Songs and Songwriting

I got tired of playing other people’s songs.

- Gregg Allman

Songs and Songwriting

I do like to write nasty songs. It’s a useful weapon to have, and it’s cathartic as well, because I create art out of anger, something positive out of something negative.

- Lisa Marie Presley

Songs and Songwriting

I could write songs as bad as Wham’s if I really felt the urge to, but what’s the point?

- Robert Smith

Songs and Songwriting

My songs are the reflection of how I think and how I feel in that moment. But I’m conscious of the fact that artists have a responsibility before the masses and they have to take care with their words.

- Shakira

Songs and Songwriting

The easiest songs to write are pure fiction. There is no limit to how you can tell the story. I find it difficult when I’m replaying an event through a song.

- Jason Mraz

Songs and Songwriting

The thing I always default to is that I’ll always be here to write songs.

- Alanis Morissette

Songs and Songwriting

We were concerned with having good songs, not just songs that go two hundred miles per hour.

- Travis Barker

The Reversal Method

A while back we looked at using the SCAMPER method to improve your songwriting.  Today I want to look at another business method of improving products and services, and see if we can adapt it to songwriting as well.

The method is called Reversal.  I read about it here.

The basic idea is that you take the problem you want to solve, and you ask it in the opposite way.

Here’s an example from the page I linked to above:

Imagine that you want to improve the response of a service center. Using Reversal you would ask ‘How would I reduce customer satisfaction?’. After considering this question you might give the following answers:

• Not answering the phone when customers call
• Not returning phone calls
• Have people with no product knowledge answering the phone
• Use rude staff
• Give the wrong advice

After using Reversal, you would ensure that appropriate staff members were handling incoming phone calls efficiently and pleasantly. You would set up training programs to ensure that they were giving accurate and effective advice.

So, how do we apply that to songwriting?

Well, maybe you would ask yourself:  “How do I make my music sound less interesting?”

Perhaps you would list some things like these…

• Use the same predictable chord changes through out
• Use the same instrumentation styles
• Use the same tricks and sounds when I’m adding layers
• Use very common and ordinary drum beats

Then you could use those items as a check list to make sure you were not doing any of them in your actual song.

Do you think this could be a useful method for improving songwriting?

Songs and Songwriting

I’m not used to not having enough time to live with the songs. Usually, if I write something, I live with it for a little while.

- Fiona Apple

Song writing is just like anything else… the more you do it, the more you “exercise” at it… the better you’ll get.

Sometimes, though, it’s good to “exercise” your songwriting in ways other than writing normal songs.  Think about it… football players get stronger by lifting weights, doing pushups, jumping rope, etc as well as just playing.  If football players spent their entire time running the exact plays that they’re going to do in the game, and nothing else… they wouldn’t be in shape when it came to competing against other players.

The same thing goes with songwriting.  It’s a good idea to write a lot of songs, but sometimes you have to exercise your brain in more direct ways… brainstorming, free writing, list making, and whatever other ways you use to stretch out your creative thinking are all great ideas.

One thing I like to do every now and then is take a random sentence from the internet, and try to think about it in an odd way.  Then I write a couple verses of lyrics (or poetry, if it’s easier for you to think about it in that way) around  the odd meaning I came up with.  By doing that, I’m exercising my ability to write in meter, my ability to rhyme, and my ability to think outside the box… all in one quick exercise.

I’ll give you a couple examples:

I found the random sentence:  Donna’s daughter hasn’t become a spy.

I found it using the random sentence generator at  http://www.manythings.org/rs/svc.html

Here are the verses I wrote about that sentence

“Oh no, oh no, oh me, oh my”
“My poor little daughter has become a spy”
On and on Donna cried and wailed
Thinking that her parenting had certainly failed

But all that worrying was done in vain
“Everything is fine with your dear little Jane”
Donna’s daughter hasn’t become a spy
She’s just pretending after watching Golden Eye

Yeah, it’s a little childish and silly, but it’s an exercise in creative thinking, not serious songwriting.  Here’s another:

I found the random sentence:  They called him a taxi
I found it using the random sentence generator at  http://www.manythings.org/rs/svoc.html

Here’s what I wrote:

The four guys just looked at him
and he returned the stare
Sure, they all outnumbered him,
but he didn’t even care
He glared at them meanly,
as he crawled into the back seat
Just because he’s fat and wearing yellow,
it’s mean to call him a taxi

What do you think?  What can you come up with doing something like this?