Creating Great Songs and Apple Pies

 

I recently polled some of the members of a songwriting newsgroup to see what a songwriter thinks makes a “great” song. When we listen to a song for the first time and it hits us smack in the face, what is it that gives us that “shiver down the spine”, as one member put it?

Some interesting responses that came out of this went something like this, in no particular order:

• passionate performance

• it’s got to do something to my head, heart or feet

• catchy intro

• feel

• emotion

• easy rhymes

• story songs with a twist

• good groove

• strong hook

• melody I can hum along with

• I like the words to surprise me

• good arrangement and lyric depth

• a song has to breech my defenses with a good melody (I loved that one 

• I think my taste is a product of my own circumstances (that was good too 

• artistic integrity

• overall sound, mostly melody driven

• prosody (how perfectly the lyrics match the meter of the music)

Most people who are NOT songwriters would likely express the same things, with perhaps less use of the lingo that we songwriters often use. And still, there is this indefinable “wow” that we can’t really put our finger on, which might also be very different for each of us. How do you define it?

We are, each of us, capable of writing a song. In fact, I’d even go as far as saying that writing a song is really the easiest thing in the world. But writing a GREAT song is what we are always chasing and that mystery ingredient (or combination of ingredients) is often eluding us when it comes to our writing. Anyone of you out there who doesn’t want to write a great song? When we study the craft of songwriting, sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that all we really need are the perfect ingredients, and how hard can that be? Just look at the list above, and go from there!

But there are a couple of things missing from that list. I think they are things we overlook more often than not. First of all, even if you put all of the “right” ingredients into an apple pie, there’s always a cook who can bake a better one. Is it possible for someone who hasn’t baked an apple pie before to create the perfect one first time out? Well, anything is possible. But it’s more likely that the person who has been baking apple pies for a long time has a better chance of coming close to the perfect pie. So the first missing ingredient is “experience”. With enough experience, enough trial and error, I believe that just about anyone could write a really good song. The thing is that you also have to love doing it enough to put in the time to get good at it. Many would likely never take the time or have the patience to actually learn the craft. Not all of us want to study the craft of baking apple pies either 

Apple pies are also individual…nobody can make one exactly the same as mom does. And that is also true about songwriting. So along with the experience factor, there is the element of uniqueness. What is it about a newer artist that makes them stand out? These days, there are a lot of cookie cutter songs out there. I recently listened to a top 10 list of songs and five of them were hip hop or rap. I have nothing against those genres, but what I noticed about each song was that they had almost exactly the same drum sound and the same BPM (beats per minute or tempo)! Rap and hip hop have been really big in the last few years. What is going to kill the genre, if anything, is that they are all going to start sound the same after awhile, and the audience’s ear will tire of that. You can’t just throw the same song out there over and over and expect people to have the same enthusiasm for it for long.

SO…having a unique sound or perspective (or even production for that matter!) may take you a long way in this business of songwriting. And writing enough songs to develop a track record and get some experience will do the same.

IJ

How Much Money Does A Songwriter Make?

 [This post was originally written in 2006.  Many years later, it is much, much more difficult for songwriters to make an income from their songs and record labels are going under in, well, record numbers!]

I’m writing this article because I am truly surprised at how many people find my website using exactly those key words “how much does a songwriter make?” Why am I surprised? We are a society hell bent on making money. So why wouldn’t a person who likes writing songs think, at one time or another, that they might actually make money from it?

First words of advice: If you start writing with the idea of making money, it won’t work! Why not? Because you won’t last long enough. The average songwriter in Nashville, for example, has to work at it HARD for an average of seven years before even seeing anything. Most give up before then, especially the ones who ask “How much money does a songwriter make?” :) You have to love it, that’s the only thing that will help you hang in long enough to see anything come of it.

Okay, you probably didn’t come here for a lecture, you want the cold, hard facts. Here are some facts:

1. Songwriters make some of their income from mechanical royalties. In the US, the royalty used to be 8.5 cents per song per unit (CD) sold. On January 1st, 2006 it became 9.10 cents. An album that sells 500,000 copies in 2006, would give the songwriter $45,500 per song. Sounds like a lot, eh?  :)  But…

2. Less than 1% of ALL ALBUM RELEASES (I mean, ALL of them) sell more than 1,000 copies. Less than 1%. That means more than 99% of the albums released in 2006 will sell less than 1000 copies. And, because fewer people are purchasing CD’s, that number might be expected to go even lower.

3. Let’s put this together: It will likely take you at least 7 years to get a cut on an album, which has a 99% chance of selling less than 1000 copies. If it sells 1000 copies, you make $91.

Here are some more statistics:

48,000 = number of writers and artists in Nashville trying to “make it.”

1,350 = number of songs recorded in a year on major labels.

85% = percentage of songs recorded going to “insider” writers, publishers, producers, etc.

75 = number of songwriters getting 1 or more cuts per year in Nashville.

Why am I using Nashville as an example? Because that’s where a lot of the business has been in the last 20 years! And where would you go other than the place where it’s all happening?

The above stats can be attributed to a very interesting thread that happened on my old message board…a kind of blog written by BobbyJoe, someone who just moved to Nashville a short while ago and who has been dealing with the business of songwriting one day at a time.

$91…THAT’S how much songwriters make. To begin with. If that doesn’t take the wind out of your sails, then I refer you to a couple of other articles on this website. The first is a brief Beginner’s Guide to Publishing . This gives you an idea of how song publishing works and what you can expect. Another article covers the steps you should consider taking, everything from performing to getting critiques, creating demos of your songs, books and songwriting organizations. It’s called Your Songwriting Career.

If you found this article because you Googled “how much does a songwriter make”, and you’ve made it this far through the article, you just might have half a chance. Good luck  :) 

IJ

Phrasing – What Is It?

 

Beethoven in 1815

There are two types of phrasing in songs – lyrical and musical. Phrasing is defined in the dictionary as “a sequence of words intended to have meaning”. Its definition in relation to music is “a short passage or segment, often consisting of four measures or forming part of a larger unit.” In this article we’re going to focus MAINLY on musical phrasing.

Let’s look at an old Beatles song “Let It Be” to better define what musical phrases are. If you know the song, great…if you don’t, try to find it and have a listen.

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

If you look at this verse the way I’ve written it out above, you’ll see four separate lines. The first line of the lyric (when I find myself in times of trouble) looks like a phrase, but it isn’t a complete thought. The second line completes the phrase and the thought. Musically, the first line isn’t complete either. If you remember how the melody goes, that will help you hear that the first two lines together become a complete musical phrase.

“Speaking words of wisdom, let it be”…this is another phrase, different from the first one. When we get to the next part of the verse:

And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

Now, you see the musical phrases begin to repeat. The first two lines in this part of of the verse are almost the same musical phrasing as in the beginning of the verse, and the second two lines are exactly the same. The only thing that changes is the lyrical content in the first two lines, and a slight difference in melody and meter between “when I find myself” and “and in my hour”. So let’s map this out visually.

First, I’m going to show by bold and italic text, where the musical phrases are:

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

The two bold sections are the same musical phrases, as are the two italic sections. Phrasing is a really important aspect of songwriting. Repeat your musical phrases too often, and a song becomes dull…not repeating enough can lose a listener. In classical music, there are often long sections of music where the phrases don’t repeat.

Returning to “Let It Be”, we can also map the musical phrasing this way:

Phrase 1
Phrase 2
Phrase 1
Phrase 2

This is simple musical phrasing. In popular music, you’ll find shorter musical phrases and more repeats than any other kind of music. The repeats are intentional…they are there to help you remember the song! If you’ve ever been around young children, you’ll recognize their desire for repeated behaviour or sounds. If it entertains them, they’ll always ask you to do it again…make the funny face again, or make the silly sound again. This desire for repetition carries on into their musical listening preferences. Why do you think pop music appeals predominantly to the young listener?

Our listening preferences change as we get older. We still love the “old songs” that we heard when we were kids, but the “new” songs we like to listen to don’t necessarily have the same forms and phrasing that we used to like so much. I personally believe that the music you are exposed to as a child often helps to determine what you are capable of “hearing” as you get older. This is more or less a theory of mine and not backed up by any hard evidence as far as I know  Our brains are also wired to hear things differently from others, which is why there is such a wide variety of music out there that appeals to different listeners.

But I’ve ventured off the path here…let’s get back to phrasing. As an exercise, I want you to take a look and listen to one of your most recent songs, and break it down into musical phrases by using the method I used above…phrase 1 and phrase 2, etc. Even though you may not have consciously thought about phrases when you were writing it, you have likely, by osmosis, learned this concept. There are two problems that typically come up for a songwriter in this area. First is the tendency to repeat musical phrases too often. When you get into a rut like this, you don’t always recognize it, but something just feels inane and dull in your song. The opposite of this is, of course, not repeating the musical phrases enough! Long, meandering and incomplete musical phrases leave a listener completely lost. Remember this: listeners will NEVER remember your whole song in one listen. Very few people in the universe can do this (although Beethoven apparently could!) So what does this mean? It means you have to repeat your musical phrases often enough for a listener to remember, and not so much so that you bore them! This can be a very fine line to draw.

Let’s talk about the idea of a “complete” musical phrase. How can you tell when one is finished and the other is beginning? This can be a little tricky. You can probably find a song where a whole verse goes by and a phrase never repeats, but it will likely happen more often than that. Sometimes, the end of a musical phrase can be recognized by the chord changes underneath. For instance, in the song Let It Be, the chords work this way:

………..C…………….G
When I find myself in times of trouble

Am…………..F
Mother Mary comes to me

C…………………..G
Speaking words of wisdom

………F……..C
Let it be

The first chord is a “C” which happens to be the key that this song is in. Very often, returning to the root chord (in this case, C) helps us to define where a musical phrase has ended. In this song, the first line has a C and a G, the next line an Am and an F. Then you’ll notice the third line beginning with a C chord again. It just so happens that the musical phrases follow the same route, the first ending at the F in the second line, and the next one beginning at the C in the third line. This does not happen in every case, but it’s a good example of where you might find the beginning and end of musical phrases.

Do your lyrical and musical phrases have to begin and end at the same time? Well, no, there are no “rules”. But, practically speaking, a listener often unconsciously identifies them as being together. Take a look at your song again…do your lyrical thoughts finish at the same time as the musical phrases? Then take a look at some other popular songs you know. How do their musical and lyrical phrases work together? When you’re writing, experiment…push your lyrical and musical phrasings to where you haven’t been before, and see what happens!

IJ