Song Writing

This area includes regular interviews about the evolution of songs, song writing tips & chord charts.

Q Hello and welcome back. Good summer?
Very good thanks – busy but good.

Q I know. I saw the list of gigs and stuff page. Any new songs for us since last time?
Yes, a trio of new ones – Japanese Jacket, Follow The Wind and one called Not The Breaking Kind. But there’s also a couple of older songs we played recently that hadn’t been performed before – Gonna Break and Birds Have Flown.

Q Why hadn’t they been performed up to now?
Well, we made demos of them in summer ’05 along with all the songs from the album and then asked lots of people to vote for their faves – these two got shelved. Then Richard & I were playing around with the idea of doing a little duo set with him on double bass and these seemed to fit.

Q You were both involved in the Guitars on the Beach day. How was your songwriting workshop?
Well the quality of the songs people brought along was amazing - so we got through a lot.

Q What did they want to know?
Quite a lot on understanding the structure of your own songs – verses, bridges, etc and looking at different approaches to song structure and lyrics.And then some stuff on how to develop your songs.

Q Any tips you’d care to share with us?
Sure – how about showing some of the stuff from the workshop?

Q Good idea.
Here’s a list of tricks to try when "the song don't flow":

1. Try writing on an instrument you don't normally use to compose with. For example try piano if you normally use guitar or a different tuning, or even capo the guitar for a fresh sound.

2. Try a new chord or a new key as the beginning of a composition, this might make you think of a melody.

3. Try using a time signature that you don't normally use.

4. Try making the first note of the melody a non-chord note – this will add tension.

5. Think of one of your favourite songs. Take one part of it and use that as the basis for a new composition.

6. Think of a "classic" composition (classical, pop, jazz, etc). What makes it so special? Try to use one of the "tricks" from that composition in your own piece. Analyse it and steal it if it’s good – you’re in good company!

7. Once you have a melody, try to think of that as only a countermelody and write a new lead melody against it. This might create a new section. Often this idea is used so that the two melodies would only be heard together near the end creating a sense of excitement and resolve.

8. Try writing with someone else. When you're stuck ask them for an idea to help. Remember- always be supportive of other people's ideas so that you build trust.

9. Look at the piece of music as a whole. Does it get boring? If the answer is yes you probably need more dynamics or changes of pace.

10. If you have a sequence of chords for the first section but can't think how to develop into a second section -
- try reversing the order of the chords and use them as the basis of the second section.
- try reversing just a section of the original chord sequence and repeat it as the basis of a second section.
- try going up a 4th for the middle section (ie from C to F)
- when you feel the song needs a new section try staying on the same chord but sing a new note – helps cohesion

11. Change the perspective in the lyrics (eg. From I to You to We)

12. Many lyrics start out as auto-biography or biography but don’t get trapped by that – let your imagination take real life as just the starting point.

Q Right. That's enough to be getting on with. Thanks & see you next time.
Ta ta.

Inspiration v perspiration?

Q Hello again.
Hi there.

Q In radio interviews you’re often asked about where the ideas for songs come from and you talk about how the “inspiration” is usually only a brief part of the process. I’m interested in what the other bit is.
The other bit is the craft I suppose - the workman-like tricks of the trade – the techniques you learn that help you develop and complete a song.

Q So, let’s imagine you’ve had a visit from the muse and you’ve got a line of melody with a few words – how does it progress from there?
Okay – so along with that initial brief idea would normally come a rhythm –this is often a result of what I’ve been listening to recently. For example, I’ve got a new idea that uses a galloping rhythm that I’m sure comes from Springsteen’s Devils & Dust.

Q You mean you nicked it?
Of course! Come on – all creative acts involve some theft of ideas but to be worthwhile you have to add something of your own to the nicked bit. I’ve just been reading a McCartney biog and he’s very open about what The Beatles nicked as the ideas for songs – but of course the theft is just the start – you then add your own new ideas and end up with an original song. Blackbird started off as a bit of Bach – it was a party piece that the teenage Paul & George used to impress their friends with. They liked the idea and used it as the basis of Blackbird – which is a classic I’m sure you’ll agree.

Q Well, I’m actually more of a Stones fan.
Oh how cool…not. And I’m sure you think John was the innovator and Paul was the play-it-safe tunesmith as well. Hmm?

Q So?
Rubbish man! While Lennon was being lord of the manor in Surrey it was McCartney who was meeting avant garde composers and people like Bertram Russell and getting turned on by pushing the limits of …

Q Alright, alright! Whatever. Can we get back to the process of songwriting?
… good point … where were we? Okay, so if you’ve got an opening phrase with a melody, a few chords and a rhythm, then often that’s when I’d stop, write out the notes, chords & words and then leave it for a while. Then when I come back to it, I’m hungry for it and the next sequence will often just flow out. But the craft comes when the next bit doesn’t flow.

Q Right. That’s what I’m interested in. What are the techniques then when there’s no “flow”?
Well … here’s a few for starters:
• Look at the melody you’ve got – does it rise or fall? Is it flowing or rhythmic? Does it have big intervals between notes or are the notes closely gathered? Try a new section that does the opposite.
• Look at the chords – are they firmly in one key? If so, maybe it’s time to move to another key.
• Look for any gateway chords into another key. For example, if you’re in the key of A and you play a D you could then easily slip into the key of G because D is in both keys.
• Think of any similar songs you know – what do they do musically and lyrically? If it works, nick the idea and develop it into something new.
• Think about the lyrics – sometimes they tell you how the music should go. For example, in Pull Away, the opening line ascends and is quite solid and strong as it sits over a C major chord Annie goes out on a Saturday night in her sapphire rings and her hair looking like moonlight. It’s the start of one person’s story – the opening lines lay out the situation. But the next part of the lyric tells us what’s wrong in the person’s life – why they have pulled away from the thing they want. The closer he gets, the faster she moves away. So that next section of melody needs to express that more melancholic part of the story – so it makes sense for the melody to descend over a “weaker” sequence of chords Eb, Gm, F - to give a feeling of sadness. So the development in that song came not from a burst of inspiration but by just following a bit of simple analysis.
• Write it out – sometimes if I’m stuck it helps to write the thing out – looking at the notation gives me a graphic view of the song which helps me to see what the motifs are and therefore what should happen next. Are the motifs too similar? Repeated too much? Not clear? Motifs are little fragments of melody that get repeated and developed throughout a piece of music – they give the piece a sense of whole. Like Beethoven’s 5th – almost everything in the first movement is based on that 4 note motif – da da da daaa. Or a great improvised solo which keeps developing a basic theme.

Q Okay – so what you appear to have let slip is that:
a) inspiration plays a small part?
Oui, c’est ca pour moi.

b) You often nick ideas - both to start a song and to develop it?
Ja, naturlich.

c) And you have a bunch of techniques which, to an unmusical bod like me, seem to be just common sense?
Si senor.

Q My final question is, if all the above doesn’t work what do you do then?
File it away – it could be that it’s just not a strong idea or it could be that you need to leave it for longer before you have another go. And as I said before, you get better by completing songs and beginning new ones – don’t worry if the song isn’t great. Finish it, learn from it and begin again – don’t spend a year constantly re-writing - it leads nowhere. I know – I’ve done it myself!

Q Hmmm. That all seems rather prosaic. I preferred the idea of songwriting being more mystical and magical.
I guess we all feel like that – we want our witch doctors. Perhaps that’s why art can be so personally affecting – we all put so much of our own stuff on it… and maybe what makes good art is that it’s strong enough to not buckle under all those expectations and interpretations. It’s unpleasantly sobering to discover that the painter Reubens had an almost Ford-ist production line – there’d be one guy who was good at metal so he’d paint the armour, another who was good at skies, one for animal fur, and so on. And the price of the painting varied depending on how much of the painting was actually done by the master himself. That explains the prolific output, but upsets our view of Reubens as a genius of inexplicable dimensions .. but it doesn’t alter the brilliance of the body of work.

Q Okay, well thanks for all that. No hard feelings about the Beatles thing?
None at all … cos’ I know I’m right.

Q But this time I’m having the last word and the STONES ROCK!!!!!!

Evolution of … The Offering

Q How did this song first come about?
Early evening after a tough day – everything had gone pear-shaped. I went upstairs, picked up the guitar and the opening verse came straight out “When your troubles never end, and you’re energy’s all spent.” I thought it was too obvious, but played it over a few times and realised my mood had lifted, so I scribbled down the melody and a sketch of the lyric I wanted to write: “music makes you feel better!” – pretty simple really.

Q How long did it take you to finish?
The usual – a week or so of odd, snatched moments. I’d love to write like a Brill Building writer – clock in at 9am and start writing hits! But I don’t get that sort of time – I suspect that the lack of time is actually what I thrive on.

Q How did you get from that initial melody to the complete song?
The guiding principle for me is to hold on to that initial mood and let the song show me where it should go. I know that sounds a bit trite, but it does usually feel like the song already exists and it keeps dropping me a few hints until I uncover it all.

Q How did you hold on to that initial mood in The Offering?
Well, songwriting is like any skill, you get good when you can do lots of things without thinking. I understand how chords group themselves and interact, and how notes strain against or bond with those chords … but I never think about that stuff unless the song gets stuck. So any chord changes or melodic ideas I come up with are only kept if they complement or build the mood. Some fantastic writers know very little about music but have an acute sense of mood – I suspect Coldplay might be like that. Or look at Johnny Cash, there’s a writer who couldn’t read a note but had an iron-like grip on the mood – listen to that big man straining against what he knows is right in “I Walk The Line” – that tension runs all the way through.

Q Can you give a piece of advice to new songwriters that has helped you?
Yep – you can often replace a dominant seventh with a diminished seventh chord on the leading note as it’s really a substitution with no root.

Q Hmmmm... I’m still waiting.
Sorry. To get better at anything, you need to finish one thing and move on to the next. So don’t spend 6 months constantly re-working a song – finish it, and then start the process again. Okay?

Q Better thanks. See you next time.
See you

The Offering - chord chart

Intro D /// Am /// D /// Am ///

C Am
If your troubles never end, and your energy’s all spent
C Am
If you’re incapable of saying, even incapable of praying
D
Then you come to me, And I’ll offer up this …

G                                   G/F#
…song, to take away your tears,
                        Em7                          F
To exorcise your fears, to take you far away,
                               G                                     G/F#
To ease your troubled mind, to leave your worries behind
                                 F                    C
Come on and sing with me, sing this melody, sing with ..
D
…me

When Robert Johnson’s courage failed, he sang of hell hounds on his tail
If Billie or Aretha too, were down they’d fight back with the blues

Then they’d sing for me As they offer up their ...
…song, etc

D                                               Am
If you’ve been strung out or strung along,
                                                 D
you’re great escape plan all went wrong
D                                          Am
When there are no friends to be found, when there’s no
              D     D7
family around, Then offer up this …

… song, to take away your tears
To exorcise our fears, to take us far away
To ease our troubled minds, to leave our worries behind
Come on and sing with me, sing this melody, sing with me

D/// Am/// D/// Am

Latest song?

All the songs on the CD were written a while back I assume?
Not really, Where The River Meets The Sea and Find A New Dream were written after recording had begun – I kept changing the title of Find A New Dream which made it harder for Richard to keep track of all the different recordings – in fact in the end he came up with the title for me!

Tell us about the latest song you’ve written.
It’s called This House and began in typical fashion – a moment of unforced playing and the first line came rolling out with the main melodic idea - “Today, I went back to see, the house I left when I was three” So I thought it was going to be a song looking back at someone’s childhood home … but then I couldn’t see the story clearly so I moved the time period away from childhood and it became “…the house I left, when you left me.” I liked that line – it uses a common lyrical device – repeat a word in a line but give it a different meaning. So I had the story now, a guy returns to a house he used to live in with his lover. Of course nobody lives in it now and it hasn’t been knocked down and redeveloped into a car park (this is songwriting, not reality!) and it’s run down and full of painful memories of a previous love.

So you had a clear narrative – how did the music develop?
Harmonically it began very simply with just a C and an F chord but in 6/8 time which I rarely write in (for fear of sounding like a poor man’s Christy Moore!) but I made a deliberate effort to push the chords around and have a few key changes - I think that gives it a bit of a Difford & Tillbrook feel. But I changed the key to F to make it fit my voice better

Is it your best or worst song to date?
Ha ha – cheeky! Might as well ask you is that your best or worst question! I don't know yet all I know is I try to write the best I can for each song but it might be the best or worst song I’ve ever written – the important thing is to complete the song, perform it, judge it and move on to the next. I get creatively constipated if I’m always trying to write “my best ever song”.

Well, let’s have a listen to it then.
Good idea. I'll go & get a guitar.

F Bbadd9 F Bbadd9
Today, I went back to see, the house I left, when you left me

Eb Db (Eb) F Bbadd9 F (F, F/E)
To say hello to all the dreams I lost, room by room, I count the cost.

Gm C/E F F7
The doors are hanging off and the paint’s all cracked

Bb Db Bbm C/E
Where we hung our photos is marked in black.

Gm C/E F F7
Sitting on a broken chair I think of you.

Bb Db Ab Gb
This house, saw all my mistakes, heard the words I should never have said

Ebm Gb Fm C/E
This house, was once a home for me.

I recall how you raised your voice and with tears in your eyes told me to make a choice
But I was having such fun fooling ‘round. ‘Till one day I came back and you were nowhere to be found.

Wind blowing through the hall disturbs the dust
And wakes my memories of you all pain and rust
Sitting with a bottle I think of you

This house, saw all my mistakes, heard the words I should never have said
This house, was once a home for me.

Today, I went back to see, the house I left, when you left me