Document 6472827

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Document 6472827

2 Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW! | by Gary Ewer
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Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!
If you can solve these seven basic songwriting errors, you’ll be well
on your way to music that builds an audience base!
D
oes songwriting make you happy? How do you calculate songwriting success? If
the measuring tool you’re using is sales/downloads of your music, I’m going to go
out on a limb here and say that you likely aren’t very pleased. Most of the songs
being written today by the vast majority of songwriters will never be heard by
anyone except a few friends and family.
But perhaps that’s enough for you. If your family and friends pat you
on the back after each gig and tell you how much they enjoy your
tunes, maybe that’s all you need. I don’t say that facetiously.
Happiness is not for me to define for anyone.
But I’ll go out on a limb once more: You’re reading this because in fact you are not
happy with the state of your writing. More specifically, you’re feeling one, some or all
of the following:
1. Your song melodies sound like aimless wandering.
2. You find chord progressions difficult or
impossible to create.
3. Your lyrics sound confusing and lacking in
imagination.
4. You can’t find the inspiration to write your next
song.
5. The last song you wrote sounds a lot like all the
others you’ve written.
6. And except for a few fans, you can’t build an
audience base for your music, and you don’t know
why.
Most songs
being written
today will never
be heard by
anyone!
Frustrated
songwriters are not
addressing the real
sourceleads
of their
Any one of those circumstances will cause frustration to set in, which
to writer’s
frustration.
block, and… So this is where you are now. Songwriting is supposed to be fun, or
else why do it?
These are issues I cover in my 6-eBook bundle, “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”,
but I want to give you some help right now.
© 2012 Gary Ewer and Pantomime Music Publications. The contents of this document may not be copied or reprinted in any form
without written permission from Gary Ewer and/or Pantomime Music Publications
Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW! | by Gary Ewer
________________________________________________________________
3
So What's the Problem?
Y
ou can tell a lot about what songwriters think is important by seeing what they’re
searching for online. I’ve been selling my “Easy Music Theory with Gary Ewer”
program for the past twelve years, and have been providing songwriting materials
since 2005, in addition to working side-by-side with my own students, so knowing
what people are looking for has been a great concern of mine.
The number 1 phrase being searched online by songwriters for the past decade
is: chord progressions.
If you can’t create a good chord progression, then it’s natural that you’ll want to search
for some. But though chord progressions are easy to find, the first statistic I gave you is
still true: most songs will not build an audience base, and most songs are never
going to be heard outside the writer’s circle of family and friends. So you may be
looking for chords, but that may only be part of the problem. In short, you’re possibly
not addressing the real source of your frustration.
The fact is that songwriting success comes from following some basic principles.
Not rules – principles. Back in 2004 I began researching
hundreds of songs from the past 6 decades in preparation
Most
for writing “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” That
research led me to develop eleven basic principles of
songwriters are
songwriting. I didn’t invent those principles, of course,
but rather identified them based on research and
not addressing
observation. Each time I analyzed a hit song, I set out to
discover why the song was so great, and to determine
the real source
how other songwriters could learn from it.
of their
frustration.
As I worked with my own music students, and listened to
songs that up-and-coming songwriters were sending to
me for analysis, I could tell that the songs that were
working were the ones that adhered to those basic
principles. And for the ones that had problems, I kept
seeing the same errors surfacing over and over again.
In fact, I was able to identify seven basic songwriting errors prevalent in most of
the music that was being written and sent to me for critiquing. These errors are
certainly not the only ones present in failing songs. But beyond doubt they are the
errors that rate as the most numerous. And they are certainly the ones that have the
most responsibility for compromising the quality of the music I was listening to, and
causing the greatest sense of frustration.
________________________________________________________________
Solving Your Songwriting Problems
I
want you to take your time, and read through the next section slowly. Let the
description of each error sit in your mind a bit. Once you’ve got a handle on the
description of each of the seven songwriting errors, it’s time to apply that knowledge
to your own songs. If you aren’t as happy as you think you should be with your music, I
am convinced that you are going to see one of those errors suddenly become obvious
as you turn your attention to your own music.
And that will be exciting! You’ll have finally pointed yourself in the right direction, and
songwriting happiness will be just around the corner!
Are you ready? Here are the seven basic songwriting errors that I see constantly in
the songs sent to me for analysis:
ERROR #1: THE FORM OF THE SONG IS CONFUSING. C
ertainly that can’t be the biggest problem facing songwriters today, I can hear you
saying. But when we speak about form, we’re not just talking about the overall
structure of a song (verse-chorus-bridge). We’re talking about why songs are created
in sections, and how to make those basic forms work.
Did you know:
1. Chorus melodies normally should be higher
in pitch than verse melodies? Without
knowing that crucial principle, you may be
inadvertently compromising your song’s form.
2. Verse lyrics are generally in a narrative style,
telling a story, describing situations and
people, while chorus melodies tend to be
emotional outpourings. If your song is not
demonstrating that principle, you’re confusing
the listener.
3. Verse and bridge chord progressions can
tolerate a lot more innovation and
interesting twists and turns, while chorus
progressions are often shorter, more
strongly pointing to one chord as being an
important tonic chord.
As a songwriter,
you need to get
the various
components of
your song working
together.
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5
4. A pre-chorus provides a suitable connection between verse and chorus,
and makes most sense if a) the end of the verse is far away in pitch from the
start of the chorus; or 2) the verse is short, using few chords.
There is a lot more that can be said here, but the point is: as a songwriter, you need to
get the various components of your song working together, working with the form of
your song.
ERROR #2: THE MELODY LACKS SHAPE. I
f people aren’t humming your melodies, it could be that they lack a sense of shape
and contour. Melodic shape is a crucial part of what makes it easy to remember
tunes. So if you find that your melodies are unremarkable, check them against this list:
1. The notes of most good melodies move in a mainly stepwise fashion, with
only occasional leaps. This means that from one note to the next should often
be an adjacent letter name.
2. Melodies with too many leaps are often hard for audiences to remember, and
harder to sing.
3. Melodies are easier to remember if there is a climactic high point.
4. The rhythms used in melodies should tend to be more active in verses (i.e.,
using quicker note values) than in choruses (which should use longer note
values.)
It’s a good idea to think carefully about when and
where you’ll use leaps in a melody. A leap means that
the melody jumps up or down suddenly, and that
action quite often means an increase in emotion. You’ll
want to carefully consider the lyric that accompanies
the melody in those spots. A lyric that is well-placed to
take advantage melodic shape makes a stronger
connection to the listener.
A song’s melody can have several climactic moments,
because each section within a song needs to have a
memorable shape. However, the climax that occurs in
the chorus is more significant than anywhere else.
Keep in mind as well that bridge (also called middle-8)
melodies often have a significant climactic moment as
it approaches its connection to whatever comes after.
A good melody
needs to work in
partnership with
other song
components,
particularly lyric
and rhythm.
Climactic moments are a key ingredient for melody
________________________________________________________________
recall. Melodies that meander up and down seemingly at random won’t make the kind
of impact that’s needed for someone to easily bring it to mind it later.
ERROR #3: CHORDS SEEM TO WANDER AIMLESSLY. W
hen we say that a chord progression wanders aimlessly, we mean that it lacks a
harmonic goal. Think of it this way: you decide to go for a walk. You step
outside your house, take a few steps to the sidewalk, and then proceed down the
street. But before you take more than a dozen steps, you quickly switch to the other
side of the road. After a few more steps, you reverse direction. Once you get to the end
of the street you reverse direction for a few steps, then cross back over.
And so on.
A chord progression
is a musical journey.
You may not know
what the goal is when
it starts, but good
chord progressions
help you make sense
of every little turn.
It’s not difficult to see how such a walk would be
confusing to anyone accompanying you. Your
erratic journey seems to have no purpose, no
direction, and no goal. Anyone walking with you
would feel uneasy and confused.
How could your journey be improved? How about
this: you proceed down the street, taking a left
turn at the end. You continue to walk toward what
seems to be a green area. You cross the street and
enter a park. As you continue through the park
you change direction onto a cobblestone path and
see a beautiful fountain looming ahead. You walk
until you reach the fountain. When you get there,
a flock of birds fly overhead. You take in the
beautiful site for a few moments, and then you
turn to head home on mostly the same streets you
used to get there.
That’s the kind of walk that makes sense. It has a goal, and even if your walking
companion doesn’t know what it is at the start, it begins to become apparent as the
journey progresses.
Even if the goal seems to change, it still makes sense. If, for example, it appears that
the fountain in the park is the goal, but just as you reach it you turn and head toward a
magnificent waterfall, it still all makes sense.
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7
That’s how a good chord progression works. It’s a musical journey. You may not know
what the goal is when it starts, but good chord progressions help you make sense of
every little turn. It’s why we call them chord progressions, and not chord successions.
So the things you’ll want to remember are:
1. Keep the tonic chord (i.e., the chord that represents your song’s key) in mind as
you create your progressions. Think of progressions as little journeys away from
and back to the tonic chord.
2. Keep progressions from getting too long. The longer a progression, the
more it gains that “wandering” feeling, and the more obscure the tonic chord
becomes.
3. Predictability, at least with chord progressions, is a positive characteristic.
Songwriters like to think that everything they do is unique, but with regard to
chord progressions, following a tried & true formula is hardly ever a bad idea.
ERROR #4: STRONG AND FRAGILE CHORD PROGRESSIONS ARE USED HAPHAZARDLY. C
hord progressions can be loosely categorized as being either strong or fragile.
They are not opposites of each other, per se; you should dispel the impression that
strong ones are good and fragile ones are bad. In many songs, fragile progressions
produce lovely harmonic journeys. But it’s very important to know the difference
between the two, and when to use them.
A strong progression clearly points to one chord
as the tonic chord. The tonic chord, as mentioned
in the previous section, is one that represents the
key your song is in. C is the tonic chord of a song in
the key of C major. Strong progressions in C are
difficult to see as being from any other key or
mode. There is nothing ambiguous about them. To
use an architectural analogy, strong progressions
are the studs and frame upon which the building
(the song) gets created.
For example, the progression C F Dm G C sits
solidly in C major. It starts and ends on C, and the
chords in between all come from C major. It’s an
example of a very strong progression.
Strong progressions
point directly to the
tonic chord; fragile
progressions point a
little more obliquely.
________________________________________________________________
The progression Dm Em Dm Em Am G Am is what we would call a bit fragile.
That’s because those chords can be used in at least two different keys or modes. The
chords all exist naturally in C major, but the progression itself has no C chord,
something that creates a bit of ambiguity. Also, the chords match up with the ones
found in the mode of A Aeolian. This ambiguity doesn’t make the progression
undesirable at all. It’s actually quite a lovely set of chords. But you need to know when
it’s a good idea to be ambiguous, and when it’s a good idea to be tonally clear.
Verses and middle-8s (bridges) are great places for fragile progressions. That’s
because verses and bridges sometimes need the creative touch that comes from tonal
fragility to enhance the story. But choruses are different. Because choruses are usually
much clearer with respect to purpose (choruses allow you to express your emotional
state), a strong progression helps to intensify those emotions.
You’ll notice that one of the things that strengthens a chord progression is having
adjacent chords within a progression move by 4ths and 5ths. In the strong
progression listed earlier, from C to F is a 4th, as is Dm to G, and G to C.
So strong progressions point directly to the tonic chord; fragile progressions point a
little more obliquely. Here are the things you will want to keep in mind with regard to
strong and fragile progressions:
1. Keep fragile progressions mainly for verse and bridge, and allow the
chorus to use stronger ones. Having said that, verse and bridge progressions
can use strong progressions.
2. Entire progressions can be seen as being mostly strong or mostly fragile, and it
is also useful and relevant to describe parts of progressions as being one or
the other.
3. Even a song section that uses fragile progressions still needs to keep the tonic
chord somewhat firmly in its sights. “Fragile” should not be taken to mean
“excessively aimless and wandering.”
ERROR #5: INDIVIDUAL SONG ELEMENTS ARE WORKING AT CROSS-‐
PURPOSES WITH EACH OTHER. A
s we learned from Error #1, no one song element acts in isolation from the others.
This particular error, where the various song elements (melody, chords, lyrics, etc.)
seem to be working against each other, is a very common one. Often it’s difficult for a
listener to pick this error out. All they know is that according to the lyric and subject
matter, they should be feeling, say, introspective and somber, but the instrumentation
________________________________________________________________
9
sounds light and airy and the melody sounds aimless. The parts aren’t working well
together.
It’s all tricky, because it’s possible for you to go a bit overboard trying to get a
particular mood across. Sad songs can sound a bit trite and overdone if you decide to
go with the stereotypically sad effect of choosing a minor key, a slow tempo, with a
heartrending vocal style. In other words, it’s possible
to go a bit too far with having components of a
It’s possible to go a
song working together. Such a song starts to sound
overly predictable and stale.
bit too far with
having the
components of a
song working
together.
Performance style has a lot to do with how an
audience hears a song. And so if all the songs you
write are accompanied with a driving instrumentation,
the audience can only guess at the emotion they’re
supposed to be feeling.
So here are a few questions to ask yourself when it
comes to making sure that the various elements of
your songs aren’t inadvertently weakening each other:
1. Do emotional moments in my song’s lyric line up with high notes and
other significant or climactic moments in my melody? High notes will have
more impact if an emotional word or image happens there.
2. Is there a sense of predictability to how frequently chords change
throughout my song? This is called harmonic rhythm, and it helps to
strengthen everything else if listeners can usually anticipate when one chord
will move to the next one.
3. Does my song’s tempo seem to work well with the subject matter? Don’t
be afraid to experiment to get the maximum effect.
4. Are the fluctuating energy levels throughout the song supported by
instrumentation, melodic range, rhythm, and general volume?
ERROR #6: YOU'RE RELYING ON A HOOK TO SAVE A BAD SONG. I
n my eBook, “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”, I talk about the 10-cent ice cream
cone as being that thing that keeps people coming back to the local fast food joint.
In that sense, the ice cream is a hook. There’s usually no pretence by the restaurant
that the ice cream is good quality, and in fact, it’s probably not. A lot of people will
choose one restaurant over another if in addition to what restaurants normally offer
they get something else at a very low price. But look deeper at what sales like this are
________________________________________________________________
really saying. The 10-cent ice cream is a store’s way of saying, “We’re offering pretty
much the same fare that all the other stores do, so we’re willing to sell something at a
very low price to differentiate ourselves from the competition.”
Put that way, it sounds like a hook is just a cheesy way to get people through the door.
But it’s not necessarily the case. Especially in music, a good, high quality hook may
not necessarily mean that there’s no other way to get people interested. In fact,
most hit songs on the Billboard Hot-100 list have hooks that are a vital part of the
chorus, and contribute positively to song structure. On the downside, a repetitive
hook can have the unfortunate effect of dumbing a song down and drawing attention
to itself to the point where the rest of the song doesn’t matter a whole lot. But a good
hook can be that extra feature that makes a good song better.
Which gets me to what I really want to talk about.
Sometimes a hook can be so catchy, so memorable,
that it’s masking other problems that the song has. A
typical scenario might be that a song is finished, but
the songwriter feels that it’s a bit boring. So she
develops a hook that adds a bit of extra zing to the
song. But what she’s ignoring is the real reason for
the song being boring: that the song’s energy was
not well thought-out or planned. So by adding a
catchy hook, you’ve gone from having a song with
problems, to having a song with a great hook – that
has problems.
Sometimes a hook
can be so catchy,
so memorable,
that it’s masking
other problems.
It’s important as a songwriter to develop an ability to listen to your songs
objectively. Each component of a song should be able to stand on its own as a
problem-free section. If you find yourself saying, “This verse is OK, I guess, but I really
think the chorus hook will make up for it”, you’re treading on thin ice. It’s better to
address those verse issues directly before even considering what a good chorus hook
will do for you.
In short:
1. Adding a hook to a bad song gives you a bad song with a hook.
2. Make sure that all elements of your song work well both individually and in
combination with others.
3. Not all songs need a strong hook. Many Beatles’ tunes, for example, use
hooks that are musically restrained and understated.
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11
ERROR #7: YOU'RE WAITING FOR INSPIRATION. O
ne of the greatest myths of the creative arts is the belief that the creative process
must start with inspiration. It often doesn’t, and it’s important that you
understand this important fact, because you can waste a lot of time waiting for
inspiration to kick in.
One of the greatest
myths of the
creative arts is the
belief that the
If you ask most songwriters to describe the creative
process, they’d tell you something like this: “It starts
by the songwriter feeling inspired. This leads to the
creation of musical ideas which get written down or
otherwise recorded. You simply keep writing until the
inspiration stops, and which time the songwriter
stops. The process starts again when inspiration kicks
in once more.
This is a bit worrisome, because in that definition it’s
not even clear what inspiration really is. You simply
work until you don’t feel “inspired” to write anymore.
must start with
Then you wait. Sometimes a day, a week, or longer. If
it lasts for more than a few days, we call it writer’s
inspiration.
block. You might do some things to try to get things
flowing again: go for a walk, talk to other songwriters,
force yourself to write, and so on.
creative process
As a songwriter, this must surely be intolerable. It makes songwriting seem hit-andmiss, and you would fear that a block could happen at any time.
Fortunately, the truth is a bit different. Songwriting does not usually start with
inspiration, it starts with work, something like this:
The ability to spontaneously create ideas “out of thin air” is something that most
humans have. Whether you realize it or not, that is how most music begins – simply
imagining a musical fragment. You then write it or record it. This little shot of creation
________________________________________________________________
causes a shot of inspiration. Inspiration then helps you create the next musical idea,
and inspiration starts to grow.
So as you can see, inspiration comes from songwriting, not the other way around. And
there is evidence to support this. Research Robert Boice, back in 1982, conducted an
experiment with academic writers who were suffering from severe writer’s block.
During certain weeks he punished the writers with fines and other “negative
contingencies” if they missed writing deadlines. He found that during those particular
weeks, their productivity rose! Browbeating them into writing worked. For these
academics, the ultimate solution to writer’s block was: get busy and start writing. Once
they started writing, they felt inspired to keep writing. To say it again, inspiration
comes from songwriting, not the other way around.
There is another kind of inspiration that we should
mention here, and you’ve experienced this yourself, no
doubt. There are times when you feel inspired to write
after attending a great concert, hearing a rave review of
your music, or after hearing a motivational speaker. But
that kind of inspiration, the kind that’s injected from
outside the songwriting process, usually has little staying
power. It causes you to sit down and write, and for the
moment it’s very exciting, but it can tend to fade rather
quickly. It’s the quality of your musical ideas that generates
the most important and relevant inspiration.
It’s the quality of
your musical
ideas that
generates the
most important
and relevant
You’ll find that at times you’ll conjure up a bit of melody
that’s really great, and the ensuing inspiration becomes
inspiration.
part of the creative process that then creates the next bit
of melody. It can happen so quickly that it almost seems as
though inspiration itself that was the start of the process.
But in most cases, inspiration comes from within, as a reaction to the quality of your
own musical ideas.
I can say it no better than the musician/author Ernest Newman: "The great composer...
does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is
working."
Waiting for inspiration is, quite frankly, a waste of time. You need to be writing daily in
order to make your songs better. If something isn't working, don't throw it out. Just
put it away, and start something new. Keep everything you try to write in a scrapbook.
You'd be surprised what will eventually make its way into a song.
In fact, simply follow this advice:
________________________________________________________________
13
1. Set up a daily writing schedule for yourself, for at least 5 out of 7 days.
Sometimes life’s little problems will try to interfere with that schedule, but if
you can stick to that schedule, you’ll find that writer’s block is less likely to
become a problem.
2. Don’t feel that you must write a full song every time you sit down to write.
On some days, you may simply try to work out a melodic phrase that’s only 4
beats long. Just be consistent.
3. Don’t assume that a day without good writing to show for your efforts is
wasted time. If it took you one entire writing session to get a chord
progression to work, that was time well spent. And it’s possible that you might
use an entire writing session to realize that you need to restart your song.
That’s a normal part of the creative process.
And another thought to keep in mind: A day without musical ideas is not abnormal,
and it doesn’t mean you have writer’s block, any more than a day without rain would
mean drought. It’s normal for the creative abilities of the mind to ebb and flow. When
you feel that you’ve tried and it’s not working for you, it’s OK to take a break and skip a
day or two before getting back at it.
Are Those The Only Problems? It would be silly to say that those seven issues are the only ones that ever come up in
songwriting. Every songwriter is different, and so are the kinds of difficulties that can
be encountered.
But in reality, there are dozens of potential stumbling blocks that can keep a song
from being great. And what should be of greatest concern is this: it only takes one
small problem to compromise the quality of your song.
However, there’s good news in all of this. Your song may actually be very close to
being the kind of tune that could become a hit. If one small problem can kill a song, it
follows logically that you simply need to solve that one problem.
It just requires you to get control of your songwriting!
But how do you do that?
________________________________________________________________
I am confident that this eBook has given you some ideas for moving forward and
becoming the best songwriter you can be. But that was thirteen pages of ideas, and
there’s much, much more to learn.
That’s where “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-‐eBook Bundle comes in. With the eBook Bundle, you’ll get almost 400 pages of songwriting instruction: how to work out a plan for each song;
how to add chords to a melody;
how to write lyrics that captivate an audience;
how to write song melodies that partner with chords and lyrics;
how to create an energy map for your songs that generates momentum;
how to apply the contrast principle to your music in a way that makes
people want to keep listening to your songs;
how harmonic rhythm helps you to know when to change chords;
how to properly use chord inversions (“slash chords”);
how to change key;
how to balance song complexity with simplicity;
how you can almost instantly create hundreds of chord progressions using
simple formulas;
how to practice your songwriting skills efficiently;
These eBooks are available separately, but right now you can save 56% and
download the entire bundle!
CLICK HERE to read more
CLICK HERE to Buy the Entire bundle for $83.75 $37 USD
________________________________________________________________
15
ABOUT GARY EWER
Gary Ewer received his B.Mus degree in Music Composition from Dalhousie University
in 1982, and then continued studies with various composers at McGill University. His
career has been mainly in the teaching of music at all levels of education from grade
school through to university: music theory, ear training, composition, arranging and
orchestration.
Gary also has conducted choirs, orchestras
and bands. His compositions, mainly for
choirs and orchestras, have been composed
for, and performed by, the CBC (Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation), Symphony Nova
Scotia, The Elmer Isler Singers, and many
others.
Through his high school years, Gary’s main interest was in pop music; Genesis, Yes, and
Chicago were his main influences. His university training was largely Classical, but far
from abandoning his interest in pop, he saw how, on many levels, pop songwriters
and Classical composers were all attempting to do the same thing: compose musical
works (though in very different styles) that takes listeners on a coherent musical
journey.
His interest in the relationship between the pop and Classical worlds eventually led
him to write a text for songwriters (“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”) that
analyzes hit songs in much the same way a Classical musician would analyze a
symphony: by showing writers what works, why it works, and how to use those same
kinds of ideas in their own music.
Gary is has recently finished a senior instructorship at Dalhousie University to devote
himself to composition, trumpet playing, and to conduct music clinics with musical
learners of all ages. He owns Pantomime Music Publications, a company through
which he distributes much of the choral music he writes. He is the author and
developer of “Easy Music Theory with Gary Ewer”, a 25-lesson DVD-based course in
music rudiments. He also maintains the very popular ”Essential Secrets of
Songwriting Blog”. That blog gets well over one thousands visits daily from
songwriters looking for ways to improve their skills.
If you have any questions about any of Gary’s products, he welcomes your email:
[email protected]

Document 6472827

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