songwriting

Great question. I am not much of a songwriter myself, but I think I could give some input.

First you have to ask yourself what kind of sound you are after, and why particular genre's of music sound the way they do.

For instance, lots of modern Rock is played on acoustic, but still sounds incredibly heavy. Why?

Well, for one thing, bands tune down now. They will tune a half-step, whole step or even more. This will give a much heavier tone to the music. I think bands avoid normal major and minor chords as well. Take a regular A chord and compare the sound with an Aadd9.

A= 0 0 2 2 2 0
Aadd9= 0 0 2 2 0 0

Listen to the difference one note makes. The Aadd9 is not as happy sounding as the normal A. Chords like this are very popular in Rock today. It is the 3rd that makes a Major chord, the flatted 3rd a Minor. Substituting the 9th (B) in this chord for the 3rd or flatted 3rd is very beautiful sounding. It sounds a little minor to me, but not quite.

So, bands today steer away from traditional chords, this is a big factor in music today.

As far as lyrics, that is almost an impossible thing to judge. Some of the greatest songs have whacky, non-sensical lyrics. I once read an article from Paul MacCartney, he said he did not care if his lyrics made sense at all, he just picked words he liked. :D

Now, to me that is great advice. One of my favorite songs by Paul MacCartney was Monkberry Moon Delight. This song makes absolutely no sense at all, but I love it. Check out the song and lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__th_X9FP9Q

Now the bizarre lyrics:


So I sat in the attic,
A piano up my nose,
And the wind played a dreadful cantata (cantata...).
Sore was I from the crack of an enemy's hose,
And the horrible sound of tomato (tomato...).

Monkberry moon delight...
Monkberry moon delight...


Why is this a great song?? I don't have a clue. But it is. :D

What I think you can learn from this is, don't worry so much about the lyrics. It is more the attitude and feel that matters. If the lyrics are too perfect and make sense, they might very well be boring and commonplace as well.

A= 0 0 2 2 2 0
Aadd9= 0 0 2 2 0 0

Wes, that's actually an Asus2 - if you believe in sus2's - because you're only using the 1st, 2nd(9th) and fifth notes in the scale of A. For an add9th, you'd have to add the 9th (do I win this week's "No s**t Sherlock!" prize for this?) to the major chord. Something like this -
E A D G B E
0 0 2 2 2 0 - A
0 0 2 2 0 0 - Asus2 (Esus4)
0 2 2 2 2 0 - Aadd9

In your example, you've lost the C# - third. It's also an Esus4...you're using the first, fourth and fifth of the E scale.

To get back on topic.....about sounding too "acoustic-y".....

Some of the ways in which electric guitar is different from acoustic;
1 - Fewer full strums are used, and more downstrokes are used.
2 - Fewer full chords are used - more part chords, maybe only using 2-3 strings, especially with distortion.
3 - Far more palm muting is used.

If you apply these techniques in playing acoustic, it'll sound more rock-oriented.

:D :D :D

Vic

+1 to what Wes has said.

Some other things to consider;

Knowing an army of chords is all well and good, but some of the best songs ever have been written using 4 basic chords. What's important is that the chords you choose fit the song. Listen to various band's and genre's of music - try to figure why they use certain chords in the way they do.

If you are creating songs that are just your single guitar playing rythm and your singing, then it can be quite hard to get that "moving" feeling - it's often the case that a second instrument is needed; wether that be a second guitar playing lead riffs, a piano, a violin...... your choice. For example, take "Good Riddance" by Greenday - the whole song is just Billie with his guitar, until the bridge where a violin comes in to play a nice little instrumental part; then back to the guitar alone again. Although it only features in about 15-20 seconds of the song, it really brings the whole song up a notch (I think so, anyway!)

One of the main things that a guitarist should strive towards is creating their "own sound" - and this can take a while. The more you play, the more you will 'feel' the music; this in turn becomes "your sound", as you make each song your own.

You've only been playing for 6 months, and the fact that you are learning theory and writing your own material aready is a good thing! Last point - Keep EVERYTHING you write or record, no matter how bad you think it might be; in a few months time, you can look back and see

A) How far you're moving along, and

B) What you can now do to improve those writings / recordings.

Pete

time and experience

thats all

when i started i wrote some of the best lyrics i felt iv written yet, deep meaningful and they were very personal, however the beat was slow and the vocal lines were boring, i used normal chords back then. its a matter of practice, these people that release cds have been writing for years, starting off basic and many of them have written hundreds of songs! when it comes to the album they can pick the best 10 out of a hundred they have finished. my songs now are much catchier than before, the writing style has changed quite a bit and iv learnt. i think it just takes time.

however that being said pretty chords can bring inspiration to your writing, just be careful not to fall into the habit of writing to everything you play and trying to use every line you ever write, i found that i pumped out 16 songs in one year, easily 10 of which were boring and all sounded the same :S take the time and dont rush to use everything, pick and choose the best bits even if sometimes it means a great riff or a good line gets dropped

your always learning when it comes to music whcih means that your always going to be better in the future :)

harry

thanks for the advice everyone. It was really useful to hear your input.
The only music I listen to is stuff that sounds strange to my ears—in a good way. (Radiohead, Blonde Redhead, Smiths) Like, "I've never heard that 'sound' " or that progression, etc. Maybe thats everyone, not sure. I know Radiohead uses a lot of interesting cords and scales, rythms, etc. As far as lyrics, I'm more confident with that b/c I've been publishing fiction and poetry in lit mags for a number of years and I gues I have faith that all those notebooks and word docs that I've been accumulating will have things that I can put to music. But the music is the thing that moves me first...In other words, I need to hear music that I think is great before I can even think about lyrics...I guess hard work and time will help most.

Thanks again,

Any other comments would be a pleasure to hear. You guys are great.

indie music all the way!! the shins, death cab, something for kate, dappled cities fly, iron on, any little band that has its own style and doesnt bow to mainstream has my loudly screamed vote. but...however much i love them i cant write like that.. :( i have my own style...but theres is better! :D

As for chord types, think about what you're trying to do. Major/minor chords are 'safe chords' in that they sound nice on themselves, the first being a bit uplifting and the second being more sad. Most pop-songs today are based around just these two types of triads. You then have to very 'unsafe' types: the diminished and augmented chords. On themselves they sound bad. Really nasty sound, it will upset your audience more then anything. However, they are also very 'charged' in that they can add a lot of beauty to the next chord, if you pick it wisely. Besides that, both chords do not fit in a normal major or minor scale which has two effects:

1) It will always sound a bit off when you introduce it.
2) It serves as a great jump into a different key. A Bdim might lead perfectly well to C, but since the notes in Bdim are exactly the same as in Ddim, Fdim and Abdim you can just as well go to Eb, F# or A. Or even their relative minors: Cm, Ebm and F#m.

Apart from these triads (treating the dim as a triad, while it ofcourse is not!) you can always extend these chords. You can add the 7th, 9th(2nd) and 11th(4th). Going further and you end up with crap, just my opinion so try it out yourself. These 'extended chords' still share the general feeling of their basic major/minor triad they are build on but add whole different flavors to the sound. The use of 9th and higher was commong during later parts of classical music (as a general genre, not the timeperiod) and in jazz-based genres. In contemporary pop and rock you'll find the occasional 7th, major/minor chords and lots of powerchords.