“Sometimes a song will be great for spare parts. You have to be willing to give up a few songs to get that one great song sometimes. For me, I hope it’s always about quality and not quantity”.
This quote applies directly to my ongoing songwriting process. About two years ago, I sat down with a bunch of old tapes and got 100+ song ideas down to less than 10 finished songs. On the one hand, I was disappointed at the low number of actual songs. On the other hand, all these new “composite” songs are stronger with multiple hooks.
3 Hooks Theory
Since that time, I try to fit about 3 hooks in every song, usually one for each important song section: verse, chorus and bridge. More than that and the song become unfocused, like some kind of progressive rock song. Less than that and I have the feeling that the song is not as good as it could be.
I view each hook as an independent song idea with the potential of forming a complete song. Then, once in a while, I go through all my available song ideas and try to see if they could be combined into complete songs. Most time it doesn’t work, but when it does it’s really cool. Also, I find it easier to finish a song that already has 2 solid hooks.
Instrumentals
One thing I noticed however is that instrumental spare parts have very limited usefulness. For me, they are generally the result of my guitar or piano noodlings and are hard to fit in any song. I try using them as intros, but they are often too long for that. I also tried using them as bridges, but I much rather have a singing bridge than a solo or instrumental break.
One Big Puzzle
Songwriting is like multi-dimensional puzzles where you have to fit melodies and chords with lyrics that are emotional yet make sense. Sometime, you can find that you already have the missing pieces lying around somewhere. Other times, you have to design a custom piece to finish the puzzle.
Check out this awesome John Braheny interview with Dianne Warren. This interview is especially interesting because at the time, Warren had just experienced her first few hits after years of persistence. She started receiving song critiques at 15 in 1971. Do the math: that’s over 15 years spent honing her skills. Read this if you feel disappointed that you’re still “not there yet” after one year with Taxi. By the way, she is a very shy person who does her own song pitching and publishing. We have no excuse! I remember reading in Jason Blume’s book that he had a similar learning period.
Another very interesting fact is that she started on guitar before switching to keyboards. Personally, my own songwriting improved ten-fold once I switched to keyboards. It’s just a better instrument for writing and arranging songs. I can always go back to the guitar for actual recording, but for initial arrangement, nothing beats a keyboard.
Lastly, both Dianne Warren and Jason Blume are musically self-taught, which I find quite interesting. I mean, in all their years songwriting, they have not managed to learn to read or write music notation? Instead they focused on learning how to turn the ideas in their heads into finished songs. Very wise
As a struggling songwriter, there’s a lot of things to navigate before you can get a successful “cut”. One of them are what I call “credit hunters”. For a long time now, singers of all genres have tried to get songwriter credits as their “fee” for covering certain songs. As we all know, even adding one phrase to a song provides songwriting credit.
Most of the time, this is done for monetary gain but it’s also a way for some to gain “credentials”. This confirms that the songwriter’s badge is one of the most sought after form of recognition in the music business. After all, it’s all about the song isn’t it?
Kreviazuk & Lavigne
In the June 2007 issue of Performing Songwriter, Canadian songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk expressed her astonishment that Avril Lavigne was calling herself a songwriter, since she usually gets songs from other people and adds herself as co-writer. Kreviazuk later had to retract her comments for fear of upsetting a powerful artist (and scaring off many potential clients). Lavigne would love to be respected as a songwriter but people just won’t let her do that. Poor Avril.
Clarkson & Davis
We all want recognition. American Idol success story Kelly Clarkson has experienced some frustrations trying to get some songwriting credits herself. She explains it as sexism, but I don’t really buy this considering the high percentage of sought-after female songwriters. A hit is a hit and usually, executives will use any song that can bring them more federally approved paper currency. It’s more likely that she has problems convincing Clive Davis, her famous producer. She’s the real deal, but she’s understandably upset that she cannot use more of her own song on albums that bare her name.
Presley & Parton
As a struggling songwriter, it takes a lot of courage and self-confidence to say “no” to a well-known pop star. Yet, this is exactly what Dolly Parton did when Elvis Presley asked to be named as co-writer of “I will Always Love You” in exchange of covering the song in the late 60’s. She stuck to her guns and the song became a hit for herself and others, including the now famous Whitney Houston cover. No means no Elvis!
Anka & Carson
Then, there are songwriters who openly offer songwriting credits to incite the use of their songs. The best example is Paul Anka’s “Johnny’s Theme” song for the Johnny Carson show. Carson was actually going to choose another theme, when Anka approached him with the idea of splitting the song’s publishing. Both men collected millions of dollars on the arrangement.
Just Say “Maybe”
I can’t possibly advise you say “no” to credit hunters, because they can really make a big difference in a song earning potential. The trick is to not give credits to anyone who has done nothing to make a song happen.
Every songwriter had a little cubicle with a piano and no window.
If you wrote a hit, you were promoted to an office with a window.
”We were New York teenagers writing for the teenager market.”
On the essence of a great song:
The marriage of words and music.
The sentiment appealing to people. They’d say “Oh, that’s my story”.
The fact that you can ear it over and over, never getting tired of it.
Be inspired by great writers.
George Stroumboulopoulos is probably one of the best entertainment interviewer around. He is always prepared and knows his music history. This is very rare indeed.
Short yet to the point video of TAXI’s Michael Laskow about the quality of demos. Basically the message is that a badly produced great song is better than a great-sounding average one. Duh!
The only thing he does not mention is that these days, the quality of demos keeps going up all the time. Sure, some people can ear a song regardless of production, but most can’t. Even when I’m playing a song to fellow songwriters, I’m always surprised at how much they want to be impressed with the production. Everybody wants to ear a record.
Be safe: make the production as good as possible. No one will turn down your song for being too well recorded.
This is a short video of Butch Vig (Siamese Dreams, Nervemind, Garbage, etc.) commenting on the recording of “Smells like teen spirit”. It’s always fun to see how much double tracking was used to get that “in your face” wall of sound.
The thing with Butch is that he’s a drummer himself, so he always manages to get the best drum sounds ever. I’m not worthy!
Songwriters are a skeptical bunch. No wonder since, like other showbiz hopefuls, we are easy prays for snake oil salesman wanting to part us with our money in exchange for that “big break”.
The Scams
Let’s see if I can list the most common scams in the biz…
Compilation CDs that will be passed to “important” people — This one is the oldest one in the book. As a business owner I also get called on a regular basis to buy placement in business directories. When I ask for a copy of last years “success stories”, they are often “out of stock”. Same scam, different name.
Recording/Demo studio connected with record companies — Classic: If only I had a dollar every time someone claimed to know the CEO of a big record company…If that’s not enough, they’ll boost your ego a bit: “Yeah, these top session players are really busy, but they like your music so much, they’re willing to play on your demo”.
Song critique services – This one is really hard to spot, because many reputable people offer this useful service. Generally, I would prefer to get a critique from someone whose work I already admire instead of an anonymous one.
Songwriting Contests – Have you ever heard of a successful songwriter who have had his big break from winning a contest? Me neither. Case closed. It doesn’t mean that they are illegitimate. It’s just that I wonder about the quality of the exposure. Something really strange is going on these days: more and more professional songwriters are entering contests as an additional way to market their songs. So, the idea of a total amateur winning a national songwriting contest is diminishing every year.
Open Mike Nights – Basically, organized pay for play. Actually, I like the idea of a place where you pay to learn your craft. Stage presence is hard to build with a mirror and a broom alone. Busking is also a great way to learn your craft, but you don’t get to learn to operate a PA, play with a live band and wrestle club manager for your cut of the night’s profits.
No One Is Looking For Talent
The fact of the matter is that industry “insiders” and “deciders” already have more supply than what they could possibly have time to listen to. Imagine receiving all kind of junk mail in your postal box. Would you then go out to a place looking for more more junk mail to read? Obviously not.
What they are looking for are success stories: people who could make it with or without them. I know it’s hard, but they are just like banks: they only help those who don’t need the money.
Make Your Plan
It’s preferable to sit down and make a little career plan with short (less than 3 months) milestones. Another thing I find useful is to define a “plan B” for each milestone in case things don’t go 100% (nothing ever goes 100%). In the end the only person who can actually discover your talent and give you that “big break” is…yourself.
Nothing gets me more creative than using a new piece of gear for the first time. Some of my best songs were written within minutes of pushing the “on” button of a newly-acquired instrument or audio gear. Anything will do: drum machines, guitars, pedals and even compressors (I wrote a great tune while trying a new HHB Radius 40). I’m not sure what it is, but I think that new gear brings you outside of your comfort zone and let you ear things you’ve never heard before. Plus, there’s the excitement of having something new.
Buying
On the down side, it can get quite expensive. The biggest problem for me is that once the initial “honeymoon” period is over, I have almost no use for the new gear and it quickly finds itself on EBay or Craig’s List. Instead of accumulating, I like to keep as little gear as possible. This allows me to spend more time writing songs and than reading manuals or patching cables. I hate patching cables.
Renting & Borrowing
One solution around that is to rent new gear once in a while for a day or two. You get to try things out without actually having to own anything. You could also persuade a music store to let you bring some gear to try at home, but I would advise not to borrow gear that you have absolutely no intention to buy. This would be kind of deceptive to the music store. Instead, try to borrow from a friend who may have some interesting gear.
Trial Software
Although it doesn’t quite do it for me, I have known some songwriters who found inspiration working on new DAW software and plug-ins. The cool thing with this is that most DAW and plug-in software vendors offer free trial versions for you to download.
G.A.S Control
Personally, I believe that any gear can be used to kick start the creative process. However, just try to keep you G.A.S (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) in check by never forgetting why you got a piece of gear in the first place: to write more songs.
As a red-blooded Canadian rock fan and Fender Stratocaster enthusiast, the music of Bryan Adams has had a lasting influence on me. For me, Adams hit a perfect storm when he did a duet with Tina Turner entitled “It’s Only Love”.
The songwriter behind Adam’s early (and best) hits is the inimitable Jim Vallance. I strongly suggest that every songwriter visit his web site. Jim has painstakingly listed details for all the songs that have been covered by mainstream artists. What makes it extra-special is the inclusion of sound clips of demos, early versions as well as interesting anecdotes surrounding the creation of a particular song. This makes the site into a gold mine for anybody curious about the songwriting process.
The biggest thing I have learned reading though his site was the intense work ethic required to generate that many hit songs. Him and Adams would write songs for 12-hours a days, everyday for long periods of time. Despite their huge success together, their intense work schedule negatively affected their friendship and led Adams to collaborate with other such as Mutt Lange (“Everything I do, I do it For You”).
Jim also wrote hits for Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Kiss and Heart. His recounting of the making of “Rag Doll” is quite interesting. Who knew Steven Tyler worked so hard? That’s what truly gifted people do: they make it look so easy.
OMG! I have not felt excited like that for new music since first discovering The Killers and Hard-Fi. Tegan and Sara is a band lead by two identical twins named…get ready for it…Tegan and Sara. They make these superbly melodic songs reminiscent of Guided By Voices meet Shonen Knife. They are signed by fellow Canadian Neil Young’s record company. Visit their MySpace page and check out “Walking with a Ghost” (which was covered by White Stripes) and “The Con” from their latest album.
Man, I’m such a sucker for 80’s synth & guitars. I wish more bands would break out their DX7/Moog/MS-10.
In term of consistency, they are just like The Dears: two good commercial songs in their whole catalogue but the rest grow on you with each listen. Their new album “The Con” is out in Canada, but I’m not sure when it will arrive in the states. Highly recommended to songwriters who love the guitar/synth sound.
Songwriting comes from the heart. Most songwriters have no idea where inspiration comes from. I guess if we knew, we would bottle it and sell it on street corners. Generally, there’s no correlation between knowledge of music theory (which includes sight reading, harmony and chord theory) and the ability write a good song.
This is probably why I love Jason Blume’s book (6 Steps To Songwriting Success) so much. Blume admits that he doesn’t sight read and with that out of the way, proceeds to describe the most important elements of a good song. Clue: it does not include any music theory. He briefly goes on to mention all our songwriting heroes who don’t read music (Lennon/McCartney, Seal, and so on…). While I find this comforting, I know that *some* music knowledge is never bad.
This is in stark contrast with my other songwriting books (all from Berkley professors) that state from the start that music-reading abilities are a prerequisite for writing good songs. These books focus mainly on melody writing and arrangement, which is pretty hard to explain without any type of musical notation. I must admit that these books have all the allure of a math treatise and totally fail to keep my attention more than 30 minutes at-a-time. And, no, I’m not A.D.D.
I recently went back to reading those Berkley books, and I have to admit, knowing just a little helps in a big way. I find that the real value in music theory lies in the ability to be more efficient at finishing and arranging a song. Instead of being stuck with the few chords I know on guitar and keyboard, I find myself experimenting with new ideas early in the writing process.
There’s also an interesting by-product of practicing scales and chord theory: you fumble into some neat ideas that are outside of your comfort zone. For example, while practicing alternate chord voicings on the keyboard, I accidentally found an interesting combination that had a very sophisticated, yet simple sound to it. In a matter of minutes I was fleshing it out with lyrics and a great chorus.
Now, every time I’m out of ideas and don’t feel like noodling, I just open one of those boring book and try to learn something new. The way I see it, I ain’t got nothin’ to loose.
The iPhone is not even two days old and it has already has had an impact on millions of web sites. The decision to not support Flash was seen as a mistake until YouTube announced that it was converting some of its content to Quicktime H.264. It’s easy to forget that most sites only use Flash because it’s a widely available browser plug-in. Because of iTune, Quicktime is also very prevalent. Plus, the fact that H.264 provides better encoding for large (i.e. HD) videos, makes it a great platform for the future.
On the Sathurday June 30th edition of MacBreakWeekly (recorded the Previous day only 2 hours after the iPhone had been available), producer Alex Lindsay mentioned that many clients were enquiring about how to “get rid of Flash” and make their web sites “iPhone ready”. I think everyone wants access to iPhone users demographic: early adopters with available disposable income and hungry content to play on the iPhone (music, video, audio-books, applets, services, etc..). Just imagine what sophisticated spammers will be able to do now…
Don’t hold your breath for Adobe to fight the Flash battle. This technology was acquired from Macromedia and Adobe already has an undisputed place as purveyor of media creation tools (you know, the software that actually brings them money).
I think that video on the iPhone and the need for higher quality video clips on the web will make Flash video less and less important as a distribution platform. Of course, it won’t disappear, but its use could drop significantly. If websites and browsers can migrate from GIF to JPEGs an PNG (a far more disruptive change), they can also go from Flash to H.264.
