With the holidays just behind us, the beginning of a new term at Berkleemusic is only a week away. Silent night has transitioned into unfinished choruses and verses in Dorian mode, so I’d like to provide a little information on what types of songwriting courses will be available to tie up those lonely sections. Please refer to the course catalog descriptions when making your decisions, but feel free to use my descriptions below as supplemental material.

Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies
This course is an overview of some of the structural, rhyming, and content building tools you’ll use in your daily songwriting. The value of this course lies in the consistent object writing and daily application of these tools, providing you with a solid foundation for writing with more intention. If you are a beginning songwriter, this course is a great place to start. If you are an advanced songwriter, this course is a great place to flourish. The lesson plan is specific, but the content you write depends entirely on your preferences. For that reason, it’s a great class to take to build on your skills and also build a catalog of lyrics.

Lyric Writing: Writing Lyrics to Music
This course is exactly how it sounds – you’ll be writing lyrics to match already written melodies online. If you find that you write music before lyrics and then stumble about during the lyric writing process, you’ll find what you need here. You’ll work to improve the conversational quality of your lyrics, identify title positions and understand the stress patterns of both lyrical phrases and melodic phrases.

Commercial Songwriting Techniques
In this course you’ll be writing music and lyric, and posting several full songs throughout the 12 weeks. Our focus is on content and learning how to brainstorm for it, organize it, and design it into song forms that are commercially viable. With a new process, you’ll find rhymes, structural clues, and titles through a style of writing called Destination Writing. Gather tools for writing music that enhances the lyrical message and more effectively engages your listener. If you’re motivated and looking to push the borders of your writing, you would enjoy this class.

Lyric Writing: Writing From The Title
In this course you’ll let the title guide you in developing the rest of the song lyric. A widely used and effective technique, using the title to spark ideas will quicken your writing process, lend more commercial quality, and improve your storytelling. We’ll work with rhythm, letting the title inspire rhythmic consistency throughout the rest of the song, and discover how broader rhymes can lend more possibility instead of keep us cornered at the ends of lines. This course also involves posting musical bits and pieces. ]]> http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/2009/01/berkleemusiccom-winter-course-offerings/feed/ http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/2008/12/music-libraries-and-filmtv/ http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/2008/12/music-libraries-and-filmtv/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:18:12 +0000 Andrea http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/?p=130 A big area of interest these days for independent and signed songwriters and artists alike is film and TV.  The acquisition of music libraries is a current trend in the industry, and is of growing interest to those of us looking to gain exposure and increase our income from the music we create.   I’d like to share with you a networking and informational tool songwriters and industry professionals use to place songs.  I suggest doing some research on your own to decide whether the cost is worth the reward, and whether this service is in line with your professional goals.

The service is called ‘Internet Movie Database’ or IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369436/.  You may have visited the site as a movie or TV fanatic.  Click on IMDb Pro, and you’ll be taken to an area where you can find entertainment news from the Hollywood Reporter, the key industry print for music professionals, and ‘in production charts’ displaying projects ‘in production’ looking for music.  Also listed are contact names and numbers.

I was recently speaking with a few music supervisors, and was surprised to hear that they use this service regularly.  I figured that their inside information would come from the networks and circles in which they worked, and certainly some projects do, but they supplemented their information with that on IMDb.  I have not tried the service myself, so I can’t comment personally on the results.

What I do like about the service, however, is that it keeps us in control.  It’s merely a research tool, and from there, we can form relationships ourselves with those placing music in film/TV.  The question might be ‘do we need this service to form those relationships in the first place’?   To me, it’s always a question of ‘cost and effect.’  With unlimited funds, there would be no end to the number of ways we could think of to market our music.  So our goal then is to balance budget with results.

Happy writing -
Andrea

The group I’ve helped develop has been together for a couple of years now and has been financed by a production studio in New York. The music is getting recognized by many important connects, but the image and sound of the group is not as successful. Since we have an abundance of songs, we were looking into getting some of them published. How do we go about that? Also, is there any way to apply for a staff writing deal at a major music publisher?

This is a question I received in response to a previous blog, ‘Becoming A Staff Writer,’ and I’d like to share with you a few of my thoughts in the hopes it’s helpful to others as well.

Here is a unique situation where the songs of a group are getting recognized beyond the image or sound of the group. Typically, groups are formed specifically for their image and niche, rather than because of the quality of the songs. So, if your songs are getting attention, consider that a serious strong-point. Working out a unique image and brand of the group can be significantly easier when the songs are already taking shape.

The question here is about how to promote the group as writers and not only as artists. Becoming published writers means that the writers are represented by a company who is willing to promote their songs to industry opportunities. Publishing companies depend on their writers to deliver songs appropriate for their pitching needs. So, finding out which publishers are right for you takes a clear sense of what kind of songs you write and what niche those songs could be marketed within. Pursuing those important connections that the group is already accessing is a perfect step in finding interested publishers. Use those connections, asking them specifically for what you need. There’s no shame in letting your contacts know you’re interested in finding a publisher who believes in the songs of the group. Your contacts know you’re looking for opportunities, but getting specific about what kind can jog their minds and bring their own contacts to the surface they may not have ordinarily thought of.

Music publishers are tapped into current opportunities. They are in the know about what artists are looking for songs, what kinds of songs they’re looking for, and have some power to connect writers with artists interested in co-writing. Because of this function, we writers often mistake a publishing deal for the golden ticket rather than a step along the way to getting our songs recorded. Publishers can indeed broaden our connections significantly, but it is always the responsibility of the writer to continue networking and getting involved in promising opportunities.

You may find my blog on publishing relevant here ‘Publishing Your Own Songs.’ Getting a deal does not mean getting songs recorded or placed. It simply means a publisher is willing to invest in your career, providing you a little time and money to write material they may pitch and get placed in months and years to come. There are many ways you can go about finding music publishers. The best ways are through personal referrals and personal relationships. Unless you are already getting your songs placed on your own, in which case you may not need a publisher, you are going to be a significant risk for the publisher that signs you. So, a publisher needs to get to know you first, watch your writing over time to make sure you’re consistently prolific, and get an idea how you will fit into the company of writers already signed.

Consider also the Film/TV market. A good additional income, the result here is exposure, and so you’ll want to pinpoint those music supervisors who need the kind of music you create. Think of the shows that use the kind of music you make. Watch the credits for the music editor and supervisors and do some research on the internet to find contact information, etc. The more clearly you understand what they’re looking for, the more you can become an asset to those placing the songs. If you can serve up your music hassle-free without a lot of paperwork or clearance, you’ll find doors opening up here as they are for many independent artists. One issue you may consider is that if you retain your own publishing, it is easier for music supervisors to work with you. All the clearance they need to place the song they can get from you, rather than a large company demanding significant time and money to get the placement rolling.

Keep broadening your circle of contacts, and learning about what a publishing deal entails. Many writers who are successful in publishing deals have the ability to change colors like a chameleon, and enjoy doing so. Writing for others, especially when we don’t particularly enjoy the music we’re collaborating on, requires some unique skills. Writers who are also artists sometimes find these challenges tough, and not worth the effort when considering their final goals of pursuing their own artist careers. Much of the songs we write as staff writers don’t make it out of the dusty catalog shelves in the basement of the publishing company, simply because there are so many songs out there vying for the same placements. You’ve got to believe wholeheartedly in what you’re trying to accomplish. The goal is not to get signed, but to have an influential and lasting career doing what you do best and enjoy in times when the only reward is the music itself.

Andrea Stolpe

]]> http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/2008/12/placing-songs-and-creating-opportunities/feed/ http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/2008/12/using-imagery-in-songs/ http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/2008/12/using-imagery-in-songs/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:42:56 +0000 Andrea http://www.songwritingtechniques.net/?p=123

…I love the part of your book where you said the greater the detail, the less time has passed. I think we live moment to moment, so it makes sense songs should too.
But one thing that came to mind is, once you have zeroed in on a particular moment with detail, where do you go from there? Do you string together different moments with each verse, or do you keep defining the same detailed moment throughout?

This is a great question pertaining to the craft of writing with external or ‘showing’ language as opposed to internal or ‘telling’ language. When we draw a listener into a specific moment, we’re drawing a picture in which we can evoke certain emotions. Those emotions draw their importance from the scene we’ve set, and so the question is how to craft the song around that scene to make our main message truly believable and powerful. I’d like to show you how to use a few techniques from my book Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling, and Commercial Songwriting Techniques, the online www.berkleemusic.com course, to apply this kind of imagery to your own songs.

I’m going to give you an overview of the process rather than outline each step.
First, to use imagery effectively we need to be aware of what kind of mood we’re trying to create. In other words, if we’re trying to evoke compassion and tears in the heart of our listener, we wouldn’t begin by describing a beautiful sunny summer day. Our details determine the feelings our listener will experience. Let me work with an example to pick this apart.

You look around, the room’s a mess
with dirty plates and empty cans
you spend your days just flipping channels
round and round

This is the first verse of a song I was working on awhile ago. Consider the details I’ve used here and what mood they create. The way I began writing this verse, and the way I begin writing many of my songs, is by choosing a location. When I’ve chosen that location, I begin to describe the things I see around me. In the case of this song, I may see shades pulled, morning light slanting in thin strips across the stained carpet of a ratty one-bedroom in LA. I see dirty dishes and a frayed couch sitting 5 ft. from a dated TV, I smell stale air and hear the drone of the neighbors through card-board thin walls. These details are simply drawing the picture so that my listener can feel what I feel instead of just take my word for it. When I go to write the actual verse, I simply choose the details that I want to include. Here, those details were, ‘room’s a mess’, ‘dirty plates’, ‘empty cans’, ‘flipping channels round and round’, which were all part of my original Destination Writing. (For more on Destination Writing, see Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling).

Once we’ve set the scene, our internal ‘telling’ language or ‘thoughts and feelings’, can make a bigger impact. The listener has context in which to feel what we feel instead of just being told how to feel. Here is verse two, in which I use much more internal thoughts and feelings:

She is gone and it’s a fact
you saw the truth a long time back
this was one that wouldn’t last…but

Now I’ve come to the chorus section. Here, my chorus starts as a pick-up to beat one, and so that fills in that missing fourth line of verse two where you may have noticed verse one and verse two do not match. Choruses are typically thoughts and feelings instead of images. The reason is that with imagery, we’re describing a moment in time rather than commenting on the big picture. Choruses describe the big picture, giving the whole song purpose:

Wasn’t she worth it
wasn’t she wonderful
the heaven and the hell that she was cursed with
But wasn’t it brilliant
just for a moment you felt
everything alive that you could hurt with
Wasn’t she worth it
now that the worst is almost done

Now we’re at that point in the song where we’ve got to figure out how to keep our listener interested. The dreaded second verse (verse after the first chorus and in this case, my third verse) can be tricky. But, when we think in terms of ‘showing’ details, we need only choose another location to get started again. Since my first verse was set in an apartment or room, I figured that to return to describing that room would be slightly redundant. So, I decided to move my main character outside. Notice how the ‘moment’ is not as specific here. Apart from the first line, my details are more broad, commenting on a bigger moment.

You walk the streets but in your mind
you turn the pages back in time
and all the places seem to fade like
another lifetime

But such a sweet and perfect lie
and you believed it for awhile
she broke you down and built you higher…but

I could have described more of what this person sees as he walks the streets. Maybe there is a specific place that captures a memory. Those ideas would be effective as well in creating an interesting verse. But here, I decided to stay on the surface of the image. The important idea to notice is that we can stay more surface for later verses as long as our first verse sets the stage. All of what we think and feel will be understood in the context of the initial scene.

When we’re writing with imagery, we can keep coming back to specific moments to generate song material. I suggest trying to get specific as often as possible, considering the location and then describing taste, touch, sight, smell, sound, and movement. Don’t be afraid of becoming too detailed. As you rewrite, it will be much easier to pull back into generic thoughts and feelings than to become more detailed where you’ve only skimmed the surface. Finding that balance between imagery and thoughts/feelings takes some skill that you’ll develop over time working with these tools. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how many ideas you have, and how you can capture the listener’s attention with more intensity as you work imagery into your songs.

Happy writing,
Andrea

One of the most important things we can do to grow our songwriting careers is surround ourselves with a support system. Family and friends can be nice sounding boards when we’ve written a new tune, but we often don’t get the kind of feedback that is going to grow us as writers and push us as business-people. Forming a group of writers who meet monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly if you can spare the time, will shoot your skills into the stratosphere much quicker than if you’re working on your own. One reason is that we need the experience of giving feedback as well as getting feedback on our songs. When we give feedback, we’re engaging our analytical skills to try and describe why an area of a song left us bored or excited, confused, elated, or awestruck. When we can identify why we felt a certain way, we can start to name the tool behind the emotion. When we receive feedback to our own songs, we’re often too close to the tree to see the forest, so to speak. Our emotions can get in the way too, as the song we worked hard to craft gets picked apart by others not so invested in our tunes.

The Nashville Songwriters Association, International, or NSAI, offers workshops in many cities across the United States and abroad. These workshops are started by songwriters just like you, looking for a community in which to grow their music. I strongly encourage you to get involved in your local songwriting community, even if you feel your own skills are either less developed, or more advanced than those you find in the group. You will be an asset either way, and what’s more, they will be an asset to you as you learn to become a pro at critiquing songs, hear about opportunities in the area for performing or pitching, etc.

If there isn’t a group in your area, consider starting one. If your town is a bit smaller, you may run into the problem of being the only songwriter on the block. In this case, it might be a good idea to do some scouting about. Try visiting your local music store, or the music store in a neighboring town, and hang up flyers advertising a songwriting group getting started. Visit your local bookstores and get the word out to writers of poetry, spoken word, novels, etc. These people can be more educated sounding boards than your average listener who has not put pen to paper and discovered some of the challenges that come with it.

Think about other places music is played or studied. Check out a community college where music courses attract all types of musicians, or private lesson teachers in the area who may be interested in meeting and sharing their music.
Consider also college level literature courses where many writers have flirted with the idea of writing songs. Put an ad in your local paper if that’s what it takes to get a group going.

A group can consist of 3 people, or it can include as many as 25. How big your group gets affects how you’ll structure the time, and here are a few ideas for activities to get you started:

-Try starting the meeting with a listening exercise. Have each person of the group bring in a song they admire, and listen to one example per meeting. Consider why the song captures our interest, whether it’s lyric or music or both, the performance, the arrangement, and what specific aspects of each make the song so powerful. Try to define the different song sections of verse, prechorus (optional), chorus, and bridge (optional). If it’s a verse/refrain song, notice where the refrain lands.

-Try working through a songwriting book as a group. Some books I recommend for music and lyric focus are Jimmy Kachulis’ Songwriting Workshop: Melody and Songwriting Workshop: Harmony. For lyric, you might try my book, Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling. Take one chapter a month and work through the exercises together, or as each person shares a song, talk about the song as it relates to the tools of the chapter.

-Do some writing together by moving through some brainstorming exercises. You might spend 15 minutes of the meeting time doing Object Writing or Destination Writing (see Pat Pattison’s Writing Better Lyrics, and my book, Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling). Choose a ‘location’ or an ‘object’ together, and have each person read out loud a few good lines.

Have fun with your group, and try not to get too discouraged when folks come and go. Know that for awhile you might be the core of the group and the most committed to seeing results. You also might provide the inspiration and discipline others need to recognize their potential for writing songs.

Happy writing,
Andrea

If you are Object Writing or Destination Writing each day, you’re undoubtedly coming up with lots of material you can turn into songs. Many times we think we’ve got to start with a theme or topic clearly outlined to get a good tune. But, I’d like to show you how you might burst open another pot of ideas just by pulling interesting words and collisions out of thin air.

Whether or not we have a theme, we can start by choosing an ‘object’ to be the center of our song. I might look around the room and make a list of objects I see, like this:

Chimney

Wicker chair

Loveseat

Fax machine

Keys

Painting

Next, I’ll describe those objects in more detail with some taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, or movement ideas:

Chimney: puffs of smoke, exhaust, burning, fireproof, clogged, cords of wood, soot, ashes, brick, mortar

Wicker chair: Lacquer, hard, weave, cushion, pattern, frayed ends, peaceful, summer

Loveseat: Soft, worn in, cushion, bright pillows, sagging, beige, velvety, lived on, inviting, stuffing bursting

Fax Machine: buzz and beep, signal, flashing light, out of paper, cable, call, tray, jam, frustration, test

Keys: clink, hang, lost, sawed edges, unlock, secure, jingle

Painting: vivid color, texture, paint, brushstroke, curve, impression, wavy, outline, frame, gold, black, reflection, fine art

Now that I’ve got short lists of some of the characteristics of each object, I can draw some comparisons. I’m going to choose a few universal song themes and throw them against my nouns. Some universal themes we all know are finding love, losing love, longing for love, moving on, taking on the future with optimism, etc. So I’ll start with the first:

How is love like a chimney? In what ways does love burn, turn to ash, feel like brick and mortar, send up smoke signals, leave a layer of soot? We’re not talking literally here, of course, but metaphorically. This love could rage like kindling, could burn out and leave nothing but wisps of ash, the memory of it caked like thick soot, or block me in like brick and mortar.

How is love like a wicker chair? This love is woven tight, is weathered and hard from years of wear and tear, frayed on the edges. Or, it’s playful like a summer vacation, comfortable, peaceful and unassuming.

How is love like a fax machine? What kind of relationship runs out of paper when you need it most? How about has trouble connecting, requires a progress report, rings but there’s no-one on the other line, gets jammed?

The trick here is to let your imagination run, lengthening your list of characteristics of your noun and tossing each against the thematic idea. Though you may start with the same theme each time, such as love, you’ll get quite different song ideas depending on the noun you choose.

We can use this technique to brainstorm our song beginnings, or we can choose to return to metaphor to liven up a second verse, for example. After the first chorus, we move back into verse territory, and metaphor can provide excellent content that allows the story to progress while adding weight and purpose to the story. Just be careful to choose metaphor that stays relevant to the mood of the song. In other words, keep your metaphors consistent. We’re painting with a specific palette of color when we’re using metaphor, and changing that palette midway through the song can feel like switching out our main character for somebody else. If you begin with a wicker chair, consider the mood you’re creating. Then consider what other objects also reflect that same mood. If ‘wicker chair’ symbolizes comfort and hope, I may disrupt that mood if I later use ‘sleek business suit’ as a metaphor. Instead, I can move to a metaphor in which ‘wicker chair’ still has context, such as ‘leather-bound book,’ or ‘tea cup.’ Give it a try next time you’re searching for that unique perspective making your universal theme songs different from any other.

Happy writing,

Andrea

I live in Philadelphia and I want to break into songwriting so bad – I am not sure if I can afford to take classes at the moment and wanted to know if you had an alternative or knew what I could do. I have been thinking about relocation to NYC to hone my skills, but the thought of Nashville, TN always pops up in my head since that is the heart of Songwriting. What are your thoughts? I am self taught at guitar and have been writing song lyrics and songs all of my life. This is my passion and the thought of being stuck in an office all of my life really doesn’t appeal.

-Geoff G.

Many of us find ourselves asking these same questions as we contemplate a career in music. At the risk of sounding like a Dear Abby column, I’d like to talk a bit about the industry and the honest truth of the challenges we face as writers and artists. Perhaps you’ll find your inner compass pointing you towards new horizons.

First off, what does it mean to ‘break into’ songwriting? It could mean getting hired on as a staff-writer at a publishing company. It could mean becoming a vital part of a songwriting team already involved in the careers of promising artists. It might mean grabbing the attention of music supervisors for film and TV, or becoming known among communities of independent filmmakers looking for good music. It might be writing for commercials, or it simply might mean unearthing opportunities for writing music wherever music is played. There are so many reasons to write songs, it’s difficult to predict which path our career is going to take.

If you’ve got the ambition, there are a few good places to start exposing your music and talents to the world of songwriting. Many of those places I explain in other blogs, and here are two to get you started:

NSAI – Nashville Songwriter’s Association, International. Get involved in your local chapter, as most major cities have monthly meetings. Take advantage of all the resources this association offers and search the website for pitching opportunities, connecting with other writers, and critique and instructional services.

ASCAP – American Association of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Familiarize yourself with this association, and take advantage of the resources and information found on the website. Sign up for the free newsletter.

As important as making connections, it’s vital we keep improving and refining our skills as writers. If you truly want to break into songwriting, you must write consistently. Try devoting an hour a day to writing – and more if you can spare it. If you are reading any songwriting instructional books, and I recommend the melody and harmony books by Jimmy Kachulis and the lyric books by Pat Pattison and myself, make sure to apply the material of each chapter as you read. Read a few pages each day and to digest the material, employ the techniques in a new melody idea, harmonic progression, or lyric.

Other things you can do to start your songwriting career is connecting with other artists and writers in your local community. Go to shows and introduce yourself to writers and artists you enjoy. Ask where they are playing again, and get to know their music, their story, their needs. Build relationships with people who are doing what you want to do on the local and regional level. Over time you’ll find yourself helping others and helping yourself create opportunities for advancement.

The major cities we think of when we consider a career in the mainstream music market are Nashville, NYC, and LA. The critical word here is ‘mainstream’. It’s really important to understand that these cities are overflowing with artists and writers just like you and me with the same dreams of making it in the music industry. With such saturation, a big challenge is getting noticed in the crowd. Lots of networking, long hours, and years of dedication with no assurance that it’s all going to pay off are constant challenges for anyone devoting a life to a career in music. Nashville is indeed a song town, with some of the greatest writers on the planet. Time spent in Nashville can be like graduate school for songwriters, and I myself lived and worked there for the first decade of my music career. There are many styles of music happening in Nashville, but the primary style is country music. If your goal is to become a staff writer in the country music vein, then Nashville would be a great choice. If your goal is to write mainstream pop, alternative rock, or work with bands and artists stretching their styles in the independent music scene, then Nashville may not suit you. Before you move, it might be a good idea to take a visit. NSAI has some wonderful multi-day workshops and camps during which you can get your feet wet.

It’s vital that we understand our own strengths as writers and clarify our goals as we consider where to live. In every major city there are people – large numbers of potential fans with varying preferences in music. Consider what opportunities you may be overlooking for reaching those people who might like to buy your music. Again, get familiar with the local artists and groups who are doing what you would like to do. Identify the places music like yours is played, and how you might become involved in those circles. Moving to a major music mecca can be one way to approach a career in the industry, but it’s not the only approach. We may be in a situation where uprooting our family or simply paying double our current rent or mortgage just isn’t an option. What that means then is you’ve simply got to take advantage of the opportunities available to you within your geographic area. Once you start scouting around, getting involved in your local NSAI chapter and meeting other artists and writers, you’ll find opportunities sprouting where you didn’t expect.

Becoming immersed in a songwriting community takes time and dedication. Take inventory every few months and assess where you’re at and where you’re going. Learn as much as you can about the industry in your local area, and also the industries of major music cities. Each city has a vibe, a style of writing and artistry, and a way of doing business. I encourage you to find out what unique aspects of your artistry call to various opportunities in music, rather than what opportunities in music you can define your own artistry by.

Andrea Stolpe

Whether you are the kind of writer for whom the whole song falls out in 15 minutes, or you painfully deliberate for hours over each line, there are a few quick rewriting tools that can help polish that final product. To apply these tools, sometimes we’ve got to be flexible with our melodic rhythms and pitches, open to adding or taking away a syllable or two as the lyric dictates. Other times we’ve got to be careful not to play and sing the song too much while we write, to avoid convincing ourselves something sounds natural when it actually doesn’t. Singing an unnaturally set phrase over and over again enables us to ‘learn’ the part, which can make it very difficult for a demo singer or the audience later on to sing and remember the song. Staying objective can mean keeping enough distance between you and the performance. When our gut tells us something didn’t sing right at first, our impulse may be to sing it again and convince ourselves we don’t need to go through the work of rewriting. But, give yourself enough credit as a skilled writer to practice seeing opportunities for making the melody even better, the harmonies even more complimentary, and the rhythm even more exciting. Remember, whether you’re pitching your songs to other artists to record or recording your songs yourself, the listener only gets one chance – and they’ll be relying on their first impression.

Point of View

One fun tool you might start with is changing the point of view of the song. First, check to make sure you have kept the point of view consistent throughout the song. If you start with ‘I’, then switch to ‘you’ or ‘he/she’, your listener can wind up confused. Establishing clear characters is the first step in making sure your listener can connect emotionally to the song, rather than sit there trying to figure out who’s doing the talking. After you’ve got it in one point of view, consider which point of view you’re working with.

First person point of view uses ‘I’. ‘I remember when…’ or ‘I thought I saw you there…’.

Second person point of view uses ‘you’. ‘You took the train to New Orleans…’.

Third person point of view uses ‘he/she’. ‘She held the ticket in her hand, and knew he wasn’t far away…’.

In third person point of view, the singer is the narrator, not part of the story but looking from the outside in.

If you’re in first person p.o.v., try changing to second person, replacing all the ‘I’ pronouns with ‘you’. If you’re in third person, try changing to first person p.o.v. If you’re in first person, try changing to third. Play the whole song and even record a rough guitar/vocal or piano/vocal of it. Sit back and listen to both versions and try to imagine yourself as the listener. What kind of impact do you feel from both versions? Does first person feel more intimate, more suspenseful, more purposeful or empowering? Does third person lend a more mysterious or adventurous mood? How does the point of view affect the overall emotion of the song?

Verb Exchange

Another technique you might use is exchanging your verbs for more specific verbs. Verbs hold so much potential in a lyric, able to burst forth strong feelings of movement and texture, or disempower those feelings and leave the lyric lying flat. Let me give you an example. In the lyric below, I’ve used generic verbs:

You’re putting sugar packets under the table leg
but it just seems it’s built to slant
and it’s making you crazy
I’m moving runny eggs around a breakfast plate
watching you put your face
in complete frustration

Now here is the same verse, with more specific verbs:

You’re stuffing sugar packets under the table leg
but it just seems it’s built to slant
and it’s driving you crazy
I’m pushing runny eggs around a breakfast plate
watching you twist your face
in complete frustration

By livening up the verbs, I can create a more vivid situation. The more vivid the situation, the more my listener feels a part of the experience rather than an observer from the sidelines. Try using this technique with the help of your thesaurus to find verb substitutions. In some cases you’ll be able to match the number of syllables and stress pattern of the original verb, and in other cases you’ll find a great verb that requires more or fewer syllables. All in all, it’s good to have options. Writing with control over all these elements means we can better gauge how strongly we’ll capture the attention of our listener.

Happy writing,
Andrea

Over a steaming cup of tea and some of the best sweet potato fries I’ve even eaten, I recently met with a past student and fellow songwriter of mine, Joy Gora, in Boston, MA. We talked about the craft, about the daily challenges and the victories we experience as we journey through the business. I found her insight about song critiques particularly valuable, and asked her to write a bit to share with my Berkleemusic readers. Joy is a wonderful lyricist, singer/songwriter, and former student of the Berkleemusic songwriting courses. Below you’ll find some of the things she’s doing to promote her songs and examples of feedback she’s gotten from various sources like TAXI and NSAI. You can hear more of Joy’s music at http://www.lyricwriter.net/.

Song Critiques
Even though music is an extremely subjective art, I’ve often leaned on feedback from different sources in order to improve my own craft of writing songs. I will admit that as a Berkleemusic student I have been quite spoiled with quality detailed instructor feedback and a warm supportive environment of fellow songwriting students. But outside of the classroom I’ve found a variety of song evaluation methods offering different styles and opinions. And I use the word opinion because I believe a song critique is just that – one person’s opinion.
Hopefully critiques are coming from an educated opinion, but I believe even comments from fans attending shows can be very enlightening. If you are looking for a way to improve your songwriting through feedback here are a few sources you may want to consider.
Friends and family – Ok this one may seem dull, but I can’t leave out the support system of those that want to see you succeed and those that will always tell you how great your writing is. It’s invaluable, especially on those days when you wonder how “good” your stuff really is. Let them cheer you on.

Other songwriter friends and musicians can appreciate the depth of your soul that goes into your art and they can often times make cool suggestions while still treading lightly on your work. A friend of mine will send songs out to her friends saying, “let me know which ones you like the best.” If she gets replies from them and everyone is saying “I love song #3″ then she knows that particular one resonates with people.

Your fan base – If you have the opportunity to play live, your audience can sometimes be the best critic. If someone takes the time at the end of the night to comment on a song or if you silence a room with your latest ballad that may mean something to you as you continue to write.

Taxi – Taxi is an “independent A&R company.” Outiside of my Berklee classes, one of my first experiences with a song evaluation was from TAXI. These critiques are streamlined into a form style of evaluation with a multiple choice answer with some room for actual comments. You get back a combination of song opinion and the experience of what it’s like to interact with the gatekeeper of an artist looking for new material. These particular evaluations are really in the confines of that particular listing. If you’ve never pitched you stuff to and A& R person, it’s a safe way to build your courage muscles for rejection!

The areas of focus for Taxi critiques are Style (was it right for the artist), Melody, Structure, Lyric, Title, Overall Rating and verbal overall comments. I think their focus is more on why the song wasn’t forwarded than specific suggestions as to how you could improve your writing or song. To give you a sense, here are a few of the comments I’ve gotten from my last few evaluations:

“Really Nice work here, but for a debut album by a young country artist, the theme here is a bit too mature (especially for commercial country. The hook needs to be a bit more repetitious and better defined. I really enjoyed the song though”

“A really nice love song with some expressive lyrics, but it’s not quite the style of song that they’re looking for with this request. Songs like those of Shania Twain and Carolyn Dawn are what they need. Clever stories with memorable country pop melodies/hooks are what this artist is trying to find. But still, this is a good love song, good writing.”

“There is some nice imagery here and you sell the emotion well, but musically it is just a little too busy and is not quite in the style that is being requested. The musical attitude is much more pop than country – a bit too sophisticated.”

Nashville Songwriters Association International – As a member of NSAI, you may submit one song per month for evaluation. An independent team of published songwriters will evaluate each song’s commercial potential and return an evaluation. Any song submitted to the Song Evaluation Service that is judged “Ready-to-Pitch” by the song’s evaluator is then screened by the entire panel of NSAI song evaluators. If approved, the song is played for major music publishers and label A&R representatives at NSAI’s exclusive Pitch to Publisher Quarterly Luncheon. On a quarterly basis, they play the best songs from their Song Evaluation service for a “who’s who” of Nashville publishers at their in-person listening session.

The focus for these critiques is: overview, form, hook, lyric, melody, and commercial viability. Usually you get a one or two line statement under each subject. Here are a couple of sample comments from my own evaluations:

“ Very good overall especially the 2nd verse. The chorus bothered me though. It needs more edge. It feels too wholesome and fuzzy. Very good with a few fixes. Add some tongue in cheek wit”

“ I like the hook and idea. The lyrics were good, I would work on making them more youthful. Keep it simple so the listener can enjoy the song without having to think too much”

Song Camps and Workshops – A fellow songwriter friend of mine had the opportunity to get a one-on-one session with Pat Pattison and Jason Blume based on the way a particular workshop was set up. There were large group lectures that broke-out into small sessions where she got to work with other hit writers. She told me this experience changed her life and how she approached music, writing and her career.

Pitch to Publisher Events – ASCAP, and BMI come to mind as organizations that help you get in front of a publisher with your music. As an example, ASCAP has an event called Song Source every Wednesday afternoon in Nashville that allows each participant an opportunity to play their most commercial song to a music publisher and get direct feedback.

Proven Professional Songwriters – Ok, I’ve saved my favorite for last. There are numerous hit songwriters that are genuinely interested in sharing their knowledge to help you pen the best songs possible. They help you dig deep inside of yourself to bring out what unique experiences only you bring to the world of music. They can help you turn mediocre songs into great songs by offering specific, relevant hands on advice. These critiques are usually not generic, but rather focus on tools like, point of view, rhyme scheme, structure, power positions and originality.

There are certainly other places to seek opinions about your music, but whatever path you choose, I encourage you to let you songs see the light of day and play them to anyone who wants to give you an opinion. I personally have gained golden insight into how professionals in the industry look at music, what resonates with listeners, and tips to improve my writing. I have also disagreed with comments I have received so I caution you to try a variety of song evaluation sources and stick with the ones that are helpful to you. Take away from these critiques only what you want to take and throw out the rest. I was recently told that I had to “dumb down” my lyrics for a certain genre. My take away from that was not that I had to change my style of writing, but that my song just wasn’t right for that artist. I often remind myself of the many stories of songs that were rejected for years before they became hits.

Thanks to Joy for setting aside time to share her experience with us -

Andrea Stolpe

If you’ve been writing songs for a considerable length of time, or even if only for a short time, you might notice that many of your songs have a similar style or sound. Perhaps it’s a tempo you write in often, maybe it’s the movements of your harmonies, or rhythmic pattern in your melodies, or a strumming pattern in your guitar. Sometimes we get locked into a particular feel and though it produces a decent song, a whole album or live show continuing that feel gets monotonous for the listener and boring for us as writers.

One way that we can break out of our typical style is by co-writing. Letting someone else set the tempo, determine the key, dictate some harmonic changes, or twist the melody between two chords for awhile takes away some of our safety nets. It may feel awkward at first, as if you’re unable to tell whether what you’re writing is ‘good’ or not.

When two writers of different styles come together, the result can be bumpy and random, or it can result in an integration of the strong elements of both writers. I’ve had plenty of both results, but each experience has enabled me to listen to my own style in a different way. Over time I could see how the styles of my co-writers influenced my own writing.

When we don’t have the immediate option to co-write, we need to get resourceful with our own tools. Discovering and developing the various angles of our own style takes effort, moving beyond the subconscious inspiration that sometimes allows lyrics and melodies to just ‘fall out’. We can do this through a variety of tools, some of which I’ll describe here. Add your own tools as you think of them.

1. Set aside your instrument. Letting go of that guitar or piano for awhile and simply singing a melody can free up any limitations you experience by your instrument. If you’re a singer, let go of your vocal chords too. Find a quiet space, and imagine your favorite singer writing a new tune. Pretend you have access to his/her vocal quality and range, and begin to explore intervals or ranges you wouldn’t typically explore using your own instrument.

2. Pick up a new instrument. We’ve all exchanged instruments in band class on substitute teacher day, but this time I’d like you to consider picking up an instrument you’re not as familiar with for the sake of writing something outside your comfort zone. If you’re a guitar player, move over to the piano and try thinking melodically rather than rhythmically. If you’re a piano player, try picking up a guitar and strumming some rhythms with your right hand for a more percussive effect, muting the strings with your left.

3. Start writing a song to the intro of another tune. Pick a song you know or don’t know, and listen to the intro. The intro might be a groove or melodic motif or harmonic progression that sets the tone for the song. If you typically write ballads, try choosing an up-tempo intro and pause the song before the verse begins. Write your own verse melody inspired from the intro. Later, you can change the chords if you wish.

4. Set the metronome for various tempos and tap out the rhythm of a new melodic idea. Starting with rhythm can be a great tool if you’re used to writing the same tempos all the time. Many piano players get mired in ballad-land, and starting with a faster tempo in mind ensures that we’ll approach the lengths of our notes differently within the melody.

5. Try writing a whole song over one groove. You might write a 4 chord progression and use it throughout the verse and chorus. In this case, make sure you use melodic techniques like raised pitch, longer and shorter notes, and changes in your phrase lengths to get contrast between the song sections.

6. Write the lyric first. If you tend to write melody and lyric at the same time, try your hand at some lyrics and then go to the piano or guitar. If you write lyrics first, go to your instrument and write some music first.

7. Analyze similarities between your songs, and do the opposite. Look for consistent elements like long notes, the same harmonic progressions, always starting your melodic phrases on the downbeats or after or before the downbeats, ranges in the vocal, structural elements like rhyme schemes or even the rhymes you gravitate towards the most. Then, change them up by using shorter notes or changing the position of your phrases to beat two or three instead of always on beat one, letting the pitch of your chorus rise above that of your verses, changing the rhyme schemes, etc.

As with anything we endeavor, it’s those times of drought that spur growth. Keep forging ahead and you’ll find yourself emerging on the other side with some new songs that display a whole new side of your talent.

Happy writing,
Andrea