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I am a lyricist and a singer but I am having problems with working out melodies. If I have a melody written down, I can arrange. Problem is, I am inexperienced at writing down melodies and get easily distracted in the process. To be absolutely honest, I can't do it.
So, fundamental question when songwriting: how do I know when to change chords? Simple folk/country music style (think 50s Memphis). No jazz or anything complicated. The lyrics are the most important as far as I am concerned and the vocals should ride above the music and not be buried in it. I love the sound of the simple strummed guitar but there is a rock&roll/country rhythm behind my lyrics.
For example: taking a Country 'boom-chikka-boom' type rhythm and using just the basic 3 chord trick (I-IV-V7), never mind any substitutional chords, how would you find the melody and arrangement (just the basic 3 chord trick) for the following set of lyrics:
"Dark clouds are flying overhead.
I think I'd do better in my bed.
Still there are others on my mind,
Besides the wind, besides the wind
Blues skies turning into grey.
They drive those summer days away.
But still you're mine,
But still you're mine
Soon I will be far too old.
My body will start turning cold.
And the grey that I see up in the skies
Will be the colour I will die
I will die, oh I will die"
Yes, this is a 'ghost' song. It took me just 2 minutes to write but it is purely an example. If anybody recognises th original - full marks!
This really is a FUNDAMENTAL question for me. Please, when to change chords and why? And... How do you feel when to change????
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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Sam,
Once I have written lyrics, one thing that I find useful is to start BIAB playing a solo drum pattern (I mute everything else) and to speak the lyrics out loud with the same timing that I hear them being sung in mind. I then vary the drum pattern's tempo, try different patterns and try starting the lyrics at different places in the bar. When I start doing this, it's inevitable that I will change words to sit better with the rhythm. Eventually, the lyrics settle into place. (At this point in time, I have not used any accompaniment other than drums.)
When the lyrics are done, I go through them and put a bar line before each word or syllable that occurs on beat one. The drum rhythm makes it very easy to identify the first beat of the bar. Now I use Excel. I simply paste the words or parts of words that correspond to a whole bar into a cell. Since most songs are based on 8-bar sections, I follow the BIAB layout and have four cells (i.e. 4 bars) across before moving down to another line.
Now the fun starts.
Since each cell in Excel now represents a bar of lyrics, and given that most chord changes occur on beat 1, I play around with adding chords at the beginning of each "Bar". It's at this point of the process that BIAB really shines. Because I have my lyrics lined up in the way that I hear them in Excel and I've laid out Excel's cells so that they match BIAB's bars, it's now simply a matter of putting the chords into BIAB and talking my way through the lyrics. Once again, a chord progression evolves bit by bit and eventually settles into place. As the chord progression develops, I find that I start adding melody to some of the words as I say them. Eventually these snippets of melody begin to develop into a tune. (As a rule of thumb, I don't change a chord until I hear in my mind that change is needed because it's starting to get boring!)
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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I can only answer from the standpoint that I know and that comes from spending most of my life studying the art and science of music theory, a lot of listening, transcription of anything interesting to me, practicing and all that goes with the above.
But I do know some great songwriters that do not take that cerebral tack at all, coming up with nice sounding songs time and again.
From observing those songwriters, I've seen instances where one of their songs may have started out as just chord changes, or just a riff, or just lyrics and the melody and chords get added after that fact, there does not seem to be any pat rule to this.
The one thing that ALL have in common is continued practice at writing songs. I think that being prolific at that is the way to build a reserve of things that work for you and things that don't. I don't know any songwriter that has any kind of success at all who doesn't do that. MANY clunkers in their notebooks and files, some may get resurrected at a later time and part of it may show up in another song or the likes.
--Mac
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For me, I try to NOT use the "standard" progressions and changes. They are similar enough, but toss that 2 minor and 6 minor and 3 minor in there too. Consider starting on a minor or anywhere other than the root.
Most of this last batch just kind of fell together, and only once did I have to say "that sounds too much like" and make a change.
If you are most prolific with lyrics, maybe team up with someone who is melody strong and lyrically weak.
Worked for Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
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Quote:
If you are most prolific with lyrics, maybe team up with someone who is melody strong and lyrically weak.
Worked for Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
I know. Trouble is I can't find them at the moment. I thought I had found them - all trained at the Vienna Conservatorium, but they have disapeared so I am back to just ME
Heavy duty answers, guys. Thank you SO much. I have to work on this
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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Fly me over and I'll help you. You can pay me in Bavarian cream pie..... and while I'm there I can talk to some shrinks and find out why I am so messed up inside....
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Mac's point about being prolific is key. Now - for some, that means that one needs a challenge - something to push them to say "This one is done, gotta do another." For me, my songwriting became prolific in a self-imposed challenge - the February Album Writing Month challenge, where people worldwide commit to writing 14 songs in the month of February. That's one every other day. I've had to do quite a bit of studying and learning to keep up. I do know basic music theory and that has been a boon. Other tips and places to help: Transcribe (Mac said this already) to understand the 'why' of the melody. Participate in songwriting challenges like FAWM or the 50/90 project where the challenge is to write 50 songs in 90 days. Read Daniel Levitin's "This is your brain on music" Read Matt Blick's blog on Beatles songwriting: Tickets to write, where he analyzes common chord and melody tricks that the various Beatles used in their songwriting: http://beatlessongwriting.blogspot.com/p/tickets-to-write.htmlBig interval jumps usually don't work so well in melodies Make observations about melodies you like and how they interact with the timing of the lyrics, the breaks, etc. If you can't do this, it will be difficult to come up with your own ideas that will actually work. Don't be afraid to write just for the sake of writing - something good can come out of the end of it. I've done FAWM for 4 or 5 years, writing almost 14 songs a month in those years. Out of those, I have 6 or 7 quite good songs (by others accounting, not my own). That's a success rate of about 1/10. Another few years and I'll have an album's worth! Here's what I did this past year (only recorded 12 of the 14): http://fawm.org/fawmers/scottlake/A few of those deserve some further attention, editing, re-writing re-recording and mixing, etc. But it wraps back around to Mac's point - which I am agreeing with - that being prolific; disciplining oneself to make product, it at the heart of being successful with songwriting (and with anything in life, actually). Commitment. Stick-to-it-iveness. etc. Practice, practice, practice. Malcom Gladwell's "Outliers" should be some inspiration here as well. On the FAWM site is this quote from Jack London: "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." www.fawm.org The best thing that ever happened to my songwriting was deciding to do this 4 or 5 years ago.
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The thing with melodies is that everyone here could take these same lyrics and write a different melody, even using the same chords. Check out the different videos of 4 chord songs, same chords different melodies. Melody is the pitch of your voice or the instruments voice. It is also how long or short the word or note. for example the word dark in the lyric could be a quarter or 1 beat, or it could be sang for a whole note 4 beats or even longer. It could be sang as a straight note or it could be raised or lowered containing several notes. A trick that is very helpful is, if you know what the first chord of the song is. 1.Put that chord into biab. 2. Now begin singing with that chord. Make sure you sing the melody you have for the song and do not just follow the chord. There are many songs that only use one chord. If you sing the melody properly when it is time to change chords your voice will be out of key with biab, you will hear it. That means it is time for a different chord. Just keep doing this until you get to the end of the song. Another trick is to take some old songs of the genre you are trying to write, and enter the chords to them into biab. Now write lyrics to fit the song. Most pros say they have used this method at one time or the other. You can also find sites that have different chord progressions enter them into biab and then write the lyrics to fit. I hope this helps. There are a lot of sites you can go to that talk about music theory and songwriting. A good book for this is Alfred's Teach Yourself Songwriting. I hope this helps! My Music ReverbnationMy 50/90 Songwriting Challenge My Music MyspaceRead My Blog
My TunesPsalm 57:7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.
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Try to get yourself a copy of Melody Writing by William Lovelock.
I used this book a lot when I was heavily into study.(Theory,harmony,counterpoint etc.) It deals with setting verse to music,cadences and other advice on creating a good melodic line. It sound like the thing you might need to get started.
Study everything and practice as much as you can.
Best of luck.
yjoh
[i]Music...a joy for life.
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