Songwright

Iron Maiden are one of my favourite bands, and one of the most influential heavy metal bands ever. A great post over at ‘Troll in the Corner’ got me thinking about them, and listening to some of my favourite Maiden songs.

Fear of the Dark, the title track from their 1992 album, the last before Bruce Dickinson left (temporarily) to pursue a solo career.

It’s far from Maiden’s longest song, but at seven and a half minutes it’s a masterclass in how to manage pace and momentum over longer periods of time.

I want to point out two great ideas that could be applied to songwriting in any genre.

• Changing tempo – changing tempo is one of Maiden’s trademarks. This happens several times in Fear of the Dark, most notably at 2 minutes into the video, and in the second chorus at 3.18. They almost always change suddenly, which isn’t the only way to do it, but changing tempo in your songs can be a very effective way of adding contrast.
• Harmonic rhythm – or the pace at which the chords change. The first verse (2.20) and the second verse (2.58) have the same melody, but listen to the chord changes. The chords change twice as often in the second verse compared to the first. This is another great technique Iron Maiden use to build the pace and interest within the second.
• A static riff over a moving bassline. That first riff at 2 minutes involves the bass changing chords while the guitars play a static three note riff.
• The ABA middle section. A common feature of middle sections in heavy metal is the ABA structure. In this song we have a guitar melody as section A, guitar solos as section B, then a modified repeat of section A with the added ‘Fear of the Daaaark!’ vocal.
• A riff and chorus you can sing along with – Maiden have reached the point where they can literally draw hundreds of thousands of people to concerts, but even in their early days they wrote songs that seemed designed for stadium audiences to sing along with. What does that involve? – lots of repetition, and often melodies based on either the first notes of the aeolian mode, or chord notes.

None of these ideas are unique to Maiden or to metal, and can definitely applied to songwriting in any genre.

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Twice in recent days I’ve come across the notion that music is a form of communication. One was on an interesting thread over on this website, the other was in the new Uk national curriculum for music.

I know what people mean when they say this, but I don’t think it’s quite right, or at least, I think that’s only one use for music.

Communication is deliberately passing on an idea to someone else. By making music, can I communicate? Well, obviously if there are words I can pass on whatever those words are, and the mood of the song will dictate how those words are percieved. An earnest piece of music and the lyrics will be taken literally, a light hearted mood and they might be taken with a pinch of salt.

But if all I was doing was communicating the message of the words, why bother with the music?

Music allows me to add an emotional element in a visceral and moving way. It has an emotional language that anyone bought up in the same musical culture can understand. It can be used to communicate an emotion to others.

But we all know that not everyone takes the same message from every piece of music. We’ve all known people who would agree on the basic meaning of various musical gestures but who violently disagree on the meaning of one particular piece. If music is just communication, it surely isn’t very good at getting it’s message across.

And why do people listen to the same music over and over, when they don’t feel the need to watch the same communicative news bulletin more than once. Why do you listen again, when you’ve already got it? Why is it necessary for some fans to proclaim their fanhood to the world, why can a musician be hugely moved and entertained by their own music making even when no-one else in the world can hear them?

Music is art, and art is not communication. It can be communicative, but often it is obscure, indeterminate, obtuse, vague, indecipherable, open to interpretation. Art is the mind at play, a wonderful by-product of our evolution.

Music is playing with patterns of sound, sometimes without saying a thing. Sometimes it communicates, but more often not, and almost always listeners disagree over what it says.

At least, that’s what I think on the subject. If you have an opinion, especially if you have a different opinion, let me know.

The real songwriter writes what moves him.
The real songwriter hones his craft.
The real Songwriter knows conventions, but isn’t bound by them.
The real songwriter respects the listener.
The real songwriter builds on the work of others.
The real songwriter uses chords and melodies you’ve never heard.
The real songwriter develops.

The fake songwriter writes for others.
The fake songwriter never learns.
The fake songwriter repeats the work of others.
The fake songwriter has no respect for the listener.
The fake songwriter never strays from convention.
The fake songwriter uses chords and melodies you’ve heard before.
The fake songwriter stagnates.

I just stumbled across this video, via this post.

It’s from this website.

First off, let me make clear that I have a very low opinion of sales pages like this one. I know they’ve been shown to work, that they’re ‘good marketing,’ but I really don’t like them.

However, don’t take that us an opinion of the book, as I haven’t read it, I’ve just seen the video.

A few thoughts occured as I watched, and I made some rough notes:

• The narrator equates artistic worth with ‘lyrical depth’. Personally I would argue that lyrics are not the main conveyor of meaning in popular song – meaning comes from other parts of the song as well.

• Suggesting that ‘Satisfaction’ by the Stones has lyrical depth is probably pushing things.

• The Cardigans hook is great, but I want more meat in this analysis. For example, the hook is not just the guitar part, it’s the combination of a relatively static two pitch guitar riff over a moving chord progression. The rhythm of the guitar riff – emphasising beats 2 and 4 like the snare drum, probably has something to do with it, as does the A A A B structure of the riff.

Hooks are generally good because they emphasise or play with our expectations.

Take that fantastic Satisfaction guitar riff – yes it has only three pitches and a really unique timbre, but we can say more than that.

For a start, the chords underneath are E and A. The riff follows the chords starting on a B note in the E chord before moving through a Csharp to a D. When we come to the A chord the guitar is playing a D, creating an A sus4 chord that then resolves to the Csharp and a straight A chord.

So it’s taken a suspended chord we’re very used to from choral music (and lots of other styles) and transposed it to a rhythm and blues setting.

The Kylie Minogue hook is worth mentioning because the meat of it is so wonderfully simple – all those off beat notes, plus a melody that traces a simple line between two chords that are a fifth apart – just like in Satisfaction.

I’ve only watched the one video from this website, and they definitely look worthwhile. Whether the ugly sales page is a good move is up to you.

Marking students coursework at my school, I came to a song that I gave almost full marks to.

One reason for the high marks was the song’s fantastic, subtle playing with songwriting conventions.

- The Bridge – The bridge happens after the second chorus, right? Not according to my student. Instead she put it between the 2nd verse and 2nd chorus. Right at the point I was expecting to hear the chorus again, I instead heard a contrasting minor key and a new bridge I hadn’t heard before. This the effect of creating a pleasing, balanced feel despite it being a short song. It was also suprising in musical way, which is always a good thing.

- 4s – Everything in popular song comes in fours, right? Four bar phrases, creating four line melodies, four lin verses, four line choruses. Not according to my student. Instead, she had a really effective verse that had a three line melody.

Neither of these ideas is new, and neither is a radical departure from ’standard’ structure. However, they do show a young songwriter who is confident enough to play with conventions without abandoning them.

PS One thing we don’t mark on the GCSE is the quality of lyrics. This student could possibly use some help on her lyrics, and with my own songwriting I’m feeling the same, so here are some links on lyric writing:

Rhyme Patterns

Lyrics writing is an Art that needs to be Practiced.

Creating a List of Possible Song Titles

This morning I had a comment on my previous post on how to harmonise with primary chords..

Emelia asked why I couldn’t harmonise ‘Oh When the Saints’ with a D minor chord.

Now fitting chords and melodies together is a big subject, and there’s lots to say on the matter. The point I want to make here is: there is always more than one possibility, when choosing chords.

Here’s the first half of the melody:

Oh when the saints, go marching in

C E F G C E F G

Oh when the saints go marching in

C E F G E C E D

Using primary chords (ie the chords on the first, fourth and fifth step of the scale, in this case C F and G) I harmonised it something like this:

C                                 C
Oh When the Saints, Go marching in

C                                  G
Oh When the Saints, Go marching in
C                      F
I want to be In that number
C              G             C
Oh When the Saints, Go marching in

Here’s what that sounds like:

Download Oh When The Saints

But Emelia has spotted that whenever I’ve use a G chord, the melody use a D. So couldn’t I use any chord with a d note in it?

Yes, Emelia, I could you’re right. The reason we start off with primary chords is to make sure people understand the principles, because with those three chords any melody that doesn’t change key can be harmonised. That doesn’t mean using the primary chords is always the best way.

In this situation for example, I could do replace the G chords with D minor. That would sound like this:

Download Oh When The Saints with a Dm chord.

I could replace the C chords with A minor as well, that would sound like this:

Download Oh When The Saints with Am and Dm chords.

The chords we use are very often a creative choice. Change the chords and you change the character, so it all depends on what mood you want things to have. The best way to find the correct mood is to improvise, experiment with other chords until you find what you think sounds best.

Personally, my favourite harmonisation of Oh When the Saints is during the later, darker verses, where I’ve heard it transposed into a minor key:
Download Oh When The Saints Minor.

Well known folk songs and hymns constantly change and evolve as people find new ways to harmonise them. There are always different choices, and once you’re sure of the basics, the best way to find the right chords for your melody is to explore all the possibilities.

I’m currently writing a new ebook about harmonisation. Why not join my no-spam mailing list so you can get a free copy when I’m finished. There’s another free ebook available as well, and you can leave the mailing list any time you choose.

This is the opening section of a new Ebook I’m writing ‘How to Harmonise’.

What Does Harmonise Mean?

The most common subject people search for on www.songwright.co.uk is ‘how to harmonise’. When I talk to people, they seem to mean two slightly different things by this: how to add chords to a melody, or how to add vocal harmonies to a melody. These are similar concepts that both contain the idea of harmony, or more than one note sounding at the same time. Both also pre-suppose the existence of a melody. The idea of vocal harmony, however, concentrates on linear movement – parallel lines of melody weaving together – wheras chords are a vertical idea – blocks of notes changing from bar to bar.

When I was studying music I was taught a hugely simplified history of how harmony developed: monks singing plainchant in medieval Europe moved from unison song, with everyone singing the same note, to two notes at a time. As music developed through the Rennaissance systems of contrapuntal music developed, with different lines of melody weaving together. As time went on this was replaced with a system that put more emphasis on vertical chords, and the whole tonal system of scales and chords came into being. Composers noticed that their interweaving lines came together to form specific groups of notes, chords, that sounded good, so rather than thinking only in terms of the horizontal melody, they could start by thinking of the chords then ‘fill in’ the appropriate notes.

I don’t doubt that this history is so simple as to be incorrect, but this book isn’t about history. The only point I want to make is that the two ideas, of vocal harmony and putting chords to a melody, are not in fact different. If you want to know how to harmonise vocals, you will need to know which chords are being used. Liewise, if you want to put chords to a melody, you will need to consider not only which chord, but how to arrange vocal melodies and other important elements (such as the bass line) to fit the chord.

Simply put, ‘harmony’ is more than one note at the same time. Usually it means combinations of notes that sound good together, but what we mean by ‘good’ can change – you might want your music to sound ‘unharmonious’ and discordant. Achieving that also requires a knowledge of harmony.

Some basics :- Intervals and Drones.

Harmonising At An Interval

Here are the first few notes of the major scale:

Ex1.

Download Example 1

There are lots of ways I could harmonise this. I could use octaves, the same note but at double the frequency. This is what you might hear if a male and female singer were singing the same melody:

Ex2.

Download Example 2

Another common harmony is in ‘thirds’. If C is the first note, E is the third along. If D is the first, F is the third. So ‘thirds’ simply means adding the note that is two ‘up’ the scale. You can find this easily by singing the correct ‘third up’ harmony note E and singing up the same melodic contour.

Ex3.

Download Example 3

You could also do the same by going up a fifth (ie treating C as the first and starting on G), or down a third:

Ex4.

Download Example 4

Ex5.

Download Example 5

This is a basic idea that singers might have started with when music was first developing and it forms one of the most important ideas for harmonising your songs. The important point to take away is the idea of parellel lines a slight gap apart. Harmonising with a third above is by far the most common form of vocal harmony in pop song. The concept of going up a third is also a vital one in forming chords, which we’ll come to later.

Drones

Lots of musical genres, for example Indian music, use a drone to provide a harmonic basis to a melody. The most simple version of a drone is a single note, plus its fifth, for example G and D. These could be repeatedly plucked on a string instrument or played as sustained notes. A melody can be played over the top.

Ex6. Download A Drone in G

Drones can be very effective for certain moods and they also illustrate a very important concept. Unlike harmonising at an interval, where we followed the contour of the melody completely, changing harmony note when the melody changed, here were have a harmonic layer underneath the melody that does not change at all.

Things To Try

1. Take a melody you know well and try harmonising at an octave, a third, a fifth and so on.
2. Get a drone going using a keyboard or sequencer, or just use the one I’ve provided in example 6. try improvising melodies over the top.

Mailing List

This post is just the first draft of the first page of the new ebook I’m writing called ‘How to Harmonise’. For regular updates (and absolutely no spam) why not sign up to the Songwright mailing list:

I watched Eurovision 2009 on Saturday. I even drank Bucks Fizz and managed to get through the interminably long scoring section without getting bored and turning over.

I’ve watched Eurovision for the last three or four years, and the standard is getting better. Now the rules have been changed to mollify the geographical bias of some countries, it’s nearer to being a song competition than it has for a while.

Were there any world beaters this year? No, even the best songs were merely okay. For this post, let’s take a look at the winner ‘Fairytale’ by Alexander Rybak to see if there are any songwriting ideas worth taking.

I know, I know. He’s obviously cut from the same charmingly-ugly mould as Zac Efron – he’s got the sort of face that little girls love and everyone else wants to hit. That was an unfortunate factor in his favour, as this probably wasn’t the best song of the night. However, it is a catchy little number.

• Chords: The song is in Dm and uses just the one chord progression: Dm Gm Bb A. This is a very strong, familiar chord progression. The basic journey from I to VI to V in a minor key (eg. Dm Bb A) has been used in countless songs and has a vaguely ‘folk’ feel to it.

• Bass Line: Again, very strong and familiar – constant motion from root to fifth and back again on every chord.

• Violin refrain: Another folky element, the violin refrain with it’s constant pedal note on the A string. This we hear at the beginning of the song and after every chorus, including a small solo section after the second. It usesjust three notes apart from that open string: E F and G.

• The Chorus Melody: Placed right at the top of Rybak’s voice, to make it sound passionate. This melody uses only E F and G and is simple and memorable enough to be catchy.

• The Lyrics: These scan well enough for English written by a non-english speaker. Personally I’m much happier when the lyrics are in native languages, but that’s just me. The verses almost tell a story. Well… in the first verse he’s in love with his fairytale, in the second they argue a bit… and that’s it.

• The Arrangement: There are some nice little moments, such as the pause before the second chorus. But like almost every song in this competition, Fairytale just fizzle’s out after the second chorus. There’s no attempt at a bridge or any real contrast and after the solo violin refrain it just leaps into another chorus.

If you’re looking for songwriting ideas to steal, the chord progression and bass line are up for grabs, as is the use of a recurring refrain. Placing the chorus melody at the top of your singer’s range can also be very effective if you want the song to sound passionate and heartfelt.

The ultimate effect of the song, given it’s week arrangengement after the second chorus, is to leave you feeling frustrated. Yes it’s a nice little chorus, yes the song mixes pop and generic folky elements well, but where’s the beef? Where’s the emotional journey. It might be pop, but that doesn’t mean you can short change the listener by not going anywhere.

To be fair, only a couple of songs in the competition did have anything to say after the second chorus, one of them Iceland’s contribution, the other the Uk’s, both of which I might write about in the next two posts.

I wouldn’t be much of a songwriter if I didn’t share my own songs. My own current project, is a serialised album called Songs for the End of the World with my duo We’ll Write.

Below are the recordings so far. In the next two or three months I’ll go back over these, fix the parts of the recordings that need fixing, and see about getting some proper CDs pressed. That’s the plan anyway. Hope you enjoy! 

Songs for the End of the World

Download Measure Of A Man
Download Demon
Download Bleached Bone Fields
Download It Never Seems to Rain
Download Just Sleeping
Download Stand and Clap
Download Sugar and Dust
Download The Trampoline Song

There are loads more songs availble in the Fans’ Area of www.wellwrite.co.uk, which you can access via the mailing list: