Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 3:57 PM
To: roberta annicks
Subject: RE: Lost In Blue
called Carlo,he owns a pizzeria/restaurant beside where i live.
Now i start to believe in the song,and i totally agree about the country aspect.
You can send it to anyone who can help with pleasure.
I hope your well and here,s the Lyric.
Blessings David Mac.
Wayne Cohen, veteran multi-platinum selling ASCAP hit songwriter, producer and educator, owner of publishing/production company Stand Up Songs.
Wayne teaches individual and group songwriting tutoring sessions at his NYC Stand Up Studio and via Skype.
One of my song tutoring students recently sang me a song she was working on called ‘Listen You’, which I thought was a cool idea about missing that special someone. She had strong lyrics for her chorus, but the chorus chords she had were in a minor key just like the verse had been. The minor chords worked great in the verse, but the melody fell flat at the chorus. I call this kind of chorus melody problem flat lining, as in, the melody didn’t lift enough for a chorus. I suggested that she go to the relative major key for the chorus, and that the melody needed to be ‘happier’ to pay off the manic lyric idea she had set up. This eventually made for a killer chorus for that song.
This started me thinking, if the question is, ‘how do you write a breakthrough song?’
This experience with my student reinforced my conviction that having an intention when writing is the answer. In other words, if you can imagine the result you want before you get there, you have a much better chance of achieving that result.
I think lack of intention is one of the things that is crippling the music industry. I see creators in many fields (not just songwriters) influenced by the culture of immediacy that we are living in. I believe some songwriters are influenced away from writing a breakthrough song, expressing a riveting clear universal emotion with catchy melodies, and instead are focused on making trendy tracks that sell immediately. I think the craft of songwriting is suffering as a result, and this shortsightedness is contributing to a lack of certain songs’ longevity on the charts.
But keeping this idea of intention can be a tricky business when writing a song, because sometimes you don’t want to question that magical part of writing from pure inspiration. Great songs can seem to fall out of the sky and flow through the writer.
However there are so many facets of songwriting that can be improved by conscious thought. There are many examples of this, not the least of which is McCartney’s now clichéd story about ‘Yesterday’ starting out as a song he dreamed called ‘Scrambled Eggs’. After further consideration, the title and subsequent lyric story of ‘Yesterday’ had just the right feeling for the melody he dreamed. The title and lyric fit like hand in glove. But he worked at it ‘til he had something great. And that was all because of his intention to write a great song. Luckily he didn’t settle for ‘Scrambled Eggs’.
So, you ask, how can we take an OK song and make it better, with the right intention?
As a starting point, here is a quick intention checklist to run your songs by.
Does every aspect of the song feel the way you want it to feel?
Does the lyric develop within a section, and from section to section, to express an urgent coherent story, the way you want it to?
Does the melody have the right flow, i.e., does it climax and subside where it needs to? (from the verse into the chorus, etc..)
Is there rhyme scheme consistency and development in the right places?
Have you mapped your melodic rhythm by using slash marks to count the number of syllables (for ex., map the V1 melody so that V2 will have the same melodic rhythm)?
Feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you did with the checklist…I’m curious!
You can contact Wayne here.
Thoughts, questions or comments? Share them here!
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MARCH 19, 2010
Wayne Cohen, veteran multi-platinum selling ASCAP hit songwriter, producer and educator, owner of publishing/production company Stand Up Songs.
Wayne teaches individual and group songwriting tutoring sessions at his NYC Stand Up Studio and via Skype.
One of my song tutoring students recently sang me a song she was working on called ‘Listen You’, which I thought was a cool idea about missing that special someone. She had strong lyrics for her chorus, but the chorus chords she had were in a minor key just like the verse had been. The minor chords worked great in the verse, but the melody fell flat at the chorus. I call this kind of chorus melody problem flat lining, as in, the melody didn’t lift enough for a chorus. I suggested that she go to the relative major key for the chorus, and that the melody needed to be ‘happier’ to pay off the manic lyric idea she had set up. This eventually made for a killer chorus for that song.
This started me thinking, if the question is, ‘how do you write a breakthrough song?’
This experience with my student reinforced my conviction that having an intention when writing is the answer. In other words, if you can imagine the result you want before you get there, you have a much better chance of achieving that result.
I think lack of intention is one of the things that is crippling the music industry. I see creators in many fields (not just songwriters) influenced by the culture of immediacy that we are living in. I believe some songwriters are influenced away from writing a breakthrough song, expressing a riveting clear universal emotion with catchy melodies, and instead are focused on making trendy tracks that sell immediately. I think the craft of songwriting is suffering as a result, and this shortsightedness is contributing to a lack of certain songs’ longevity on the charts.
But keeping this idea of intention can be a tricky business when writing a song, because sometimes you don’t want to question that magical part of writing from pure inspiration. Great songs can seem to fall out of the sky and flow through the writer.
However there are so many facets of songwriting that can be improved by conscious thought. There are many examples of this, not the least of which is McCartney’s now clichéd story about ‘Yesterday’ starting out as a song he dreamed called ‘Scrambled Eggs’. After further consideration, the title and subsequent lyric story of ‘Yesterday’ had just the right feeling for the melody he dreamed. The title and lyric fit like hand in glove. But he worked at it ‘til he had something great. And that was all because of his intention to write a great song. Luckily he didn’t settle for ‘Scrambled Eggs’.
So, you ask, how can we take an OK song and make it better, with the right intention?
As a starting point, here is a quick intention checklist to run your songs by.
Does every aspect of the song feel the way you want it to feel?
Does the lyric develop within a section, and from section to section, to express an urgent coherent story, the way you want it to?
Does the melody have the right flow, i.e., does it climax and subside where it needs to? (from the verse into the chorus, etc..)
Is there rhyme scheme consistency and development in the right places?
Have you mapped your melodic rhythm by using slash marks to count the number of syllables (for ex., map the V1 melody so that V2 will have the same melodic rhythm)?
Feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you did with the checklist…I’m curious!
You can contact Wayne here.
Thoughts, questions or comments? Share them here!
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In reading the books, songs come and go in and out of style. Like actual book writing styles of yore = when long sentences where stylish, now short sentences are stylish. Same with song titles. You ever look at a CD just to read the song titles? Many are now one or two words. Back in the day titles where much longer. Being aware of trends is always good. Just like being aware of rules is good before you break them. If you know the most popular way, then you can mix it up and come out with something even better. Well, hopefully even better.
After writing song lyrics seriously, so seriously that I’ve found over a dozen composers to put their time & energies into composing great melodies around my lyrics = for nearly 8 years now, I’m finally + seasoned. I say that because only now do I feel like I know the rules enough to break them with the necesary finnese to come away with a good song.
This month (coming soon 12 songs on- Holiday Punch by Various Artists), next month & every month after, Songs2Share will promote a digiSong CD. Our website coders are working on getting a paid song downloader up as I work the accounts at other websites.
In January we will be promoting my co-written songs. It’ll be great for ya’ll to see my skills at writing lyrics and the skills of those composers I’m working with. I’ve titled that CD First Flush because I feel these songs are the beginning of my songwriting career. They are great songs. Several top drawer and a lot of middle drawer. The driving beat here is - it takes a while to really get the know-how to go on and let it rip. For me, anyways. I’m a Taurus and I go kind of slow and steady, but I do get there and “get it” good.
Song titles are now shorter than they used to be. That’s the style. But not the rule of God. Here’s a rule of God:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“A Memorable Title
A memorable title: Is identifiable after one hearing - Resounds with one meaning - Summarizes the essence of the lyric’s statement.
The title is the name of your product - what the listener asks for at the store. Skillful songwriters know how to make a title both unmistakable and unforgettable. To make it unforgettable, you must put it in the right place and then repeat it often enough. That’s easy to do when you’re familiar with song forms - which we’ll take up soon in detail. To make your title unmistakable, make sure that no secondary phrase competes with your intended title. One heavyweight title is better than two or three middleweight titles….
ASSIGNMENT NO. 3
A Verse/Climb/Chorus with a One-Word Title
The Purpose
To design a top-40 product by fusing a commercial title to the most commercial song form.
The Assignment:
Write a verse/chorus lyric featuring a strong, compelling, memorable, provocative, platinum CD, Grammy-winning, one-word title. No limp, forgettable abstractions like Time, Hope, You, Then, Love. Pick a concrete noun or action verb to grab your listener’s ears. “The” is not allowed. And no names, please. Your word should flash in the mind like a neon sign: “Pressure/Pressure/Pressure,” “Hypnotize/Hypnotize/Hypnotize,” “Criminal/Criminal/Criminal,” “Wannabe/Wannabe/Wannabe.”
The verse/chorus/bridge form has become virtually a formula. Writing with a climb instead of the predictable bridge will give your song a fresher contour. Shape the lyric this way: Verse/climb/chorus/verse/climb/chorus…”
from Successful Lyric Writing by Sheila Davis
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Confessions of a virtual formula lyric writer - yes, I love the verse/chorus/bridge formula and probably half of my song catalog is that format. I learned it and now I’m ready to leap onto the bigger stage and try something with a - fresher contour. Songwriting is a fun expression of an emotion or idea. I love & have written tons of poetry and lyric writing is an extension of that skill.
I was shopping around for songs and came across the band named Mazzy Star. After listening to their song titled Blue Light I ordered their CD titled So Tonight That I Might See. Here’s their song titles from that CD. See how the titles tell you the flavor of the CD?
1. Fade Into You
2. Bells Ring
3. Mary Of Silence
4. Five String Serenade
5. Blue Light
6. She’s My Baby
7. Unreflected
8. Wasted 5:31
9. Into Dust 5:36
10. So Tonight That I Might See
When I come to a MySpace music site in response to a friend request, I listen to at least 1 song in the music player. Alls I’ve got to go on are the song titles. When someone is considering listening to an MP3 for licensing or paid download, their selection of WHAT TO LISTEN TO is based on your titles. Titles are important. How are your titles looking & sounding? You’ve got one chance to get the USER to click on your songs. Make it count.
Peace & Happy songwriting.
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