SONGWRITING Part One:
Being prepared when inspiration hits
by Matt Kealley
I have noticed that members of Guitar Alliance have posted questions on
various aspects of songwriting in the forums.
This is a subject that is close to my heart and
while I don’t profess to be an expert songwriter or have
a number one hit song in the charts, I do enjoy this creative
art form.
Over the next few months I would like to share my views on songwriting
that I have learnt from my experiences with the Guitar
Alliance community. Please enjoy part one of songwriting: Being prepared when inspiration hits.
Scenario # 1. You are strumming
your acoustic guitar, freshly polished, new strings and
perfectly tuned. The
sound is bright and crisp.
You are playing a few chords that you have learnt
from Guitar Alliance when bam!
A brilliant chord progression hits you like a bolt
of lightning.
You rush to find a pen and paper and grab a pen that hasn’t been used
since your primary school days. You etch down your chord
progression on an old scrap of newspaper dated January
7th 1994 that you found under a pile of magazines,
yellowing from age. By
the time you finally get the pen working you have forgotten
the chord progression and have managed to get blue ink
all over your hands and freshly polished guitar.
Scenario # 2. You are rocking out a few riffs that you have
seen on Guitar Alliance.
Your fingers are in rare form, your axe is smoking,
the distortion and overdrive pedals are on, and your amp
is cranked all the way up to three because it is too loud
for the neighbours at 11pm on a Wednesday night. You think to yourself “what if I tried the
riff this way?” Suddenly
the heavens rumble and bam!
That bolt of lightning strikes once again.
You quickly grab the old tape
recorder sitting in the corner and dust off the buttons
to find record. You
press the record button and play the riff only to find
on playback that the batteries are almost dead and you
have recorded a Barry White-on-Prozac sounding riff over
your missing bootleg of the last ever live concert of
AC/DC with Bon Scott (RIP).
Scenario # 3. You are sitting in the car, window down, stuck
in traffic, waiting for the lights to change. You are thinking about what you will have for dinner. Will it be the left over pasta from the other
night or burgers as suggested by that enticing billboard
advert across the street?
Your eyes wander to the next couple of billboards
when the words from a slogan grab your attention. You think, “I should write that down, it would
make a good chorus for a song.”
Suddenly the skies turn dark, rumbling with thick
black clouds and, err, well, you know the rest.
Words start filling your head.
You scramble to find some paper and end up scribbling
down some illegible prose onto an old tatty, parking ticket
that has been sitting on the dashboard for five months. The lights turn green and you’re still frantically
trying to fit the words onto the tiny space. The guy behind you leans on his horn and in
your haste to get moving, you drop the ticket, which in
turn gracefully floats out the window. The lights turn
red just as you release the hand brake and you stall in
the middle of the intersection, much to the disgust and
tooting of the other motorists.
OK, these scenarios are little bit dramatic but have any of these things
ever happened to you?
They have all happened to me in some form at one
time or another. Inspiration can come at anytime so my advice
to the prospective songwriter is “be prepared.”
Songwriting is all about getting
your inspiration recorded in some format, so you can go
back to it at a later stage and develop on it.
Notice that I said develop on it.
Songwriting is an ever-evolving process of filling
in the gaps that you haven’t quite completed and polishing
the parts that you have. The initial idea of a song may come quickly, but fleshing it out
is where the creative and enjoyable part occurs.
The following items are what
I would recommend to help you prepare for such an event. They don’t have to be expensive, but make sure
that they are practical and reachable at the moment when
inspiration strikes.
- A notebook – for jotting down words,
lyrics, chord progressions, and ideas.
- A pocket-sized notebook – as above
but keep this on you at all times.
- A file with clear-plastic sheet holders – this will
become your song file for works in progress.
- At lease two pencils - preferably
the mechanical style to go with each notebook. Mechanical pencils are good because you
don’t need to sharpen them.
- A pencil sharpener – OK, if you prefer normal
pencils you will need this.
- A tape-recorder – to record any chord
progressions, riffs, tunes, words, lyrics, or ideas. Tape recorders are a very handy tool for
the songwriter.
- Cassette Tapes - for the tape recorder.
- Batteries - for the tape recorder.
Ok, you are now prepared.
Lets apply these items to scenarios one, two, and
three.
Scenario # 1. You are strumming
your acoustic guitar, freshly polished, new strings and
perfectly tuned. The
sound is bright and crisp.
You are playing a few chords that you have learnt
from Guitar Alliance when bam! A brilliant chord progression hits you like a bolt of lightning.
You grab your pencil and notebook and jot the chords down. You play around with the chord combinations
and work out the verse, chorus, and bridge progressions,
writing these down. The
beginnings of a song are in the making.
When you have exhausted your ideas, take that page,
rip it out, and slide it into your song file for future
reworking.
Scenario # 2. You are rocking out a few riffs that you have
seen on Guitar Alliance.
Your fingers are in rare form, your axe is smoking,
the distortion and overdrive pedals are on, and your amp
is cranked all the way up to three because it is too loud
for the neighbours at 11pm on a Wednesday night. You think to yourself “what if I tried the riff this way?” Suddenly the heavens rumble and bam! That bolt of lightning strikes once again.
You quickly grab the tape recorder
sitting next to your amp. Batteries new and fully charged. You press the record button and play the riff
to you tape recorder containing the new cassette tape
labelled “originals tape 1”.
You play back the riff and begin creating your
next original tune, writing notes about the song and the
chords used for the riff.
You also write down in your notebook the songs
working title and the cassette tape it was recorded on.
Scenario # 3. You are sitting in the car, window down, stuck
in traffic, waiting for the lights to change. You are thinking about what you will have for dinner. Will it be the left over pasta from the other
night or burgers as suggested by that enticing billboard
across the street? Your
eyes wander to the next couple of billboards when the
words from a slogan grab your attention. You think, “I should write that down, it would
make a good song.” Suddenly,
the skies turn dark, rumbling with thick black clouds
and, ok, ok, you get the picture.
Words start filling your head.
You grab your pocket notebook and pencil from your
shirt pocket and write down the inspirational prose, filling
up line after line. You
read back the words and see the lyrical beginnings to
your next song. The lights turn green and you head home to
put the idea in motion.
Below are a few guidelines
that I follow when inspiration hits.
- Write down or record your ideas when they happen. That way they remain fresh
and you won’t forget them when something else sidetracks
you. Believe me, something else will sidetrack
you and the idea will be lost.
Sometimes when I am at work, I will sing my tunes
onto my home answering machine, so when I get home,
I can develop on the idea further.
My wife thinks I’m crazy!
- Expand on these ideas. Keep expanding on the
idea until you can’t think of anything more to write
or play. When you look back at the material you
have created, there may just be a diamond in all of
that rough.
- Don’t rub or scribble anything out. Notice I didn’t have an eraser in that
item list. There
are no wrong or bad ideas in songwriting.
Everything that you write or record could be
usable in your current song or a future song.
Skim off the cream and accept that not all of
your material will be used for this song.
- Be honest and play from the heart. Writing with honesty and playing from
the heart will provide you with so much more inspiration. Sometimes reading back what you have written
may cut too close to the bone, but that is what sets
great songs apart from good songs.
Often, it is these types of songs that people
can most relate to because they find something in the
song that fits their own situation. Think about the songs that you really
relate to. Why
do you relate to them?
What is it about them? Now that you are aware of this, use it
to your advantage.
- Have fun and experiment. After all, songwriting is creative and
is not meant to be a chore!
If something doesn’t quite work, drop it or experiment
until it does.
Until the next instalment.
Let the lightning strike!
FolkyMatt
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