Cheap Advice On Music

For me, one of the hardest parts of writing a good song is coming up with decent lyrics for the dang thing. Oh, I can make up nifty chord sequences all night, jumping from one key to another, throwing in fancy suspended chords, finger picking, the works. But sometimes when I sit down with the pencil and the lyrics pad, the words just aren’t there.

So that means it should be easier to write an instrumental song, one with no lyrics, right? Well, not necessarily. First of all, some of the “melodies” that sound natural in rock or pop songs are not very melodic, simply following the chords up and down or occasionally even remaining on a single note. These songs are often “sold” mostly by the personality and vocal stylings of the singer rather than the melody per se. The lesson: you will need a solid melody (or better yet, several) for your instrumental song.

The absence of lyrics can also lead to changes in the way you structure your song. For example, in a typical vocal song the second verse has the same melody as the first, but different lyrics. It is heard as “something different and new.” In an instrumental song, if you just replay the verse melody it is heard as “something you already did.” Big difference! To develop the “verses” of an instrumental song, you have to play variations on the original melody, or simply move on to another melody entirely.

These same considerations occur in jazz and classical music, where singing, though occasionally present, is more the exception than the rule. Melodies tend to be played straight at first and then re-worked and twisted around every which way to keep things interesting. Then they’ll go on to something else and come back to the original melody much later in the piece. This is a good way to think if you want to write an interesting instrumental song in the rock or pop genre.

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Normally, each of my songs is strictly a “standalone” unit, music and lyrics-wise. Each one is in a little world all its own. If I make a CD of my recent favorites, the songs on the resulting “album” have nothing in common other than having been recorded in my studio. These days, the emphasis is increasingly on individual songs rather than whole albums, so this approach makes sense.

As a songwriter, though, I find it significantly more stimulating and enjoyable to write and record a set of songs pursuing a common theme or story, in the tradition of “Tommy” by The Who, “The Wall” by Pink Floyd, or more recently Green Day’s “American Idiot.” It might seem that this would “hem you in” and restrict your songwriting options, but I have found that I can be more creative and write better songs when I have a specific story to tell.

Your set of songs could number four or twenty, whatever works. I wrote a five-song set about an alien abduction. I have also written or co-written longer sets of songs based on a Bowery Boys movie and the life of Robert Louis Stevenson. Maybe there is something like these ideas that would resonate with you and inspire you to write and record your very own concept album!

[An expanded version of this Mini-Tip appears in my eBook, Cheap Advice On Songwriting.]

As a songwriter, you may sometimes feel like you’re in a rut, like you keep coming up with the same basic ideas and situations to write about. One way to break out of this endless loop is to purposely write a new song dealing with something lightweight, funny, or just plain strange.

Let’s face it. Most pop and rock-type songs are about one and only one subject: good old-fashioned LOVE. That’s right, in music it’s always boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy loses girl, singing about it the whole time. There are songs about being lonely and songs about being trapped. There are songs about good relationships, and even more songs about the others. And then of course there’s the physical side of things.

Back in the Ancient Days (i.e. the 50s and early 60s), most of the songs were about love all right, but there were always two or three “novelty type songs” on the charts and on the radio. The very first song I remember learning to sing along with was “Witch Doctor,” by David Seville, with its evocative chorus, “Oo ee oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang.” Good stuff. There was also “The Purple People Eater,” written by Barry Cryer, about a creepy alien who….well, you remember. And who can forget David Seville’s Chipmunks? (Especially since they’re apparently still around.)

Some songs were basically about love, but with a novel take on the subject. Does anyone remember Dodie Stevens singing “Pink Shoe Laces,” written by Mickie Grant?

He wears tan shoes with pink shoelaces
A polka dot vest and man oh man
Tan shoes with pink shoelaces
And a big Panama with a purple hat band

It’s a little hard to picture the guy she’s singing about, but you have to admit they’re novel lyrics! Read the rest…

Every songwriter has a treasure trove of ideas for song lyrics all stored up and ready to be tapped, namely his or her own life story! Most of us have written songs about specific things that have happened to us, like falling in or out of love, or specific situations we have been in, like feeling trapped in a dead-end job or relationship. We can summon forth the emotions we felt at the time and capture them in lyrics that have the ring of truth.

The problem with using your own experiences and your own feelings when writing lyrics, though, is that you are not really using your imagination. You are mostly using your memory. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with musically documenting events and emotions from your own life. But imagination lies at the heart of creativity, and the more use you can make of it in your lyric writing, the better.

Another problem with writing about your own life is that you are just too close to it. You know too much! Not only that, but you are ego-involved in the situations in question (otherwise they wouldn’t seem important), which can prevent you from taking a broader view that would make for much better lyrics. Writing about someone else’s life removes the subjective element that can easily result in whiny-sounding, self-indulgent lyrics. (Do I need to name names here?) The desired result: less autobiography, more imagination.

One way to increase the IQ (Imagination Quotient) of your life-story lyrics is to practice (or at least think about) writing songs as if you were that person in the newspaper article you read this morning, as if you were that homeless man over there or the woman who had that problem in that movie. Whoever! Just so it’s not you again.

As a songwriter, you must always be aware of the life stories being played out around you. Put yourself in the place of the guy who’s looking worried as he waits for the bus. Snag some details. Is he smoking? Has he shaved? Make up a story for him that would explain what you’re seeing. Then write a song about that story, from his point of view. Now that’s using the old imagination! Read the rest…