Songwriting
Composition Strategies for Beginners
The Creative Building Blocks
Have you read our Whole Brain Songwriting concept?
Well lets say that you took the opportunity to let your creativity simply pour out of you: unobstructed by the analytical side of your mind. Ideally when you are finished you should have lots of separate little phrases of inspirational music. These are the raw building blocks which your analytical mind can use to build a coherent song.
Meta Structures
Usually there are three distinct parts to a song. Verse, Chorus, and Bridge. Sometimes the bridge is just an instrumental "break" from the basic theme.
Once a song is properly arranged: the human brain can hear it once with total recall. We almost instinctively KNOW what will come next in a well developed song.
Once you get the sense of how power songs are structured: you will hear the basic patterns in anything from the Beetles to Beethoven.
Forget about that old idea of trying to come up with a "hook" for your song. In the best music, the WHOLE SONG is a hook!
Even the instrumental patterns are based on the same theme and variation arrangement. This is why most people can guess (or recall) the name of a well written song after hearing just a few notes from the introduction.
Your Emotional Soul-Palate
Often in various musical genres: the same melody will be repeated over and over while the backing chords are changed to subtly shift the emotional import.
An important key to developing great music is to become familiar with the unique chord structures common to various styles of music. These chords are your artistic palate: like the colors a visual artist uses to paint with. The different "shades" of musical color enable you to express different feelings and moods in your music.
Taking the time to familiarize your self these essential chord options gives you a powerful basis for song writing.
Many courses exist for gaining this education in a few weeks without learning to read music
Free Online Interval Training for Your Ear. Automatically recognize musical structures.
Get the Chord Wheel – The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians – $14.99
Anatomy of a Hit
Experienced "ears" in the business are those executives who are able to "hear" a hit. A big part of it is the spirit and intensity of an artist. But even more so it's the fundamental STRUCTURE of a song. To be honest: if a song has the right structure even a kid on the street can pick it out.
Those golden ears often prefer to hear a song in it's raw form without a fancy demo to obscure the underlying inspiration. An acoustic guitar or piano and a vocal should be enough. Even in electronic music: LESS is more when showing off the underlying strength of your songs.
If you song doesn't pull in the listener in its most basic form then it probably won't be a hit.
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts
Producing Your Own Songs
Have you noticed that we use the terms "Theme and Variation?" I've heard a lot of great up and coming writers who have enough excellent material in a single piece of music to build several songs. In other words they have several inspired themes going on in the same song. The problem is that these competing themes effectively cancel each other out.
The brain craves to hear the same theme patterns over and over again with brief variations for contrast.
Selling Songs to Big Names
Selling songs to big names
I once sat in the personal studio of a songwriter who had successfully sold a Grammy Award winning song to a major artist. He was pretty well set financially due to this single accomplishment.
He shared some of the strategies that are employed to pull this off.
Whole Brain Songwriting
whole brain songwriting: achieving soul-flow
Developing Your Product
Before you even BEGIN expecting to make money in music: you’ve got to have a viable product. Something that is good enough to cause at least some members of the public to willingly part with their cash!
Contrary to popular sentiment: creating highly desirable musical material is not necessarily a random act of destiny or fate.
There are certain basic rules, processes and structures which govern the development of GREAT music. They are simple enough that nearly anyone with a moderate amount of dedication can comprehend and put into practice.
Collaborative Songwriting Strategies
Musical Excellence through Teamwork
Songwriters need to recognize that much modern music ( including the Beetles sound ) is the result of a committee-style creative process. The guys from the band would come up with the brilliant stuff and their producer George Martin would structure it into a coherent musical statement. Neither could exist without the other.
Your Unique Sound
The right techniques never change Your Sound – They UNLEASH it.
I’m hearing from extremely talented musicians who have sufficient smarts to actually get a composition all-the-way from idea to recording. However it’s these exact people who tend to be living much more in the analytical half of their brains.
Sell Your Music NOW!
