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Articles copyright - the legislation, the options, how and when to register rhyme schemes - list of the names and types of rhyme song check list - A list of questions to ask yourself to help you decide whether you have written a classic song. Chord Map in the key of C - Copied, with permission from Steve Mugglin's wonderful site "Music Theory for Songwriters." 10 song writing blunders - a comparison between classic songs & indie/demo recordings - kindly supplied by Roedy Black. 36 rules for bands - a light-hearted look at things to avoid. Publishing basics - kindly supplied by Irene Jackson How good your demo should be? - including tips on marketing A songwriters collaboration agreement - for those that think they need one. How to make a $million from your music - the secret information they don't want you to know. How to make a $million from your music Part II - A list of some of the more dubious ways to part a musician and songwriter from their hard-earned cash. How to make a $million from your music Part III (UK-version) - a light-hearted look at some of the advice available (for a price) on the net. Links including for wordsmiths, music makers, general song writing groups, songwriter web rings and fellow song writers with helpful tips/links including for singing, piano, guitar, drums, harp, ear training and on line music stores. including software, home recording advice, singer/song writer services, preparing for the studio, recording studios. including loops, sf2, royalty free Including critique boards, promotion and critique boards including band registration sites, lyric sites, further link sites, genre specific sites, humour, and miscellaneous links Online facilities- radio & magazines internet radio, magazines. Copyright and royalty collection agencies, song writer and musician organisations, legal advice sites, including a separate UK listing for the same Chat rooms and message boards :- Where a copyright is claimed be sure to ask the copyright holder, other than that, you are welcome to use any other page for your own site, please let me know so I can add a link to you. |
Richhoncho's Songwriters Links Technical songwriting blunders
The following is an extract from the website of www.completechords.com
as
part of an article called 10
technical blunders where it can be read with additional
information.
1. The "Great Song" Group: A sample of the world's
greatest songs by the world's greatest songwriters, including Lennon & McCartney, Cole
Porter, Joni Mitchell, Jagger & Richards, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Bob
Dylan, Hank Williams, and others. * We found that the chord progressions of "Great Songs" tend to follow the natural clockwise flow of the Harmonic Scale to a much higher degree than "Ordinary Songs:
INCORPORATING TOO MUCH "UNIQUE" MELODY * Human short term memory lasts only a five to seven seconds. Your short term memory (and the collective short-term memory of your audience) can only hold a few pieces of information. (That's why, for example, telephone numbers-exclusive of area code-are only seven digits long.) * In pre-literate times, songs served the purpose of transmitting news. Any successful song really functions as an elaborate mnemonic device. It employs as many memory-helping elements as possible-rhyme, regularity of rhythm pattern, repetition of catchy melodic phrases, etc. * Songwriters who are not aware of the importance of short term memory limitations overload their tunes with too much unique melody. They do this to try to prevent the song from becoming monotonously repetitive. Big mistake. * You can avoid this by repeating only a few unique melodic phrases many times throughout the song.
* You can use many other ways to create variety. For example, you can
modulate to other keys, use variant chords, or introduce chromatic
chords.
* By contrast, Ordinary Songs tend to have much greater variability of
melodic range. Many have a melodic range of fewer than 12 semitones or
more than 17 semitones. Make sure your songs are singable by just about
anyone, without being too limited. Keep the melodic range to a
comfortable 12 to 17 semitones.
* Many Ordinary Songs often lose their way and fail to firmly establish
* For example, in the Lennon-McCartney tune, "Eleanor Rigby,"
think of the
melody that goes with the words, "Picks up the rice in the church
where a
wedding has been." The three notes corresponding to the words * Using sequences like this enables you to repeat melody, but not exactly note for note. Sequence introduces variety while preserving necessary repetition (unity). We found much more sequence-type repetition-about three times more-in Great Songs than in Ordinary Songs:
PAYING INSUFFICIENT ATTENTION TO METRICAL
CONCORDANCE * Songwriters find it easier to write lyrics that do not closely agree with the melody line. It's like writing prose. But in a musical context, it's harder for a listener to remember such lyrics because the irregular meter keeps forcing revisions to the melody. * To avoid this problem, take the time to sweat out lyrics that adhere closely to the same metrical pattern as the melody line.
WRITING IN 4/4 METER EXCLUSIVELY
FAILING TO EDIT LYRICS THAT GO ON AND ON AND ON * T-Bone Burnett, ace producer of dozens of great albums (including the movie soundtrack, "O Brother, Where Art Thou"), put it this way: "These days, instead of musicians playing instruments, instruments are playing musicians." * Bob Dylan once commented: "See, when I started to record, they just turned the microphones on and you recorded . . Whatever you got on one side of the glass was what came in on the controls on the other side of the glass." * The truth is, anybody can write a song in 10 or 15 minutes. Writing "a song" takes no special talent whatsoever. The same goes for painting "a picture" or writing "a poem." Anybody can create a mediocre piece of "art" in a few minutes. * The real question is the question of quality, substance, emotional staying power. Most songs written in 15 minutes, "in a burst of inspiration," actually sound mediocre to everyone except the songwriter and his or her family members and acolytes. * The way to overcome songwriting mediocrity is to get educated about techniques you can use to compose effective music.
* A truly great song will sound brilliant with nothing more than a
guitar-and-vocal or keyboard-and-vocal presentation. Vocal skill matters
little. Reverb matters less. Only the tune, the chords and the words
really
matter. If the song does not make it in a bare-bones rendition, it does
not
make it. Reproduced with permission. Extracts from the books
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