Category: WHAT’S ON THE SITE

What Are You Really Writing About?

You’re Inspired! You woke up in the middle of the night with a killer first verse running through your head. You actually sat up in bed and said: “Man, that’s killer!”

You managed to write it down before you forgot it. Maybe you even got up and plunked a few chords on the piano. Suddenly you felt like Sting writing “Every Breath You Take.” You even recorded your inspiration onto the Voice Memo on your Smartphone before going back to sleep.

Now, in the cold light of morning, you listen back to it. Amazingly, it still sounds good!

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Get the Most From a Simple Chord Progression

Current hit songs in all mainstream commercial genres tend to stick to a few basic chords and lean heavily on the repetition of simple chord progressions.  If you’re racking your brain trying to come up with complicated chord progressions, you may be better off limiting your chords to I – IV – V and VI,  for instance, C, F, G, and Am.

You can hear these chords used as repetitive progressions in big hits like OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You).” These are just two Top 10 hits that rely on a basic, repetitive chord palette. There are dozens more.

So, how does that work? Why do listeners like these songs? Why don’t these repeated progressions become boring?

The secret sauce of simple chord progressions

The secret to successfully using today’s repetitive chord progressions lies in the way the melody relates to them. The chord progression provides a solid, steady foundation on which a rhythmically interesting melody can be built.

Beyoncé’s Pop/R&B hit “Halo” is a great example of a rock-steady, repeated four-chord pattern with melodic phrases that begin in between the chord changes. This is one trick that keeps these repetitive chord progressions interesting: The melody doesn’t always emphasize the beat on which the chords change.

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Universal Lyrics for Film & TV

Songs are used in movies, television series, and commercials to enhance the emotion and memorability of the onscreen action. Instrumental underscore has long been a staple of film and TV, adding drama and emotion to a scene. But when lyrics are added—when a song is used instead of an instrumental—there are extra benefits and a few potential problems.

For example, lyrics that are too specific or feature their own story lines can conflict with the script.  If a song lyric includes a place name, like”I Love Paris,” the viewer could become confused if the scene takes place in New York.

Film and TV music supervisors look for songs with “universal lyrics,” lyrics that won’t conflict with a scene but will enhance the mood or energy.  If you’re planning to pitch your songs to this market, you’ll have a better chance of success if you keep this in mind.

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Write a Memorable Song Title

The title of a song is almost always a featured line in the song itself, often the first line or last line of the chorus, making it the line that listeners remember long after the song is over. 

A good title is intriguing, evocative, and memorable. The best titles sum up the heart and soul of a song, recalling the whole experience for listeners, making them want to go back and listen again.

Keep it brief. 

A strong song title easy to remember and gets to the point, so consider keeping it short. Titles like “Everybody Talks,” “What Now?” “Roar,” and “Wrecking Ball” are all brief, intriguing, and easy to remember. Long titles can work if you use a familiar phrase like ”I Just Called to Say I Love You” or “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” which are easier to recall. To be safe, stick to five words or less. While it’s not a rule, it’s a good idea to keep in mind.

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How to Learn From Hit Songs

How to learn from hit songs. (Photo by Anita Peeples.)

I’ve been enjoying a wonderful little book called Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon.  In the book, Kleon points out that all creative works of  art are built on something that has come before. As I was reading, every page made me think about my own songwriting process. My next thought was: I really want to share this with you.

Suggesting that someone “steal” sounds pretty awful. But no one here is suggesting that you actually crib someone else’s test answers or intellectual property. And no one is suggesting that you be anything less than your creative, authentic, wonderful Self. David Bowie used to refer to himself as a “a tasteful thief” and in an interview with Cameron Crowe he boasted, “The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.”  I don’t think anyone could call David Bowie unoriginal.

It’s not stealing

So, let’s call what Bowie was doing “being inspired by”—using your knowledge, experience, intuition and, yes, really good taste to choose which techniques and ideas in someone else’s song you want to use as a foundation or inspiration for something new and different in songs of your own.

It doesn’t necessarily make creative work any easier. But you can use it to point the way forward or show you a goal to reach for. Youa re probably already doing it.

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