I recently began to coach a local songwriter on a weekly basis, and he has inadvertently re-introduced me to open tunings on the guitar. He writes some interesting songs, and part of what makes them interesting is his penchant for all kinds of alternate tunings that cause lots of broken strings, but plenty of fascinating compositions! Obviously, this post will apply more to those of you who write on guitar :-).
If you've never heard of open or alternate tunings, I'll give you a bit of a run down first. Most of you know that when a guitar is in "standard" tuning, the notes from the 6th string down are E, A, D, G, B and E. The first tuning I will explain is "alternate standard", which, in most cases, means tuning each string down 1/2 a step or more. The first time I came across this was with the band Nirvana, although I'm sure there were those who did it earlier than they did. Nirvana's guitars were almost always tuned down 1/2 step, making their songs sound deeper. They were a pain to figure out unless you had your guitar in this alternate standard tuning. This has become a common tuning for a number of bands, mostly in the rock, metal or alternative genre.
Open tunings are a retuning of a guitar to a chord. One of the more common open tunings is to a D chord, where the strings are tuned as followed: 6th becomes D, 5th stays as A, 4th stays as D, 3rd is tuned down to F#, 2nd string is tuned down to A and the first string is tuned down to D. Listing them together, they are D,A,D,F#,A,D. If you look up a D chord, these are those notes contained within that chord.
I recently watched James Taylor perform at the DNC on television and it reminded me of one of my favourite songs of his. I've mentioned it before in my blog article My 10 All Time Favourite Songs but I think I'd like to go into more depth here about what I like so much about this song.
What I think I first fell in love with in this song was the melody and chord progression and the instrumentation...it's a sad song and a powerful one. I didn't find out until later that James wrote it about his brother who passed away.
James changed the gender of the main character in the song (good idea to do that when you're writing about something or someone personal to you!), and I'm sure he changed some other details for the sake of the song. When I found out it was really about his brother, it explained a lot to me. First of all, songwriters are always told "write what you know". I'm sure this applies to other types of writing, but the truth is that when a lyric is real, people feel it. When you're really writing from the heart, it connects a lot better than something totally made up. Now, I'm not advocating the idea of making your songwriting a diary of your life, but the more truthiness there is to it (I know, borrowed word and not in the dictionary!), the more your audience can relate.
Here are some of the lyrics:
The sun shines on this funeral The same as on a birth The way it shines on everything That happens here on earth
It rolls across the western sky And back into the sea And spends the day’s last rays Upon this fucked up family So long old gal
The last time I saw Alice She was leaving Santa Fe With a bunch of round-eyed Buddhists In a killer Chevrolet Said they turned her out of Texas Yeah she burned `em down back home Now she`s wild with expectation On the edge of the unknown
CHORUS: Oh it`s enough to be on your way It`s enough just to cover ground It`s enough to be moving on Home, build it behind your eyes Carry it in your heart Safe among your own
The chord progression in the verses is sentimental and soft, beginning with a Gmaj7 to an A/B (all relative to the capo on the 3rd fret). Major 7th chords have always been some of my favourites, as was evidenced in the first few songs I wrote once I discovered them. They are often used in jazz, but are not as difficult to play as some jazz chords. The A/B chord is simply an A with the added B bass note, which gives a kind of anticipatory feel to the lines. He plays those two chords once each in the first two lines, then starts the third line, which is twice as long, with the same two chords, progressing to F#m7, Bm7, Em9, A, D/A, A. James likes to keep his bass lines moving which make his guitar progressions intricate and interesting.
My favourite progression, however, is in the chorus. It starts with Bm7 to Em7 to F#m7 and back to Bm7, but the second line takes a twist. It picks up at the Em7 to F#m7 again, but then it moves to a Gmaj7...a major 7th chord, giving it that emotional punch just at the right time. His melody moves eloquently over top, with the melodic and lyrical repetition of "it's enough" at the beginning of the first three lines. It's enough to be on your way, it's enough just to cover ground, it's enough to be moving on.
When I first discovered James Taylor back in the 70's, what impressed me most were his chord progressions and melodies. I didn't even think about or pay attention to his lyrics until later. But I have to say I've never heard him swear in a song :-). In the first verse of this song, he opens with the idea of how the sun shines on the funeral, as it shines on everything, implying a kind of indifference to the drama that's going on beneath it. The last line hits home with "and spends the days' last rays upon this fucked up family." I wonder if James ever wondered whether or not he should use that word! On the other hand, there's an element of "real" to it, isn't there? Don't we all feel that way about our families sometimes? I think he was bringing his real life into that line.
Have a listen to Enough To Be On Your Way in the YouTube video below.
I love this song...when I bought the album, it was one of those songs that grew on me the more I listened to it. For me these days, that is rare. It may be only because I am unable to find artists that appeal to me in order to discover those gems, and the places where I might hear them on a regular basis (like radio used to) don't exist. But there is nothing more beautiful than a song that reveals itself more and more over time.
I was in the car on the way home today when I heard a singer/songwriter on the radio sing these lyrics:
I like ice cream when it's cold I like old time radio It's funny but it's true These things I do
The last two lines I'm not exactly sure of the wording, I was trying to remember them because they got me to thinking about writing lyrics and how we need to pay attention to detail.
I've been working on music all summer, but not lyrics. I spent the late spring and early summer working on theme music and tracks for one TV series, and all of August on music for another series. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to have my music on television, even if in a small way, and even if it doesn't amount to much of anything money-wise. The biggest bonus for me was that it got me into writing again. Well, I shouldn't come to any conclusions, I've only started on one song, but hey, for somebody who has had nothing but a dry well to draw water from the last three or four years, it's something!
And that's why the above lines struck me today. You should read them again before I go on and see if you can spot the inconsistencies.
