More To Choose From
Don't Think I Don't....
Last Week’s Bonus Round: "Back to December" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her third studio album, Speak Now (2010). Before the album's release, the track was released for download on October 12, 2010, through the iTunes Store as a promotional single. It was sent to US country radio on November 15, 2010, by Big Machine Records, as the second single from the album. "Back to December" is a power ballad combining country and pop, with orchestrated string instruments. The lyrics are about a remorseful plea for forgiveness from a former lover.” Credit: Wikipedia
Note: I use Wikipedia a lot, and I’ve donated to them because I do. They’re currently (or maybe continuing, I dunno) soliciting for funding. There are lots of less worthy things to donate to…just sayin’.
So, yeah - not my typical Bonus Round pick, but we referenced something like this in last week’s Friday post, the “diary entry” sort of song that was part of the Songtown article (link below if you missed it). The exact quote was “They make the writer feel better, but won’t mean much to anyone else.” Taylor Swift has a fan base of millions and she could probably sing the ingredients from the back of a soup can and it would be a hit. That likely isn’t going to work for the rest of us.
The Art Of Choosing Songtown article
Today I wanted to finish up some commentary on this article, both for what it says and the questions you might pose to yourself for that and for what it doesn’t say. I mentioned it was pretty brief, but there’s a lot packed into it if you think of questions for yourself that might be suggested but not answered.
Let’s start with this: “The one thing that all great writers have in common is they know what questions to ask while they creating their art.” Written by successful songwriter Clay Mills, we might ask, “Well, what sort of questions did you have in mind, Mr. Mills?” There are some examples, like “Should this be 3 BPM’s faster? Should I change the third chord to a minor? Does this song need a bridge?”, but those are kind of “down in the weeds” technical issues you’ll need to get to, maybe, at some point, but there are a lot of “meta-questions” we need to ask ourselves and come up with some sort of answers to first. He’s absolutely right that strict “diary entry” types of lyrics, that address “This is what happened to me, this is what I saw or felt or perceived, this is how I resolved it, this is really meaningful to me” are likely going to be uninteresting to our listeners. One way to to approach a diary entry type of theme is to imagine a character who is experiencing your situation, perceptions, resolutions and meaning and place them in a setting that allows you to tell your story from the imaginary character’s perspsective by metaphor or analogy (Not sure what the difference is? Me either most of the time - this might help: Metaphor, Simile, Analogy). Verbal clues that help describe a scene in a shared reference can help.
“Verbal clues that help describe a scene in a shared reference”" - what does that mean? Here’s an example from one of my (copyrighted - nice try, poachers! LOL, as if…) song’s lyrics that may help:
“With your friend at the spot” - What or where am I talking about there? I’m going to put a few line spaces in here, but take a few seconds to mentally visualize what the words might be describing…
Seems like a good place for this:
What did you you come up with? It’s not entirely fair, because some of the adjacent lyrics in the song make clear what’s happening, but if you came up with a couple of people out for a night at a club or country & western bar or lounge or something, that’s pretty much the setting the lyrics describe, and going out for a night of listening to a band play at a club or lounge or a bar with a friend (not a “date”, just going out to listen to a band or vocalist in general) is a common enough experience to “get” the lyric. If you didn’t get that vibe at all, I probably need to ask myself some more questions…
There are lots of folks out there who will answer some of the questions you might ask yourself before or as you write, but they’re mostly going to be trying to sell you their course or technique or whatever. That’s not a bad thing if they know what they’re talking about, discerning that can be a little tricky though. One guy I get emails from, but haven’t signed up for a course from (though I did buy his “Logic Pro For Dummies” book - very helpful, but might be a little dated now with the way Apple constantly updates the software) is a fellow named Mr. Graham English. He proposes a list of “universal themes” for songwriting:
“The 10 Universal Songwriting Themes
FORGIVENESS: of self or others
LOVE: includes self-love, family love, romantic love
ACCEPTANCE: of self, of circumstances, of reality
FAITH: in oneself, in others, in the world, in God
FEAR: overcoming it, conquering it, finding courage
TRUST: in oneself, in others, in the unknown
SURVIVAL: including the will to live
SELFLESSNESS: including sacrifice, altruism, heroism, and overcoming greed
RESPONSIBILITY: including duty, standing up for a cause, accepting one’s destiny
REDEMPTION: including atonement, accepting blame, remorse, and salvation”
Credit: Graham English, “Speed Songwriting” course - Story Song System (not an endorsement, I’m receiving no compensation of any sort for providing the link, it just seemed like a fair thing to do if someone was interested.)
I hesitate to use this as anything other than a reference and would never attempt to put any of my songs into a “category”. Ask yourself, where would Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” fit? Or Don McLean’s “American Pie”, or Paul Simon’s “American Tune”? Probably not neatly anywhere on this list. For illustration, the lyric I shared above comes from the “Slightly Racy Bar Song” theme, but that doesn’t seem to be on the list….
Still a good prompt to think through if you’re out of ideas, stuck on a lyric line, a “hook” to start from, or a blank sheet that just doesn’t seem to want to be filled (that last thought has the makings of a good hook for a song - see what I did there? Poach away!). Probably all of us will be there at some point, and a “univesal themes” review might not be a bad way to get a creative start to things.
The last word from the Clay Mills/Songtown Article: “Wise songwriting choices leave little time for theory or cleverness.”
Maybe I didn’t get the gist of the statement or he meant something I missed, but this sparks a question from me: Why not?
Why wouldn’t I use a hook that sort of uses a clever “turn of phrase”? Why wouldn’t I write darker lyrics to a melody or riff that’s primarily (diatonically) in a relative minor key? Conversely, why wouldn’t I choose a minor key to write music accompanying lyrics that have a darker meaning, or a Major key for music accompanying more lighthearted lyrics? Dunno…
I really don’t know - but it is motivating me to write a comment on Songtown’s “Contact Us” link to let Mr. Mills know I wrote about his article, and invite him to respond, or even guest author a post on Michael Acoustic. We’ll see!!
Bonus Round: I do think about it!
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic