Song Writing Exercises -- What?
Monday, December 15, 2008 at 01:27PM I was doing some song trading with some friends of mine a couple of weeks ago and as we shared songs, I noticed how concise and well thought out the lyrics were and how the musical parts flowed into each other and set up the next permutation.
Songwriting can be or seem to be so simple, but don’t let that fool you. McCartney has had the gift of putting a plethora of musical ideas into one composition and pulling it off, but that kind of genius is rare. Most of the time when too many ideas are in one song, they are like too many spices in a stew, they end up canceling each other and even though every single ingredient is a good one, together they simple negate each other.
Here is one method that you can use to hone your songwriting craft. First pick a song that you really like and diagram it. By that I mean, lay out what it does and how many times it does each part. For instance:
Intro
Verse
B section
Chorus
Intro
Verse
B section
Chorus
Bridge
Verse
B section
Chorus
Chorus
Now, in terms of bars, how long is each section? If each section is eight bars then you are going to have a song that is 104 bars long. That is okay if you are true poet and have a lot to say that folks are going to be able to access and appreciate and will actually stay and listen to. But hit songs aren’t usually constructed like that. This is an exercise in brevity. If you are writing a pop song, I suggest this kind of framework. And I believe that you will find this to be true in the pop genre, brevity and repetition.
Now a great song will pull you along from the get go and keep you there. I ‘ve mentioned this before, but to remind you, the song must have momentum both lyrically and melodically to be a great song. Yes there are many “hits” that don’t fill that bill, but you will find that no one else records those songs besides the person who made them a hit.
A great song can be rerecorded and reinterpreted many times. That’s the kind of great song that I am talking about. How many covers have there been of “who let the dogs out” a hip hop recording that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s temporary and I have no interest in writing temporary. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction that I can perform songs from any of my twenty three recordings. You may not like them, but they met all the criteria that I required to be timeless.
So to get back to the length of each section, I suggest, just as a template you understand, that you do it like this:
Intro 4 bars
Verse 8 bars
Be section 4 bars
Chorus 4 bars (and you can repeat it if you want)
Intro 2 bars
Verse 8 bars
B section 4 bars
Chorus 4 bars
Bridge 4 bars
B section 4 bars
Chorus 4 bars
Chorus 4 bars
Fade out (your call, but use hit recordings as your guide)
After you have subjected your creativity and your artistry to this discipline then you can begin to do what you like, but first, make a song or two work like this. Any template can be rearranged, lengthened, shortened, etc, but first hold yourself to the discipline. Brevity will make you a better writer, and by that I mean a writer whose songs reach people and get sung by people.
Good writing...
Reader Comments (35)
james first off wonderful post...if you ever retire from live performance...or even semi retire or want to bring in some more money...you could teach this stuff in a formal setting...but this way you are giving a gift that reaches far beyond one room...You have true genius
Now having said that...
once upon a time I would have said: "Oh yes i want my songs on top 40 radio I want hits"...but I dont...I write these long and winding sometimes bizarre often vivid and colourful pieces...more like avante garde pieces...and they are performance pieces...
Now having said THAT...
The songwriting that you are talking about is at its best the kind of material that makes it into the great American Songbook...You are a master of this...my writing talents lie elsewhere...I mean when I am editing a lyric once it has a melody applied to it I shape it more and have much more of a structured form with repeated parts and choruses...but It's on the periphery enough that you wont get a pop song out of it,,,art song ok...but the excercise looks interesting enough...and I might actually LEARN something *GAWD FORBID*
Namaste,
bobby
James,
Sounds like a practical application of Rule 13 from Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" : "Omit needless words." Brevity is hard. Anyone who doesn't believe it should try this. I used to give it as an assignment...
Try summarizing a favorite book or movie in one 10-word sentence. Or on other occasions: Try writing a sonnet instead of a free-form poem.
After trying a few times, you come to appreciate how much power and meaning words can have when they are fewer. but well-chosen.
good work!
"Brevity will make you a better writer" and that is true. Having all your ideas and emotions written in a concise number of words is astounding. I do believe that creating a song is a good way of practicing the elements of writing - aside from the usual stuff such as poems, essays, and other types of literary works. I consider this as a new tool in enhancing one's writing ability.
Song writing is a great skill and to compose it with music is really a breath taking job. Good work... Nice ideas shared in this blog really helping for the other writers to improve there creativity.6x8 Car Speakers
Write a poet and then convert it into a beautiful song is really great job. I have visited this site and find nice information about song writing.
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In song writing we very careful about the sequence of song like Intro, Verse, B section, Chorus, Intro, Verse, B section, Chorus, Bridge, Verse, B section, Chorus.
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Great post David. That is very true.
it is nice and lyrics of the songs are good and B section is really nice
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