest weakness, and 10% music.

None of you have successfully found a songwriting collaborator on the internet. Whether that's because you aren't looking for one, or just haven't had any luck, is another question. Considering that the internet has become a great tool for interacting with other songwriters, this also comes as a surprise to me!

The majority of you are interested in seeing more articles on lyrics (27%) or just more of anything (27%). Articles on performing (14%) and music (16%) and the business (16%) are pretty even. I do take this question pretty seriously...but it is curious to me in comparison to the question above about your biggest weakness, where only 14% of you thought it was your lyrics. I also like the fact that a good number of you will leave the choice of article topics up to me :-)

In terms of songwriting goals, I'm also very fascinated to know that most of you (41%) are interested in becoming a performing songwriter! Practically speaking, it IS an easier way (if you can say that!) to get your songs heard by others. The trend in major music centers like Nashville these days is for a songwriter to be self-contained. In other words, less and less signed artists look outside for material and more write their own. 36% of you are in search of a publishing deal, 14% write purely for fun, and 9% haven't quite made up their minds what they'd like to do yet.

The majority of you (86%) have never attended a songwriting workshop put on by a songwriting organization! I enthusiastically encourage you to do so! Not only is it a great learning experience, but you will finally meet more of your own "kind" :-) A lot of success in the music business, for instance, is based upon who you know. You've heard that one before, haven't you? But who's going to know you if you don't get out there and introduce yourself? That's the biggest side benefit from attending workshops, aside from honing your songwriting skills. Okay, enough preaching :-)

And last, but certainly not least...favourite songwriting tools! I told you you could pick more than one, of course. Looks like the good ol' "pencil and paper" method of writing is still valid one (36%), followed by the guitar (24%), micro cassette recorder (11%), keyboard (9%), newspapers/books/magazines (7%), the Internet (7%) and a rhyming dictionary (4%). I didn't include a thesaurus, which I use all the time, don't know why I forgot that.

As I said earlier, the poll no longer works, but I will be creating more in future, so stay tuned :-)

IJ

Vowels and Consonants and Syllables - Oh My!

© I.Woloshen

When I was in Grade 7 I remember my teacher, Mr. Fergus, giving us word definition tests every week...I hated them. Words intimidated me for some reason. My vocabulary, I felt, was limited at best, and who the heck needed all of those big words anyway when you could use small ones? I still love the saying "Don't use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice!"

Most of us understand the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) rule when it comes to vocabulary in songwriting. Don't pop in a fancy word when the rest of the song doesn't have any. Lyrics seem to be a struggle for a lot of songwriters...they are what I consider to be my weakest element in my songwriting! Why? Well, maybe I still picture myself sitting in Mr. Fergus' class, dreading the next vocabulary test. As a result, I've spent a great deal of time working on my lyrics in the last few years in order to overcome my fear of them. And I've learned a few things along the way!

Most importantly, words aren't just a bunch of letters strung together, they can actually "sing" in a lyric! Some words even sound like the emotion or sound you're trying to express..."hiss" is one that comes to mind. These words are called "Onomatopoeia"...other examples are clang, pop, ding, wham, splonk, and splat.

You may have heard the term "scan" in a songwriting context. When a line in a song scans well, it has a flow to it, where the sounds of the words, the vowels and consonants all flow together beautifully. A line that scans well is easily sung. One that doesn't, feels like a tongue twister!

The wrong word in the wrong position can completely blow a line....it can throw the tempo and feel off entirely. A lot of this comes from a songwriter not spending enough time and attention on the lyrics, including misplaced vowels and consonants, and bad placement altogether.

Oh, oh. We're in English 101 class again :-) What is a vowel? Do you remember? A,E,I,O,U and sometimes Y. In the English language you can get two different sounds from each of these vowels, and different sounds from combinations of them. Bonus! And what are consonants? All of the other letters. I'm going to assume you know what a syllable is :-) What I want to discuss here is what vowels, consonants and syllables have to do with WHERE you place a word in a lyric and HOW you use it!

Let's look at any old word...how about the word "it". The "i" in "it" is a short sound...so an easy rule to remember is "short sound, short note". For instance, you don't want to sing the word "it" over a whole note (4 beats). Not only is the "i" in "it" short, but the word has only one syllable. And NOT ONLY THAT, but the word itself is not all that significant. What does that tell you? Don't put it in a powerful position! For instance, here's a simple line:

Don't you know it

If you say this line in conversation, which words would you stress or emphasize? Probably "don't" and "know"...the "you" and the "it" are not as significant. If you emphasized the phrase this way: don't YOU know IT...it wouldn't sound right!

Now look at that line again from another perspective. Which words could you place the longer musical notes under? The same words that are emphasized:

doooonn't you knoowww it

The word "you" could also have a longer note under it. But the little word "it" will never work that way, certainly not very well! Words that end with a long vowel and no consonant, like "you" or "goodbye" work well at the end of lines, especially if the note at the end of a line is held for any length of time. Words with a hard consonant ending will SOMETIMES work, as in the example "don't" above. "Don't" ends with a hard "t", but because it has a long vowel sound of "o" in it, the word can be sung over a longer note, and the "t" not sounded until the very end of the note. But it can also be sung over a shorter note, with a very quick ending. So let the natural rhythm of your lyrics dictate the flow of your melody...don't force them into positions where they are uncomfortable!

Now let's take a look at a verse of a song you probably won't know, and you try to figure out how the melody might work with it:

Is this goodbye?
Well we haven't said a thing all day
It's almost time
So I'm wondering when the dam will break
("Let It Go" Copyright © 1996 I. Woloshen SOCAN)

Look at the above verse and see if you can figure out the natural rhythm of the words...this, as we've said, is called the meter. It could probably be interpreted more than one way!

If you write music and melody first, which is what I usually do, the rhythm and meter of the melody dictates where a long or short vowel might be. Some people find this much more difficult or limiting when it comes to finding words that will "fit" into those notes. When I'm sitting down and creating a melody, sometimes as I'm singing kind of nonsense lyrics, a line or a phrase will pop out that works well with it. Most of the time I have the melody finished before I even starting thinking about lyrics. But I can always mess a little with the melody to accommodate a word or phrase that I really like. It really is very much like a puzzle, except that YOU decide what the end result is going to be and how the pieces will all fit together!

This is really only a brief introduction to vowels and consonants and syllables (oh, my!), and how they work in songwriting. But the next time you sit down to write a melody to your lyrics or fit some lyrics to your melody, pay close attention to the "sound" of the words, not just the sound of your notes!

IJ

Chord Keys

© I.Woloshen

Here's an email I received recently:

"Irene,

If I write a song and start playing the first chord as (A) what other chords can I use that would fit. Usually I go to the C to G type, but that's because I'm limited. How can I find a wide selection of chords that would that would fit ? especially with minor chords."

When I first started to learn how to play guitar, every new "neat" chord or progression I learned ended up being in a song :-) The more I learned, the more I wrote! So I understand completely the limitations that pop up when you don't know your instrument all that well. Translation: Learn your instrument!

Here is my simple explanation of very basic chord theory...I hate theory, but it helps to know some of it so you can expand your understanding:

First of all, chords are grouped together in families called "keys". These chords all relate to each other, which is why they sound good together! If you sit down and look at the chords to a lot of popular songs, you'll notice that very often the same chords will be together in different songs. If you see a song with a "G" in it, you'll often also see a "C" and/or a "D" too.

Below, I've listed some keys, and all of their relative chords. If you play these chords together, you'll notice that they all sound like they work together...voila!

So that'll give you a few chords to work with. But of course there are MANY, MANY more different types of chords! Not only that, but you don't HAVE to use chords in the same key...experiment by throwing a chord in a different key in somewhere...that'll give a little musical twist to a song! Nirvana was a band notorious for writing songs with chords that were in different keys...it gave a kind of strange mood to some of their material that was part of their 'sound'. What's your sound going to be? :-)

IJ