2
All original music samples within this book are the exclusive copyrighted property of Pantomime Music Publications, except where otherwise noted within the text.
Copyright © 2005 by Pantomime Music Publications P.O. Box 31177, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3K 5Y1 All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. This book is protected by Copyright. Permission must be obtained in writing from Pantomime Music Publications for the use of any original text or musical materials contained within this publication. Permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise.
THIS IS NOT A FREE EBOOK. This book, "The Essential Secrets of Songwriting", is sold only through Pantomime Music Publications. If you purchased or received it elsewhere, you should be aware that you are in possession of stolen property; it has been given away illegally and the author has not received payment.
ISBN 0-9738946-0-1
3
A MESSAGE FROM GARY EWER…
8
PREFACE
9
The Desire to be Creative – It’s Human… It’s You When Good Songs Go Bad Listen!
CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION TO WRITING MUSIC
10 12 13
16
What’s Good Music? What Makes Good Form? What Makes a Good Melody? What Makes Good Harmony? What Makes a Good Lyric? What Makes a Good Hook?
17 21 22 25 27 28
Is There a Composer in Me? The Good, the Bad and the Ugly What Do You Need to be a Songwriter?
29 29 30
Let’s Get Started! Make a Demo Recording – Yes, already!
32 32
Chapter 1 SUMMARY
35
CHAPTER 2- YOUR MUSIC FROM THE INSIDE
36
Learn From the Greats The Success of Great Writers
37 37
Form How Important is Form? Good Form Means Good Design Good Form Can’t be Accidental Song Components Defined
39 39 40 41 43
Getting to Know Your Song
45
4
Chapter 2 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 3- DESIGNING A SONG
48
49
The Blueprint The Contrast Principle of Composition Macro Forms Energy – the Forgotten Formal Element Micro Forms
50 50 52 60 63
Micro Versus Macro
69
Chapter 3 SUMMARY
70
CHAPTER 4- HARMONY
71
The Chord Muddle Chord Progressions – A Mystery No Longer
72 72
I. Chord Basics The Basic Triads of Any Major Key
76 78
II. How One Chord Moves to Another Chord The V-I Progression Why Some Progressions Work and Others Don’t Making Good Two-Chord Progressions When Progressions Sound Muddled
79 79 79 82 85
What About Minor Keys?
88
III. Integrating Balance When Building a Longer Progression Building Progressions Incorporating Balance Harmonic Rhythm
92 93 95 97
IV. Expanding Your Chord Vocabulary i. Adding a 7th to a V-Chord ii. Modal Mixtures iii. Secondary Dominant Chords iv. Suspensions v. Inversions
99 100 104 106 110 112
Key Changes
115 5
Don’t Go Changin’… Without a Reason i. Half-step-upward modulation ii. Miscellaneous Modulation (more than a whole tone) Chapter 4 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5-MELODY AND LYRIC
115 116 118 120
122
Melodic Energy How “Yesterday” Works Don’t Write Counterintuitively What is Falsetto and Tessitura?
123 124 126 127
Writing Good Melodies Getting Notes in the Right Place Verse-Chorus Text Design Song Sample Shaping a Melody
128 128 130 131 134
Creating a Melody by Layering Ideas Let’s Write a Song
136 136
Other Ways to Compose The Text-First Method The Rhythm/Beat-First Method
143 143 143
More About Lyrics Too Many Words A Good Lyric Isn’t Necessarily Deep
144 145 147
Balancing Lyrics and Melody The Balance of “Hotel California” Dealing with Unremarkable Lyrics
148 149 150
The Bridge
153
Chapter 5 SUMMARY
156
CHAPTER 6- THE HOOK A Good Hook Hook and Motif Musical Lubricant 6
158 159 160 161
The Hook as a Basis for Your Song The Myth of the Hook
164 165
Recognizing a Hook
167
Chapter 6 SUMMARY
169
CHAPTER 7- INSPIRATION
170
The Role of Inspiration Misunderstanding Inspiration The Steps to Honing Your Songwriting Craft
171 171 173
Chapter 7 SUMMARY
177
CHAPTER 8- THE WORLD BEYOND COMPOSING – NOW WHAT? 178 The Most Important Principle of All
179
And now… what?
180
Getting Your Song Ready… A Brief Tutorial Copyright Publishing Mechanical Rights Performing Rights Organizations
180 180 184 185 185
In Conclusion
185
Index
200
7
A Message From Gary Ewer… I want to thank you for purchasing this ebook, The Essential Secrets of Songwriting. It is the culmination of years of thinking, researching and writing. My career as a musician has been a rewarding mélange of job descriptions. I am a composer, arranger, orchestrator, trumpet player, conductor and adjudicator, as well as, of course, a teacher. I believe that such a diverse job description has given me a unique perspective for understanding and communicating musical concepts. Through the process of writing this book, my CD and song file collection has grown somewhat, as I have sought to study and compare popular music from the 1950s through to the music of today. I need to remind you (kindly, I hope!) that this book is not a free ebook. I am asking that you please not give it away, or transfer it in any way to another person’s computer. If you would like to make a hard copy of portions of it to aid your own personal study, please do so. But the book cannot be given or sold to anyone else, in any format. If you would like to write me to comment on this book, or to ask a question, please write me directly at
[email protected]. I will do my best to reply, though during the school year my teaching duties may keep me from being as prompt as I would like. I can at least guarantee that I read every email that comes to me, and will eventually reply. Thank you for purchasing this book. Best wishes to you in all your musical endeavors!
If you acquired this ebook through channels other than via the website secretsofsongwriting.com, Pantomime Music Publications would be very grateful for any information you might be able to provide regarding the transaction. Please write
[email protected].
8
Preface
9
The Desire to be Creative – It’s Human… It’s You Because you are a human being reading this book, one fact can be stated right away – YOU CAN WRITE MUSIC, no matter who you are. This is something we’ve known about the human race for some time now: the ability to be creative is already there, ready to be tapped, shaped, honed and
used. You can be a songwriter.
You want to be able not only to write songs, but also to do it well. There are lots of songwriters out there, but the vast majority, probably at least 99%, are not achieving any significant
“Music is a magical gift we must nourish and cultivate… especially now as scientific evidence proves that an education in the arts makes better math and science students, enhances spatial intelligence in newborns, and let's not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not the cause of it!”
commercial success. That
— Michael Greene, Recording
shouldn’t really surprise us;
Academy President and CEO at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, February 2000.
in the arts, most people are working at an amateur level. 10
I am a great supporter of amateur involvement in music, but it is frustrating to me when I see very talented people who are stuck in the amateur world. There are some really fine musicians out there, trying to make it, trying to unlock the secrets of how to move forward in the music business. And they are being thwarted by circumstances within and without of their sphere of influence. I wonder if I just described you? Amateur songwriters tend to look at the entire business of songwriting as a single-dimensional activity. It’s as if they say, “I want to be able to write commercially successful songs that I
The songwriting business is a multidimensional world, involving two major areas: creating and marketing. The marketing end of the business will not happen unless you have created a good song.
can sell to professional singers,” as if it’s all just one big process. The songwriting business is actually a multidimensional world, involving two major areas: creating and
marketing. The marketing end of the business will not happen unless you have created a good song. Creating a good song is where the process comes to a grinding halt for most people. THIS BOOK IS GOING TO HELP YOU.
11
WHEN GOOD SONGS GO BAD It often surprises people when they discover how incredibly simple most of the biggest songs of the past fifty years are. If you think that songs are complicated art forms, you are about to discover one of the most important principles of songwriting, and why many writers’ songs might not be working yet. It’s a principle that applies to so much in our life – not just music: KEEP IT SIMPLE. The biggest and best hits in the songwriting business are songs with simple melodies using a simple form, songs that are easy for people to remember. Most songs in the popular music realm use no more than five chords, often fewer. And their melodies usually encompass only seven or eight notes, if that! This book is called “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”, and that word, “Secrets”, makes it sound like you’ll learn things that no one has known before. But in fact, they are only secrets to those many people
who haven’t noticed what the pros have been doing. So few have really known why the songs of the world’s best seem to work so well. So what are the secrets? You’ll learn that form is one of the most overlooked and essential components of a good song. You’ll learn how 12
to create a verse that begs for a chorus. You’ll learn how to contour a melody so that it makes sense. You’ll learn how to make chord progressions work so that they don’t just sound like muddle. And you’ll learn how to snag your audience with a hook that will keep people humming your songs all day.
LISTEN! If you aren’t listening to music on a daily basis, then start! Trying to write songs without listening to the pros’ songs is like trying to draw a picture of something you’ve never seen. If you’re really serious about songwriting – start listening now! This book will refer to dozens of songs and albums, all listed at the back. Most of the music can be purchased in CD stores, on websites, or through Apple’s iTunes Store. Listen all the time, and not just to one style of music. Let yourself become influenced by different styles – pop, rock, jazz, country, blues, or classical. Open your mind – let it grow!
Victimless Crime? You’ll sometimes hear people calling the illegal downloading of music a “victimless crime.” But is it? Always remember that getting the song written takes time, requiring many steps to finally get it pressed on to a CD for the awaiting pubic. Illegally acquiring the music means you are assigning that entire process a value of $0. We know it’s illegal, but it’s also disrespectful to the songwriter. Acquiring music legally is now a relatively easy process, and most songs are available for download at a cost of $0.99 per song from online services such as MSN Music Store or Apple’s iTunes Store, to name only two. 13
By listening to many genres, not just one, you will be subtly developing your own personal writing style in a way will differentiate you from all others. I know of people who deliberately try to limit how much music they listen to, because they don’t want to be unduly influenced by another songwriter. Big mistake! Have you ever had that nagging fear that everything you write is something that sounds familiar? And you wonder if you are simply plagiarizing music already written by someone else? The good news is that you probably aren’t. But that fear is more common in songwriters who limit their listening experience to only one or two favourite performers. If you are a pop songwriter, listen to classical music. Listen to blues, or country, or bluegrass. Even if you don’t like a particular style of music, keep in mind that there are great songs in every genre. Great songs are great because they work, and we need to learn why they work. The more you listen, the more material you’ll have at your disposal. And your musical brain will begin fusing ideas together in a way it hasn’t really done before. The world’s best songwriters are able to speak intelligently about many different styles and writers from many genres.
14
The best songs are a mixture of creativity and predictability.
Creativity ensures that you are writing things that no one has heard before. Predictability ensures that you are using conventional elements that make your song hum-able and memorable. Coming up with the perfect balance and blend is what the successful songwriters do. It’s what this book will help you do. This book is for you, whether you are already a songwriter who wants to make your songs better, or if all you have are fragments of ideas that you want to learn how to fuse into great songs. You’re about to discover that how you put those fragments together is what makes a great song. And you are going to love the process!
Don’t fixate on “talent”. Fixate on writing good songs. If you get into a system of writing good music, talent becomes a side issue. Not that it’s not important… it’s just not worth worrying about. Think of it this way… who’s the more “talented” artist, Monet or Rembrandt? Who knows? And frankly, who cares?!
15
Chapter 1Introduction to Writing Music
NOTE: Any songs mentioned in this text are listed by chapter of appearance at the end in the Index of Song Samples. The index includes • copyright information • authorship • the performer typically associated with a given song • the format of the recording referenced • the recording label • the recording title, and • the musical concept the song demonstrates (if applicable) 16
What’s Good Music? “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
In his au tobiog raphy, Mark Twa in sa id, “W agner’ s mu sic is bet ter th an it sounds .” It’s a fun ny way of sa ying t hat it ’s pos sible to pla ce as much o r mor e impo rtance on th e str ucture of mu sic th an on the sou nd tha t that struc ture pro duces. And e ven th ough “There's only two ways to sum up music: either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it; you just enjoy it.”
Bob Marley
Twa in was tryin g to b e funn y, you will meet p eople who fe el an apprec iation for t he arc hitect ure of certa in mus ic whi le not actua lly en joying the end resul t of t hat ar chitec ture – the sou nd of it. For the s erious songw riter, t his can not be accep table.
Enj oyment mu st be the Louis Armstrong
ove rridin g char acteri stic o n whi ch we judge our mu sic. I n 17
oth er wor ds, if you w rite m usic t hat sh ows a high l evel o f int ellige nce in its c onstru ction, but t hat co nstruc tion d oes not resul t in s omethi ng ple asing to lis ten to , who cares about the const ruction? And while admit ting t hat be auty i s in the ey e (or in thi s case , the ear ) of t he beh older, this book adh eres t o the premis e that the sonic beaut y of t he fin al
“Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.”
pro duct i s the ultima te aim in son gwriti ng.
So what i s good music ? It i s imp ossibl e for one pe rson t o say that thi s pi ece of music is goo d whil e another is bad, if by good a nd bad we me an Without form, music tends to end up a shapeless, directionless blob.
Sir Thomas Beecham
whe ther o r not we lik e the pie ce. On e pers on may like cou ntry mu sic, w hile a nother fin ds it revolt ing. O ne may lik e a me lody be cause it is rem inisce nt of a melo dy hea rd in childh ood, w hile f or
18
ano ther t he sam e melo dy mak es no real i mpact. For m ost lis teners , the qualit y of a piece of mu sic de pends in lar ge par t upon con text . I n pop mu sic, w e are more l ikely to enj oy a p iece i f a mu sician or gr oup we happe n to l ike per forms it. Th e song “Wild Honey Pie” i s of d ubious qua lity, and we re it not fo r the fact t hat th e Beat les sa ng it, we’d likely not e ven kn ow of it. If writing good music happened by simply sticking to a formula, we’d all be writing hit songs, and doing it daily. It is the mixture of many different components, all working together in a way that can be best described as “magic.” The re are aspec ts of musica l com positi on, ho wever, that are usual ly con sidere d a pre requis ite fo r good music , and it is those aspec ts tha t
“Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.”
thi s book will concen trate on. Whe n crea ting m usic, there is so much t o talk about . But any discu ssion withou t men tionin g the fiv e basi c
asp ects of songwr iting is jus t a wa ste of time.
Paul Simon
Ess ential ly, th ey are what thi s enti re boo k is a ll abo ut. 19
The Five Basic Aspects of Song-writing:
•
Form
•
Melody
•
Harmony/Rhythm
•
Lyric
•
Hook
Form is that aspect of music that we talk about when discussing the structure of music. For example, verse-chorus-verse-chorus, etc., is a type of form. Form helps to lend an aspect of predictability of design that is somewhat necessary in most styles of music. All other aspects of music (melody, harmony, lyric, etc.) require some attention to form. Without form, music tends to end up a
Form adds just the right balance of predictability and innovation. Form gives hints to the listener of what might happen in a song, and keeps it from simply being an aimless random walk through the woods. Predictability does not necessarily mean boredom.
shapeless, directionless blob. Melody needs to be fairly predictable while also being inventive and spontaneous. The harmony within a song also needs to be structured, while allowing for something impulsive and creative. Lyrics should be an artistic attempt to draw the listener into
20
a topic. And the hook is that vitally important, repetitious element that reels your audience in and keeps them there.
What Makes Good Form? Notwithstanding the various important aspects of musical composition just listed, we can come up with a rather large list of songs that seems to violate the importance of one or more of those features. But essentially all songs, to be successful, need a perceivable, somewhat simplistic form. For example, who could listen to “Wild Honey Pie” by the Beatles and praise its creative melody or profound lyrics? Mind you, “Wild Honey Pie” was not a hit, and the Beatles did not pretend that it was anything more than… whatever it is. But there are songs that did become huge hits for groups, where the lyric was weak and the melody uninspiring. I’m not intending to alienate Elvis Presley fans when I say that “All Shook Up” is not an amazing lyric.1 The melody of the verse is extremely simplistic, most of it encompassing the interval of a perfect 4th. But “All Shook Up” was a huge monster hit. Why? Partly because of the person who sang it, but also because of that simplicity of form that I just mentioned. Sometimes what we look for in a song is
1
“A well a bless my soul/What's wrong with me?/I'm itching like a man on a fuzzy tree/My friends say I'm actin' wild as a bug/I'm in love/I'm all shook up/Mm mm oh, oh, yeah, yeah!”
21
something that does not require us to think too hard, but rather entertains us on a shallower level. Never underestimate simplicity! Who can say what it is we’re really looking for in a piece of music? Some say it’s the rhythm and energy, others say it’s the lyric. Dick Clark would say, “If it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it, all the better.”
What Makes a Good Melody? A good melody takes us on a journey. That is true whether we’re talking rock & roll, country, jazz, classical, bluegrass… a good melody has a design that makes us feel like we’ve been taken somewhere. Consider Paul McCartney’s masterful melody for “Yesterday”. It has a shape: it starts fairly low, and rises through the line, “All my troubles seemed so far away”, then descends toward the end of the line, “Oh, I believe in yesterday.” This arch shape 22
Constructing and using a rhythmic motif is like trying to decide what colour brick to use for your house. Making certain that you are consistent with your choice of brick ensures that your house has that pleasant feel of predictability.
follows the natural flow and meaning of the text. The energy builds, then dissipates. Most songs start in a very understated way, gathering power as they go, finishing at a much higher energy level. The majority of songs do this “power grab” in stages, starting at a relatively low energy level, then building toward the chorus, subsiding again in the next verse, building toward the next chorus, etc. Here’s a sample (but by no means definitive) plan:
“Bridge Over Troubled Water”, by Simon & Garfunkel, is a good example of a melody that starts peacefully, and builds with only a slight ebbing of energy at the end of each verse. What makes the energy level rise is a mixture of things: instrumentation – in this case, starting with a simple piano accompaniment, then finishing with string orchestra, drums, electric bass, etc. – an upper harmony line, and dynamics (general volume level).
23
It is impossible to consider melody without thinking about rhythm. One of the features that makes “Yesterday” such a great melody is the fact that there is a repeating rhythm– a rhythmic motif – that helps to glue the song together. In the verse, each line begins with a rhythmic idea consisting of two short notes followed by a long one. You encounter this on the words “Yesterday”, “far away”, “here to stay”, etc. This repeating rhythm helps to move the song along.
Choosing the brick for your house Constructing and using a rhythmic motif is like trying to decide what colour brick to use for your house. Making certain that you are consistent with your choice of brick ensures that your house has that pleasant feel of predictability. Using dark red large bricks on one side, light coloured small bricks on another, and wood paneling on the front would make
‘”The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, ‘Is there a meaning to music?’ My answer would be, ‘Yes.’ And ‘Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?’ My answer to that would be, ‘No.’”
the house look disheveled and messy. Motifs, whether rhythmic or melodic, are the repetitious elements that make music feel organized. A hook is a type of motif we’ll read about later. Aaron Copland
24
What Makes Good Harmony? As with melody and rhythm, it’s a bit tricky to separate harmony from the other important components of composition. But to speak generally, a good chord sequence, like a good melody, makes us feel like we’ve been taken on a bit of a journey. And though that journey may take us places we haven’t seen before, we like to know a bit Plotting the basic energy of most songs is like looking at a graph of the stock market:
about where we’re going before we
You can expect to see some dips, but you want the general trend to be upward.
harmonic sequences we’re going to
How that energy ebbs and flows is a very important consideration for composers.
(repeated) over and over again with
leave the house. Introductions to songs will set us up for the kind of encounter in the song. If the song starts with a single chord vamped a simple rhythm, we know that the piece will likely not venture too far afield in its use of chords. Good harmony, like almost every other aspect of music, will make us feel like we’re taking a walk around the
neighbourhood, where we might see something out of the ordinary, but most of what we encounter is pleasantly predictable. I could stop here, then, and say that good composition is the result of a carefully planned mixture of predictability and novelty; while that’s 25
true, we need even more than that. Keep in mind that the people you are writing for are unpredictable in what they like and dislike. By being careful in your approach, you can create songs that appeal to many people, and increase your audience base.
If you already read music, consider purchasing a good music notation program. Finale® and Sibelius® are the big ones. Their full versions are quite expensive, but worth it. They also have less expensive options (see below). Here’s a list of the “also-rans” that you can check out. This is a “buyer beware” list… check out their demos thoroughly to make sure it does what you need. A good notation program should be able to:
Play your music back to you using realistic instrument sounds; Allow you to enter notes with a MIDI keyboard; Allow you to transpose your music into other keys easily; Print your music.
A quick search on Google will allow you to research these possibilities:
26
Finale® (full version, as well as less expensive, or free versions: Finale Allegro®, Finale PrintMusic®, Finale SongWriter®, Finale NotePad®, and Finale NotePad Plus® Sibelius® (full version, as well as less expensive alternative geared to guitarists: Sibelius G7®) Noteworthy Composer® MidiNotate® MusicWrite 2000 Professional® Turandot®
What Makes a Good Lyric? A good lyric is usually one that says what it needs to in the most succinct way. In most songs, you don’t get a lot of time to say what’s on your mind. And once you’ve woven it into a beautiful melody with a killer chord progression, a good lyric can make your audience laugh or cry – sometimes both at the same time. The importance of a weighty lyric, though, depends on the purpose of the song. There are individuals and groups that produce songs with deep, insightful lyrics that can profoundly impress an audience. There are other composers writing songs where the main purpose is to get the listener dancing, and the lyric about is as deep as a mud puddle. Often you will encounter writers of lyrics whose ability as a wordsmith is astounding, but whose use of melody and chords is quite simplistic by comparison. Leonard Cohen might be a good example of this. An analysis of Cohen’s poetry will be a satisfying, pleasantly time-consuming venture, but his melodies and chords can be dealt with in minutes, maybe less.
27
What Makes a Good Hook? The composer Beethoven probably can lay claim to the most wellknown hook in the music world. His “da-da-da-DA” hook that introduces his 5th Symphony is a four-note motif that listeners get to hear more than two hundred more times through the first movement, and serves as a compositional element through the rest of the work. A songwriter creating a motif is the same as an architect deciding on a particular pattern of brick on a wall. It’s not terribly interesting on its own, but once repeated as a regular feature, it can becomes a strong building component of a song. If that motif is easily
A great hook is like the 10-cent ice cream cone at the local fast food joint: It’s what keeps ‘em coming back!
remembered and pulls listeners back to a song, you’ve got a hook! Some great hooks? The persistent rhythmic/melodic hook that introduces “You Can Call Me Al”, by
Paul Simon, is a really good one. It’s like an engine that drives the song along. “Beat It,” by Michael Jackson also uses a great hook to introduce the song. In both cases, the hook was what people sang over and over to themselves after song was done, and that’s what you
want a hook to do! Not all songs use hooks, but for those that do, it is by definition their most easily remembered feature. 28
Is There a Composer in Me? Yes, there most certainly is. Will you write songs, and make millions of dollars, and retire on the French Riviera? I don’t know. That depends on many factors, the main one of which is finding out who your efforts are marketable to. Let’s focus first on getting your songs to be good.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly As was stated earlier, humans are creative animals. We have an innate ability to make something beautiful out of stuff in our minds. Some are better at it than others, and this book will help you determine where you are in the scale of the good, the bad, and the ugly. What I want to do is to provide you with the principles necessary for good composition. I cannot cause creativity to miraculously appear within you, but it’s likely that the creativity is already there. What you now need guidelines to manage the creativity that is lurking in the depths of your mind. The journey to being a successful composer is an interesting one, and can pay dividends at its conclusion. There’s no one right way to compose. And in fact, if you rely on the same way of thinking all the time, you run the danger of simply writing the same song over and over again! Being creative means not just trying to come up with a unique tune. It also means coming up with a unique way of composing. Be creative. Try starting with a hook. Or a chord. Or a rhythm. The best songwriters out there are the ones who are innovative from the very beginning of the process. 29
What Do You Need to be a Songwriter? You need to be able to write your music down in some way, even if that means just to write down the chords and lyrics. The point of this book is that I want you to be able to look at and listen to what you’ve written, and to be able to come back to it later, making adjustments and edits. Does this mean you must be able to read music? It is not absolutely essential, but I strongly recommend it, for many reasons. Learning to read and write music on a musical staff is easy to learn, and gives you a level of literacy that will eventually pay off for you. I produce a two-CD-ROM course called “Gary Ewer’s Easy Music Theory”. The first six lessons of that course will give you the basics you need, and can be done in mere days.2 If you don’t read music, this book is still a help to you, because I want to talk about how to structure your music to be a seller! And whether you write it down, tape yourself singing it, or find some other way of making sure you don’t forget it, your music will benefit from the basic advice you’ll find here.
2
You can purchase “Gary Ewer’s Easy Music Theory” online by visiting www.EasyMusicTheory.com on the web.
30
Being able to read music and write it onto a musical staff is not what this book is about, and it’s not essential to being a good songwriter. What is essential is being able to hear the musical ideas in your head and to know what that is that you’re hearing. I am a strong believer that music theory can help your songwriting in many, many ways. The basics are easy to learn.
You never know when a great idea will hit you. That’s what it means to be human. You’ll discover that right in the middle of tying your shoe, something musical can pop into your head. You need to keep a notepad, or a small digital voice recorder in your pocket with you. Ideas often come to you when you’re mind is occupied with something else. Be prepared! Digital recorders are becoming a dime a dozen, and you don’t need an expensive one. Just something to get your thoughts down so you can work on them at a more convenient time. Here are some manufacturers of digital recorders. Be sure to compare prices… you don’t need anything fancy: -
Beat Sounds Olympus Panasonic Samsung Sony
31
Let’s Get Started! Make a Demo Recording – Yes, already! Why, you may be asking, am I making a demo already? Don’t I want to read this book first? The truth is that many songwriters don’t even really know what their own music sounds like. They spend a lot of time bent over their guitar, strumming away at musical ideas, and putting songs together. But the end result is that you only ever get to hear the song from your own very personal viewpoint. And the audience for your songs at this stage may only be very well-meaning friends and family, who may not feel free to give you an honest adjudication. You need to be able to listen to your music from a more objective position – from the speakers of a tape machine. Hearing yourself in this way is dramatically different from singing to yourself. For singers and songwriters who aren’t used to hearing themselves, it can be a brutal experience. We are often our own worse critics.
32
Maybe all you’ve got are a few fragments of ideas for songs, and the song hasn’t come together for you yet. Just keep reading. By the time you’ve finished this book, you’ll have the information, know-how and confidence to put those fragments together in a killer song! If you are ready to record a demo, let’s do it! The closer you can get it to what you’d ideally like to hear on the radio, the better. If you can, use some good players – not just you on the guitar or piano. If you have a band that you regularly play with, use them on the recording. The point is, you want to be able to hear your song, the way you’ve conceptualized it, and make it even better than you thought it could be. Use whatever instruments are appropriate – guitar, bass, drums, synth, even horns if it’s possible and appropriate to the song. It’s been said that when the Bee Gees did demos of their songs, they took so much care in the project that the demos could have gone to press as finished products. You may not have the technical equipment to do that level of recording, but get it to sound as good as you can. At this point, do not rent time at a local studio. No need to spend that kind of money yet. The great thing is that making high quality sound recordings is much easier and less expensive now than it was even just ten years ago. The quality of your microphone will be the biggest factor in the quality of your recording. So if you can, borrow a good microphone. 33
Another piece of advice: Try to do your recording as a live
performance, if possible. There should be no need to go back and do overdubs unless they are really necessary for the song to work. The point here is to get the song into a shape and format that allows you to hear it the same way an audience will hear it. There’s an energy that comes from doing it live that gives you the truest sense of what the song is all about. Once you’ve got something on tape, move on to Chapter 2.
“Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.”- Igor Stravinsky
34
Chapter 1 SUMMARY Notes:
•
The five basic aspects of songwriting are Form, Melody, Harmony/Rhythm, Lyric and Hook.
•
Form adds just the right balance of predictability and innovation.
•
A good melody and good harmony take us on a journey, and contribute important design elements.
•
A good lyric impacts on the emotions of the audience; less is more.
•
It’s a good idea to carry a recording device with you to record melodic and lyric fragments that come to you during your day.
•
Learning to read and write music on a five-line musical staff is a good idea. This ability will help you communicate your musical ideas to others, as well as increase the likelihood that you will be able to expand on your ideas.
•
Make a demo recording of a song you’ve written. Listening to your song coming through headphones or speakers gives you important distance that can allow you to be more objective about your musical efforts.
35
Chapter 2- Your Music From the Inside
36
Learn From the Greats Your demo recording should feel like your baby! You need to feel a real love for the music you do. It may not be what you want yet, but be patient…. now we start the process of making it better. And we do that by following the Golden Rule of being a songwriter: LEARN FROM THE GREATS. In the automobile industry, a car model can become very popular, and when that happens, you’ll see other car companies jump on that popularity. They try to duplicate that car by creating a different one that offers the same popular features. The music industry is no different.
One of the biggest oversights by budding songwriters today is the lack of ability to learn from great songwriters’ successes. Study the greats, learn what makes their music work, and then do it in your own way.
The Success of Great Writers There are great songs out there, so great that they have changed the way we think about music. Certainly that is true of albums. Michael Jackson’s 1984 Thriller album was monumental in its effect on other songwriters and performers. Songs from that album, like “Thriller”,
“Billie Jean”, and “Beat It”, stunned the musical world with their energy and innovation. Many of today’s musicians look back at that 37
album as a defining work of art, music that influenced who they are as writers and performers. In other words, people write differently because of the music on the Thriller album.
There are great songwriters out there, from every genre and every era, and what you need to do now is to learn from their success. Keep in mind that the thing that really sells Michael Jackson’s music is Jackson’s performance itself. Take “Billie Jean” and give it to Bob Dylan, and… well, I can’t really picture it. Neither can I picture Michael Jackson singing “Like a Rolling Stone”. Performance is an enormously important aspect of what we’re talking about when we try to come up with successful songs. That being said, it takes a good song to be a good song; you can’t generally take garbage and make a treasure out of it. In order for “Billie Jean” to have been a hit, it needed to be the good song that it is. The same is true for any great song. Whether you’re talking about “Red Sails in the
Sunset” from 1935, or “Livin' La Vida Loca” from 1999, there had to be elements of good composition there in order for the performers to make good performances. 38
We looked very briefly at those elements earlier when we examined form, melody, harmony/rhythm, lyrics and hook. We’ll be looking at all those elements beginning in Chapter 3. Before we do, lets look at one feature that probably gets ignored more than any other: form.
Form
How Important is Form? Over my career, I have examined literally hundreds of songs and other compositions, mostly written by my own students. And I make the following statement based on all that research: Bad form is the reason for most of the bad music out there. If you think your music is bad, or at least needs some serious improvement, you may need to look no further than its basic structure. Form is what we’re talking about when we think about how music gets from beginning to end. If you decide that a verse should repeat again at the end of a song – that’s a formal element. If you decide that it should start with guitar, and add strings halfway through – that’s a
formal element. If you start with a sax solo – that’s a formal element. Almost any decision you make with regard to your music once you’ve created the melody and basic harmony is really a decision regarding the form of the music. The formal decisions you make when
39
composing will be the most important reasons why your music succeeds or fails.
Good Form Means Good Design Form is like a landscape – if your backyard is basically flat with only a tree in the middle, you’ve pretty much seen everything there is to see with one look, and it’s a bit boring. But you can’t just start planting trees and flowers everywhere with no thought for the basic layout – the form – of your backyard. But here is the crucial point: most lousy-looking backyards are not lousy because of the plants that are there. They’re lousy because of
how those plants have been placed. Landscape designers are experts at telling you not just what plants you should have, but far more importantly, where they
Form is what we talk about when we wonder how many verses to write, whether we need a bridge or not, should there be an intro, an outro, or some other element. Form is the basic design of your song. Always give some thought to how you plan to get your audience from the beginning to the end in an interesting way. Form may very likely be the most important, least mentioned feature of good songwriting.
should go. In other words, if you think your music needs help, you may be surprised to know that all the elements of good composition are probably already there! What is probably lacking is form and direction. 40
Listen, listen, listen… You should be listening to that demo you made as many times as possible. The more you listen, hopefully the more you’ll hear things you’d like to change. You may be aware that the song isn’t working yet, but you may not know why it isn’t working. It’s likely that the more you listen, the more you will become aware that it’s formal
elements that need fixing, more than almost anything else about the song. Bad formal design is the biggest reason why songs don’t work! All the elements to good songs can be there, but if they’re poorly organized, your song will be boring and lackluster. If you have composed a song without much consideration for form, your song probably has formal problems.
Good Form Can’t be Accidental The concept of form can seem a bit vague. It can be hard to figure out if your music has formal problems. If you have composed a song
without much consideration for form, your song probably has formal problems. The more you examine the topic of form, as we will in the next chapter, the more you will understand that form has many levels. 41
Many people write music, believing that their song needs some verses, a chorus that repeats several times, and possibly a bridge in the middle. Yes, some famous songs use that form, but some flops use it too. So there must be more. And there is. To assume that the verse – chorus – verse – chorus – bridge – chorus form will result in a great tune is like saying that your living room is fantastic because it has a sofa and two chairs, a coffee table and a couple of end tables. So what? Everyone’s living room has that. You need to examine your music from the macro to the micro level with regard to form.
If you were thinking of building a house, the thought of doing that without a blueprint would be preposterous. There are no good builders out there, scuffing their foot at a roped-off piece of land, saying, “Here’s where I think a kitchen should go…” People who want a building constructed always hire a person to design it first. We may not use the word “architecture” to describe composing, but your songs will be better if you can plan them out. Try this: Take a song, whether written by you, or by a songwriter you like, and draw a diagram of the song. Use a line to show the general shape and direction of the overall energy. Make note of where the verses, choruses, bridge, etc., occur. You may find that you understand much more about that song once you see it written out in this way. Here’s a sample:
42
Song Components Defined Let’s label and define the various parts that will likely define the form of your song: Intro: This is the first thing that happens in the song. Up to the first entry of the vocals is generally considered the intro. This is where you set the stage for what is to come. The intro will usually set up the essential harmonic language, the rhythms and the basic beat. A good intro pulls the listener into the song, and makes them want to hear more. Verse: Usually the beginning of the poem. A verse will often be a narrative or other form of story, whether straightforward or in the abstract. The music tends to pull back dynamically after the intro, allowing the text to come forward without being upstaged by another aspect of the song. Chorus: More often than not, choruses will use a different melody than the verse. Check out “Penny Lane” by The Beatles, “You’re the
Inspiration” by Chicago, or “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M. as examples. By and large, the text for a chorus tends to be more like a commentary, more reflective and less narrative than the text for a verse. Chorus texts will usually offer a “summing up” of how the things being sung about in the verse make the singer feel. 43
Bridge: Especially popular in verse-chorus formats. A bridge will provide a new melody, with text that is usually commentary in format, designed to expand on the text of the chorus. It helps the song by allowing the songwriter to avoid being too repetitious. It helps build energy. The bridge is usually a time where overall energy increases, and sets things up beautifully for a final verse or chorus. Outro: The end of the piece. An outro can simply be the final verse repeated until faded, or can be original music. Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” is a good example of an outro with original music. The Classical term for the outro is “coda”.
When trying to decide what form your song should take, try not to obsess. If, for example, you can’t decide if your song needs a bridge, try writing one and then put the song away for a day. Bring it out again once your head is cleared, and the answer may be obvious.
44
Getting to Know Your Song Now that we’ve defined the basic elements of a song, we’re going to look at each aspect in detail. If you recorded a demo as suggested at the end of the previous chapter, try answering the following questions:
1. What is the basic overall design of your song (i.e., intro, verse, chorus, etc.)?
2. Which chords does your song use consistently? (Don’t include chords that are used only once in the entire song.)
2.1.
How many key changes does your song go through? (“None” or “one” is normal)
2.2.
If one or more key changes, which verse(s) or chorus(es) feature the key change? 45
3. What do you like about the melody?
4. How many verses exhibit a unique text (i.e., how many verses of poetry does your song set?
5. Does your song have a “hook”? (A hook is a short, repetitious feature that you believe listeners will fixate on, an aspect that reels your listener in and keeps them interested in your song. Describe it):
46
If you can all of the questions above, you’ve a good grasp of the basic innards of your song. Now we can begin to see if you’ve got the most out of it. If you couldn’t answer some of the questions, the next few chapters will help you understand the music you’ve written, and will get you moving in the right direction to fix it. Now let’s look at each question, and see how your song can be improved.
It may seem counter-intuitive to say so, but creativity can be learned and practiced. If you want to write better songs, write lots of songs! Many of the songs you’ll write will “sit on the shelf”, but what you will have learned will help you in the next one you write. This means that you should try not to become fixated on a song that might not be working for you. Know when it’s time to leave it and begin the next song. It can take many tries at a song before you get it sounding the way you want, and frankly, it may be time better spent to move on. With experience, you’ll know when it’s time to start anew.
47
Chapter 2 SUMMARY
KEY NOTES AND QUOTES FROM CHAPTER 2: •
The Golden Rule of being a songwriter is: Learn from the greats.
•
It takes a good song to be a good song; you can’t take garbage and make a treasure out of it.
•
Bad form is the reason for most of all the bad music out there.
•
Good form means good design.
•
If you have composed a song without much consideration for form, your song probably has formal problems.
•
The basic design elements of a song: intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro.
•
When you write a song, fill out a “survey” about that song. Just writing down your observations will go a long way to solving nagging problems with it.
Creativity can be learned and practiced.
48
Chapter 3- Designing a Song
49
The Blueprint Designing your song is every bit as important as an architect coming up with a blueprint. Though no piece of music will kill you if it falls down around your ears, both musicians and architects know that design is not something to be left to casual thought. Fortunately, we can learn from the experience of songwriters who have come before us. Through the years, and through millions of songs, basic templates have emerged that can serve as models for us today.
The Contrast Principle of Composition Music historians will tell you that one of the most persistent features of composition from at least the sixteenth century to present day is the basic principle of contrast. Whether you’re talking about early Baroque concerti, or 21st century pop songs, contrasting elements within a song has been standard practice for centuries. Contrast is the component that helps to build interest within a song. It’s the main formal principle in the writing of music:
50
Form Principle #1 SONGS WITHOUT CONTRAST RISK BEING BORING.
Where Boredom Comes From If your songs somehow feel boring, and you can’t figure out why, it is usually related to the absence of enough contrast. It’s like staring at a flat field with nothing to distinguish one part of it from another. Contrast sets things apart. Contrasting elements within a song brings out beauty, in much the same way that landscapers create contours on flat land to create beauty. So how do you contour music? We’ve already looked at some basic components that songwriters have incorporated into songwriting. Verse, chorus, bridge, solo, intro, outro… these are all elements that can ensure that your song can rise and fall with the emotions of the text. Let’s look at some basic designs. We call them “macro” designs, because they refer to the overall design of the song.
Don’t be afraid to change the design of your song as you work on it. But keep in mind that blindly throwing song elements together is like planting trees anywhere. Planning is vital. 51
Musicians usually refer to various sections of a song (verse,
M chorus, bridge, etc) by letter name. Unique melodic material gets a unique letter, and sections that use material similar to another section use the same letter. For example, a verse and chorus that uses the same melody would be labeled AA. If the chorus material differs slightly, the labeling would be AA’. The form of “The Star Spangled Banner” is: AABC. The form of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is: ABA
Macro Forms i. Verse-chorus-bridge designs (ABABCB, or ABABCAB) This basic structure is a tried and true one, one that has stood the test of time. Though verse-chorus designs are basic structures that are not innovative in and of themselves, the contrast they provide counters any risk of boredom. Often it is the smaller elements within a song, and not the innovation of the macro structure itself, that makes music work. The macro structure is best designed to be solid and predictable. Some songs, like the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna”, start with a chorus, then move to a verse. Their song “Hey Jude” doesn’t even really have a chorus. It’s more a series of verses and bridges, with a prolonged outro at the end. The macro design of verse-chorus-bridge in various combinations is safe. A bridge is a component of a song whose purpose is to help sustain and build energy for that final chorus. Usually, there are a
minimum of two choruses prior to a bridge. The text of a bridge is usually more emotional and passionate than the chorus, and a 52
perfect example is “Fall to Pieces,” by Avril Lavigne and Raine Maida. Here is a sketch of how the various components of that song are timed:
0’00” Intro
0’16” Verse 1
0’54” Chorus
1’18” Verse
Low-key guitar and light keyboard;
Low energy level that builds from middle to Chorus;
Energetic drive that dissipates slightly at conclusion;
Same energy as 2nd half of Verse 1;
1’40” Chorus Repeat of first chorus
2’04” Bridge Slight ebbing of energy for four bars, then the energy rises to highest point thus far.
2’28” Chorus Low energy similar to beginning for 4 bars, then dramatic increase of energy to match previous choruses. Several repeats of chorus
3’12” Outro Modification of melodic and harmonic material, along with dissipation of energy.
This is a typical design that many songwriters follow. The fact that it is done so often does not diminish its effectiveness. Lavigne’s expertise regarding the use of her voice, and the expert control over the energy levels of the various components of the form, makes this song work so well, and is why it has become such a big hit for her.
ii. Simple verse design (AAA…) A simple verse design is one that uses the same music for the both the verse and the chorus. The most common genre that uses this design is 53
the 12-bar blues. A 12-bar blues uses a melody based on a somewhat standard chord progression:
Bars 1-4
5-8
9-12
G / G / G / G7
C7 / C7 / G / G /
D7 / C / G /D7
The progression and melody is repeated for both the verse and chorus. In the standard blues form, a melody is featured in the first two bars of each four bar section. The last two bars of each section often features an “answering figure” by a solo instrument. The song “Hound
Dog”, by Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, and made famous by Elvis Presley, is an example of the blues. Much of early rock and roll was designed using blues patterns. There are other non-blues songs that use the same melody in both verse and chorus: “Born in
the U.S.A.”, by Bruce Springsteen, for example. Many bluegrass songs do, inserting an instrumental interlude between chorus and the next verse. The interlude helps to break up the possible monotony of having the same melody repeat so many times. If you choose a simple verse design for your song, you will want to consider solos and modifying of instrumentation at certain key structural points in the song to help propel the song forward. 54
iii. Verse-without-chorus design (AAA…) One of the trickiest design structures to apply is one that uses only a series of verses, with no real chorus or bridge. Such music is the analogical equivalent of flat landscape. You can see it all with one look. If you have chosen such a design, you need another element that stands out, If you have chosen a verse-without-chorus structure, your lyric should be a good stand-alone story or work of poetry.
one that ensures that the listener hasn’t “seen it all” in one look. Usually verse–without-chorus structures need a strong lyric. If you have chosen a
verse-without-chorus structure, your lyric should be a strong stand-alone work of poetry, or at least tell an interesting story. Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line”, Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” (recorded by Glen Campbell) and the traditional “The House of the Rising Sun” are good examples. As with the simple verse design, it’s a tricky form to use, because boredom can set in due to the lack of variety that a distinct chorus offers. Also, since chorus texts typically offer a resolution of emotional questions raised in a chorus (see Chapter 5), the text for this form must be carefully considered. In the verse–without-chorus design energy becomes an issue because of repetition, requiring a strong lyric or careful instrumental manipulation to make it work. So be careful when using it. People will judge your lyrics critically. Sometimes this form, coupled with a strong 55
lyric, can come across as cerebral. And with only a few exceptions, cerebral music tends to shrink an audience, because (sadly, I feel) most people would rather hear a simple song about the primal instinct of love, than a complicated emotional journey that uses metaphors and analogies. The early music from super group Genesis featured many songs with verse-without-chorus designs. Anyone familiar with their music would tell you that the songs from 1971’s Foxtrot album are far more than simple songs. They are true compositions, with extraordinary plays-on-words, imagery and poetry. But a commercial success they were not. Genesis was not a commercial success until their compositional style changed to something less complicated, something that the average listener could get into. So analyzing the text of their song cycle “Supper’s
Ready” (from Foxtrot, 1972) could take you weeks, while getting a handle on “Invisible Touch” (from their 1986 album of the same name) is a much more straightforward verse-chorus-bridge design. And “Invisible Touch” as a song probably made Genesis more money than all of their early albums put together. But money may not be (and perhaps should not be) the measure of success here. What is successful is if you have provided the right 56
vehicle for your text. The verse–without-chorus design is good for strong text. If your text isn’t strong, try incorporating a key change somewhere. (See “Changing Key”, Chapter 4.) The verse–withoutchorus design also benefits from instrumental solos and interesting underscoring.
iv. Verse-refrain design (AAA…) A refrain is similar to a chorus, except that in the pop music world, refrains tend to be shorter than choruses. Usually a refrain is a line or two. The line “For the times, they are a-changin’” is a good example of a refrain. Dylan writes many verses for his song, each verse ending with that line. The refrain has the effect of “bringing it all together.” Refrains make it sound like all those words in the verse had a reason for being there, and tend to give an extra sense of meaning and significance to the verse. Some other songs that use the verse-refrain format: “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Simon & Garfunkel), “Let it Be” (The Beatles) and “Suzanne” (Leonard Cohen). Refrains usually don’t stand well by themselves. They act to bring a close to a verse. In a sense, they are the end to the verse, while choruses usually are stand-alone self-contained units. If your lyric has a particular theme, a theme that would benefit by reminding your audience of “what it’s all about” (“like a bridge over troubled water/ I
will ease your mind”) then the verse-refrain form might be suitable. 57
v. Through-composed design. The through-composed format for songs is a format where each verse is a different, exhibiting no melodic similarities to the previous verse.
Avoid this unless you know what you are doing. Through-composed music is the equivalent of going for a walk, not knowing where you are going, or (more importantly) if you will ever get home. It is possible, but other design features need to be very, very strong. There needs to be a strong lyric, or fascinating innovative features that crop up along the way. Genesis uses a type of through-composition in their song “I
Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” from Selling England by the Pound. But they pull it all together by using a chorus that repeats identically each time. Between the choruses there are two verses that bear no resemblance to each other.
A through-composed design means that song elements change throughout the song, with no structural elements returning. Such a form is difficult to make work, because audiences like when they hear things repeat. Be careful using the through-composed design.
Curiously, many would-be composers use through-composed forms, most often to their song’s detriment. Listeners feel most comfortable when they hear something repeat. If you feel the need to write your 58
music so that each verse has a different melody, try taking the first verse and repeating it at the end if at all possible. vi. Ad hoc design. Some songs have a design that defy categorization. Songs using an ad
hoc design tend to come across as true compositions, if one can make the differentiation between that and simple songwriting. Like throughcomposed music, ad hoc designs are frequently used to fit the structure of a given poem, or set of poems. Using an ad hoc design means that you should give much thought to your poetry, and ensure that the structure you come up with is the one that really brings the meaning of the poem forward.
Using an ad hoc design does not mean letting your song meander. Aimless wandering will sound disorganized and unsettled. The main difference between the through-composed design and ad hoc is that ad hoc uses repeating elements that the audience will recognize. Through-composed doesn’t. Progressive rock composers from the 70s were the greatest proponents of the ad hoc design, so you should be listening to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, early Genesis (up to 1977), Yes, and King Crimson for examples.
59
Though it’s not possible to describe standard ad hoc designs (by definition, standard and ad hoc are mutually exclusive terms), there are some basic principles that are necessary to consider. The main one is to ensure that the musical structure is governed by the concept of contrast. The listener needs to feel the highs and lows of the music: energetic sections contrasted with more serene areas, governed by the overall sentiment of the text. Because the contrasts offered in ad hoc designs do not come by way of the predictability of verse and chorus designs, finding examples often means looking for more obscure songs that are primarily textdriven. Much of the music from the Progressive Rock era of the ‘70s would fall into this formal category.
Energy – the Forgotten Formal Element All songs contain a certain amount of energy. Energy is the force that causes us to move our body as we listen. Songs with driving energy want us to get up and dance. Songs with subdued energy come across as sounding reflective and thoughtful. Every song is unique in how it handles overall energy. The general mass of energy contained by a song will often ebb and flow as the song progresses, and it is vital that composers control it carefully. The usual course of events is to have the energy increase as a song progresses. The increasing energy entices the listener to keep listening.
60
Form Principle #2 IN GENERAL, THE ENERGY OF THE END OF A SONG SHOULD
EQUAL OR EXCEED THE ENERGY AT THE BEGINNING.
Though this principle seems obvious, violation of this basic tenet is the cause of many failing songs feeling listless and unexciting. Energy will normally increase in fits and starts throughout a song. To demonstrate a common approach, study the following chart. It’s an “energy graph” of the song “Real Love” by the Beatles. If we were to assign numeric values to represent the energy of the song, we’d come up with something like this:
Intro
1stVrs
1stChr
2ndVrs
2ndChr
Brdge
3rdVrs
3rdChr
5
4
7
5
7
8
4
7
Plotting the energy as a line, it would look like this:
61
In general, you want the energy of your song to be at least maintained, or, more likely, increased over the length of the song. The energy increase will come from one or a combination of the following factors: •
increasing volume;
•
increasing instrumentation;
•
raising the general pitch of the voice and accompanying instruments;
•
increasing harmonic rhythm (see Chapter 4)
•
increasing the basic beat (i.e., making the basic beat busier) There is a common exception to Form Principle #2: many songs build energy as they go, and then relinquish that energy at the very last line or two of the song. This immediate dissipation of energy is a strong formal element, because it allows the song to end at the same energy level as the beginning, offering symmetry. And the writer has followed the principle of increasing the energy levels as the song progresses.
Song designs are all about incorporating contrast into music by using formal elements. To speak of form means to speak of harmony, 62
rhythm, melody, and other components of composition, so it’s time now to look at those closely.
Micro Forms Examining micro forms means looking at the individual components of a song, as entities within the song. We’ve already defined these parts before, but let’s now look at each one as a contributor to the macro form. We’ll see that energy is the main quality we must consider.
A micro form is a component of the larger song form. Introduction, verse, chorus, bridge… they are all micro forms within a song. In general, forms work or don’t work because of the energy levels of the micro forms. Fixing energy problems will usually fix a form.
Introduction As we know, an introduction sets up the rest of the song by: 1. setting the mood; 2. indicating the kind of harmonic language to be expected; 3. indicating the tempo and beat; 4. establishing a beginning energy level. Decades ago, songwriters would often play through one or more verses of a song as an instrumental introduction before the vocals would finally start. Nowadays, whether pop, rock, country, jazz or 63
other genre, introductions are shorter, and follow some basic guidelines: 1. It’s not very common for an introduction to upstage a verse. The introduction’s main purpose is to set the mood, and often this is achieved with no attempt at a recognizable melody. 2. Don’t try to use chords or rhythms in your introduction that don’t seem to have much to do with your song. A person should be able to feel the basic mood and aura of your song from the introduction. Think of it as the lobby of a nice restaurant. The lobby should indicate the kind of décor and food to be expected once you enter the main part of the restaurant. 3. Generally, the energy of an introduction should be maintained, or build slightly, then dissipate as it connects to the verse. 4. The music of the introduction can be used as a connecting element between the chorus and the start of verse 2, possibly between the second chorus and the bridge. This gives the song a nice feeling of cohesion.
64
An introduction should be shorter than verses. Consult the following table as a guideline: 4 bar verse
=
2-4 bar intro
6 bar verse
=
2-4 bar intro
8 bar verse
=
4 bar intro
16 bar verse
=
4-8 bar intro
Verse In order to keep an audience listening to your song, you need to keep them thinking that something bigger and better is going to happen in the next few seconds. In order for verses to work well as micro forms, they need to build energy. The beginning of a verse should be it’s lowest energy point. The length of a verse in measures (bars) should be a factor of four. Eight or sixteen measures is most common. Four is rare, and twelve is common only in twelve-bar blues. Once a verse has passed its midpoint, the energy should build, using the adding of instruments, increasing loudness, intensifying the drum kit, or raising the general range of the voice. An increasing of tempo is rarely if ever used. Without this intensification the song risks becoming boring or directionless. 65
A two-verse song should mean that the second verse will either duplicate the energy of the first verse, or intensify that energy slightly with the addition of an instrument. It doesn’t take much… adding a tambourine, or other percussion instrument is common in some styles. In others, having the drummer move from hi-hat cymbal to ride cymbal is all that is necessary. A three-verse song will usually mean that a bridge will be used between the second chorus and the third verse (see “Bridge” on p.61). The third verse will either maintain and increase the energy levels of verse 2, or will begin as a lower energy version of verse 1 before building to the final chorus.
A musical composition requires that you get your audience more interested in what is going to happen, rather than what is now happening. Even as a wonderful moment may be occurring in a song, listeners are subconsciously waiting for the next “moment”. That’s what building energy throughout a song is all about, and it is what form is all about. It’s about subtly indicating that something good is going to happen. That constant sense of anticipation is crucial. Whether in the text, the instrumentation, the dynamic, or some other aspect… sensing that something great is going to happen is what sells songs.
66
Chorus The chorus will take the energy presented by the previous verse and either maintain it or, more likely, build on it. Like the verse, a chorus should be four (rare), eight, twelve (blues) or sixteen bars long. In especially the eight or sixteen-bar chorus, the second half of a chorus should feature an intensifying of the musical arrangement. The end of a chorus should dissipate the energy it has built, in order to set up for the next verse. Dissipating of energy comes from dropping instruments from the arrangement, diminishing the activity of the drum kit, and lowering the dynamic (loudness) of the music. Bridge A bridge needs to build energy. Sometimes the bridge can be instrumental. An instrumental solo is a great way to build energy while providing variety of sound possibilities. Depending on the genre, the solo should be played by an instrument that can successfully intensify energy. Saxophone and guitar are popular favourites in pop, rock, jazz and country music. The end of a bridge should be its most intense part if the bridge is to connect to a final chorus. The bridge should dissipate its energy at its last few beats if it is to connect to an additional verse.
67
Outro An outro is whatever you do to end the song after its final chorus. A very common outro is the repeat and fade. A repeat and fade is a way for writers to give the impression that the song’s energy cannot be dissipated without compromising the text. To give the impression that the emotion of the text is eternal, a writer will usually suggest a repeat and fade. There are other common and interesting ways to end songs, including repeating a line of the chorus with only vocal harmonies (without instrumental accompaniment), or to compose new music entirely. A long fade tends to add a degree of profundity to the music, so you should be careful that the text and mood of the song warrants a long fade. A short fade can sound dismissive. These are decisions that are generally made at the production stage, because a repeat and fade cannot be easily accomplished in a live performance, and can sound corny if you try!
The energy levels of a song need to always be closely examined. Always check the connecting moments between the different components to ensure that you have complete control over the basic energy of the song. Surprise moments can be what keeps audiences interested in subsequent listenings, so don’t be afraid to allow impulse to have an important role in your song. But that spontaneity should be completely under your control. 68
Micro Versus Macro I had mentioned that problems with a song will often mean that there are problems with the form of a song. You now know that there are several components to a song, and that the problems songwriters encounter will require you to examine either the macro or micro level. If each component of a song seems to work on its own, but you feel there is an unbalance somewhere, this is usually an indication that the energy of the song is not consistent, and you will need to look at how the individual components connect. We’ve looked at the form of the song, and it’s now time to examine the other important components of a composition, beginning with harmony.
69
Chapter 3 SUMMARY
In this chapter you have learned: FORM PRINCIPLE#1: SONGS WITHOUT CONTRAST RISK BEING BORING. FORM PRINCIPLE #2: IN GENERAL, THE ENERGY OF THE END OF A SONG SHOULD EQUAL OR EXCEED THE ENERGY AT THE BEGINNING. KEY NOTES AND QUOTES FROM CHAPTER 3:
70
•
Planning the form of a song is vital to the overall strength of the song.
•
Musicians usually refer to various sections of a song (verse, chorus, bridge, etc) by letter name. Unique melodic material gets a unique letter, and sections that use material similar to another section use the same letter.
•
There are various formal designs possible for songs: o Verse-chorus-bridge designs o Simple verse design o Verse-without-chorus design o Verse-refrain design o Through-composed design o Ad hoc design
•
All songs contain energy, and that energy will often ebb and flow as the song progresses; it must be carefully controlled.
•
The common exception to Form Principle #2 is that many songs will build energy as they go, but relinquish it at the last line or so of the song
•
Macro forms are large-scale forms that apply to an entire song. Micro forms are the smaller components that go together to make a macro form.
Chapter 4- Harmony
71
The Chord Muddle For many budding songwriters, their biggest setback is simply not knowing how chords go together. It’s almost as if they think, “There are thousands of chords to choose from… which ones do I choose for my song?” This chapter is going to hopefully go a long way to clarifying what I call the chord muddle.
Chord Progressions – A Mystery No Longer You will see more eyes glaze over when it comes to discussions of chord progressions than with almost any other aspect of songwriting. Everyone understands what good lyrics are (ignoring taste and writing ability for the moment!) and everyone has a basic understanding of beat and rhythm. But start discussing chord progressions, and that’s when the muddle begins. There are all sorts of theoretical reasons why progressions work the way they do, but I want to simplify things here. My desire to simplify is not actually to dumb anything down; I want to make sure you understand the basic principle at work here: If it sounds good, use it. Some composers are so fixated on “am-I-allowed-to” that they place “does-it-sound-good” second in importance, which is for any songwriter an error in judgment. 72
The neat thing is that the theory behind why chords work the way they do is quite simple. And if you find that a chord progression works, you’ll also find that music theory will support that progression. What we’re looking for are ways to simplify the process of finding the right chords for your song. I like to use the analogy of going for a walk to describe chord progressions. The key that your song is in defines the chords you’ll use, just like the city you take your walk in will define what buildings you’ll see. That key chord, which we’ll be referring to as the tonic chord, is like your house. The other chords represent a short walk you take around your neighbourhood. Eventually you’ll return home again. It’s not complicated. But I have heard chord progressions that make me picture someone going for a walk,
Music theory tells us why chords work the way they do. It was never meant to tell us what chords to choose! You need to trust your ear. You can let theory tell you what your choices are, but you must trust your ear and your own musicality to determine what chords to finally use. To repeat: Theory tells us why chords work, but not necessarily which ones to use.
Creativity has always been up to you!
where they meander aimlessly through the town. And if they get
73
back home again, it feels a like a surprise, and the whole walk was just unpleasant. That’s the chord muddle! There are some great walks you can take around your neighbourhood that may involve visiting places you’ve not been before, but the walk
should not be random. Any surprises on your walk should make sense on some level. You can’t set out from your house in Toronto, turn the corner, and find yourself in New York! There are ways to get to New York, but not randomly. So what makes a good chord progression? Why do chords work the way they do? Why do some progressions excite us and pull us forward, while others sound lame and just sit there? Learning how to make chord progressions work requires us to learn certain things in a certain order. There are real reasons why some progressions work and others don’t. It’s not guesswork! This chapter has four sections, each one building on the knowledge of the previous section: I. Chord Basics; II. How One Chord Moves to Another Chord; III. Integrating Balance When Building a Longer Progression; IV. Expanding Chord Vocabulary. In working through each section, we’ll uncover four basic principles of chord progressions. These aren’t rules; at best, they are guiding 74
principles. And like anything in the arts, you will be able to list many songs that violate the principles. These principles are meant to merely suggest reasons for why songs we know and love work, and hopefully provide an analysis that you can apply, if you wish, to your own music.
Don’t forget… you can hear all of the written musical samples in this book by visiting www.secretsofsongwriting.com
75
I. Chord Basics Let’s use the C-major scale to begin with. (We’ll use examples on a musical staff, but if your reading skills are weak, don’t worry – you will still be able to understand this section by the note names used and the chord symbols.) Every note of a scale can be identified by its note name (C, D, E…). We can also refer to those notes by number (1,2,3…). Sample 1
Some basic theory: The root of a chord is the note that gives a chord its name. So the root of an e-minor chord is E. A triad is a 3-note chord that consists of a root (called note 1), a 3rd, and a 5th.
Using each note of a scale as a
root, we can create a chord. A chord is the simultaneous sounding of three or more notes. The basic chords that you know and love (i.e., chords that consist of a simple letter name with no numbers afterward) are known as
triads. A triad is a three-note 76
chord that consists of a root, a third, and a fifth, formed by what we sometimes call “stacking thirds”. Every time you strum a chord on a guitar, even though six strings are making six notes, each one of those six strings is producing one of the three possible notes I just mentioned – a root, third or fifth. There are other more complicated chords out there that involve more than three separate pitches, but we’re talking here about basic triads. Since there are seven notes in a major scale, there are
“Country music is three chords and the truth.” - Harlan
Howard
seven basic triads that can be formed on top of the notes of that major scale. And when you create those triads without extra modifications, you will discover: The chord based on the
1st note
will always be
major.
2nd note
…………………
minor.
3rd note
…………………
Minor.
4th note
…………………
Major.
5th note
…………………
Major.
6th note
…………………
Minor.
7th note
…………………
Diminished.
77
The Basic Triads of Any Major Key Here, then, are those triads: Sample 2
Those are the basic chords that you will use if you write a piece in C major. No more guess work! We haven’t talked yet about how these chords can move from one to another. But these will be the basic triads that you will more often than not use in your song. It will be fun learning how to modify those chords for various purposes, and how include other interesting ones in that mix; those seven chords will be our starting point. How We Refer to Chords One tradition in the music world is to refer to chords using Roman numerals. Notice that we used upper-case numerals for chords that are major, and lower-case numerals for minor and diminished. So the chord based on the first note is called a I-chord (upper case I, because it is a C major chord), the chord on the second note is called a ii-chord (lower case ii, because it is a D minor chord), and so on. 78
II. How One Chord Moves to Another Chord The V-I Progression If you know pop music, you’ll know that two of those chords, the Ichord (C major, in this key) and the V-chord (G major) are the most commonly used chords in most songs. The songs that have been written on that simple two-chord progression could fill books! How and why the V-chord moves so easily to the I-chord is based on some basic principles of how chords like to move. Read on!
Why Some Progressions Work and Others Don’t How chords progress is what it’s all about, but this is where all the muddle begins for so many songwriters! In the last section, I showed all the chords that naturally occur in C major: C major (I) D minor (ii) E minor (iii) F major (IV) G major (V) A minor (vi) B diminished (viio)
From Woody Guthrie (not necessarily true, but funny):
“If you play more than two chords, you're showing off.”
79
But just because they all naturally exist in C major doesn’t mean that you can begin flipping from one chord to another. That will likely just result in a muddled progression. There are ways that chords like to move, and you’ll go a long way to clearing up the muddle if you realize this: a chord that moves up by four notes or down by five notes to
reach the next chord makes a very strong progression. The main reason why this is true is because when a chord moves in that manner, it means that one of the notes will be in common. Let’s use an illustration from the key of C major that we’ve been using as our example. The G major chord moving to the C major chord is called a V-I progression, and it’s one of the strongest progressions we have. Both chords have the note G in common: Sample 3
Because both the C major chord and the G major chord have the note G in common, it makes a strong progression. The listeners’ ears latch on to that common tone, whether they are consciously aware of it or 80
not. So now, let me state the Chord Progression Principle #1 that will go a very long way to clearing up the chord muddle:
Harmony Principle #1: TWO CHORDS THAT HAVE A NOTE IN COMMON WILL FORM A STRONG PROGRESSION; AND IF THAT FIRST CHORD MOVES UP BY FOUR NOTES OR DOWN BY FIVE NOTES TO REACH THE NEXT CHORD, THE PROGRESSION BECOMES EVEN STRONGER.
This principle was not invented by theorists. It wasn’t really invented by anyone. It comes from years – centuries, actually – of observation and study of existing music. Now you know part of the reason why that V-I progression is so strong, and why practically every song ever written uses it, and why it is the most common progression we know. It’s because: 1. The V-chord and the I-chord have a note in common; 2. The root of the V-chord is four notes away from the root of the I-chord. And there’s a third reason it is so strong: it’s not just that V likes to go to I, it’s also that the I-chord is the tonic chord of the key you’ve
chosen. So the V-I progression is the strongest progression we can 81
use. In our “going-for-a-walk” analogy, it’s like stepping from your front doorstep into your house.
Making Good Two-Chord Progressions It may sound like the only progressions you’re allowed to have are ones that feature a common tone, whose roots are four notes away from each other. That’s not true – if it were true, music would be far too predictable, and not a little boring. Those are the progressions that are considered very strong. But there are lots of other types of progressions. Using our walk analogy, we’d say… your stroll around the city may take you to some spectacular landmarks, but other parts of your walk may be great in an understated way. Walking past a nice flowerbed, for example. The other progressions are considered less strong than the ones we’ve looked at, but less strong does not mean undesirable. In fact, over an entire song, the best songs are ones that feature a combination of strong progressions, and more fragile ones. Another analogy that you might find helpful is to imagine an architect designing a building. Some walls are load bearing walls, while others are non-load bearing. A building made up of just non-load bearing walls will fall down! But those walls are necessary to the design and beauty of the overall building. Check out the list of chord progressions on page 84.
82
“A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.” Benny Green “There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another.” – Frank Zappa
HOW TO USE THE CHART ON THE NEXT PAGE The chart shows several possible two-chord progressions, starting on each chord of the C major scale. The first ones listed on each line are considered the strongest progressions, and each progression on the line becomes gradually more “fragile”. You can use this chart as a guide when constructing progressions that are longer. Keep in mind that “fragile” does not mean “undesirable”. If you like a progression, use it. But it’s a good idea to balance the use of a few progressions from the fragile end of the chart with some from the stronger end. EXAMPLE: Consider the progression C – Am – Dm – G – C. The C to Am is in the middle of the first line, so it’s of medium strength. The progression then goes to Dm. Am to Dm is considered very strong. So is Dm to G. The progression ends with G going to C, which is also very strong. So this progression rates as a very strong progression, one that will be pleasant to the ear. Try playing it on your guitar or piano, and you’ll probably like it. The thing is… strong can also equate to predictable. So… this is where true composition comes into play. Some of the progressions from the fragile end of the chart can be the ones that add uniqueness to your music. Think carefully about your choices! Don’t just use all strong ones. 83
CHART OF TWO-CHORD PROGRESSIONS
84
When Progressions Sound Muddled Think about the music you’ve written where the chords seem somehow unsettled to you. I’d place bets that the reason the progression is unsatisfying is because too many chord-pairs come from the fragile end of the chart. And when you use too many strong progressions, your music can start to sound a little predictable. The concept of strong progressions being formed by chords whose roots are four notes was actually developed hundreds of years ago, and the principle still holds true today. Too many chord pairs from the fragile end of the chart will make your music feel confusing and muddled. Too many from the strong end makes your music seem predictable and possibly boring. Mix & match!
People who live in glass houses… Don’t be afraid of the progressions at the fragile end of the chart. Those aren’t bad. But too much use will cause your progressions to sound like they have lost focus, and your listeners may lose track of what key they’re in. Nonetheless, “fragile” doesn’t mean “bad”. You do have glass in your house, right? But an entire house of glass is not desirable. Perhaps the expression should be, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t write music!”
85
Fragile is Not All Bad Is there a pattern we can follow for when to use strong progressions and when to use fragile ones? Many great songs use so-called fragile
progressions within a verse whose lyric conveys sadness, or emotional trauma; i.e., the classic “hurting song”. If you decide to use fragile progressions for this reason, it’s often best to ensure that the chorus
uses progressions from the strong end of the chart. The song “Without
You”, (Evans and Ham, recorded by Harry Nilsson and more recently by Mariah Carrie), is a great example of this. The song makes good use of both strong and fragile progressions, but the
Balancing strong and weak progressions in your song is a bit like balancing amounts of cement and glass when constructing a building. All cement gives you no windows, and all windows gives you no strength or solidity. The best buildings, of course, use both.
majority of the fragile ones occur in the verse, while the chorus uses mainly strong ones. This combination really works well. The fragile progressions make us feel the unsettled nature of his anxiety and emotion (“No I can’t forget this
evening / or your face as you were leaving…”), while the strong progressions in the chorus suit the more straight-ahead nature of the chorus lyric (“I can’t live, if living is without you...”)
86
Sample 4
Songs that feature fragile progressions in the verse and strong ones in the chorus are so numerous that we can state a second principle of chord progressions:
Harmony Principle #2 A VERSE WILL USUALLY TOLERATE MORE FRAGILE PROGRESSIONS THAN A CHORUS; A CHORUS USUALLY REQUIRES MORE STRONG PROGRESSIONS.
87
Though not a rule, ensuring that the chorus has more strong progressions will allow it to act as “closure” to a verse. Think of it this way: A verse usually recounts events or imagery intended to stir up emotions and draw the listener into the song. Progressions from the fragile end of the chart will allow a certain vagueness to exist in the tonality. This has the effect of making the music feel unsettled (in a good way), creating a need for something more straightforward, something less complicated. Enter the chorus: it brings closure to the verse. As we’ll see in Chapter 6, while verses will often tell the audience what’s happening, a chorus will tell them how the songwriter
feels about what’s happening. For stability, a verse with numerous fragile progressions will need a chorus with strong progressions. And it makes for a nicely structured song.
What About Minor Keys? We haven’t yet talked about music in a minor key yet, because most of the pop music out there has tended to be in major keys. But music in minor keys can be beautiful, and you should consider it. To discover the chords of minor keys, we just need to employ the same process we used to come up with chords for a major key: Sample 5
88
The chords that we build on each note of a minor scale will be a different quality from their major key counterparts. In the case of a minor key: The chord based on the
1st note
will always be
minor.
2nd note
…………………
diminished.
3rd note
…………………
major.
4thnote
…………………
minor.
5th note
…………………
major3.
6th note
…………………
major.
7th note
…………………
major.
In pop music, the V-chord is actually not all that common. The most common chords in minor key music are: i, iv and VI. Also, it is very common for minor key music to slide into the relative major key, and back again. For example, a song in A minor will often move into C major, for variety.
3
In minor keys, the V-chord is naturally a minor chord. But as we discovered earlier, the most common function of the V-chord is to move easily to the tonic. This is true in minor keys as well. A centuries-old tradition has been established that states that a V-chord, whether in a major key or minor key, sounds more solid if it is major. By being major, it moves to the I-chord more easily. In major keys, the V-chord is naturally a major chord, so no adjustment needs to be made. In minor keys, however, the V-chord is minor, so we often raise the 3rd to make it major.
89
Just as with major key music, the principle of strong and fragile progressions applies to minor key music. Minor key music can be powerfully evocative. Many songwriters use a mixture of minor and major modes within the same piece of music. Don’t be afraid to try composing in the minor key. Some writers purposely stay away from minor keys because they think the music will be too dreary. But you will find that the basic back beat of the music, the lyric and the melody will do as much or more to control the mood of the music you write.
Consider this progression:
Sample 6
Am – F – G – Am These four chords come from the key of C major, but they also come from A minor. If the third chord had been an E major chord instead of G major, the progression would be solidly in A minor. The F major and G major chords sound briefly as if they are going to pull the music into C major, but the phrase then ends on A minor. This ambiguity of mode is a well-used tool by many songwriters.
90
Here are some other progressions in the minor mode:
Sample 7
Am – Dm – E – Am
Am – F – Dm – Bdim – C – F – E – Am Am – Dm – E – F – C – Dm – E – Am Am – G – C – F – Dm – E – Am – G
Songs about love have got to be about the most common songs out there. But why love? People find it irresistible to allow themselves to be pulled into a song that describes strong emotions they’ve felt before. They like to know that others have felt that same sentiment. And they like to know that there’s a song out there that perhaps describes that feeling. And we never tire of it! Love has been a topic of song ever since there have been songs. If you are looking for great song material, choosing love, particularly of the “unrequited” variety, will be a popular choice. Successful songs are ones that allow the audience to put themselves in the singer’s world, whatever the topic may be. Love is the most popular, but you may want to describe other issues that have been on your mind. Some other popular choices for song material: the environment, consumerism and consumer greed, visions of a better world, and abhorring violence against our fellow humans.
91
III. Integrating Balance When Building a Longer Progression In Douglas Adams’ book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe4, he writes, “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.” It reminds me of how so many musicians try to comprehend the mystery of chord progressions. They search for the elusive “rule” that governs all progressions, as if there is some overall directive, some law that guides their creation. Adams might tell such writers that if they ever discover the “ultimate answer” as to how chord progressions work, all chords will instantly disappear and be replaced by a bowl of petunias and a whale. The Chart of Two-Chord Progressions is a useful tool for determining how strong your chord sequences are. We’ve seen that longer progressions can be understood as two-chord progressions attached one to another. And we’ve also seen that some progressions feel
4
4 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ©1980 by Douglas Adams. Published by arrangement with Crown Publishers, Inc.
92
tonally solid while others are less so, and that it is optimum to use a mixture of both in your song. But that still doesn’t really answer the question… How do we construct a longer progression? How do we know if it’s a good one? Most songs are designed to reinforce the I-chord as the key chord – the tonic chord, as we call it. So it’s not just a matter of trying to have strong progressions. It’s having progressions that, either separately or jointly, point toward that tonic chord as having special significance. In our “going-for-a-walk” analogy, it’s like saying that we see everywhere we go in relation to where our house is. And we know that no matter where our walk takes us, it usually takes us back to our house.
Building Progressions The strongest progression we have is the V-I progression. It’s what Chord Progression Principle #1 is all about. The possibilities available to us to build on that simple two-chord progression are endless, but try this as one strong option: If we take that V-I progression, and put a chord in front of it that is four notes down from the V-chord, we have this three chord progression: ii – V – I. You can write lots of songs that use those three chords. The progression is strong because each chord moves up four notes to reach the root of the next chord, and each chord shares a common tone with the chord before it.
93
The Circle-of Fifths Progression Now, to add a chord in front of that progression try going down four notes below the ii-chord. That gives us the vi-chord. The progression is now four chords long: vi – ii – V – I. In C major, we’re talking about these chords: Am – Dm – G – C. A progression that uses chords whose roots rise by a 4th (or descend by a 5th) in this way is called a circle of
fifths progression. It’s a very solid one to consider. You can keep extending it backward: four notes below the vi-chord is the iii-chord. A circle-of-fifths progression works well and feels so solid, mainly because it adheres to Chord Progression Principle #1: each chord shares a common tone with the next one in the sequence, and the root of each chord rises by four notes. The circle-of-fifths progression is strong, so that means it will be predictable. Be aware of that as you use it.
Of course, the circle-of-fifths sequence is only one possibility. And if all you did was use that progression, your music would be quite repetitive. But many songwriters use it as a starting point. Consider this one:
Sample 8
Em – Am – Dm – G – Em – F – G – C It works really well because it features chord changes from the strong end of the Two-Chord Progression Chart. It’s mainly a circle-of-fifths 94
progression. When it gets to the G major chord in the middle, we expect to hear a C major chord following, because it follows the pattern of four-notes-up. But the G major chord progresses to an E minor, and now we expect the sequence to start over. This time, however, it proceeds to an F major chord, then to G major, with a final cadence on C major. By jumping to the F major chord, we successfully leap out of the circle-of-fifths sequence and bring the progression to a close. Not all progressions use the circle-of-fifths, of course. But it is a good one to use as a starting point because it uses so many strong twochord progressions.
Incorporating Balance Though we now know how progressions work, we haven’t dealt with another important issue – that of how chord progressions are inextricably linked to phrases. If you can get your phrases to make sense, to feel balanced, your chords will have a fighting chance. Consider the following two progressions:
95
Sample 9
Play through them both on a guitar or piano. Neither one feels wrong, but the first one is an example of a progression that works really well. It’s not just that it uses a mixture of strong and fragile progressions. It’s got to do with balanced phrases. It’s a four-bar phrase, subdivided into two smaller ones. The first two bars of the progression wander away from C, and the third and fourth bars wander back. It feels balanced; there is a symmetry. The first and third bars are similar in that they both use two chords. The second and fourth bars are similar by the fact that they use one chord lasting the entire bar. Now consider the second progression. There’s nothing wrong with the progression, but something feels a tiny bit unsatisfying about it. It’s bar 3 that is the problem. Putting two chords in bar 3 would make it a better progression, because it would allow that bar to better balance with bar 1. Does this mean that the progression is “wrong”? We should 96
not be thinking of these progressions as being “right” or “wrong”, but in this case, we can certainly say that Progression 1 is “better” than Progression 2 because of the balance and symmetry issue.
Harmonic Rhythm Balance is a bit of an abstract concept. It would be ludicrous to say that balance, or any other concept, for that matter, is a constant value. Nothing in the arts works that way. Nonetheless, music in the pop song world usually works by providing certain perceivable and predictable patterns to the listener. The patterns I am talking about here are not necessarily rhythmic patterns, as we usually mean when we use that term. I am speaking of the frequency and pacing of the chord changes. This is known as the harmonic rhythm of the song. It leads us to our third principle of chord progressions:
HARMONY Principle #3 THERE SHOULD BE A PERCEIVABLE AND SOMEWHAT PREDICTABLE PATTERN TO THE PLANNING OF CHORD CHANGES.
In Progression 1 from page 96, the first bar consisted of two chords, each lasting two beats. The next bar contained one chord, lasting for the entire bar. The third and fourth bars repeat that pattern. That pattern of two chords in one bar and one in the next is an important 97
feature of the song, serving as a pervasive pattern for the song as a whole. The pattern can be anything you like. In Bob Seger’s song,
“Like a Rock”, each chord lasts two entire bars. That’s its harmonic rhythm. Slow harmonic rhythm, combined with a relaxed instrumental treatment, gives a pensive, meditative quality to the music. But slow harmonic rhythm combined with an energetic driving pulse gives the music a gritty, determined air. Some songs use a combination. James Taylor’s “Your Smiling Face” changes chords on every beat for two bars, then switches to chords that last for two beats. This is the basic pattern for much of the song. Changing the harmonic rhythm within a song should not be done haphazardly. Songs that move from a slower to a fast harmonic rhythm generally gain energy. So do that if it’s the effect you are going for. That gained energy is sometimes difficult to dissipate within a section, so increasing the frequency of your chord changes is best achieved by introducing the effect in a new, higher energy section such as a chorus or a bridge.
98
IV. Expanding Your Chord Vocabulary So far, the chords we’ve talked about have been triads that occur naturally within a certain major or minor key. Our ingenuity and imagination could allow us to write possibly thousands of songs or more using just those chords. But now it’s time to let your imagination soar! The possibilities are almost endless regarding how to manipulate chords to come up with something distinctive for your song. There are numerous books of chords in print that can list the many thousands of possibilities. But some chords are real winners, ones you’ll want to be sure to consider for your songs. We’re going to briefly describe some simple but very effective modifications to the chords we’ve already studied, as well as consider other gems for increasing your chord vocabulary. Of all the possible variations on chords we could study, these will be the most common, and most useful: I. Adding a 7th to a chord II. Modal Mixtures III. Secondary Dominants IV. Suspensions V. Inversions
99
I.
Adding a 7th to a V-Chord
The most common modification to the V-chord you will encounter is the addition of a 7th. This means counting seven notes up from the root of the chord, and adding that note to the existing three notes. The resulting chord, G7, has four notes: G, B, D, and F. Sample 10
You’ll notice that the F causes the chord to want to move even more so to the C major chord. That’s called strengthening the
dominant function. Simplicity can be a good thing. And in chord progressions, the truth is that you do not need a huge arsenal of chords. Woody Guthrie’s song, “This Land is Your Land” is a good example of a song that can be performed using only the tonic, subdominant and dominant chords:
Woody Guthrie
100
Sample 11
F
C
This land is your land, this land is my land G7
C
From California to the New York Island F
C
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters G7
C
This land was made for you and me. Much of the music from the 50s and early 60s could be covered by using the I, IV and V chords from any key. As the 60s progressed into the 70s, songwriters used other chords with increasing frequency. Adding chords to their vocabulary had the same effect as adding words to verbal vocabulary; chiefly, more chords allowed writers to be even more precise and descriptive.
101
Increasing your chord vocabulary will allow you to subtly shade your musical ideas with colors that are perhaps a bit more understated and clever. The ii-chord can take the place of the IV-chord in a progression, because two of the notes of the IV-chord also show up in the ii-chord: Sample 12
The vi-chord can sometimes serve as an interesting substitute for a Ichord, because two of the notes of the I-chord also show up in the vichord: Sample 13
Every time you modify a chord, or replace one with another, you make subtle changes to the atmosphere of the song. The final choices really depend on your own taste, and the style of the song. Chord choices are not meant to complicate music – they are meant to add meaning and clarification to the moods portrayed in the text. Simplicity trumps complication in the chord game. 102
This Land… Revisited Now let’s go back to This Land is Your Land, and apply some of the new chords we’ve looked at. This time, when you play it, you’ll notice that the new chord choices add flavour, and start to create a certain mood: Sample 14
C7
F
C
Am
This land is your land, this land is my land Dm
G7
C
C7
From California to the New York Island F
C
Am
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters Dm
G7
C
This land was made for you and me. Adding 7ths to Other Chords Remember the 7th that we added to the V-chord? You can actually add a 7th to almost any chord. Adding a 7th to a ii-chord or a vi-chord can sound really nice. Some chords work well by adding a major 7th, while others sound better when you add a minor 7th. This is determined by the key you’re in. You will find that I, IV and V all sound great if you add a major 7th, while ii, iii and viio sound best with a minor 7th. Try 103
experimenting to see what you like. You should note that in blues progressions, adding a minor 7th to a I, and to a IV creates that famous blues effect. II.
Modal Mixtures
From earlier in this chapter, we discovered why some chords work so well when in a certain key, while other chords seem to be a bit strange. However, it is possible to “borrow” chords from one mode and use them in another. By this usage of the word “mode”, we mean whether a song is in a major key or a minor one. Chords that come from the opposite mode are called, appropriately enough,
borrowed chords, or modal mixtures. The IV-chord offers probably the most common opportunity for this situation. Try playing the following progression on your guitar or piano:
Sample 15
The F minor chord in bar 4 is a borrowed chord. It’s a great sound, and creates really interesting possibilities. It produces an air of melancholy, and provides a lovely descending inner line that moves from the note A, through Ab, to G. 104
Any chord that actually belongs in the opposite mode to the one you are writing in is called a modal mixture, or borrowed chord. The minor iv-chord is probably the most commonly used borrowed chord. Be careful not to use them too much, because they are very distinctive. But it’s that distinctive flavour that can add that bit of variety you may be looking for. There are lots of songs out there using borrowed chords, such as Paul Kelly’s “Personally”, made famous by Karla Bonoff. He uses a minor iv-chord toward the end of each verse (on the
Every time you introduce a new chord in your song, the effect is similar to viewing a new landmark while taking a walk. Landmarks are good, but too many can result in fatigue. Be careful not to inundate your audience with too many chords, especially unusual ones. Good songs show a balance between predictability and innovation, with more emphasis on the former than the latter.
words, I’ve got something to
deliver / That the mailman can’t deliver…) The well-known duet “Islands in the Stream” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (written by the Bee Gees), uses a modal mixture iv-chord toward the end of the first verse, on the words, “All this love we feel needs no conversation.” It’s a great chord to spice up an otherwise ordinary progression. Check out these progressions that use other modal mixtures:
105
Sample 16
III.
Secondary Dominant Chords
We know that a ii-chord from a major key naturally occurs as a minor chord. In A major, the ii-chord is B-D-F#. Consider this progression: Sample 17
106
If the B minor chord is followed by a chord whose root is four notes up, or five down (as in this example), it provides an interesting modification if, instead of playing this B minor chord, you change it to B major: Sample 18
It’s not a borrowed chord, because there is no major ii-chord in either major or minor keys. We know that ii-chords are either minor (in major keys) or diminished (in minor keys). So if it isn’t a borrowed chord, what is it? It’s a particular type of chord called a secondary dominant. In a manner of speaking, it is pretending to be a dominant chord, in this way: It is major, and the presence of that D# in the B major chord strengthens its desire to want to move to the E major chord – four notes up. Because of these characteristics, it holds two of the main qualities of being a dominant chord. So we call it a secondary dominant. Essentially, when you change a minor chord into a major chord, you are often creating a secondary dominant. How to Add Secondary Dominants to Your Music Try adding some secondary dominant chords to your song. You’ll notice that it has a particularly distinctive colour, and so you will need to ensure that it fits in with the style of your song. The topic of 107
secondary dominants could be the topic of complete chapters within a theory text, and we’ve only touched the topic here. But you can create secondary dominants easily by taking a minor chord and raising the 3rd to make it major. This will work if your minor chord proceeds to a chord whose root is four notes up, or five notes down. Go back to that five-chord progression at the beginning of this section, and make that F# minor chord major, and you will get this: Sample 19
“Crocodile Rock” by Elton John makes use of a secondary dominant chord in the second part of the verse: Sample 20
108
Another song from more recent times is “One Flight Down”, written by Jesse Harris, recorded by Norah Jones on her Grammy winning album,
“Come Away With Me”. The third chord of the song is a chord based on the 6th note of the key of the song (Db major). Normally the chord based on the 6th note is minor, but in this case Harris makes it major: Sample 21
Secondary Dominants That Don’t Act “Dominant” It is possible to create secondary dominant chords that don’t rise by four notes to the next chord. In other words, they don’t pretend to be the dominant chord of the one that follows. Here’s a progression in E major that demonstrates this:
Sample 22
109
The F# major chord in bar 2 would normally want to move on to a B chord (a V-chord), if it followed the theory just described concerning secondary dominant chords. But this F# major chord progresses to a IV-chord (A major), and so acts simply as an interesting colour for a iichord. IV.
Suspensions
A suspension is a particular type of chord that makes use of a non-
chord-tone. To show how it works, take a look at this diagram from page 80: Sample 23
It’s the diagram we used to show the common tone between a V-chord and a I-chord. The G major chord uses three pitches: G, B and D. If we take the middle tone (called the 3rd, because it is 3 letter names above the root), and raise it by a half tone, we will create a beautiful chord called a suspension:
110
That chord, Gsus4, is a G major chord in which the 3rd has been raised (suspended) a half tone to C. Except for that pitch, the Gsus4 is identical to a standard G major chord. Generally, this kind of chord needs to be “resolved” by allowing the C to descend down to where it usually is for a G major chord – to B. Suspended chords are quite versatile, because you can technically “suspend” any tone in a chord. It will take some experimentation on your part to know which tones sound the best when suspended, and which chords to do it to. Trust your ears. Usually, V-chords in any key will sound good with the 3rd suspended – the so-called “sus4” chords. The same type of suspension works well on I-chords as well. There are other types, though, and probably the most common type after the sus4 is the sus9 chord (also called sus2). In a sus9 chord, an upper root of the chord is replaced with a note that is a tone higher. It then resolves to a standard triad. Here are sus4 and sus9 from the key of D major: Sample 24
111
Suspensions are just one of an entire category of chords that use nonchord-tones. Any time you “dress up” a chord with a note that doesn’t normally belong to it, you’ve used a non-chord-tone. The sus4 really requires a resolution, because the suspended tone causes such tension within the chord. The sus9 is less demanding – composers often use the sus9 simply as a composite sound without resolving it to a triad. Trust your ears – you’ll know if the chord needs resolution.
v. Inversions So far we’ve only used chords that appear in root position. A root position triad means that the root of the chord is the lowest sounding note. But it is possible to invert chords – to allow a non-root note already in the chord to be the lowest pitch. Inversions are used in popular music styles for one or both of two main reasons: 1. for variety in chord choice; 2. to smooth out a bass line. When a triad is played with the 3rd of the chord as the lowest sounding note, that triad is said to be in first inversion. A triad with the 5th of the chord as the lowest sounding note is said to be in second inversion.
112
Guitarists know these chords as slash chords, because they are indicated using a slash to separate the chord name from the bass note: Sample 25
When and How to Use Inversions So when and how should inversions be used? An inversion has the
effect of decreasing the tonal stability of a chord. A root position chord is considered to be solid, while placing the 3rd at the bottom (first inversion) removes a bit of that stability. Placing the 5th at the bottom removes a lot of that stability. So inverted triads will usually not be
good chords with which to end phrases or sections of songs. They’re great chords for getting from one stable chord to another. Used in this manner, they are known as passing chords. The song “Layla”, cowritten by Eric Clapton, demonstrates a first inversion chord being used as a passing chord in the instrumental ending of the song:
113
Sample 26
The progression could have easily been played by extending that C major chord in the first bar to last for two full bars before moving on to the F major chord; that’s a strong progression. But by using the C/E as a passing chord, Clapton provides a bit of variety while still keeping the notes of the chord. He merely places a different chord tone at the bottom. That inverted chord in bar 2 of the example has the effect of pulling the listener along into bar 3. A variation on the so-called “slash chord” is the pedal tone. A pedal tone is a pitch (usually in the bass) that is held through several chord changes. More often than not, the pedal tone will either be the tonic note (key note) or the dominant note (the root note of the V-chord), but try different tones to see if you like the effect. Here are some samples: Sample 27
114
It’s important to keep track of where your bass notes are, and where they’re moving when you use inversions. Inversions should exist for a reason – they shouldn’t simply be used randomly. When using any chord, inversion or not, avoid having the bass jump by six semitones (a diminished 4th.)
Key Changes Don’t Go Changin’… Without a Reason A key change, known in learned circles as a “modulation”, should occur for a specific reason, not haphazardly. Key changes can be very useful in verse-chorus designs. A well-placed key change can inject spice, and offer variety to a song that is in danger of becoming stale. Songs with
many repeating features are good candidates for a key change. The song “One Tin Soldier”, by The Original Caste, uses a key change before the last verse. This was a great decision because it is basically a verse-chorus song, in danger of being too repetitious. The key change adds a feeling of anticipation to the song, and helps propel it forward. 115
There are two common types of modulations: I.
Half-step-upward modulation
This type of modulation is very common. The songwriter raises the key by one semitone (half step), or, less frequently, by a whole tone. A half step modulation is usually prepared by ending the verse or chorus, then playing a chord that is the dominant chord of the new key, then continue with the next verse or chorus in the new key. Observe the following chord progression. In this example, imagine that the first four chords bring the chorus to a close. The next chord is the modulating chord, and then the chorus is repeated, this time in the new key: Sample 28
Chorus
Chords: C
F
Modulating Chord
G
C // Ab
// Db
Chorus: new key
Gb
Ab
Db
This kind of modulation is exciting, but must be used carefully and conservatively. Used too often, it can become corny and trite. The half step upward modulation can also be done through what is called an “abrupt modulation”. This means that the chorus comes to a close, and the music suddenly all bumps up one semitone. This is what 116
happens in “One Tin Soldier”, and it is particularly exciting. But again, keep in mind that if you decide to modulate up a semitone, it can become trite if used more than once. Listeners tend to have a curious reaction of feeling manipulated somehow if the songwriter uses it too much. Consider it a one-use effect. This type of modulation happens usually at the ends of choruses, or, less commonly, before a verse moves into a chorus. Even less common, but worth a look, is the modulation that happens in the
middle of a verse or chorus. This is useful if your verse or chorus have repetitious elements, and you want to inject some variety toward the end of a piece of music. The Carpenters song, “Goodbye to Love” employs this kind of key change. Toward the end of the last verse, we get two lines of text that are set to the very same notes:
“What lies in the future is a mystery to us all / No one can predict the wheel of fortune as it falls.5” Then, before the next line comes in (set again to the same notes), they abruptly raise the key (by a whole tone), and then deliver the ultimate line,
“There may come a time when I will see that I’ve been wrong.”
5
Goodbye to Love, © 1972 by Almo Music Corp./Hammer and Nails Music, Inc.
117
This was a great decision. The change of key, along with the introduction of those trademark harmonies at that moment, gives a shot of energy to that part of the piece. II.
Miscellaneous Modulation (more than a whole
tone) Other key changes (i.e., larger than a whole tone) can occur in songs. They are more rare, because vocal range becomes a factor: if your song takes you close to your upper range limit, then modulating up a fourth will take you beyond. So why would you consider modulating upward by more than a tone? The most common occurrence of this type of key change would be during duets. One singer can handle a song in a certain key, and then when it is time for the second singer to take over, the key changes to accommodate that singer’s range. A song that shows this kind of key change is “Islands in the Stream”, by Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton. The key changes when Dolly takes over the lyric. Also, “Put Your Hand in the Hand”, as recorded by the early 70s band Ocean does the same type of modulation, to put the song in the right range for the singer. Here are some basic bits of advice for doing key changes: 1. Upward modulations work far better, and with far more predictable results, than downward modulations. A downward modulation is difficult to do, because the new dominant chord is a diminished 4th away from the original key, a very awkward 118
interval indeed. It also saps energy from the music in a massive way, and so it’s not terribly useful. Most songs should feature an increase, or at least a maintaining, of basic energy. Avoid downward modulations. 2. Modulations of more than a tone sometimes have unpredictable results. So sing through that part of the song using the modulation several times, being sure you know what the effect is. Its immediate consequence is usually a dramatic change in overall energy. 3. An upward modulation should be accompanied by an intensifying of lyric, singing style, dynamic (i.e., loudness) or instrumentation. Upward modulations combined with a lessening of instrumentation or dynamic level are usually counterintuitive. At a minimum, maintain the levels of loudness and instrumentation, and you will probably find that increasing overall energy makes a modulation work better. 4. Modulations work better toward the end of a piece than they do toward the beginning. If your song has one modulation, make it occur at least two-thirds of the way along.
119
Chapter 4 SUMMARY
In this chapter you have learned: Harmony Principle #1: TWO CHORDS THAT HAVE A NOTE IN COMMON WILL FORM A STRONG PROGRESSION; AND IF THAT FIRST CHORD MOVES UP BY FOUR NOTES OR DOWN BY FIVE NOTES TO REACH THE NEXT CHORD, THE PROGRESSION BECOMES EVEN STRONGER.
Harmony Principle #2 A VERSE WILL USUALLY TOLERATE MORE FRAGILE PROGRESSIONS THAN A CHORUS; A CHORUS USUALLY REQUIRES MORE STRONG PROGRESSIONS. Harmony Principle #3 THERE SHOULD BE A PERCEIVABLE AND SOMEWHAT PREDICTABLE PATTERN TO THE PLANNING OF CHORD CHANGES. KEY NOTES AND QUOTES FROM CHAPTER 3:
120
•
Songwriters often refer to chords within a key by a Roman numeral. Building a chord on each note of a major scale gives us seven chords that belong to that key: o The first chord (also called the tonic chord) is major. (I) o The second chord is minor. (ii) o The third chord is minor. (iii) o The fourth chord is major. (IV) o The fifth chord is major. (V) o The sixth chord is minor. (vi) o The seventh chord is diminished. (viio)
•
Building a chord on each note of a minor scale gives us seven chords that belong to that key: o The first chord is minor. (i) o o The second chord is diminished. (ii ) o The third chord is major. (III) o The fourth chord is minor. (iv) o The fifth chord is major. (V) o The sixth chord is major. (VI)
o
The seventh chord is major. (VII)
•
Taking a walk is a good analogy for how chord progressions work. The tonic chord is our house; the V-chord (dominant chord) is our front doorstep. Other chords take us further from our house. The V-I progression is the strongest one we can use. It’s like going from our doorstep into our house.
•
Two-chord progressions are strong if they adhere to Principle #1. Longer progressions should be a mixture of strong and fragile progressions.
•
Too many chord pairs from the fragile end of the chart will make your music feel confusing and muddled. Too many from the strong end makes your music seem predictable and possibly boring.
•
Balancing strong and weak progressions in your song is a bit like balancing amounts of cement and glass when constructing a building. All cement gives you no windows, and all windows gives you no strength or solidity. The best buildings use both.
•
The circle-of-fifths progression works so well because it is comprised of chord progressions from the strong end of the Two-chord-Progression Chart.
•
The harmonic rhythm of a song should be a relatively regular pattern.
•
Songs that move from a slower to a fast harmonic rhythm generally gain energy.
•
Increasing your chord vocabulary will allow you to subtly shade your musical ideas with colors that are perhaps a bit more understated and clever.
•
Simplicity trumps complication in the chord game.
•
Every time you introduce a new chord in your song, the effect is similar to viewing a new landmark while taking a walk. Landmarks are good, but too many can result in fatigue.
•
An inverted chord means that the bass note is a note from the triad other than the root.
•
When using any chord, inversion or not, avoid having the bass jump by six semitones (a diminished 4th.)
•
Key changes are a good way of energizing a song, but can be trite if used too often.
121
Chapter 5-Melody and Lyric
122
Melodic Energy The structure of melodies changes with the times, but… not by that much. If you go back enough in time, of course, the differences will be obvious. But songs that were hits in the ‘60s and ‘70s are finding themselves getting a makeover and being reissued by today’s leading performers. Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” has been covered by several in the past decade, including Amy Grant and Counting Crows. Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” has the distinction of being the most rerecorded song in history. It’s been done over 2500 times. And it’s the mark of a great song when so many performers hear it and come up with their own way to present it. There are great original songs being written today, by really fine songwriters: Chris Martin from Coldplay, Dave Matthews, Gwen Stefani and others. And even though the style of today’s music differs quite noticeably from the music of yesteryear, there are striking similarities that ensure that we can learn lessons for tomorrow with the music of any era.
123
These chapter deals with melody and lyric together, because it makes no sense to talk about one without discussing the other. The two are, and must be, allies in the quest for that great song. It’s a problem for many beginner songwriters – when the text and the melody don’t seem to have much to do with each other.
How “Yesterday” Works I mentioned in Chapter 2 that a good melody takes us on a journey, and used Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” as an example. It follows that “journey” notion well. It consists of four phrases, where each phrase, melodically, is structured to match the emotional content of the text. The song uses vocal range as its main source of energy:
Vocal Range and Vocal Energy McCartney’s ability to write melodies is extraordinary, especially with regard to how melodic shape, lyric and vocal range work together. 124
When you write songs, you will notice that in general, the higher the voice, the more dynamic and energetic the music. Singers being required to sing in their upper register will need to use a lot more physically demanding technique to produce and sustain those notes. It’s an energy that can be heard, and becomes part of the interpretation of a performance. In “Yesterday”, the voice enters in the singer’s lowest range. Combining that fact with the nostalgic nature of the word, “Yesterday…” causes the audience to feel that nostalgia and remorse. Immediately, the melody rises to its highest notes, promoting the strongest feeling of sorrow and angst on the words “All my troubles
seemed so far away”. The fact that this part of the melody gives the singer his highest notes makes us feel his torment. The melody eases downward on “Now it looks as though they’re here to stay”, giving us back the feeling of remorse. The vocal line fully relaxes on “Oh I
believe in yesterday.” McCartney manipulates his audience in the best way possible. The highest notes of “Yesterday” occur later in the song, on the line, “Now I long for yesterday.” By setting that line to the highest notes of
125
the song, McCartney tells us what this song is all about… longing for yesterday. This integrating of melody, text and vocal range give us our first principle of writing melodies:
Melody/Lyric Principle #1: THE SHAPE OF A MELODY MUST BE PLANNED WITH VOCAL RANGE, HARMONY AND TEXT IN MIND.
Don’t Write Counterintuitively To write counterintuitively means to write in such a way that two or more features of a song seem to be at cross-purposes. If you are setting a text that has to do with a tender kiss at the beach, where the singer is meant to portray the quiet solitude of that moment, it simply confuses the listener to have that text set to a voice very high in its range, screaming out how peaceful the world seems. Make sure that vocal range and text are strongly allied. Nonetheless…
126
What is Falsetto and Tessitura? …there are ways for a human voice to sound very high, and still sound lyrical and sweet, not aggressive or tense. When singers (usually male) raise the pitch of their voice to its high limit, they can extend it considerably beyond this threshold by creating a “break” in their voice, and continue into a higher range. This type of voice is called “falsetto”, and it’s fairly easy for men to sing in. The general range of a song is called its tessitura. The normal range for most men extends upward to a little past “middle C” on the piano. Some singers, if required, can switch into falsetto to continue singing higher in pitch, if the tessitura of the song is high. Falsetto is tricky to use because there is a somewhat noticeable break (called the passaggio) between the normal voice and falsetto. However, many male singers work at making that break less conspicuous, and thus do a good job of using their falsetto range. Some singers are famous for the beauty of their falsetto voice: Smoky Robinson, Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons, Prince, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and Chris Martin of Coldplay, to name a few.
Singers that use falsetto are able to sing in a very high range, often without unduly raising the vocal energy of their performance. The falsetto voice is a little unpredictable, so if you are writing music for another singer, be certain to get the entire story on that singer’s range, and whether or not they have a useable falsetto. Some falsetto singers can vary the kind of falsetto they produce – everything from a sweet velvety sound (Smoky Robinson) to something more aggressive (Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin). 127
Writing Good Melodies Imagine that you’ve rented an apartment or bought a house. You’re looking around you, and trying to visualize where you’re going to put all the furniture. It may seem like a blur of ideas at this point, but there are some things you know for certain. For example, you won’t be putting your bookshelves in the bathroom. Your clothes hamper won’t likely be in the living room, and your bed won’t be in the dining room. Once the basic structure of a building is known, there are at least some decisions that are easy to make.
Getting Notes in the Right Place How does this analogy work for writing melodies? For many songwriters, the process of composition begins by vamping a two or three chord pattern. It’s like laying down a shell, a structure, within which the melody is eventually going to reside. Hand-in-hand with the chord pattern is an underlying rhythmic motif that will form the backbone of your song. In our analogy of the new house, try thinking of the chords as being like the overall shape and structure of the walls around you, and the underlying rhythm is the colour of the walls. 128
Where the walls are placed will determine a lot with regard to where things go. The neat thing is that this is a house that you get to build, and if you don’t like the rooms, you can invent new ones! There are as many ways to write as there are composers. Some songwriters like to work with others, bouncing ideas off band mates. For these people, the songwriting process usually begins with one person bringing the shell for a song to a band rehearsal, and the other members all contribute ideas as the song grows and modifies. Group compositional efforts are relatively common in popular music.
Composing by layering various elements means coming up with those elements together. Most songwriters layer their songs to at least an extent. They’ll develop the chord patterns, melody, text and other components more or less simultaneously, bits at a time. In other circumstances, writers will develop the text as a standalone entity first, working out the other aspects later in a separate process. There is no one way to write, and you may find that many songs you write will happen in different ways.
129
For most songwriters of middle-of-the-road songs, writing melodies is borne out of laying down a chord and rhythm layer first. Melodies essentially begin as improvisations that gradually focus in on creating a more solidly identifiable tune. This is composition by layering. In the analogy we used of trying to place furniture in your new house, it’s like actually coming up with the entire house first.
Verse-Chorus Text Design When we looked at verse-chorus chord progression issues, we discovered that verses can tolerate more fragile progressions, while choruses usually need stronger ones. This has to do with the nature of the kind of text we use in verses and choruses. When you construct your melody and begin applying text, you need to remember these basic principles:
Melody/Lyric Principle #2: A) A VERSE CAN USE TEXT THAT IS NARRATIVE AND
INCONCLUSIVE, WITH PREDOMINANTLY FRAGILE CHORD PROGRESSIONS; B) A CHORUS CAN USE TEXT THAT IS REFLECTIVE AND DRAWS CONCLUSIONS, AND USE STRONGER CHORD PROGRESSIONS.
130
Melody/Lyric Principle #3: THE PRESENCE OF THE KEYNOTE (TONIC NOTE) WILL STRENGTHEN THE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE OF A MELODY. CHORUSES CAN AND SHOULD FEATURE THE TONIC NOTE IN ITS MELODY MORE THAN VERSES.
Song Sample Because writing music is an art form, generalizations can be dangerous to make. No doubt we can all think of songs that do not follow some or any principles. But if you look at the music of the great songwriters from any era, you’ll see those two principles being followed much of the time. Let’s look at a song that follows Principles #2 and 3 closely: Backstreet Boys: “Never Gone” (from the Album Never Gone) Verse: F Dm The things we did, the things we said F/C Bb Keep coming back to me and make me smile again F Dm You showed me how to face the truth F/C Bb Everything that's good in me I owe to you Am Bb Though the distance that's between us F C Now may seem to be too far 131
Am Bb It will never separate us F C Deep inside I know you are Chorus: F Dm Never gone, never far F/C Bb In my heart is where you are F Dm Always close, every day F/C Bb Every step along the way Dm C Am Bb Even though for now we've gotta say goodbye Dm C Am Bb I know you will be forever in my life (yeah) F Never gone…
This song begins with a beautifully evocative piano solo, setting up the mood perfectly in short order. The text of the verse is melancholy, and tells a story of two lovers parting on good terms. The pulse is gentle. The second part of verse 1 introduces a simple and understated drum beat, allowing the song to gain energy that culminates in the chorus. The first part of the verse uses mainly fragile progressions (F – Dm – F/C Bb), in keeping with the nature of the text, demonstrating Principle #2. The text is simple, telling the listener what’s going on in the 132
singer’s life. In the second part of the verse, the singer begins to show courage and strength (“Though the distance that’s between us… It will never separate us…”). In keeping with this show of strength, the music begins to feature stronger progressions (Am – Bb – F – C). Curiously, the chorus reverts to the chords of the first part of the verse. So why does the chorus feel so strong? It is because the tonic
note is featured so much in the melody of the chorus, demonstrating Principle #3. In the verse, the tonic note is only rarely presented, always on weak beats, and always as a passing note. In the chorus, the tonic note is presented no less than twelve times in the
first eight bars. The first part of the chorus features the tonic note as the most important note. This constant reiteration of the tonic note is the secret to how the melody is so strong. Principles #2 and #3 go hand-in-hand because they both deal with how to make a melody stronger in some cases, weaker in others. It’s an important feature of any song. You want verses to feel inconclusive; it makes your audience keep listening to find out how it all turns out in the end. You make verses feel inconclusive primarily by: 1. using predominantly fragile progressions; 2. using a text that tells a story or describes feelings without being too conclusive; 3. constructing your melody to focus on notes other than the tonic note, particularly at the beginning and middle sections. Ease your way to the tonic as the verse meets up with the chorus. You make choruses feel conclusive and strong primarily by: 1. using more strong progressions; 2. using text that expresses conclusive statements about emotions and decisions; 3. constructing your melody to focus on the tonic note, 133 particularly at the beginning and end of the chorus.
Shaping a Melody There is another reason why the chorus of “Never Gone” feels so strong. It is because of the higher tessitura of the chorus notes. Melodies need shape. They need to be contoured in such a way that they have internal energy that propels them forward, even without a
chord sequence to help. There’s much that can be said about this shaping of melodies, all based on this basic principle:
Melody/Lyric Principle #4: THE LATTER HALF OF VERSES WILL OFTEN BE PITCHED HIGHER THAN THE FIRST HALF; CHORUS NOTES ARE OFTEN HIGHER THAN VERSE NOTES.
Generally speaking, chorus text will lend itself well to higher range than verse text. This is because chorus text is usually more emotive, complementing the higher energy that comes with a higher voice. You
will set the chorus up beautifully if your verse melody heads upward as it approaches the chorus. Within each verse or chorus, melodies need to show intelligent design elements. There needs to be shape. In “Never Gone”, the second part of the verse shows higher range than the first part. This is appropriate, because the second part 134
of the verse shows more emotion and strength. The higher voice helps the audience feel that text.
Higher tessitura means that the notes are higher in pitch, lying higher in a singer’s voice. Generally, choruses should have a higher tessitura than verses, and focus more on the tonic note. It’s not uncommon for a chorus to repeat that tonic note and keep returning to it. Good male pop singers can slip into and out of falsetto without their audience really knowing, or caring for that matter.
135
Creating a Melody by Layering Ideas It is entirely possible that “Never Gone” was created by the layering of musical ideas until a completed song emerged. In that way, it is like sculpture: songs begin as an unfashioned piece of material that is gradually honed until desired shapes come forward. Layering simply means that a song will begin as a chord pattern, or rhythm, or some other simple structure. As that structure is played and modified, other layers are added, gradually evolving into the completed song.
Let’s Write a Song Let’s take a look at how the layering process can help you create songs. I want to, somewhat spontaneously, try to create a song by layering various elements of that song one by one. In reality, the best songwriters out there spend a good amount of time before the composition process working on lyrics and other elements, piecing fragments together over time. But I want to speed up the process here right now, so that we can see how layering elements together can produce a good song.
136
Step 1 – An Underlying Layer After some meandering around on my keyboard, I’ve come across the following progression that’s caught my attention: Sample 29
A rather simple two-chord progression like this can serve as an underlying layer for an entire song. Play the two chords many times, trying different rhythmic ideas. You may find that the chords sound great played simply, with perhaps a little arpeggiating (chord “noodling”). Maybe you envision a repeating rhythm underneath. Whatever it is, play it many times, and try to discover whatever you can that can be used and brought forward. When I tried noodling on this progression, I became a bit fixated on the common tone G that exists in both chords, and found myself bringing that note forward. Perhaps if I keep this progression I can do something with that G as I arrange the final version of the song. Step 2 – Creating and Fusing Melodic and Text Fragments I began to improvise a melody above this progression. At this point, I only have two chords to go on, and the song will eventually have more than two chords, no doubt. But it will be good to try to bring forward melodic ideas and fragments at this point. 137
As I work on this fragment, I try to get a feeling for structural
elements. And I ask myself certain questions: Do I feel like this fragment is going to work out to be part of a verse or a chorus? Am I envisioning text, or even a subject area? If so, I begin writing down words and text phrases that are coming to mind. Step 3 – Expanding the Chord Layer It’s likely that this song will use more than the two chords I’ve been vamping, so I’ll try creating more chords. I’m keeping the Chord Progression Principles in mind. If this is working out to be a verse, I know that I can be somewhat free in using fragile progressions. If it’s a chorus, my text will need to feel like it is summing up feelings and/or events that a verse would present. And I’m remembering that a chorus melody may want to feature that tonic note more frequently than a verse. My initial fragments have been coming together a bit, and given me something like this for a chord progression: Sample 30
138
This makes a great chord layer to use as a basis for a melody. At this point, I’d probably choose to repeat what I’ve got there, with the thought in mind that the underlying accompaniment will get a little busier the second time through. So far… So what do we have so far? Just a progression that seems to work quite nicely. It starts on Cadd9, the 9th simply adding a nice bit of colour to the C major chord. It wanders away from and back to that Cadd9 chord. Bars 5-8 take us slightly further afield, but as you can see, all the chords come from the key of C major, and so nothing will be shocking or out-of-place to the listener. The first part of the sequence is comprised mainly of progressions from the fragile end of the Two-Chord Progression Chart; the second half features chords from the stronger end, allowing energy to build. Step 4 – Fusing Melodic Fragments into Sections It is at this point that I begin to piece together melodic bits into a composite melody. I’ve been mulling some text fragments over in my mind as I’ve been working, and I’m going to try writing them down to try with some melody:
139
Sample 31
Well, I am only moderately satisfied with what I’ve got so far, but the good news is… it’s my song, so I can change anything I want. Personally, I find my lyric here to be a bit too straight ahead. I want to use more imagery than this, so I’m probably going to go back and change it. But for now, I’ll leave it, because I am starting to think ahead to the chorus.
Don’t forget… you can hear all of the written musical samples in this book by visiting www.secretsofsongwriting.com
140
I’ve used stronger progressions in the second half of the melody, which fits with the more “hopeful” text. I know that when I write the chorus, I’ll want to make it stronger by perhaps using stronger progressions, using a higher tessitura, and featuring the tonic note more often. As I continue working on this song, I’ll continue to put ideas down, even if I know that the text, chords or melody won’t be what I’ll finally want. At times, I find myself writing things down that I won’t be keeping, knowing that I’d never allow that to be my finished song. The reason is this: It is easier to edit something you’ve written down
than something that resides only in your mind. So don’t be afraid to write things down. For example, I might try this as a starting point as the melody and text for the chorus: Sample 32
141
Now my mind is confirming that for me, this isn’t the direction I want to go in with the text. It’s too literal, and I was hoping to come up with less obvious ways to show how I feel. Don’t be afraid to scrap
ideas and start again. It’s all part of the process. But it’s important to get them down on paper somehow. If your theory isn’t strong enough to write notes, sing and play it into a digital or tape recorder. In reality, though I’ve sat here “in real time” writing this song, I’d choose to work on the text separately for quite a while before beginning the composition process. There are many songwriters who “sketch together” the lyric as they fumble for words, but you’ll find that the best songwriters out there give plenty of good thought to lyrics. Despite my unhappiness with my text, I’ve followed basic principles in getting this far. The verse text is mainly narrative and inconclusive, while the chorus is more emotional and conclusive in nature. The verse only occasionally gives the tonic note, while the chorus features it many times. And the verse is relatively low in the singer’s range, while the chorus takes the singer much higher. All this proves a point: Just because you use proper songwriting technique does not mean you will automatically produce a hit song. Many great songwriters can compose hundreds if not thousands of songs before a hit comes along.
142
Other Ways to Compose The Text-First Method In my opinion, some of the best songwriters out there are the ones that start with text first. They are poets, looking for musical ways to present their poetry to others. I say this, because I am partial to intelligently written text. If you love poetic text, you’ll want to listen to lots of writers who place the lyric high in importance: Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, Chris Martin, and Michelle Branch. Branch, who records on Madonna’s Maverick Records, became a guitarist so that she could play well enough to set her poetry to music and perform it. That’s a similar story for many poet-songwriters. If your poetry is important to you, be certain that when you look at the final product that the poetry comes through first and foremost. As I mentioned before, you have to make sure that other elements of your composition do not upstage your text.
The Rhythm/Beat-First Method If you love the thought of getting people out on the dance floor, where the message of the text is secondary, you’ll place beat and rhythm higher in importance than the melody or lyric. Music of this character is often highly electronic in nature, and composers of dance music usually have a particular way of working. If making dance music is your interest, you are probably already aware of the terms house, techno, 143
trance, progressive, ambient and others. House music evolved out of the disco craze of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Its most immediately noticeable feature is the incessant kick-drum beat. Techno evolved from House, incorporating the Roland TB 303 bass machine to produced a more highly electronic, industrial sound. Trance is a highly charged, energetic style of dance music. Dance music is a particular genre that really needs its own book. It requires equipment (synthesizers, sequences, etc.) and the style of composing differs radically from the kind of songwriting dealt with in this book.
More About Lyrics Good text is vital to a good song. Good text doesn’t mean that it has to be a stunning poem. Good text means that it does what it was meant to do. Some text is extremely simple, and that simplicity may be exactly what the song needs. If it’s mainly a dance number with a driving beat meant to get everyone out on the dance floor, that may not be the song to tell the world your thoughts on greed and capitalism. A dance number may not need much beyond “love ya baby”. 144
Too Many Words a big problem with text is often that it is too wordy – too much information being communicated. And often when this happens, it is complicated by the fact that the melody itself tends to be complex and involved, to fit with the complicated text. All of these can make listeners’ brains start to turn off. As Melody/Lyric Principle #1 says, never
consider text without also considering melody and harmony. You need to see text, melody and harmony as three corners of the composition triangle that need to be in balance. I’ve mentioned the band Coldplay several times in this chapter. Their music is a fantastic example of songwriting at its best. The lyric is usually very strong, and the melodic and harmonic treatment of the text is winning fans all over the world. Coldplay’s music is cleverly written – a true weaving-together of all aspects of music. Chord changes happen almost as washes of sound, where chords morph from one to the other as they serve to convey the meaning of the lyric.
Be concise in your lyrics. “The clock on the wall” is better than “The clock that is on the wall.” 145
Sometimes, however, abstract lyrics will benefit from a more predictable harmonic and melodic structure. The danger in complicated lyrics, set to a complicated melody with a complicated chord structure, is that you might lose some of your audience in what they view as a sea of cerebral gobbledygook. A complex melody can upstage a deep lyric. Also, all that complexity may across as being a bit pretentious. Just be careful. Complexity in music is not necessarily a drawback. But losing your audience is. Intricacy runs the risk of being interpreted as pomposity. But some bands use this intricacy well. Early music from Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant, King Crimson and others were studies in musical composition that confounded some while thoroughly entertaining others. These bands considered themselves to be story-tellers more than just singersongwriters. To properly convey the intricate storylines, writers sometimes feel the need to abandon the simple verse-chorus structures of mainstream songwriting. If you adopt a less conventional vehicle for your music, it will usually take you longer to build a fan base for your music. People are somewhat mistrusting of new approaches to music, and some of the early progressive rock bands had to wait ten years to see any sort of commercial success. That being said, their music stands as monuments of the twentieth century, classics of their day.
Don’t try to make profound lyrics sound even more profound by adding profundity! There is a song by the John Denver called “Love is Everywhere”, which I think is a perfect example of balance between lyric, melody and harmony. The song is basically a lively country song, with almost a “hootenanny” feel. You’d never guess that it could be 146
anything more than that, but if you look at the lyrics, you’ll see that there is deep meaning:
Follow your heart like a flying stallion Race with the sun to the edge of night Form your truth like a gold medallion Dance in the circle of the love and the light6 I love that lyric. And I wonder if I would feel the same way about it if the melody and chords were complex. But they aren’t. They are quite simplistic, and in the best way possible they stay out of the way of the lyrics.
A Good Lyric Isn’t Necessarily Deep You don’t need deep lyrics to have a good song. It really depends on what your song is “about”. You may want to state something simply. If what you are writing about is straightforward, like an emotion or an event, don’t try to write lyrics that are overly profound or intricate. Jennifer Lopez co-wrote a song called “Again”, which attempts to convey her feelings about a love-turned-friendship. The concept is simple, and the emotions are predictable. And the lyrics work well because… they are simple and predictable:
6
Love is Everywhere, ©1975 Cherry Lane Music, Music of 1091, and WB Music Corp.
147
Like an angel out the sky you came Clearing up all the clouds, the sadness and the rain So pure and healing was the love you bring I knew inside...(It felt so right) For me, I’ve struggled all my life... To find that thing that makes it right... With you it seems I may have found Some other kind of love...7 It’s great if your lyrics can exist as a stand-alone poem, like the ones above. But to have a great song does not necessarily mean that the lyric must be strong. But if it isn’t, it needs something more in another category.
Balancing Lyrics and Melody Songs with unremarkable lyrics need a good hook or melody, a captivating underlying rhythm, or some other remarkable feature. In other words, you need to decide what your song is about. If it’s all about the poetry, make sure that the poem comes forth clearly by not allowing the melody and harmony to upstage it.
7 “Again”, ©2002, Sony/ATV Songs LLC, Cori Tiffani Publishing, Nuyorican Publishing, Sony/ATV Tunes, Jaedon Christopher Publishing, Reggie Hamlet Publishing
148
It’s important to discuss this a bit here, because I need to clarify: A complex lyric doesn’t mean that you must dumb the melody down. Let’s go back to the analogy of the living room used in Chapter 2. If you really like your fireplace and want it to be a focal point in your living room, that doesn’t mean you should leave the walls blank. In fact, if the walls are blank, or have really bad pictures on them, people will be so busy remarking to themselves how boring the walls are that they won’t notice
Your lyrics don’t need to be astounding poetry, but that doesn’t mean that you should write garbage. Think of it this way: the walls in your house might be offwhite. That’s unremarkable… not bad. It’s important to know the difference.
your beautiful fireplace. To make that fireplace really take its proper place as a focal point, it needs pictures that are simple but elegant, that make their statement softly.
The Balance of “Hotel California” When setting a strong lyric, the guideline is that you should have a melody and an accompaniment that allow the lyric to shine forth. One of the Eagles’ biggest hits was “Hotel California”. It’s not a profound lyric, not complex at all. But it tells a good story, and as lyrics go, it’s quite strong. The melody is not complex. It’s actually a bit reserved. There are few if any big leaps, and doesn’t wander much from its starting notes. But while not complex, it is clever, and just what the song needs. The melodic phrases are made up of short one-bar subphrases. This, coupled with its high range, gives it an agitated feel. 149
When fans of the song talk about “Hotel California”, it is almost always the text they talk about, and never the melody or harmonies. But the structure of the melody allows the text to shine. And it’s great to hear fans of the song try to decipher its meaning. Many believe it’s about a drug-induced trip, while others believe it is a song about Satanism, or perhaps over-indulgence. Don Henley from the Eagles has actually put forward at least two different views of the text. When a lyric is as strong as this one is, it impels listeners to discuss, debate, and otherwise argue, the meanings of specific lines. That’s when you know that a lyric and the accompanying melody and harmonies are in perfect balance.
Dealing with Unremarkable Lyrics If your lyric is less remarkable, don’t assume you have a dud. Sometimes a song is about the harmony, or the underlying rhythm. During the mid to late 70s, the listening public was deep in the throes of the disco era. At that time, it was mostly about the rhythm; it had to be 150
danceable. With few exceptions, that’s how mainstream music was judged. That underlying disco beat was what the song was about, so the lyrics generally took a back seat. Reading the text of a disco-era tune is often an exercise in… nothing much. Take these rather-lessthan-weighty words from one of the ‘70s supergroups, KC & the Sunshine Band:
Oh, that’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh. That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh. That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh. That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh. When you take me by the hand, Tell me I’m your loving man, When you give me all your love, And do it the very best you can, Oh, that’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh…8
8
“That’s the Way (I Like It)” © 1975 Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Raymond Finch
151
Disco Duck, and Other Lyrical Misfortunes. Disco was big in the late 70s, and the lyrics weren’t necessarily gems. It’s hard to believe that anyone actually took the time to write the words to “That’s the Way (I like it)” down. So how did this song actually survive? And not just survive, but become one of the big hits from the decade? It’s that driving beat and the horn shots. KC could have been singing the words to Aunt Mary’s Muffin Mix recipe, and it still would have become a hit. So did other memorable disco tunes with shockingly weak lyrics: “More, More, More”9 (“How do you like it/ How
do you like it…”); “Shake Shake Shake” (“Shake your bootie…”), and “Disco Duck”10 (“Went to a party the other night / All the ladies were treating me right / Moving my feet to the disco beat / How in the world could I keep my seat / All of a sudden I began to change / I was on the dance floor acting strange / Flapping my arms I began to cluck / Look at me... I’m the disco duck…) Don’t be Weak So what do we do with all of this information? The most important advice is: Don’t set out to deliberately write weak lyrics. Don’t write weak anything. But if you want the song to be about the beat, about the grooving background rhythm, lighten up on the lyrics. They’ll just get lost otherwise. As listeners, we instinctively know that when a song is rhythm-driven, meant for dancing, the text won’t likely be anything that we would call “poetry”. 9
More, More, More ©1976 Gregg Diamond
152
The Bridge A bridge is the part of the song usually after the second or third chorus, before the final verse or chorus. The purpose of a bridge is twofold: 1. to provide additional melodic material, reducing the risk of melodic boredom; 2. to intensify melodic and lyric energy.
More than melody, it’s the text of a bridge that really sets it apart from the verse or chorus. The best way to conceptualize this type of text is to imagine singing your song, and you’ve just finished singing the second chorus. Someone stops you and says, “Tell me more about how this all makes you feel”. In Chapter 3, we looked at Avril Lavigne’s “Fall
to Pieces” as a good example of a form that contains a bridge. The lyric of that song describes a painful breakup of two lovers. If you imagined someone saying to Lavigne after the second chorus, “Tell me more…”, the text of the bridge is the perfect reply: “Wanna know who you are / Wanna to 10
Disco Duck, ©1976 Fretone Records, Inc.
153
know where to start / I wanna know what this means / Wanna know how you feel / Wanna know what is real / I wanna know everything / Everything…”
11
The bridge, then, serves as an intensifying of emotions in the text, and an intensifying of energy of the piece. In “Fall to Pieces”, Lavigne allows the energy to dissipate slightly at the beginning of the bridge before driving the piece forward four bars later. The controlling of
the energy in this manner provides that all-important contouring that is so crucial to good music. The bridge needs to feel somewhat unsettled, because the audience needs to feel that the conclusive nature of the chorus is needed once again after the bridge. With this in mind, keep this advice in mind:
Harmonize the beginning of the bridge with a chord other than the tonic chord. Starting on a vi-chord is a popular choice; i.e., if your piece is in A major, start the bridge with an F# minor chord. Another popular choice is the IV-chord (a D major chord in the key of A major). This gives it that anxious quality that many bridges need. As the bridge progresses, you will need to give thought to having the end of the bridge meet up with the chorus. Chords based on the fifth note of a scale (“dominant” 11
Fall to Pieces, ©2004 Avril Lavigne Publishing, Ltd.
154
chords) are a good choice. If the first chord of your bridge is the tonic chord (i.e., A major in the key of A major), you may want to have an E major chord be the joining chord between bridge and chorus.
Some people spend more time talking about writing music than actually writing it. The proper way to study the art of songwriting is to write it. There are times that you should be listening (set aside time every day), and there are times you should be reading about it. But the one and only way to actually improve your songwriting craft is to do it.
155
Chapter 5 SUMMARY In this chapter you have learned: Melody/Lyric Principle #1: THE SHAPE OF A MELODY MUST BE PLANNED WITH VOCAL RANGE, HARMONY AND TEXT IN MIND. Melody/Lyric Principle #2: A) A VERSE CAN USE TEXT THAT IS NARRATIVE AND INCONCLUSIVE, WITH PREDOMINANTLY FRAGILE CHORD PROGRESSIONS; B) A CHORUS CAN USE TEXT THAT IS REFLECTIVE AND DRAWS CONCLUSIONS, AND USE STRONGER CHORD PROGRESSIONS. Melody/Lyric Principle #3: THE PRESENCE OF THE KEYNOTE (TONIC NOTE) WILL STRENGTHEN THE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE OF A MELODY. CHORUSES CAN AND SHOULD FEATURE THE TONIC NOTE IN ITS MELODY MORE THAN VERSES. Melody/Lyric Principle #4: THE HIGHEST NOTES OF MELODIES WILL MORE OFTEN THAN NOT OCCUR IN CHORUSES.
KEY NOTES AND STATEMENTS FROM CHAPTER 5:
156
•
The general trend of energy throughout a song should be upward. The notes in verses should move upward as they approach the chorus.
•
The word “tessitura” refers to the general range of a song. Choruses will usually have a higher tessitura than verses.
•
Composing by layering song elements is a common way to compose. Songs usually start as vague shells that become more distinct and defined as the writer hones the elements. Much of this honing happens concurrently.
•
You want verses to sound less conclusive than choruses. o You make verses feel inconclusive primarily by: using predominantly fragile progressions; using a text that tells a story or describes feelings without being too conclusive;
o
constructing your melody to focus on notes other than the tonic note, particularly at the beginning and middle sections. Ease your way to the tonic as the verse meets up with the chorus.
You make choruses feel conclusive and strong primarily by: using more strong progressions; using text that expresses conclusive statements about emotions and decisions; constructing your melody to focus on the tonic note, particularly at the beginning and end of the chorus.
•
Melodies need to be contoured in such a way that they have internal energy that propels them forward, even without a chord sequence to help.
•
Just because you use proper songwriting technique does not mean you will automatically produce a hit song.
•
Good text is vital to a good song. Good text doesn’t mean that it has to be a stunning poem. Good text means that it does what it was meant to do. Some text is extremely simple, and that simplicity may be exactly what the song needs.
•
You need to see text, melody and harmony as three corners of the composition triangle that need to be in balance.
•
Complexity in music is not necessarily a drawback. But losing your audience is. Intricacy runs the risk of being interpreted as pomposity.
•
Don’t try to make profound lyrics sound even more profound by adding profundity.
•
Your lyrics don’t need to be astounding poetry, but that doesn’t mean that you should write garbage. Think of it this way: the walls in your house might be offwhite. That’s unremarkable… not bad. It’s important to know the difference.
•
Don’t set out to deliberately write weak lyrics. Don’t write weak anything. But if you want the song to be about the beat, about the grooving background rhythm, lighten up on the lyrics.
•
A bridge is the part of the song usually after the second or third chorus, before the final verse or chorus. Be sure that the bridge you construct builds energy, setting the audience up for the final chorus.
157
Chapter 6- The Hook
158
A Good Hook can take a good song and In fishing, a hook is whatever
make it fantastic. Though
gets the fish into the boat. In
not a hook’s primary
music, it’s whatever gets the
purpose, it can make you
audience into your pocket.
forget that a song has
Never underestimate the value
unremarkable lyrics, melody,
of a good hook. A good hook
or a ho-hum chord progression.
That being said, an audience may not be too forgiving of an entire CD of bad songs with catchy hooks. They’ll be able to see through that. The hook may be the prominent part of some chorus, or could be the chorus itself. Hooks are so strong that even when they aren’t being played you can still “hear them” somehow. If you sing the hook from a song, you’ll only have to sing that hook, however short it might be, and someone will invariably say, “Oh, I love that song!” If you listen to a piece of music and find yourself humming a certain couple of notes or bars all day long – that’s the hook! Back in the early 70s, everyone I know was singing those opening guitar chords in Chicago’s hit “25 or 6 to 4”. That descending chord progression – that riveting five-chord shot – is the hook that kept the tune in everyone’s head, and brought them back to the song. In a way, hooks are indefinable, because they are being redefined every time a writer 159
composes one. The descending two-note figure every time Petula Clark sang, “Down----town!” is a great hook. That figure doesn’t just show up in her melody, it also becomes an integral part of the background accompaniment throughout the song.
Hook and Motif I mentioned Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony before, and described that famous four-note figure as a motif. When you talk about motifs and hooks, it is important to know that there is a difference. A motif is a short melodic or rhythmic idea that a composer uses in a piece to create a sense of cohesion throughout a work. You may think that I just described a hook, but here is the main difference: In order to be a hook, it must be short, easily remembered, and needs to stand out as a highly distinctive feature. A hook may be a motif, but a motif may not necessarily be a hook. In the case of the opening to Beethoven’s Fifth – it’s both. A motif is an important building block, but it provides its cohesion more from the background. You may not be aware of the various
motifs that a composer uses, but you need to be aware of a hook, or it isn’t a hook. Here’s a great example: The American national anthem begins with what we call a dotted rhythm – a longish note (a dotted eighth note) followed by a short one (a sixteenth note), and then some evenly spaced quarter notes. That dotted eighth – sixteenth note figure is a basic motif that recurs many times 160
throughout the anthem. But it is not a hook, per se. It provides structure and cohesion, and helps to glue the entire song together by virtue of the fact that the rhythm happens over and over. But did you know of the existence of that motif before I mentioned it just now? Probably not. To think of it another way, the fact that a restaurant uses burgundy red throughout its décor could be considered a motif; The spectacular fried chicken they serve would be the hook that brings you back. Hooks can be any aspect of a song. It can be a part of the melody, the lyric, the harmony, or some combination of any or all of those aspects. More often than not, hooks appear in choruses; whatever the songwriter has done to set the chorus words is often a hook.
A motif is a structural element of a piece of music that forms the backbone of that piece, recurring many times. So is a hook. The difference is that a motif may do its work from the background, creating cohesion throughout a song by being repetitious, but may not be overtly noticeable. A hook by definition must be noticeable. A hook will likely be a type of motif, but a motif need not necessarily be a hook.
Musical Lubricant Arguably one of the most distinctive hooks from the ‘60s is the opening guitar figure in “Oh, Pretty Woman,” co-written by Roy Orbison. It’s the figure that introduces the song, and then comes back 161
time and again. It’s the glue that holds the piece together. An instrumental hook provides a groove. A hook like this one is like greasing up a tile floor, and then flinging your melody across it – it just keeps going!
Another great hook is the recurring clavinet figure in “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder. He starts the song with that riff, and keeps using it for the duration of the song. That hook is so strong that I don’t think the song ever even has to end! And Gerry Rafferty had a big hit with “Baker Street” back in 1978. That song featured a great sax solo which was a wonderful melodic hook. Embedded in that hook was a guitar shot, that distorted guitar glissando that was another great hook. A hook within a hook!
A melodic/instrumental hook is a figure that needs to be short enough that people can remember it. The “Baker Street” sax melody is an eight bar melody, repeated. But it is just a four-bar question/answer format melody that is very repetitive, and very easy to remember. If you are going to incorporate a melodic/instrumental hook into your 162
song, keep it on the short side if possible, and keep it simple. Orbison’s guitar lick in “Oh, Pretty Woman” is only one bar long; Stevie Wonder’s is only two. Making a melodic hook too long makes it less memorable, less distinctive. And a melodic/instrumental hook usually needs to be laced with a strong rhythm, something that makes it dig in and groove. Strong rhythm is an important component of a melodic hook. Follow this primary principle:
Hook Principle #1 MAKE IT SHORT AND MEMORABLE.
Long hooks lose focus, and lose their reason for existing.
Many songwriters will use the creation of a hook as a starting point for a song. Don’t feel that the hook must necessarily persist through the entire song. The clavinet lick in Stevie Wonder’s Superstition does, but many serve as the basis for the intro, a tag between choruses and verses, and then as an outro.
163
The Hook as a Basis for Your Song Many songwriters develop a good hook first, and then use that hook as a basis for a song. You may find it possible to work in the opposite direction – take a song and develop a hook for it. This method is great if you find that your song lacks pizzazz. The hook need not necessarily be strongly related to the basic melody of your song. None of the hooks that I’ve mentioned by Orbison, Wonder, or Rafferty actually show up as a part of the melody of the song. They are stand-alone melodies that decorate and complement the main melody. So how do you know if your song needs a hook? Sometimes melodies can be beautiful, or have beautiful moments, but taken all together, seem to be a bit boring. Maybe it lacks a “moment”. A melodic hook can be what would liven up such a melody. The Subtle Hook There are many songwriting instructors out there that try to tell students that without a hook, your song is weaker. This is not true. Some songs are really fantastic works, million sellers, and don’t really have a memorable hook. And some hooks are very subtle. “Hey Jude” is a perfect example. The descending two-note pattern on the opening words “Hey Jude…” is a hook, but a cleverly understated one. It has a fantastic outro that basically is a hook, but the song would survive without it.
164
Many composers use a hook to set up a piece. It serves as an intro, then recurs many times, and is strongly featured in an outro. But if you listen to the Beatles music, you’ll notice that they were not big users of hooks. Many of their biggest songs start without even an intro (“Penny Lane”, “All My Loving”, “Hey Jude” “Hello Goodbye”, and many, many others.
The Myth of the Hook It is a myth that your song needs a hook, by the traditional sense of the word “hook”. What is true is that many more songs suffer from lack of form and overall shape than they do lack of hook. I don’t trust musicians who fixate on the hook as the be-all and end-all. Notwithstanding, a hook can take an otherwise boring song, a song with problems, and make you forget your problems! Songs need a focal point, an aspect that draws attention to itself, but that is not to say it needs a hook. A good hook may save a song, but it is best to think of a hook as a
component of a good song, not why a song is good. If you think your song is good only because of the hook, it’s best to take a closer look at your song, and fix what you think is wrong about it. Then the hook becomes a crown that your song can wear. And if your song doesn’t have an obvious hook, don’t worry. It may not need one.
165
Whether you use one or not, remember this important principle:
Hook Principle #2 ADDING A HOOK TO A BAD SONG GIVES YOU A BAD SONG WITH A HOOK.
If you have a song that is unremarkable, it’s better to fix what is unremarkable first before worrying about the hook. That being said, boring songs will greatly benefit from the interest a hook will generate. But the principle really means to say that if you have problems in your song, fix the problems directly. A good hook can only mask existing problems to a certain extent. To use a previous analogy, if the 10-cent ice cream cone is the hook that gets people into your store, that won’t solve the problem that the rest of the food your establishment offers is bad. The good restaurateur will fix what is bad about the food. That will make the 10cent ice cream an even better hook. Another important thought: A hook is, technically, whatever brings people back to your song, so in a sense, every song has a hook if people want to listen to it.
166
Recognizing a Hook The issue of writing a hook is not so much about writing than it is
recognizing a hook. A hook is composed in much the same way that you would compose any other part of your song. But if you are a normal writer, you’ll write many, many fragments of songs that don’t make it into songs. These ideas could form the basis for a hook in another song. This is why it can be so important to somehow write down or record any musical ideas you get, because you never know when it can serve as a component of another song. A hook does not need to have any obvious relation to the rest of your song. This is why it’s so important to keep every idea you write. But here are the things you’ll want to make sure you keep in mind as you work a hook into your song: 1. Keep it short. A hook needs to be memorable, and the longer the hook, the less memorable it will be.
2.
Make rhythm a memorable component. This means that you should make the underlying rhythm of a hook simple but
catchy. The more complicated it is, the less memorable it will be. Simple and catchy are the key words.
167
3.
Don’t force a hook. If you can’t find a way to work a hook to be a constant feature of your song, (Like “Superstition”) don’t force it. Use it as an intro, between choruses and verses, and as an outro (like “Baker Street”).
The most important feature of a hook is a simple one: to bring people back to your song.
Remember these two things about hooks: 1) Keep it short, and 2) it won’t fix a song with problems.
168
Chapter 6 SUMMARY
In this chapter you have learned:
Hook Principle #1 MAKE IT SHORT AND MEMORABLE. Hook Principle #2 ADDING A HOOK TO A BAD SONG GIVES YOU A BAD SONG WITH A HOOK. KEY NOTES AND QUOTES FROM CHAPTER 6: •
In fishing, a hook is whatever gets the fish into the boat. In music, it’s whatever gets the audience into your pocket.
•
If you listen to a piece of music and find yourself humming a certain couple of notes or bars all day long – that’s the hook!
•
A motif is a short melodic or rhythmic idea that a composer uses in a piece to create a sense of cohesion throughout a work. A hook must be short, easily remembered, and needs to stand out as a highly distinctive feature. A hook may be a motif, but a motif may not necessarily be a hook.
•
A hook can liven up a good song that just needs something a bit more memorable about it.
•
It is a myth that your song needs a hook, by the traditional sense of the word “hook”. What is true is that many more songs suffer from lack of form and overall shape than they do lack of hook.
•
If you have a song that is unremarkable, it’s better to fix what is unremarkable first before worrying about the hook.
•
Keep a hook short, make rhythm a memorable component, and don’t force a hook into your song if it doesn’t seem to want to be there. 169
Chapter 7Inspiration
170
The Role of Inspiration In the preface I mentioned that songwriters will need to deal with the creative side and the marketing side of songwriting. This book has been about taking your ideas for songs and making them better. About creating a better song. But there is an important aspect of writing that we haven’t really addressed yet: inspiration. How much of a role does inspiration play in the composing of a song? What about those songwriters who have composed literally thousands of songs, who claim to be able to write at least one song a day. Are they really being inspired to write that much? The answer may surprise you: most songwriters and composers, no matter which genre of composition you examine, place a very low level of importance on the role of inspiration.
Misunderstanding Inspiration There are times when you will find yourself inspired to write something – perhaps for the wedding of a friend, the funeral of a family member, or for some other emotionally significant occasion. But these are rare happenings in our lives, and no doubt we will need more than emotionally charged events to write music. 171
Inspiration is, without a doubt, the most misunderstood part of the compositional process. If you are waiting for inspiration to compose your song – don’t wait! Start writing without it, because if you are a normal human, you could be waiting a long time. It bears repeating that most composers would place the importance of inspiration far, far down on the list of necessities in the songwriting process. And did you notice that not once in the previous chapters did I even mention the word “inspiration”? Inspiration is not a necessary first step for good composition. Inspiration is often perceived to be a magical sort of quality, as if the writer is in communion with the songwriting gods. There is the romantic notion of the composer, waiting for inspiration, suddenly jumping up and running to his desk, where he begins to write furiously before all the musical ideas that just floated into his brain disappear again. This is, generally, a myth. There will be times when you will feel inspired to write, where musical 172
“The great composer…does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.” -Ernest Newman
ideas flow freely and easily. At such times you’ll almost feel that you are being led by a supernatural force. But this is rare for most writers, and not necessary for writing good songs. If you feel most of the time that writing songs is hard work, you will be happy to know that most of the world’s great songwriters feel the same way.
THE Steps to Honing Your Songwriting Craft So how is it that some songwriters claim to have written thousands of songs – can you really write that much without inspiration? Yes, you can! Writing music is more about craft than anything else. By craft I mean that with time, you know what will work and what won’t. That knowledge will be based on your months or years of experience. So the relevant question is really: how can you improve your craft? Here are some suggestions: 1. Set aside a regular time every day for writing. It is best to get into a habit of writing. If you are a serious writer, with aspirations to become the kind of songwriter whose songs are sought after and recorded, try to find a regular time every day that you can devote to composition. And as I mentioned in Chapter 5, write down as much as possible. You can always trash things you don’t like. 2. Listen to recordings of other writer’s songs every day. It’s vital to good songwriting technique and style that you are 173
being influenced by as many outside sources as possible. Writers who constrain themselves to only listening to their own music are limiting the potential for ideas and thoughts. Try listening to genres that you wouldn’t normally listen to. 3. Record your music and listen to it. It’s important to be listening to your own music as it comes out of your sound system, not just as it comes out of your own mouth and piano. By listening to your music being played back to you, you gain the same perspective that an audience does. No need to rent time in a studio for this – just a cassette tape machine or small digital recorder will do. 4. Give yourself songwriting challenges. Try testing your craft by setting a time limit to come up with a song. Find a text, or write one out, set a timer for a half hour, then go nuts! See if you can write a song in a half hour. If you can, congratulations! It means that your songwriting craft is improving. If the song you wrote is horrible, don’t worry! This is just an exercise to hone your craft. Set even tougher limitations for yourself. How about this idea: Choose three notes, and write an entire song using only three notes in your melody. (If you think that’s not possible, check out Tom Petty’s song, “Free Fallin’”, which uses only E, F# and G#.)
174
Don’t wait for inspiration. Inspiration is wonderful when it is the beginning of a songwriting process, but it is rare, and, to be frank, unnecessary. What is more necessary is to set a regular writing time. This may be every day, but if you are a student, or working full-time, it may only be on the weekends. Whatever your availability, set aside the same hour or hours weekly, and stick to it. You’ll find that that habitual writing time is far more valuable than waiting for inspiration.
Because inspiration is an unreliable first step for composition, it’s going to be important to do some things to help you get your songwriting process started: 1. Keep a notepad with you to jot down lyric ideas. Sometimes only a fragment of a line will occur to you, or you’ll stumble across a neat way to say something. Even if it’s just one word, write it down. You will likely find a way to fashion it into a real text through the songwriting process. 2. If a melodic fragments pops into your mind, save it on a tape, or write it down if you’re able. A single solitary fragment can become a hook for a song. 3. Write down chord progressions that you stumble across, or even just one chord that you like. As an example of how important this can be, what would “A Hard Day’s Night” be like 175
without that defining single chord at the start of that song. (That chord, by the way, included the following notes: D A C F G: a Dm7 with a G added.) To sum up – Don’t wait for inspiration. It’s wonderful when you feel inspired (and you will, from time to time) but inspiration as a necessity for good songs is a myth.
176
Chapter 7 SUMMARY
KEY NOTES AND QUOTES FROM CHAPTER 7: •
Most songwriters and composers, no matter which genre of composition you examine, place a very low level of importance on the role of inspiration.
•
If you are waiting for inspiration to compose your song – don’t wait! Start writing without it, because if you are a normal human, you could be waiting a long time.
•
“The great composer…does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.” -Ernest Newman
•
Set aside a regular time every day for writing.
•
Listen to recordings of other writer’s songs every day.
•
Record your music and listen to it. It’s important to be listening to your own music as it comes out of your sound system, not just as it comes out of your own mouth and piano.
•
Give yourself songwriting challenges. Try testing your craft by setting a time limit to come up with a song.
177
Chapter 8- The World Beyond Composing – Now What?
178
The Most Important Principle of All Someone asked me recently to say what I hoped this book could do for songwriters that other books already out there aren’t already doing. The answer is probably the biggest secret of all… the secret that stunts the progress of most would-be writers. If you learn nothing else from this book, remember this:
BAD SONGS Are GOOD SONGS that can be fixed. Is that a principle? Because a principle is a fundamental truth, we can say that it is not only a principle, but probably the most important one of this book. It may be that up to now your music hasn’t been working for you. What I need you to know, and what all of the songwriting principles of this book have been trying to tell you, is that if your song isn’t working, there are real reasons that can be addressed. You can take a song that has problems and solve those problems. If you burn the evening meal, you may have to throw it out and order a pizza. If your song is a failure, don’t throw it out! Go back into the main chapters of this book, and discover the ways that you can fix the problems.
179
That being said, it’s also important not to fixate on problems that are mystifying you. Sometimes the best answer to fixing a bad song is to put it away for now, and start a new one. You’ll be able to come back to it once your mind has cleared. Composers from Mozart right through to today’s pop songwriters have stowed music away all their lives, bringing it out again sometimes years later once their songwriting craft improves.
And now… what? It hasn’t been the intention of this book to deal with the marketing end of songwriting. That is the subject for another book. But there are things you must do if you are going to perform your music professionally, or market your music to others.
Getting Your Song Ready… A Brief Tutorial COPYRIGHT Once you’ve written your song, it is automatically copyrighted. This means that unless you transfer that copyright to a publisher or another person, you are the only person permitted to make copies of that music. You need to get your music into a fixed form, either a recording or print music. If you have your music in print form (handwritten or 180
computer-notated) put the copyright symbol at the bottom of the first page of music, then the year, then your name. Example: ©2005, Gary Ewer It’s important to note that even though you are the copyright owner, and have placed your copyright symbol at the bottom of your music, this will not necessarily protect you from others who might dispute the authorship of the song. This usually requires registering your music with your government’s copyright agency. You should contact that office directly, or search their respective websites: Canada: Canadian Intellectual Property Office Place du Portage I 50 Victoria St., Room C-114 Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0C9 http://strategis.ic.gc.ca (follow the links to “Copyrights”)
United States of America: Copyright Office, Library of Congress Washington, DC 20559 http://www.copyright.gov/
United Kingdom: Copyright enquiries should be made to: Telephone: 0845 9 500 505 (UK callers only - charged at local rate) International callers: +44 (0)1633 813930
181
You should note that copyright law differs from country to country, so it is important to not accept information from non-governmental websites as the unquestionable truth. Copyright is a highly misunderstood area of law for many. Be certain that you contact the government office of your country of residence. Mailing a Copy of Your Song to Yourself is Not Enough Many people advise songwriters to mail a copy of their newly-written song to themselves by Registered Mail before showing it to other singers, producers, or arrangers. In truth, this offers very little legal protection in a court of law. The most reliable way to prove ownership is to register your work in your government’s copyright office. The titles of songs are not usually copyright protected, so if you hear a song on the radio that appears to have taken the title of your song as its own, that is not necessarily copyright infringement. Using Other Writers’ Texts If you find a poem that you would like to set to music, you need the permission of the copyright owner of that text. In many countries, the copyright on music or text will expire after a certain period of time after the death of the writer. This period of time is usually fifty or seventy-five years. Check with a copyright office to be certain. A
182
created work for which the copyright has expired is said to be in the
public domain. If there isn’t a copyright notice on the text you want to use, that does not mean it is a public domain work. It will require you to research the title to ascertain the status. Using someone else’s work without their permission is illegal, if that work is copyright protected. It pays to do your research. Know Who to Trust And on the topic of research, you really must know who to trust in matters of copyright. It is unwise to trust information that you’ve found on a website if it is not a government website. The issue of copyright is a legal issue, and it is never wise to take the word of someone not in the legal field or government. And even in the case of a lawyer, their reading of the law may only be a legal opinion that may not stand up to a legal challenge. The good news is that dealing with copyright through your government’s copyright office is safe, and has been happening for years. Register your songs, especially if you think they are performable by others. And how do other singers get to know about your songs? This is usually accomplished by a publishing company. 183
Publishing If your song is to be recorded by another performer, it is a good idea to get your music published. Keep in mind, however, that a publisher will make a judgment as to whether your song is likely to be a commercial success. Most songs remain in unpublished form. If you do publish through a publishing company, the typical arrangement is that they will assume the copyright of the song. Sometimes, a company will work out a shared copyright deal, but more often than not, total copyright is transferred. It is the publishing company that will pitch your song to performers, producers and other persons of influence in the business. Creating Your Own Publishing “Company” Some songwriters create their own company name through which they can assign a publisher’s copyright. For example, for a small annual fee through your local state or provincial government, you can create a company name (“Silly Music Publications”, for example) that you can use in the copyright notice on your music (©2005 Silly Music Publications) You will need to check with the government of your state, province or other local government in your country of residence to ensure you follow proper legal requirements for this sort of “self publishing”.
184
The advantage to having a recognized company publish your songs is that they usually have well-established lines of communication through which they can distribute your song.
Mechanical Rights If someone else records your songs, they will need to acquire “mechanical rights” to do so. This means that the performer will need to pay your publisher a fee for every copy of a CD they produce, and that fee is shared with you, usually on a 50-50 basis.
Performing Rights Organizations Another agency in the marketing end of the business is the performing rights organization. This is the institution that licenses the performance of your copyrighted song. The most well known agencies are ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) In Canada, SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers in Canada) controls the performing licenses of many Canadian composers. Performers need to obtain a license to sing your song in public.
In Conclusion The biggest impediment to getting your songs out into the world is not business-related, it is creation-related. If your songs are good, you have jumped a major hurdle. Connections to the business side 185
of the songwriting world will be irrelevant to you if you don’t have a good song to market. Getting your songs out there means to get them performed. That process starts with you, singing in cafés and in shows. Create a good recording that you can shop around to publishers. Send your recording to the local radio station. If you have friends or relatives who sing with a band, send them your music with a demo CD, and try to get them performing your songs. The more people out there doing your music, the higher the chances that the right person will hear it and want to publish or perform it. It takes doggedness, drive and determination, mixed in with a good measure of patience, to successfully market your songs. Sometimes it involves a bit of luck, too. Hang in there. Commercial success usually comes to those who are patient enough to wait for it.
Good luck!
186
187
Index of Song Samples Throughout The Essential Secrets of Songwriting, songs by professional songwriters were referenced. Take the time to familiarize yourself with as many of these songs as possible. Learning from the pros is what you need to improve your own skills. You can purchase many of these songs individually from the Apple® iTunes Music Store. Songs are listed below by chapter of reference in this text: Title CHAPTER 1 All Shook Up, ©1956 R&H Music Co. Yesterday, ©1965 Northern Songs
Bridge Over Troubled Water, © Paul Simon Music You Can Call Me Al, © Paul Simon Music Beat It! © Mijac Music Title
CHAPTER 2 Thriller ©1982 Rodsongs (PRS) Billie Jean, © Mijac Music Red Sails in the Sunset, © Livin’ La Vida Loca
188
Composer / Performer
Format/Label/Recording Title
Concept
Otis Blackwell / Elvis Presley
CD: RCA: Elvis’ Golden Records
Lennon & McCartney / The Beatles Simon & Garfunkel
CD: Capitol: Help!
Good melodic shape
CD: Sony: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Building energy
Paul Simon
CD: Warner Bos/WEA: Graceland
Good hook
Michael Jackson
CD: Sony: Thriller
Good hook
Composer / Performer Rod Temperton/ Michael Jackson Michael Jackson Jimmy Kennedy & Hugh Williams/ Bing Crosby Desmond Child & Robi Rosa/ Ricky Martin
Format/Label/Recording Title
Concept
CD: Sony: Thriller
Innovative music
CD: Sony: Thriller
Innovative music
CD: MCA: Top O the Morning – Irish Collection CD: Sony: Ricky Martin
Penny Lane You’re the Inspiration It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) 25 or 6 to 4, © 1970 Lamminations Music/. Aurelius Music (ASCAP) Title
CHAPTER 3 Lady Madonna, ©1968 Northern Songs Hey Jude, ©Sony/ATV Music Publishing Fall to Pieces, ©2004 Avril Lavigne Publishing, Ltd. Hound Dog, ©1952 Leiber & Stoller Born in the U.S.A. I Walk the Line, ©1956 House of cash, Inc By the Time I Get to Phoenix, ©1969 EMI Sosaha Music, Jonathan Three Music Co. The House of the Rising Sun, ©1965 Beechwood Music corporation , CPE Music Inc
Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles David Foster & Peter Cetera/ Chicago Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe/ R.E.M. Robert Lamm/ Chicago
Composer / Performer
CD: Capitol: Magical Mystery Tour
Verse-chorus design
CD: Warner Bros/WEA: Chicago 17
Verse-chorus design
CD: Capitol: Document
Verse-chorus design
CD: Rhino/WEA: Chicago II
Outro [ALSO CHAPTER 6: Hook]
Format/Label/Recording Title
Concept
Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles
CD: Capitol: The Beatles Past Masters Volume 2
Chorus-verse design
CD: Capitol: The Beatles 1
Lavigne & Maida
CD: Arista: Under My Skin
Verse design [ALSO CHAPTER 6: Hook; Song with no intro] Verse-chorus-bridge design
Leiber & Stoller/ Elvis Presley Bruce Springsteen
CD: RCA: Elvis’ Golden Records CD: Sony: Born in the U.S.A. CD: Sony: Best of the Best Gold- Johnny Cash
Same melody for verse and chorus Same melody for verse and chorus Verse-without-chorus structure
Jimmy Webb/ Glen Campbell
CD: Capitol: By the Time I Get to Phoenix
Verse-without chorus structure
Traditional melody, arranged by Alan Price/ The Animals
CD: Golgr: House of the Rising Sun [IMPORT]
Verse-without chorus structure
Johnny Cash
189
Supper’s Ready, ©1972, Stratsong Ltd. Invisible Touch, published by Anthony Banks Ltd/Philip Collins Ltd/Michael Rutherford Ltd/Hit and Run Music (Publishing) Ltd The Times They Are A-Changin’, Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music Let It Be, ©Sony/ATV Music Publishing Suzanne, © 1967 Leonard Cohen and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada Company I know What I like (In Your Wardrobe), ©1974, Hit & Run Music Real Love, ©Lenono Music
Title
CHAPTER 4 Without You, © 1970 Apple Publishing Ltd. Like a Rock, © 1985, Gear Publishing Co. (ASCAP)
190
Banks/ Collins/ Gabriel/ Hackett/ Rutherford / Genesis Banks/ Collins/ Rutherford/ Genesis
CD: Atlantic/ WEA: Foxtrot
CD: Atlantic/ WEA: Invisible Touch
Bob Dylan
CD: Sony: The Times They Are A-Changin’
Refrain form
Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles Leonard Cohen
CD: Capitol: Let it Be
Refrain form
CD: Sony: The Songs of Leonard Cohen
Verse-refrain form
Banks/ Collins/ Gabriel/ Hackett/ Rutherford / Genesis John Lennon/ The Beatles
CD: Atlantic/WEA: Selling England By the Pound
Through-composed verse structure
CD: EMI International: Real Love [CD-SINGLE] [IMPORT]
Good energy & pacing
Composer / Performer
Format/Label/Recording Title
Concept
Ham & Evans/ Harry Nilsson
CD: RCA: Harry Nilsson: All Time Greatest Hits
Strong vs fragile progressions
Bob Seger/ Bob Seger & the Siver Bullet Band
CD: Capitol: Like a Rock
Two-bar harmonic rhythm
Your Smiling Face, ©1977, James Taylor This Land is Your Land, ©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI) Personally, ©1978, SonyATV Tree Publishing Islands in the Stream, ©1983 Gibb Brothers Music and Crompton Songs Crocodile Rock, ©1972 Elton John & Bernie Taupin One Flight Down, ©Beanly Songs Layla, ©1970 Unichapell Music Inc. One Tin Soldier, ©1969 ABC/Dunhill Music, Inc. Goodbye to Love, © 1972 by Almo Music Corp./Hammer and Nails Music, Inc. Put Your Hand in the Hand ©1970, Beechwood Music Title
CHAPTER 5 Big Yellow Taxi, © 1970 Siquomb Publishing
James Taylor
CD: Sony: JT
Varying harmonic rhythm
Woody Guthrie/ various artists
CD: Music Little People: This Land is Your Land: Songs of Unity
Variations with harmonies
Paul Kelly/ Karla Bonoff
CD: Sony: Wild Heart of the Young
Modal mixture ivchord
Barry, Maurice, Robin Gibb/ Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
CD: Capitol: Duets
Modal mixture ivchord
Elton John & Bernie Taupin/ Elton John Jesse Harris/ Norah Jones Eric Clapton & James Gordon/ Derek and the Dominos Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter/ The Original Caste John Bettis & Richard Carpenter/ The Carpenters
CD: Island: Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player
Secondary dominant chord
CD: Blue Note Records: Come Away With Me CD: Polydor/PGD: Layla
Secondary dominant chord Chord inversion
CD: TA Records: One Tin Soldier
Modulation
CD: A&M: Carpenters: Love Songs
Modulation
LP: Yorkville/ARC: Put Your Hand in the Hand
Modulation
Gene McLellan/ Ocean
Composer / Performer Joni Mitchell
Format/Label/Recording Title CD: Warner Bros/WEA: Big Yellow Taxi [CD SINGLE]
Concept
Verse-refrain form
191
Never Gone, ©2005 Zomba Recording Love is Everywhere, ©1975 Cherry Lane Music, Music of 1091, and WB Music Corp. Again, ©2002, Sony/ATV Songs LLC, Cori Tiffani Publishing, Nuyorican Publishing, Sony/ATV Tunes, Jaedon Christopher Publishing, Reggie Hamlet Publishing Hotel California, ©1975 Fingers Music That’s the Way (I like it), © 1975 Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Raymond Finch More, More, More, ©1976 Gregg Diamond Shake Your Bootie, © 1976 Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Raymond Finch Disco Duck, ©©1976 Fretone Records, Inc.
192
CD: Jive: Never Gone
Strong verse-chorus structure
CD: BMG Music: Windsong
Strong lyric
Cory Rooney, Troy Oliver, Jennifer Lopez, Reggie Hamlet
CD: Sony: This is Me… Then
Beautifully simple lyric
Glenn Frey, Don Henley/ The Eagles Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Raymond Finch/ K.C. and the Sunshine Band Gregg Diamond/ Andrea True Connection Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Raymond Finch/ K.C. and the Sunshine Band Rick Dees/ Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots
CD: Elektra/WEA: Hotel California
Story-lyric
CD: Rhino/WEA: The Best of KC & the Sunshine Band
Simple lyric
CD: Kama Sutra / Buddah: Andrea True Connection – Greatest Hits CD: Rhino/WEA: The Best of KC & the Sunshine Band
Simple lyric
CD: Rhino/WEA: Super Hits of the ‘70s: Have a Nice Day
Simple lyric
Gary Baker, Steven Diamond, Kevin Richardson/ Backstreet Boys John Denver, Joe Henry, John Sommers, Steve Weisberg/ John Denver
Simple lyric
Title
CHAPTER 6 Downtown, ©1964 Universal MCA Music Publishing Oh, Pretty Woman, ©1964 Barbara Orbison Music Co., Orbi Lee Publishing, R Key Darkus Publishing, Sony/ATV Acuff Rose Music Superstition, ©1975 Black Bull Music Inc, Jobete Music Co. ,Inc Baker Street, ©1978 Universal Songs of Polygram International Penny Lane, ©1967 Northern Songs
All My Loving, ©Sony/ATV Music Publishing Hello Goodbye, ©Sony/ATV Music Publishing Title
CHAPTER 7 Free Fallin’ ©1989, SBK April Music, Gone Gator Music Hard Day’s Night, ©1966 Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Composer / Performer
Format/Label/Recording Title
Anthony Peter Hatch/ Petua Clark Joe Melson, Roy Orbison, Ray Rush/ Roy Orbison
CD: GNP Crescendo: Greatest Hits of Petula Clark
Hook
CD: Madacy Records: Oh, Pretty Woman: Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits
Hook
Stevie Wonder
CD: Motown/PGD: Stevie Wonder – The Definitive Collection
Hook
Gerry Rafferty
CD: Disky Records: Baker Street [IMPORT]
Hook
Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles
CD: Capitol: Magical Mystery Tour
Song with no intro
Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles
CD: Capitol: The Beatles 1962-1966
Song with no intro
CD: Capitol: Magical Mystery Tour
Song with no intro
Composer / Performer
Format/Label/Recording Title
Concept
Concept
Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne/ Tom Petty
CD: MCA Records: Full Moon Fever
Melody with three pitches
Lennon & McCartney/ The Beatles
CD: Capitol: The Beatles 1962-1966
Interesting opening chord
193
GLOSSARY
3rd
The note of a chord or scale that is three notes above the root.
5th
The note of a chord or scale that is five notes above the root.
7th
The note of a chord or scale that is seven notes above the root.
Ad hoc design
A song form in which the basic structure is invented for one particular piece, often using the structure of the text as its main controlling aspect.
Arpeggio
Playing the notes of a chord in succession rather than at the same time; also called a “broken chord”
Borrowed chord
See “Modal mixture”
Bridge
The part of a song usually before the final chorus. The text of a bridge features an intensifying of emotions, and the overall energy of a song increases through the bridge.
Broken chord
See “arpeggio”
Cadence
The concluding two-or-three chord pattern at the end of a musical phrase. All phrases end with a cadence.
Chord
Three or more notes sounding simultaneously.
Chord progression
A series of chords that is usually designed to emphasize a certain chord as the tonic chord. Progressions either strongly call attention to the tonic, or do so in less obvious ways.
Chord sequence
See “Chord progression”.
Chorus
Lines of text and melody that form the next part of a song after a verse. The text of a chorus is usually more emotional than a verse, and more conclusive.
194
Circle-of-fifths
A sequence of chords in which the roots of each chord is four notes lower than the succeeding chord. A very strong and predictable progression.
Contrast
In songwriting, the differentiation between various sections of a song by varying aspects such as loudness, range, instrumentation, etc.
Creativity
The ability to use one’s imagination to create a work of art.
Demo
A recording of a song that serves as a work-in-progress for improving the final produced version. Demos will likely not have the same polish as a final version. It is meant be a sketch.
Dominant
The fifth note of a scale. A chord built on the fifth note is called the dominant chord.
Energy
In songwriting, the overall power of a song. Songs that are quiet, reflective and pitched low have a low energy level, and songs that are louder and pitched higher have a high energy level. Instrumentation is a major factor in the governing of energy.
Falsetto
The ability, esp. with male singers, to sing notes higher than normal. Many pop singers develop this ability to increase their range and modify their tonal output.
Form
In music, the structure. Macro level forms refer to overall designs (e.g. verse-chorus-bridge) Micro level forms refer to phrase designs (e.g., AABA)
Genre
A classification or grouping of artwork that all display a similar style or form. Country and blues are examples of two different genres.
Harmonic language
The kind of chords that a song might use. For example, many songs add 9ths to chords, as part of the basic harmonic language of that piece.
Harmonic rhythm
The pattern governing the predictability of chord changes; i.e., quick chord changes = quick harmonic rhythm
Harmony
The combination of several tones performed simultaneously. When melodies are written to infer the harmony by outlining notes from chords, this is called implied harmony. 195
Hook
A short, easily remembered element of a song that brings a listener back. Usually the part of the song that is most easily brought to mind, and is meant to attract listeners.
Interval
The distance between two notes; e.g., the interval between the tonic and dominant note of a scale is a perfect 5th.
Introduction
The first bars of a song. Usually instrumental. Used to set up the harmonic language, tempo and style of the song.
Inversion
Placing a note other than the root at the bottom of a chord. Placing the 3rd at the bottom is called “first inversion”; placing the 5th at the bottom is called “second inversion”. In pop music nomenclature, these are often referred to as “slash chords” because of the practice of showing the main chord name first, the bass note second, with a slash in between. (e.g., C/E means a C major chord with an E in the bass.)
Lyric
The text of a song.
Melody
A sequence of notes.
Modal mixture
Also called a borrowed chord. Borrowing a chord from a minor scale if in a major key; borrowing a chord from a major scale if in a minor key. (e.g. Fm is a borrowed iv-chord when in the key of C major.)
Modulation
Key change.
Motif
A short musical idea (rhythmic, melodic, or combination of both) that forms the backbone of a song. A motif may or may not be immediately noticeable as an important constructional element. A “hook” can be a motif. (See “Hook”).
Music theory
The study of written music. Students of music theory learn to read and write music using graphic symbols. In western cultures, this usually means notes and rests on a five-line staff.
Outro
The formal element in a song that serves as the end. In many songs, the “repeat and fade” serves as an outro.
196
Passing chord
A chord that usually occurs on a weak beat between two chords on successive strong beats.
Pedal tone
A musical phrase in which the chord names change, but the same note is held throughout in one particular instrument (usually bass).
Phrase
In music, a musical thought. A song is made up of many phrases. Phrases can be divided into sub-phrases. Phrases are delineated by cadences.
Refrain
A short, repeated section of a song, usually occurring at the end of a verse.
Rhythm
Pattern of sound that implies an underlying beat or tempo.
Riff
A short, repeated musical idea, often associated with guitar playing, similar in meaning to a “lick”.
Roman numerals
Many musicians refer to the chords found in a certain key by Roman numerals. For example, the chord based on the first note of a scale is given the Roman numeral I, and the one on the fifth note is given V.
Root
The bottom note of a chord; the note that gives the chord its name.
Secondary dominant chord
In Songwriting, a major chord that usually ascends by four notes that is usually minor; i.e., taking a minor chord and making it major is the normal way to create a secondary dominant.
Semitone
A half step; the smallest interval in most pop music
Slash chord
See “Inversion”
Song
In the context of this book, any self-contained musical work of 3 – 10 minutes, with lyrics. Usually contains verses and choruses, as well as an intro, a bridge, etc.
Sus2
See “Suspension”
Sus4
See “Suspension”
197
Sus9
See “Suspension”
Suspension
The purposeful hold up of a tone in a chord before allowing it to descend to its normal location within a chord. Csus4 is: C-F-G, normally resolving to a C major chord: C-E-G. Sus4 and sus9 (sus2) are the most common suspensions in pop music.
Talent
Natural aptitude or skill.
Tessitura
The range within which most of the notes of a piece of music occur.
Tonic
The first note of a scale. A chord built on the first note is called the tonic chord.
Vamp
Repetition of a musical phrase.
Verse
Lines of text and melody that form the first part of a song after the introduction. The text of a verse is usually narrative or otherwise descriptive of events.
198
199
Index
A A Hard Day’s Night, 175 Adams, Douglas, 92 adjudication, 32 All My Loving, 165, 193 All Shook Up, 21, 188 ambient, 144 Anderson, Laurie, 143 ASCAP, 185, 189, 190 audience, 13, 21, 26, 27, 32, 34, 35, 56, 57, 88, 125, 135, 146, 154, 157, 159, 169
B Backstreet Boys, 131, 192 Baker Street, 162, 168, 193 bass, 23, 33, 112, 113, 114, 121, 144, 196, 197 Beat It, 28, 37, 188 B ea tles, 19, 21, 43, 52, 57, 61, 165, 188, 189, 190 Bee Gees, 33, 105, 127 Beethoven, 28, 160 Big Yellow Taxi, 123, 191 Billie Jean, 37, 38, 188 bluegrass, 14, 22, 54 blues, 13, 14, 54, 104 BMI, 185, 191 Bonoff, Karla, 105, 191 Born in the U.S.A., 54, 189 200
Branch, Michelle, 143 Bridge Over Troubled Water, 23, 57, 188 Bush, Kate, 143 By the Time I Get to Phoenix, 55, 189
C Campbell, Glen, 55, 189 Carpenters, the, 117, 191 Carrie, Mariah, 86 Cash, Johnny, 55, 189 Chicago, 43, 44, 159, 189 chord progressions, 13, 72, 73, 74, 87, 92, 95, 97, 100, 121, 156 chorus, 13, 20, 23, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 64, 66, 67, 68, 70, 86, 87, 88, 98, 115, 116, 117, 120, 130, 132, 133, 134, 138, 140, 141, 142, 153, 154, 156, 157, 159, 161, 189, 194, 195 Clapton, Eric, 113, 191 Clark, Petula, 160, 193 classical, 13, 14, 22 coda, 44 Cohen, Leonard, 27, 57 Coldplay, 123, 127, 145 Come Away With Me, 109, 191 contrast, 50, 51, 195 copyright, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184 copyright infringement, 182 country, 13, 14, 18, 22, 146 creative, 10, 20, 21, 29 creativity, 15, 29
Crocodile Rock, 108, 191
D Dance music, 144 demo, 32, 33, 35, 37, 41 Denver, John, 146, 192 Disco Duck, 152, 192 Downtown, 160 drums, 23, 33 Dylan, Bob, 38, 190
E Eagles, the, 149, 150 Eno, Brian, 143 Evans and Ham, 86
F falsetto, 127, 195 form, 3, 12, 20, 39, 40, 41, 43, 48, 53, 54, 55, 57, 62, 70, 120, 128, 131, 153, 165, 167, 169, 190, 191, 194, 198 Foxtrot, 56, 190 Free Fallin’, 174, 193
G Gabriel, Peter, 143 Gary Ewer’s Easy Music Theory, 30 Genesis, 56, 58, 190 Goodbye to Love, 117, 191 government, 181, 182, 183, 184 guitar, 32, 33, 39, 53, 67, 77, 96, 104, 159, 161, 162, 163, 197 Guthrie, Woody, 100, 191
H harmonic sequences. See Chord Progressions harmony, 20, 35, 120, 195 Harris, Jesse, 109, 191 Hello Goodbye, 165, 193 Henley, Don, 150, 192 Hey Jude, 52, 164, 165, 189
hook, 13, 20, 21, 28, 39, 46, 148, 159, 160, 161, 162, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 188, 196 horns, 33 Hotel California, 149, 150, 192 Hound Dog, 54, 189 house, 24, 25, 73, 74, 82, 85, 93, 121, 128, 130, 143, 157 House of the Rising Sun, The, 55, 189
I I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), 58 I Walk the Line, 55, 189 imagery, 56, 88, 140 inspiration, 170, 171, 172, 189 instrumentation, 23, 54, 62, 119, 195 Intro, 43, 53, 61 Invisible Touch, 56, 190 Islands in the Stream, 105, 118, 191 It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), 43 iTunes, 13, 188
J Jackson, Michael, 28, 37, 38, 188 jazz, 13, 22 John, Elton, 108, 191
K KC & the Sunshine Band, 151, 192 Kelly, Paul, 105
L Lavigne, Avril, 53, 153, 154, 189 Layla, 113, 191 Leiber, Jerry, 54 Livin' La Vida Loca, 38, 188 Lopez, Jennifer, 147, 192 Love is Everywhere, 146, 147, 192 lyric, 20, 35, 122, 145, 147, 156, 196 lyrics, 21, 27, 30, 39, 55, 72, 136, 142, 146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152, 157, 159, 197 201
M macro design, 42, 51, 52, 63, 69, 70 Madonna, 52, 143, 189 Maida, Raine, 53 Martin, Chris, 123, 127, 143 Matthews, Dave, 123 McMartney, Paul, 22, 123 mechanical rights, 185 melody, 13, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 35, 39, 43, 44, 46, 54, 59, 63, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 133, 134, 136, 137, 139, 141, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 156, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 164, 194, 196, 198 micro design, 42, 63, 65, 69 microphone, 33 modulation, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119 More More More, 152
N Never Gone, 131, 134, 136, 192 Nilsson, Harry, 86, 190
O Ocean, 118, 191 Oh, Pretty Woman, 161, 163, 193 One Flight Down, 109, 191 Orbison, Roy, 161, 193 outro, 44, 53, 68, 189, 196 ownership, 182
P Parton, Dolly, 105, 118, 191 passing chord, 113, 114 Penny Lane, 43, 165, 189, 193 performing rights organization, 185 Personally, 105, 140, 191 Petty, Tom, 174, 193 poetry, 27, 46, 55, 56, 59, 143, 148, 152, 157 pop, 13, 14, 19, 50, 57, 79, 88, 97, 195, 196, 197, 198 Presley, Elvis, 21, 54, 188 202
principles, 12, 29, 60, 74, 79, 130, 131, 142 progressive, 144 publish, 184, 185, 186 publisher, 3, 180, 184, 185 Put Your Hand in the Hand, 118, 191
R R.E.M., 43, 189 radio, 33, 182, 186 Rafferty, Gerry, 162, 193 Red Sails in the Sunset, 38, 188 Registered Mail, 182 rhythm, 20, 35, 62, 63, 97, 143, 197 rock, 13, 22, 54 Rogers, Kenny, 105, 191 root position triad, 112
S secondary dominant, 107, 108, 109, 110, 197 Selling England by the Pound, 58 Shake Shake Shake, 152 Simon & Garfunkel, 23, 57, 188 Simon, Paul, 28, 188 simplicity, 21, 144, 157 singer, 43, 118, 125, 126, 133, 142 slash chords, 113, 196 SOCAN, 185 songwriter, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 32, 37, 38, 44, 48, 51, 53, 72, 79, 88, 90, 94, 101, 116, 117, 123, 124, 128, 129, 130, 131, 136, 142, 143, 161, 164, 188 Springsteen, Bruce, 54, 189 Stefani, Gwen, 123 Stoller, Mike, 54 Superstition, 162, 168, 193 Supper’s Ready, 56, 190 sus4, 111, 112 sus9, 111, 112, 198 suspension, 110, 111 Suzanne, 57, 190 synthesizer, 33
T techno, 143 tessitura, 127, 198 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 92 This Land is Your Land, 100, 103, 191 Thriller, 37, 188 trance, 144 Twain, Mark, 17 25 or 6 to 4, 44, 159, 189
V verse, 13, 20, 21, 23, 24, 39, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60,
70, 86, 87, 88, 105, 108, 115, 116, 117, 120, 130, 132, 133, 134, 138, 142, 153, 156, 157, 189, 190, 194, 195, 197, 198
W Wagner, Richard, 17 Webb, Jimmy, 55, 189 Wild Honey Pie, 19, 21 Without You, 86 Wonder, Stevie, 162, 163, 193
Y Yesterday, 22, 24, 123, 124, 125, 188 You Can Call Me Al, 28, 188
203
Credits Most of the photographs used in this text are from the “stock.xchng” website. http://sxc.hu. Stock.xchng is a free stock photo site. Photo on page 72: “Fingers on Guitar”, Eduardo Galvani, Brazil. View more photos from Mr. Galvani by browsing http://sxc.hu
204
