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Songwriting is an art - a skill that you can hone and mould and evolve over time. Taking the time to do it is the essential element in songwriting. For although a great song might be created in moments, it takes being prepared and stopping whatever else is happening to write it down, to commit it to memory, to capture the creation. So making time is first on the list, but there are a lot of things you can do to keep the songs flowing....
It seems that the largest hurdle to songwriting is getting away from everyday distractions. According to Keith Armitage, accomplished Australian musician and songwriter and founder of Songwriters Live, many songwriters would benefit from simply getting away from it all in order to get into the songwriting zone. Keith runs Songwriting Camps where budding songwriters get together to learn about the craft of songwriting. According to Keith, 'The most consistent message we heard was that the weekend away made them take the time to write. They got away from the phones, away from the distractions, and into a space where contemplation, introspective thinking, and creativity were more important that everything else.'
When you think about professional musicians and songwriting - they do exactly that. They go to a special place to write (and record) music. Kevin Bennett (of The Flood) even lives away from the city just to get away from the noise and the hustle and bustle. The Beatles went to India to discover new emotions and to expose themselves to new things. But when you travel - you still need to make and take the time to get into whatever zone is right for you.
Songs can be sarcastic, tongue in cheek, direct, metaphorical, and about anything - but good songs have an overriding, identifiable point, theme, or moral. Don't try to deliver too many messages in a single song. You can have multiple layers to a song (Paradise by the Dash Board Light, Meatloaf). You can use symbolism (Pour Some Sugar on Me, Def Leppard). You can use lists to get your overriding point across (We Didn't Start the Fire, Billy Joel). But notice that each of those songs have one message (respectively, getting laid, getting laid, and the world's always been f******d).
~Charlie Parker
Your songs will have more depth and meaning if they come from your own emotions and your own experiences. This doesn't mean that you can't write about someone else or from someone else's perspective. With practice, perspective writing is a great way to tell a story. Billy Joel uses perspective often, for example in Downeaster Alexa. To write effectively using someone else's perspective, you need to put yourself in their shoes - to become them. And then to write from their perspective - but you're till using your own experiences to shape the story.
Cathy Dennis, co-writer of the Kylie Minogue hit Can't Get You Out Of My Head, said in an interview, "Most of my inspiration comes from my own life, stuff that's happening to me. Not normally what's happening to someone else. I turn the roles around so I'm on the receiving end of what I would normally be giving out."
Perhaps one of the most poignant examples of writing about what you know would be Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven where he sings directly to the child he lost in a horrible, simple accident. Eric Clapton's soul is exposed in that song. He wrote for his own therapy. He wrote to find his own peace. He shared it with the world as part of his healing process. And he made beautiful music - simply writing about what he knew.
This one is highly debatable, because some great songs have been written that don't have a hook line at all. But it's hard to argue against having a good hook line in a song. Something that people can relate to, smile about, keep in their head, and sing to. Most hits have hook lines. Keith Armitage said that there is an amazing irony in the hook line for Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head. With only 14 unique lines in the entire song it still took the world by storm. "The hook line is about finding something that people can't get out of their head" according to Keith.
Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do is a great example of a simple story getting a strong point across - and using a hook line to pull in her audience. She experiments with her own talking-rap-style in the verses, using the whole story just to get to the hook line (All I Wanna Do is Have Some Fun) in the chorus.
Being able to catch the moment is important. In my interview with Ian Moss, he talked about what happens when songs come to him at night.
I guess it's that you try to go in your head to a place halfway between sleep and consciousness. You'll hear stories about people drifting off to sleep and having a little tape recorder or a pen and paper by the side of the bed because it's quite often in that time, in that totally relaxed state, that you get ideas. The mistake most of us make is sort of being that tired and sleepy you don't want to get out of bed, so you think oh, I'll just let that keep going through my head. I'll remember that in the morning, I'll remember that in the morning. And of course, you wake up in the morning and think, oh what was it?! And you never quite fully remember it, you come up with a slight... an altered version of it, and it's not right. Essentially you've lost the spirit of it. And you never get it back.
So, how many times have you been chatting to friends and said or heard something and said, "Now, there's a song in that."? Or, do you regularly drive down the road thinking up lyrics and melodies only to get to your destination and never quite get it back. A good songwriter is prepared. Have the recorder near you in the car. Keep a pen and paper near the bed. Write down good ideas on a napkin when you think of them. Don't let them slip through your fingers. Catch them!
Writing is a skill. Writing songs is an art. Skills and arts require practice to develop. It doesn't happen without trial and error. To write good songs, you have to write a lot of draft songs. Most of what you write is background work. Maybe one line here or one word there will finally make it into a full fledged song. But the good and the bad and the background work is all important.
And don't self-edit what you write about either. Successful songwriters actually write about everything. Want an example? Joe Walsh had a hit with a song called Ordinary Average Guy, which is just a song about an ordinary average guy - or is it? It seems more a satirical response to his own song, another satire, Life's Been Good. Have a look at the lyrics to both. When you read them, you'll see that they are really just simple perspectives, insights, into real people. On the surface, perhaps boring or selfish subjects, but in reality, so well crafted that they become art.
Periodically revisit your archive so that you can reexamine past emotions, feelings, expressions, and ideas. They may inspire new ones or you might be able to dust one off and complete it - or at least give it an airing for a few minutes. Consider rewriting an old song to see if it'll work now. Experiment with a collage of song parts and see what you can create. If you are missing a bridge (not that every song needs a bridge), perhaps you've already written it. Don't be afraid to look behind you for the right mix.
Even if you don't write a song, keeping a journal gives you an opportunity to capture thoughts, events, moments, and feelings on a regular basis. It requires you to bring discipline into your routine to make that a part of your day. Remember that taking the time to record your emotions is more than half the battle.
Reading biographies and autobiographies about other songwriters is such an inspiration. So often they will tell you intimate details about things in their life that sparked a song idea and then they'll even tell you how it evolved and grew into a song that meant something to them. But more than that - read poetry, read stories, find inspiration in areas that interest you. Read different styles of writing to yours and read about topics that you don't know about. Once what you don't know becomes what you do know you can write about it.
And that's only just the beginning. Next time we'll talk about the Top 10 Seeds of Inspiration. Got some ideas to contribute? Write to us!
editor@hotsource.com.au
Special thanks to Keith Armitage and Ben Little for their contributions to this article.