Originally Posted By: Planobilly


Guitarhacker, thank you for taking the time to provide a lot of useful feedback.

I was also thinking to rewrite this in a major/minor way. Perhaps creating a chorus that goes to the minor. The idea would be to use a minor chord to help define the feeling of a bit of letdown when the "show is over".

The idea I had was to express how it feels when the show is over and how there is no way to know what the outcome of the "show" will be, will I win or not. Then, a bit of reconnecting with home and how hard the trip back home is. Perhaps that is too many ideas in one song....


Be careful when thinking of switching to minor chords... it's generally OK to use minors IN the chorus, such as a 2 or 6 minor chord for interest... but be careful that the chorus still fits with the song. If you go all minor or start minor, that will be very hard to pull off successfully. I think it would be a much better idea to use WORDS and not CHORDS to try to convey the "feeling down" when the show is over.

You could however... do something like this....

(F) it's a cowboy's life when the rodeo is over (C...Am) miles to go (G) just to see her (F) face (G)
(F) Wipe a tear, from the (C) corner of his (Am) eye Never (F) show the pain, (G) it's a cowboys (C) life.

or

(Am) it's a cowboy's life (G) when the rodeo is over (C...Am) (F) miles to go just to see her (C) face (G)
(Am) Wipe a tear, from the (C) corner of his (Am) eye Never (F) show the pain, (G) it's a cowboys (C) life.

The ultimate choice is you're and could be totally different from this.... This is just a quick 2 minutes with a guitar example....

It is amazing just how much you can express when you pick and choose the correct/right words and phrases. Song writing is about boiling things down to their most basic and effective essence. Eliminate all the meaningless filler and the stuff that you might have thought was cool but is worthless to the big picture. That's the genius of songwriting.

It might help to envision that you are writing the script of a 3 minute movie. Complete with intro, setup, meet the characters, plot, and conclusion. Outline the idea.... What happens in each verse and then how does the chorus connect those 2 verses? Use a bridge ONLY if it's necessary AND if it adds something new, interesting, and creative to the song.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 10/18/15 05:34 AM.
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