Songwriters of Wisconsin Presentation

Thank you Songwriters of Wisconsin for having me as a guest speaker last weekend. Hopefully you enjoyed some of my road stories and got some useful information regarding writing great songs. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and I hope to keep in touch with all of you as we continue our life-long journeys to becoming better and better songwriters.

Deciding to be confident

Reader's Digest had an article recently that said most people tend to think they are better than they really are... except depressed people... they tend to be realists.  I think it's the other way around and being a realist makes it easier to become depressed!  Still, I think it's fair to make the following statements and really believe them:

1.  Goals worth achieving take time.

2.  Working a little bit every day on writing will make it get better over time.

3.  Singers like to sing great songs and are always looking for them.

4.  I may not get any cuts.

5.  I may get lots of cuts.

6.  There are song-writers that are better than me.

7.  There are song-writers that I'm better than.

8.  Sometimes my desire to be heard short-circuits my desire to say something worth saying.

9.  Every successful song-writer has had to overcome obstacles.

There are probably more but these are the first that come to mind.  Okay here is where I think it's time to make the switch.  My favorite song-writers have a certain confidence about them, an ego really.  I think if I adopt that mind-set I'll have more success too.  Maybe we all will.  We can be realists about bills or the fact we need to work out and a million other things in life that seem to require that.  But I'm going to be confident about my writing.  I'm going to have a bit more ego about my writing.  Just typing this make me feel better.  And besides, I am damn good.  (say it with me..."I am damn good")  At least that's what I'm telling myself for a few weeks here.  If it doesn't yield better songs I'm sure the realist in me will point that out with great satisfaction. 

Rick Beresford's 7 things that make a great song:

In order of importance:

1.  Entertaining

2.  Universal Emotion/Story

3.  Told in unique way

4.  Compelling, deep emotional impact

5.  Singable

6.  Memorable lyric/melody

7.  Strikes you as honest

These are tough to get all in one song.  I've found if I focus on one that I'm weakest at, the others tend to be better too.  What are your strengths and weaknesses here?  I welcome comments and suggestions.

Piano Sound Examples

If you click on the title above you'll hear 5 piano sounds to choose from for your song.  They play consecutively and they play the exact same thing.  More examples are available upon request.  Piano 1 is a Yamaha C-7 close miked.  Piano 2 is a different Yamaha C-7 close miked.  Piano 3 is a Steinway close miked.  Piano 4 is a Steinway ambient miked.  And piano 5 is a Yamaha Stage piano.

Bracketing

Bracketing is a simple technique to help you get past a line that's troubling you so you can move on.  You just put brackets around that empty line and move on.  It's a way of telling yourself "I know I'm going to get a great line here later".  I know it seems simple but it really does work.  Not for everyone!  But you may try it next time you get hung up on a line.  Sometimes a dummy line works just as well.  One you know isn't the right line but it'll do for now.  Try it both ways and see which one feels better for you.

Headlining

Headlining is a good way to stay on track when you are writing a song.  You should be able to put the concept of your song in one or two sentences.  Write that at the top of the page and refer to it often.  That's your main focus.  Everything else in the song should point to the headline.  To find out what a good headline is, take a song that has already been a hit and write the headline for it.  For example, "Wind Beneath My Wings" is about what?  My success in life is largely due to your quiet support.  At least that's one way to put it.  Pick a few more songs and see what the headlines are.  You'll start to recognize the ones that have "legs".  

Songwriting discoveries

Great demos are secondary to great songs.  I'll be talking about things I've discovered as a songwriter because this is really where it's all at.  I've got one cut with Blake Shelton and I've taken several courses through NSAI.  I've talked to great songwriters about my songs and listened to them talk about other's songs.  One thing they all say is it's a good idea to study other great songs and figure out what makes them work.  I always try to include something new I've learned in my next song.  Don Henry's "Where've You Been" is one I recently studied.  Kathy Mattea cut it a long time ago.  It's still played today.  This is a sweet story about the evolution of a couple, Claire and Edwin.  Until I studied it I never even knew the characters had names.  There's a lot to learn about this song but I want to look at the chorus right now.  "Where've you been?  I've looked for you forever and a day.  Where've you been?  I'm just not myself when you're away."   It's a short chorus and it says the title of the song twice... but doesn't end with the title.  The only rhyme it has is perfect.  This chorus works well in part because you can come at it from several angles.  It works coming out of the first verse where they've been dating for awhile and realize how much they love each other.  It works after they've been married and he's late coming home from work one night and she worries.  It works when they are old and in a hospital and Claire regains her memory for a moment when she sees Edwin again.  So, my tip of the week is to make sure your chorus can work in several ways... not just one.  Then you can build a better song.  Each time you hear the chorus, it should mean more.