Song writing

gearaddict

I feel really frustrated that I seem incapable of writing songs. I keep listening to songs that I really love and wish that I could do that. Most of the stuff I like has a pretty simple chord progression with a different but parallel vocal melody. The kind of stuff that translates well to being played / sung on acoustic (which I would guess is how they were written). How do people come up with these vocal melodies? Are they just in their heads? If feels like magic. Whenever I try it I end up with something just infantile and laughable.

Is this something you can learn? Or am I on a hiding to nothing coz I just don’t have the talent? Part of me thinks that I am lacking in theory (particularly round the chord progression stuff) – I know there are some rules around which chords work well with each other or before / after each other but I don’t really know what they are. A teacher once taught me something they called the diatonic circle pattern but I could never figure out how to use it.

Anyway. What do people think?

Cirrus

I once read someone say that being a songwriter is that you can do one note, then kind of hear what the next one might be. That kind of makes sense to me. I can only speak for myself, but at the heart of it theory doesn't matter...I won't go from a riff in D minor to F sharp major because theory tells me those keys will clash in a jarring way, I'll do it because it feels like the right thing to do and I want to shock the listener.

Theory is the explanation of why music does what it does, not a pre-requisite to diving in and making music. IMO anyway.

How do people come up with these vocal melodies? Are they just in their heads?

Mine are. For as long as I've been able to string two chords together I've been singing along with what I play. Usually I'll just be strumming a chord sequence I came up with, or toying with a riff, and a melody will just pop into my head. Some of the songs I'm most proud of just came from looking for strange chord shapes on the neck - finding internal tensions that can't be resolved easily, then having melodies just spiral out of the possibilities. I think a lot of it is about just diving into what you're playing with abandon, opening your mouth and not being afraid of sounding shit. Just sing lots of different notes until something sticks, you find the right note that means something to you and that usually informs what you do next. Make vowel shapes, just make your mouth move and eventually you'll find a connection between your guitar playing, your emotions and your lexical cortex which will make meaning out of what you're doing. It doesn't always work, sometimes it does and you suddenly end up with a single melody line, a lyric, and chords to go with it.

That's the bit that I don't think can really be taught. Making something from nothing is big bang stuff, it just happens and all you can really do is learn to facilitate the process. Once you've got that something, it becomes a question of skill and hard work to turn something into a complete song. Everyone goes about that a different way I think. I think of it like construction;

I usually start by recording the idea I've just had, then I'll play it over and over again and just see if I can flesh it out. If it's a single lyric line I'll try to understand what made me sing it and what might work as a follow up line. I'll arbitrarily decide whether what I'm playing might be a verse or chorus, and having done that I'll maybe say something like "OK, I've got the first two lines of what I think is a chorus. This song is going to have two choruses, the second chorus is going to have a section that steps it up, then there'll be a brigde and the song will end with two repetitions of the stepped up chorus."

Now, this is probably not how the song's going to turn out in the end but it does two important things. Firstly, it gives context to what until now has been a kernel of an idea, a concept floating freely in space. It gives me an angle of attack, a mental space to consider this little fragment of what I want to make a song. Secondly, it gives the songwriting an element of problem solving, which the human brain is much better at than creating something from nothing. Now, I have the start of a chorus and I have specific issues to address: what kind of chord sequence would lead neatly into what I have? How do I develop the chorus idea in a way that builds on the energy and emotions I've got so far? What chord might resolve what I have? Will a key change work? Raising the vocal melody? At that point it becomes trial and error and a fair amount of lateral thinking.

The initial creation of an idea is instant. It's the fleshing out into a song that can take months. Sometimes it's obvious the direction a song wants to take, other times you might take the song completely the wrong way, have to abandon it all, and wait a year before starting again with what made you like it in the first place. Some people say that the best songs happen very quickly, I don't always find that to be true.

Is this something you can learn? Or am I on a hiding to nothing coz I just don’t have the talent?

I think anyone can be creative. You just have to learn how to connect various parts of your brain at some deep level, and I think that it's different for everyone. In my band I'm the only songwriter, but I notice that the other three will occasionally come up with something great - we might be jamming and suddenly this incredible groove emerges or my singer does a random melody that floors me. The thing that makes me the songwriter is that I notice when something good happens; the other guys just enjoy it, let it pass and forget about it straight away. I stop the band, insist on recording what we just did, then take the recording home and use that as the basis of a song idea.

What you can definitely learn is arrangement technique. I think that the core songwriting, ie having a sheet of words that you can sing, is best coming from the heart even if it ends up being quite complex. But the process of building up harmonies, rhythms, dynamics, ordering the different sections into something that flows, coming up with good intros and outros, that's all about experience and understanding. I learned by listening closely to records I liked, learning how to play them, and trying to de construct why the composer made the choices they made. I wrote lots of songs and never gave up on them even when it became apparent they were mostly crap. I spent time working out what made the crap ones crap.

Cirrus

Some things that help me;

- Don't be afraid of being shit. Just make noises and every now and then you'll do something that's worth developing

- Play in covers bands, try to get into what makes the songs you play tick.

- Record anything you think sounds cool, even if you don't have time or can't be bothered to work on it that day. Listen to your recordings on some idle afternoon in three month's time and use them as inspiration. Jot down lyrical ideas.

- Try to think of the song as one thing. It's not music/ melody/ chords/ riffs/ lyrics. It's just the song. It's an idea, it's an emotion.

- Listen to rappers. They're usually shit but they're often a great way of learning how to phrase lines. The lyrics are part of the music, they have internal rhythm and IMO the best vocalists understand that the voice is a percussive instrument as well as a melodic one.

- As early as you can in the process, set up a mental framework for your song even if it's mostly empty scaffolding. It gives you something to hang ideas off and lets you know what areas of the song need the most work.

gearaddict

wow...thanks so much for the excellent response. I'm going to go away and absorb that.

Cirrus

My boss is on holiday in Vagas, so I've got plenty of time to type away in forums

DulcetJones

Cirrus said:

Theory is the explanation of why music does what it does, not a pre-requisite to diving in and making music. IMO anyway.

This.  I do know a lot about theory but I don't even think about it when I write music.  I write down, and/record riffs and chord changes when I'm just noodling, then start imagining where they could go next and a few days/weeks later I have a song.  I also write on various instruments, synth, bass, electric, acoustic guitar and sometimes just a computer program like PowerTab Editor.  If it sounds right, it is right.