Lessons

Songwriting Lessons

A Before E (Except After C) By David Hodge In A Before E (Except After C) David Hodge delves into songwriting and reveals some secrets about chord changes. Note, this column has a companion piece by A-J Charron called A Simple Song.

Christmas in June By David Hodge More than anything else, melody defines a song for us. Whether we love or loathe a song, it's the melody that keeps recycling on endless loop inside our heads. Join David Hodge and his special guest Rudolph as they lead us on a tour through the basics of the theory of melodies. It's never too early to get a jump on the holidays!

Group Therapy - (Assembling a Piece for the Ensemble) By David Hodge Just like the guitarist, the songwriter has to begin somewhere. And the best place to begin is someplace where you feel comfortable. Do something (relatively) easy and then set out to branch out and grow. Also, again like the guitarist, a songwriter has to have a motive. Why am I writing this song? Do I have something to say? Something to share? Money to make?

Putting Things Together - Theory/Songwriting Workshop 1 By David Hodge A lead is simply the guitar playing a melody of sorts. Over the next few months we’re going to be examining how melodies and chords work together. I’ve called these columns “workbooks” because not only will we look at specific examples from all kinds of songs, we’ll have exercises to try out original ideas as well.

Home On Your Range - Theory/Songwriting Workshop 2 By David Hodge Whether or not you realize it, you yourself may be one of your biggest obstacles when it comes to songwriting. Think about how you go about writing - especially if you’re one of those “let’s strum around and see what comes up” sort of folks. Chances are you pick up your guitar and the first chord you play will be an E, A, C, D or G. Unless, of course, you happen to be in a mad, sad or bad frame of mind and then you pound out an Em or an Am.

Finding The Right Words By David Hodge If you think about why you listen to a songwriter, often to the point of getting all his/her/their work (or even simply listen to the same CD or even the same song over and over and over again), it is because you identify with this artist. You have a bond with this person who wrote these lyrics. You can’t wait to hear what the artist comes up with next. Believe it or not, the same thing applies to you. There will be people who will want to hear about anything you have to say, simply owing to their interest in listening to your unique spin on things.

So you want to be a songwriter? By A-J Charron If you want to write songs for Celine Dion, A-J Charron's article So You Want to be a Song Writer isn't for you. A-J-s in depth article on songwriting deals with such important elements as inspiration, tools of the trade, words or music first, what to write about and much more. This is about writing from the heart, rather than the checkbook.

A Simple Song By A-J Charron As a followup to his previous article So You Want to be a Song Writer, A-J has written a companion piece to David Hodge's latest column on chord changes. Learn from A-J's 18 years of experience in song writing with his latest piece A Simple Song. Note: A Simple Song has a companion piece by David Hodge. Check out the Guitar Columns page for David's excellent column A Before E (Except After C).

Now that you're a songwriter... By A-J Charron Now that you've taken the plunge into the wonderful world of songwriting you'll find that it's hard to live without your art. Yet, you'll want to refine it as much as possible. We've already looked at inspiration and now we know we can stimulate it. However, it's not always that easy.

Inflating the Ego By A-J Charron A-J has written an inspirational article about making it. This piece displays the right sort of attitude needed to achieve those dreams.

Sticking Together By A-J Charron As artists, we tend to have backgrounds that are similar. Sometimes we read about another artist's background and see the resemblences with out own. Feels good to find out there are others like us out there. What makes an artist?

Think... but not too much By A-J Charron Songwriting can be very dangerous. When you are being spontaneous, not only do your thoughts come out, but they come out in a way that you couldn't get out by thinking.

Goodbye Dédé By A-J Charron Dédé tried so hard to be a rebel, but always ended up looking like a nice guy. One thing I always admired about him was that he did his music the way he saw fit. Disregarded what the record companies wanted and drummed his own beat.

Recording Part 1: Why Do It? By A-J Charron Now that you have written some songs what do you do with them? The next step is 'the Demo'. A-J explains how to go about making a demo, what to do with it, who to send it to and how to present it. Don't find out the hard way what could go wrong. Get it right the first time.

Recording Part 2: Building a digital studio By A-J Charron The digital recording environment, although not the best, offers some cheap solutions for musicians. Digital is the conversion of naturally occurring phenomena into a series of electrical pulses, i.e. 0's and 1's. In this article A-J shows you how to use your PC as a home digital studio. Topics include what you need to do and how much it will cost.

Freudians Slip By A-J Charron After 19 years of writing songs A-J is taking his own advice. Writing a song is like taming a wild beast. You should let the song approach you a piece at a time. If you handle it right your subconscious mind will do all the work you will get all the credit. In addition to more songwriting advice this week's column also includes additional help on copyrighting songs.

Odds and Ends By A-J Charron After spending five long years working on that demo you may come out looking something like a vampire. This week A-J's column covers the topic of keeping with the times and covers various odds and ends for songwriters. Topics covered this week include the demo (again), production, recording live, rewording songs and a few well placed plugs.

Going Against the Grain By A-J Charron It's not something I particularly want to encourage, as you'll no doubt have figured out by now, but hit songs are a necessity if you want to make a career out of your music. If you want to make it in today's market you have to play by today's rules. I, by no means, wish to imply that you should sell-out. What I do mean is that you should compromise. To a certain extent.

Vocabulary By A-J Charron A few weeks ago I scratched the surface of problems that can occur with lyrics, specifically using time references with the song Heat of the Moment. Something else you have to watch for is vocabulary which can, with time or location, become a problem. In the early seventies, calling people cats was a cool thing. Today, it would only raise an eyebrow. I'm happy to say I was too young at the time to remember people using this expression.

The Hook By A-J Charron A Hook is what sells a song. It is what makes people sing it and like it. In all likelihood, you already know what hooks are, you've probably been singing them since you were wee high. But, as a songwriter, the hook is something that is not necessarily obvious.

The Gimmick By A-J Charron Some artists can recognize soon enough that, although they are talented, there are many others out there like them. Nobody wants to be a Flash-and-the-pan. So, over the years, many of them have resorted to gimmicks to keep them alive in the dog-eat-dog world of Rock'n'roll. Today, we're going to look at a few of these. Namely, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Ozzy and Marilyn Manson.

Piecing The Puzzle By A-J Charron In recent weeks we have looked at hit songs, vocabulary, hooks and gimmicks. Do you see where this is all headed? To put everything in perspective it is time to take a look at the history of Rock'n'Roll.

Storytelling By A-J Charron Once upon a time, songs were meant to tell stories. Rarely are they of this nature now. To understand better what was behind all this, I suggest that we take a trip back in time to where it all started.

The Main Event By A-J Charron Songs are basically embellished stories. With storytelling, the trick is just to add more, even if it ends up being totally ludicrous. What you do with storytelling is take the facts of a story that is not well known, or that can be totally invented, and you embellish them. Let others find out the truth.

Back from the Future By A-J Charron Music was meant to tell stories, but then something happened. Something that had absolutely nothing to do with music. It was the Industrial Revolution. With the Industrial Revolution, it was now possible to make more complicated, more sophisticated, better-sounding musical instruments.

Questions and Answers By A-J Charron This week I'm posting questions I've received and answers I've given. These are questions that are common enough, so I think they will be useful for many people. If you think I'm doing this because I don't want to spend 2 to 3 hours in front of my PC writing up a column this week, you're right.

Name That (Part of the) Tune By A-J Charron If you confuse a verse and a chorus, it's not the end of the world. The cops won't come knocking at your door, wanting to arrest you. First of all, everything is convention. It's art, not law. If we go back in time, we'll realize that this all got started at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. There is a good reason for that.

More Questions and Answers By A-J Charron This week I'm posting more questions I've received and answers I've given. These are questions that are common enough, so I think they will be useful for many people.

What is Melody? By A-J Charron A question I often get asked is how can two songs that use the same chords and, basically, the same strumming pattern, be different? This is where the melody comes into play. The melody is what will distinguish the two songs.

Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition By A-J Charron As we've learned in the past, a chorus is usually a part that repeats. Although this is good, lyrically, it can become annoying. When someone doesn't know what they're doing.

Writing Emotions By A-J Charron A question in the forum prompted me to write this week's column. What is the most emotional song you know? No matter what emotions you write about, and no matter how you write about them, there are no two people who will respond the same way. What touches one person may not necessarily touch another and vice versa. So how do you write something very emotional under these circumstances?

Networking By A-J Charron Nobody makes it by themselves. Nobody ever has, nobody ever will. Part of the process as a songwriter is to network and meet the right people. Even if all you want to do is have others perform your songs, they won't do it if they don't know you exist.

À la Bowie By A-J Charron Back in the early seventies, David Bowie experimented a lot with lyrics-among other things. One of the things he did was rather original. He put together song lyrics without actually writing them. This week take the Bowie test.

Arrangements By A-J Charron Some songwriters get stuck at the unplugged part of writing songs. They have no idea how to arrange their songs. If that's your case, then that's OK. It doesn't mean you won't make it. It just means that you'll need someone else to arrange your songs. If you can't find a particular arrangement for a song, it might be a good idea to try and enlist someone else's aid.

Where Do I Go From Here? By A-J Charron What do you do with your songs? That's a common enough question among songwriters. There are three avenues you can take. Today, we'll be looking at the first two.

Best-Kept Secret By A-J Charron Following the last column, this week we'll be looking at our last option of what to do with your songs. This option applies to both performers and non-performers alike. The best-kept secret in the music business is The Publisher.

Charts By A-J Charron I found that when I bring a new song to my band mates, it can be a long learning curve for the other guys. Now I put everything into charts and give these to the guys a week or so before meeting them with our guns ready. Works a lot better.

An English Lesson By Ryan Spencer Today I will try to help those interested in expanding their songs more poetically by taking a trip back to high school (Oh no!). In this article I will be going over poetic terminology and relating how it can be incorporated into songwriting. Let us start off with the big daddy of poetic concepts.

Songwriting for Beginners By Nick Torres By popular demand, Nick has taken what was an off-the-cuff forum response and turned it into a very good, concise and handy reference for all the lyricists out there. Not only does it cover writing lyrics but also the difficult topics of giving and receiving criticism.

Let It Flow By Daniel Cowgill Being able to simply let yourself be yourself is essential to the songwriter. Daniel Cowgill offers up some more tips on how not to be your own worst critic and to let your writing flow naturally.

The Art of the Muse - A songwriter's guide to inspiration By Share Ross This article intends to help you capture those free-wheeling melodies and harness them so you can call upon them whenever and wherever you want. It is not a technical how-to on the art of songwriting but rather an essay on the ways to open your own muse flow channel.

When is it time to record? By A-J Charron Everyone is in a rush to make a CD. This should come as no surprise - the technology is getting more affordable all the time. But just because you can make a recording, should you? A-J Charron offers some interesting thoughts on this question.

Packaging By A-J Charron Once you've recorded your CD, you might find yourself wondering what to do with it. If you think of music as a gift, then it might make sense to give it a little gift wrapping. And how you wrap your gift might mean a lot more than you think! A-J explores the dos and don'ts of CD packaging.

Songwriting for Intermediates By Nick Torres The long-awaited sequel of Nick's Songwriting for Beginners has finally made it online. Here you'll find more tips to help develop your songwriting skills even further, including a neat little step-by-step guide.

About Naivete By A-J Charron Being naïve can both hurt and help you. It's a great asset to the artist or songwriter but it can also lead one to make less-than desirable (read disastrous) choices. A-J explores both sides of this trait in this interesting and thoughtful article.

Top Ten Tips: Writing a "Hit" Song By Keane Li Award winning songwriter Keane Li returns to the pages of Guitar Noise with tips on writing commercial material. Don't tell anyone, but there's actually good tips for writing all sorts of songs here!

Emulating Others By A-J Charron If you go to any major art museum, chances are likely you'll see a student or two dutifully attempting to copy an old master. This is one way that people learn to become great artists themselves. And since songwriting is an art, why can't this idea apply to songwriters as well? A-J shows us that it certainly can be a way to improve your own writing or to at least help you get out of a rut.

Express Yourself By Tom Hess In becoming a guitarist, one is, in essence, becoming an artist, learning to express oneself musically. Tom looks at the challenges of artistic expression and offers some valuable songwriting pointers in his latest article.

Songwriter Or Craftsman? By Robert Walker In his first article for Guitar Noise, German guitarist Robert Walker discusses some of the finer differences between being a songwriter and a craftsman and offers songwriters some tips on how to move to the next level of instrumental songwriting.

Songwriting - Part 1 By Tom Hess Tom takes a look at the various methods of songwriting, with a focus on instrumental electric guitar pieces, This is a great introduction to creating new music by looking at how you approach your writing. Small changes in your thinking can produce very interesting results.

Songwriting As A Learning Tool - (or is it Learning As A Songwriting Tool?) By David Hodge For many guitarists, playing and songwriting go hand in hand. Since both skills improve with practice, why not try practicing on both simultaneously?

Songwriting - Part 2 By Tom Hess Picking right up from Songwriting - Part 1, Tom takes a look at the ways you can start your songwriting from either working with the melody first or the chord progression first.

Songwriting - Part 3 By Tom Hess Tom Hess returns to Guitar Noise to continue his discussion on songwriting, this time focusing on using rhythm as a writing tool. We also get a great example of Destructive Creation (first mentioned in Tom's articles on Creativity and Expression) in action.

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