Writing Emotions

A question in the Guitar Forums prompted me to write this week’s column. What is the most emotional song you know? I answered. Others did too. All the answers were different. So, what is emotion?

The point is that 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 me may not necessarily touch you. And vice versa. So how do you write something very emotional under these circumstances?

First, and as I mentioned a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away) (So You Want to Be a Songwriter?), music is made to be felt, not heard. If you can’t understand this or work with this, you might as well start writing for Celine Dion, you’ll never write an honest song.

What emotions drive you? And how do you represent them?

This is where you have to work backwards.

As an artist, it is difficult to be in touch with your emotions. That’s why you are an artist. Your art is not only the delivery system, it is also mechanism through which you touch your emotions.

First, take your guitar, keyboard, bass, whatever instrument you play or, if you play more than one, which ever instrument you feel like composing with at the moment. Listen to your instincts. Then play around with it. Try chords, variations of chords, successions of notes, different rhythm patterns. Stop when something strikes you. Play it again.

And again. And again. Get comfortable with it, listen to your emotions, see what’s being stirred within you.

Most likely, you’ll end up with a verse. Yes, a verse. One would think it would be the chorus, but in most instances, that first pattern will be the verse. Why? Because at that moment you are not completely in touch with the emotion itself and what it represents. Instead, you are only in touch with a stirring of the emotion. A sensation, if you will.

It’s only as you work more on it that you will become more familiar, more in touch with the emotion itself. That’s when you will be able to write the chorus. That’s when a pattern for it will become obvious. That’s when the song will develop even more.

The next step will be the lyrics. Of course, record companies enjoy simplicity. If I were nasty (but you know I’m not…), I could expand on what this says about a lot of record company executives… (Luckily, some do know what they’re doing.) However, unless you’re writing that song that will get you the recording contract, in which case, emotions are quite useless (Going Against The Grain), I would highly recommend that you ignore that and carry a dictionary around. Try and find a colorful language that will express the emotions of the music. “Baby I love you”, doesn’t really say much. We all, at one time or another in our lives, say those words without meaning them. “You are graceful under shattered lights, bathed upon the moonlit shore” makes the situation all that more personal.

The next step is a bit more complicated. Performing and singing it. If you are performing it, it becomes easy to feel those emotions again; they’re yours. It’s the other musicians you have to be worried about. In order for them to adequately play it, they must feel it as you do. If someone other than yourself sings it, they must be able to transmit the words they way you hear them in your mind.

This is when you become a Public Relations Agent. This is where you have to reveal some secret part of yourself and explain the emotions behind the words and the music. This is where you must get them to understand the importance of the song.

If you are a solo performer, and some of you might not like what I’m about to say, when choosing musicians to perform emotional pieces, look for the ones who have less technique, they tend to play more with their hearts.

I won’t go into a guitarist debate on this one, but a clear example of this is Rick Wakeman, ex of Yes. On an album called Steinway to Heaven, ten rock keyboardists play solo classical pieces. Wakeman chose what is in my opinion, perhaps the most beautiful musical piece ever composed, Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique. Wakeman makes no mistakes and his technique is absolutely perfect. Yet you can feel no emotions through it. I’ve another version of this piece from another pianist. The technique has its occasional flaws. Some notes are louder or slightly longer than others. But it is so much more beautiful than Wakeman’s version. You feel the emotions clearly through it.

Another bit which may help you. Learn another instrument. You don’t need to become good at it, you just need to be comfortable enough with it to compose.

As I said, when it’s time to write, you may now choose from more than a single instrument. Although I firmly believe that the guitar is the most versatile, most beautifully melodic instrument, sometimes another instrument will render the emotions in a better light.