Songwriting - All this work for a 3 to 5 minute detour that may or may not effect someone.
Recently I got in a conversation with one of my Musician friends about the amount of effort that goes into writing and recording a song, and wondered whether anyone thinks about this aspect when they listen to music.
What exactly am I getting at here? Well, the amount of time and effort you have to put in to reach for that 3 to 5 minutes of musical bliss is quite a large investment. If I wasn't somehow strangely compelled to do this - (curse the gods), it would seem like a really inefficient way for me to spend my time.
Well, I don't claim to be a particularly good or efficient songwriter, nor do I claim to speak for anyone other then myself, so bare that in mind.
Anatomy of a Song. In my experience, a song can take 10 minutes to what seems like forever to write. Not all songs will be finished - Many attempts at songs will be scrawled in a book, and although many songs will be written, possibly only a small percentage of them will be good. However in order to write a good one, you have to write through the filler in between. While I think all songs have value, they may not have enough value to everyone else for them to be shared.
Songs I write that come mostly all at once will still require a few, or many revisions to either strengthen a message, avoid a cliche, or sometimes enforce a cliche, establish a better pentameter, rhyme a word, or change a word because it doesn't sound right when it is sung.The frustrating thing I find about songwriting is that it requires patience. The gods above don't care if I am 1 stanza short of a masterpiece. I'm not going to get that inspired last line unless its time. I can sit down and try to write it, and I'll either get something good or I won't.
So this is only just a part of the writing of the words - there's other things involved in making this magic - there's the music. I would say for me the same situations above in lyric writing also crop up in music, although I feel a lot more guilty taking the easy way out on a lyric then I do putting in a somewhat stock guitar line to finish something off. I figure this is because you can't hide behind a bad lyric when the bulk of an audience are singing along to the words. All the same, taking shortcuts never makes me feel good so I try not to.
When a Song Crops Up: For me - often words and music happen at the same time but not always. Writing of both can happen when I sit in front of an instrument with paper and pen, or a text editor, or in my head on my morning commute to work. The important thing is to be able to capture it or remember it - inspiration can be cruel and fleeting so you will want to be armed with tools and strategies to deal with this. For me, I will sing into a cell phone if I have to. If that's full and I'm out and about I just hope that something similar will occur to jog my memory when I get home - of course I do my best to recall what showed up in my head during the course of the day.
The Demo: Ok, so I've captured my song ideas, either in my head, in a book or in a digital document, the next thing I do is make a demo recording of the song in progress. The baffling thing here is that any of these steps above can happen in any order. But lets assume that you have the chords and melody and words and you want to explore the song some more.
This is one of my favorite parts in this entire process because you really start to see where the song is headed and how you can realize its potential. You don't need an amazing setup - just something that will allow you to record several parts, mix and play them back. I have a SM57 microphone, and a mixer and that goes into the sound card ins - these days, its popular to buy a USB break out box , plug a microphone into that and do it that way. Software programs are available - such as Audacity, Ardour, Reaper that will allow you to record with ease and at minimal to no cost.
These days I will record the vocals and guitar at the same time - calling this a scratch track to a click or metronome. If you don't play to a metronome or click track, you are going to be on a slippery slope even if your timing is good. Another important tip is to be tuned proper. If you neglect to do this and decide that you want to add some keyboards later to your guitars, you could find yourself wishing you took the time to tune your instrument when you are re-recording those parts.
Now is the time to experiment. Sync up some cool drum samples, or record the guitar with a flanger, or sing in the shower for reverb - try anything that seems natural - use your instincts and go for that harmonica solo, then try throwing some distortion on it later and see how that sounds. Anything that serves the mood you keep.
Proper Recording: If your lucky enough to have a good setup at home you can turn your demo into the finished product just by continuing the process of refinement. If you need to pick up and record elsewhere, then you have your demo to guide you - that said - still be open to new things happening to the song in the studio that you are visiting to recreate and improve the piece.
Final Thoughts: Although songwriting takes time and effort, I can't not do it. It's a big part of the joy of living for me, and I hope anyone who is interested in the process may have found something useful above.
Happy songwriting. :)
dbguit.
posted at: 03:42 | path: | permanent link to this entry