SONGWRITING 101 #2
“Lovely Day Down Paradise Method” and “The Seaside!!!!”
And different songwriting tidbits
(I like to play stay music! I like to play
guitar! Nevertheless, above that, in the beginning I’m a songwriter.
I have been within the Key West Songwriter’s Competition (the biggest competition
of it is sort, on the earth) seven instances. BMI Nashville initially
invited me in by way of my writer, McClure and Trowbridge Publishing. My
songs have been requested by Trisha Yearwood, Garth Fundis, Chuck
Norris… and so forth. I am instructed that I am one of some songwriters in Key West
which are printed in Nashville. I used to be additionally instructed I’m the one
songwriter in Key West to be printed in each Nashville and London,
U.Ok. “Millennium Manufacturing Music” My oldest tune, “Wahoo Dawn”, was written in 1994. A number of years again, journalist and music producer Burt White was sort sufficient to name me one of the best songwriter in Key West.)
I all the time questioned about how I
approached songwriting. It labored and it labored very well. Nevertheless,
it was fairly completely different than the way in which most others do, or so I believed.
As I say,I knew it labored, and if it did not work very well, I would
by no means have develop into a songwriter to start with. Nevertheless, it does.
After a number of years of doing it “my manner” I heard an interview on NPR with
Paul McCartney on tune writing and it hit me like a brick. “That is
precisely what I do!”.
My view has all the time been the identical. I am
not writing poetry. I am not a poet. I am a songwriter, subsequently I am
writing a tune. What’s a tune? Effectively, in the beginning it’s a
musical basis that works 50/50 with the story it is supporting.
For myself, this will occur in a verity of the way, nonetheless the general
format is identical.
Lets take my tune “Lovely Day Down
Paradise Method”” for example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dsRwH6zq60
I used to be residing on Whitehead Road and I
stepped outdoors one morning. There was , comparatively onerous bathe happening and it regarded
fabulous! I might really feel the adrenaline and fervour circulate after I knew I
needed to write a tune!
I went again inside and grabbed my
guitar. “What melody would seize the sensation of a wet day in
Key West?” was the query at hand. I looked for perhaps 5 minutes pondering of Whitehead
Road which I had simply seen, in a pouring rain bathe. It was a
stable rain, but it had delicacy and beauty to it because it crammed the air with freshness and washed the road, with a fineness of a ballet dancer, because it
danced on the pavement. I went again out the door within the rain a second
time. It was cool and refreshing. This second step out the door
answered the important thing query, as all the things answered it is personal query.
It was plain as day, as I went again inside. This could not be something however a jazz
tune.
The very first thing I got here up with was a
chord change of C to C6/9 and it was in a 6/8 time signature. Subsequent
got here F, F Maj7. For the turnaround I got here up with Em F Maj7 Em7 F
Maj7 G and resolving again to the C C6/9 development.
The purpose right here is that at this stage…
there aren’t any lyrics, or a reputation for the tune. Nevertheless, the music
paints an image of, is a wet day in Key West. You may shut your
eyes and really feel it. For me, in songwriting that is important and so
usually forgotten. The music in a tune has to say as a lot because the
lyrics.
With this achieved, the lyrics simply
plain floated by the room and into the tune. It was as if given
to me.
“Skies are cloudy, rain’s falling
down, pondering of you want you have been on the town
Silver drops ricochet excessive off a as soon as
busy avenue
And it is a lovely day down paradise
manner
In Key West”
With that, all of the sudden, the tune now had a title!
“Lovely Day Down Paradise Method”
It was a few wet day in Key West,
with the twist within the title that it was suggesting it was a sunny day.
Paul McCartney had acknowledged that every one of
his songs and the songs he co-wrote, besides one, have been written with
the music first.
Later, I heard Keith Richards say that
songs simply float by the room and also you seize them. General, he
writes the ‘Stones music and maybe a couple of lyrics, usually with a
title, and fingers it over to Mick for the lyrics, who goes to city
with them.
Jerry Garcia would write the music and
a lyric line setting the stage for the story and Robert Hunter would
take it from there.
Elton John and Bernie Taupin… identical
factor.
“The Seaside!!!!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjOkpb-KaZ8
My tune “The Seaside” was a bit
completely different than “Lovely Day Down Paradise Method”. It simply floated
by out of nowhere, out of the blue one morning:
A A6 A E9 A A6 C7 ….. C#7 F#m7
Bm7 D7 E7
It was an Afro/Cuban sort tune… the place
did that come from? Abruptly, it was there.
Then the bridge went
Bm7 C#7 D E7
That had a textbook Motown really feel
It was perplexing. What was this tune
anyway? It positive was completely different! The primary physique being Afro/Cuban and a
Motown bridge? Over 5 days I am sitting in my front room enjoying
the development on the primary day, nothing. Second day, nothing. Third
day, nothing. Fourth day, nothing. Fifth day….. I am enjoying and all
of the sudden the lyric floats by and I seize it. “Todaaaaaaaay I am
going to the seashore!”
It match like two items of a puzzle
meant for one another. That is a part of songwriting:
It is like placing a puzzle collectively.
In each of those circumstances, every tune has a
very distinctive sound. Musically, they stand on their very own.
Whereas it will not be for everybody, a
couple up in Ohio named their bar “Paradise Method” after my tune!
😀
I take a look at tune writing form of like
constructing a home. The very first thing wanted is a stable as concrete
basis, when one builds a home one does not construct the roof first.
I additionally see a tune as a 50/50 cut up
between music and lyrics. A lot stuff I hear at present, is 90% lyrics.
The music so usually, appears extra like an afterthought.
In writing a tune, the
basis of the tune is music, how the hell does one make the music
an afterthought?????
I recall again round 2009/10 I heard a
Trop songwriter launch a brand new tune, which I appreciated. I purchased the CD
it was on. The primary tune was the tune I appreciated. The following tune got here on
and it gave the impression of the primary tune. The third tune got here on and it
sounded just like the second tune. So on and so fourth.
I by no means listened to the CD once more.
Nevertheless, that CD I maintain very worthwhile
as a result of it reminded and instilled in me to all the time make each tune
completely different.
Going again to Paul McCartney, in his
e book “Paul McCartney – The Lyrics” I do not recall the songs he
was referring to, nonetheless he and John have been writing a tune they usually
had a novel phrase within the tune they have been engaged on. Whereas it wasn’t a
frequent phrase, it was a phrase everybody is aware of.
They modified it. The explanation was they
had used the distinctive phrase in one other tune a number of years earlier!
Just one phrase they usually modified it!
It is quite a bit like an actor being sort
solid. Lennon and McCartney have been artists and made each tune it is personal being.
It is all a matter of the place you maintain your requirements
Thank You For Studying My Weblog!