Ideas and Advice for Real Songwriters (formerly songwright.co.uk)
Category
Songwriting Structure
-
06.14.09Stealing Ideas From Iron Maiden’s Fear of the DarkIron 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 ...
-
06.01.09Quick Tip – Don’t be a Slave To Songwriting ConventionMarking 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 ...
-
03.09.09A February in SongwritingSo how was your February? Mine was not nearly as productive as I thought it was goiong to be. I signed up to Febraury Album Writing Month, got all geared up to write, and then what did I achieve? Five songs, one of which wasn't really new at all. In fact it wasn't even a song. Seven Curses Download Seven Curses Started life as an audio sketch this one. Beyond the initial chorus I had absolutely no inspiration, so I had to rely on songwriting 'tricks' instead. These included the key change in the verse, the rather banal horro-film lyrics, and throwing in a ...
-
12.31.08Should we try to be original?Is originality possible in songwriting? over the last few months I've been having regular songwriting sessions with my sixth form students. They're a heavy metal band - a genre that has an interesting mix of originality and copycat songwriting. Like any other genre, over time you can see clear innovations - metal has pushed modal and chromatic harmony into new areas for pop music and explored new guitar and vocal timbres. However, generally speaking, any one band, album or song tends to fit into a wider style. You can listen to a song and say 'there's a Metllica style verse riff, with Iron ...
-
03.22.08Songwright – A Manifesto (kind of)A little while ago, I was interviewed by Sean McGaughey for his For the Sake of the Song podcast. He asked me why I started Songwright, and why I was blogging about the theory and structures we use in songwriting. Despite this site having been up since last summer, until Sean asked me, I hadn't really given it much thought. Songwriting is something I love, something I've done since I picked up a guitar, so it seemed obvious to start writing about it too. But he asked, and I had to find an answer. I've thought about it a little more, and ...
-
03.16.08How to write lots of songs quickly"All the posts about changing key and arranging instruments are useful, but before I start doing that, don't I need a song to arrange? How do I get things written!" There's no point worrying about the bassline, the drop chorus or the guitar solo if you haven't written anything yet. This post should give you a couple ideas about how to get things done. Last month, as I've mentioned before, I took part in February Album Writing Month. I've been writing songs for a good few years now, but in all that time I've never been forced to compose to such tight deadlines. In ...
-
03.02.08Stealing Ideas from Bacharach and David’s ‘Say a little prayer’[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad-J4aaL_IQ&feature=related] Yesterday I mentioned Outkast's use of an 'extra' 2/4 bar in 'Hey Ya'. I'd definitely advocate cutting out or putting in extra beats when necessary. A song needs to convey the words, and sometimes you have extra syllables that don't quite scan in a 4/4 bar. Sometimes it's possble to stretch or shrink the words to fit, but often the best option is to say 'hang the bar line' and do something different. 'Say a little Prayer' by Burt Bacharach and Hal David is a more sophisticated and interesting example of this idea. Time signatures in the verse: Three bars of 4/4 One of 2/4 Three ...
-
03.01.08Stealing Ideas from Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya’.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvIw5ZqC1ms&feature=related] Even the silliest pop song can have an idea worth stealing. In this case I'd like to point out the time signatures at use in this song. Three bars 0f 4/4, one of 2/4, another two of 4/4, looped over and over for the whole song. Adding in the occasional half bar is quite a common technique, Outkast certainly didn't invent it, and clearly it wasn't enough to make this song listenable for more than about thirty seconds. However, it can be effective, and it's certainly an idea worth trying out yourself. If you enjoyed this post, why not subscribe?
-
02.27.08Probably my last Fawm songOh dear. I think I'm going to fail FAWM. Well, I've written 10 songs I wouldn't have otherwise, so that's not exactly failure is it? But I'm not going to hit fourteen and a half, simply because I'm running out of time! Here are the last two songs. I'm particularly proud of 'Where Once They Had Hearts'. Ideas to steal from them: An ostinato that stays the same while the chords change (E Fsharp Gsharp in 'In the cellar at number 33'). Climaxing on a chromatic chord (the first chord in the chorus of 'Where once they had Hearts' isn't in the mode that the ...
-
02.18.08Stealing Ideas from Radiohead’s CreepLast post I mentioned some common chromatic chords. Over the weekend I also got involved in a very silly debate about the comparative 'cultural significance' of Radiohead and Aqua. It involved the sort of long pretentious discussion I was thankful to have left behind in my student days, and I should probably be ashamed of myself, but it was fun. And it also made me think of that overplayed early Radiohead hit 'Creep'. The chord progression in this song is worth a look because it uses two chromatic chords I mentioned before. The song is in the key of G, and starts of ...
