badgas
New member
A few months ago I began weeding out my collection of original songs.
I had 323 songs.
Now I have 36.
There were several reasons why I dumped most of my songs.
1. Some were terrible.
2. I found around thirty songs that sounded alike.
3. Repitition in lyrics or melody, or structure, etc.
4. I knew they sucked.
I've been writing songs over forty years and playing music longer than songwriting, and only in the past two and a half years have I come to take the task of songwriting serious enough to begin to 'care'.
I made notes about each and every song I discarded to see if I could find why my songs sounded like shit.
Just one event within all the songs I trashed is what I want to talk about here.
And that is, a lot of them were in the same progression. The keys, tempo, arrangement and structure changed in most of them, but the progression was still the same old comfortable progression I always fell back on. Thus most of the songs I dumped sounded like the same old bluesy tune as all the rest, with some difference of course.
A shit slapping 64% of the songs I trashed had the same progression. I recorded 45 minutes of them on a cassette tape. (no, you do not want to hear it) I listed the songs so the tempo and keys would varey from one song to the next.
Not bad, but I felt a bit bored. Simular to playing a 45 minute set in the same key. But not as bad as fast.
I think I'm about half way through recording (less mix & mastering) my first CD. This is another reason for the weeding out of the crap I've saved since I was fourteen.
I was kinda suprised that so many of my songs were in the same old progression and I was totally unaware of it. This caused me to pick songs from my list of 36 that didn't have the same progression. (It's my CD and this is what I want on it. I know a duplicate progression can be used. But I am what I am. Fanatical) I had thirteen that I wanted on this CD out of the 36, but that left a lot of blank space on the CD. So I picked one cover, a hit back in 1869, and wrote five new songs in the past two months.
Five songs in two months is nothing new for me. But five songs in a row, that I like? Unheard of.
When ever I would write a song it would be as such;
Strumming my guitar or keyboard with some drums, finding some chords that fit my mood, adding a melody, then the lyrics. It'd work almost every time. Cripes, I had over three hundred tunes to prove it worked.
After I started getting serious and down to business with my songwriting, I came to realize that it sounded 'like it' worked almost every time, too.
I was in a songwriting rut, and the muse was tired of pulling me out of the hole I dug for myself.
I started something different in my way of writing songs, for two reasons.
One to better my own understanding of what the hell I was aiming at, and two, to collab with a good friend of mine.
Without his knowing it, Joro kicked my ass in gear and got me thinking about a new way to build a song. It didn't fall into place though until I found out I was in a progression rut.
What I did was figure out five new progressions. Then I built those five new songs around the progressions.
With what Joro said to me one day, and what I saw in my own writings, I came up with this progression first instead of some haphazard chord configuration and the melody and lyrics.
So, sometime when your up against the wall, the muse seems to of forgotten you exist, you want try a new way to write a song, what ever the reason you can come up with, try this.
Create a progression you don't usually use.
Play it through over and over, using various tempos and keys. Get comfortable with it.
Build the song around the progression.
Keep the building of your song flexible though so you are not confined within ridged guidlines.
And have fun.
Here is the list of songs, less the cover, and the progressions I'm using. Damn if I don't feel like I'm getting a grip on something besides the same old way I have been writing songs for years.
I hope it helps someone see things in a new light like I have.
l, lllm, llm, V ------------------------------------- It's What I've Become
l, lllm7, lV9, Vl7sus, Vl -------------------- Winter Tree
l, lllm, Vlm, lV ----------------------------------- Beyond The Dawn
ladd9, lV6/sus4, 1m, Vlm, Vll, V5 -------- Soft Southern Breeze
l, lV, V, Vlm, ------------------------------------ Another Bitter Tear
l, V6, llm7, C ------------------------------------ Eyes Filled With Tears
l7, V7, Vl7 ------------------------------------- Feeling Good
l, Vlm, llm, V ----------------------------------- Woolton Church
l, Vlm, lV, V. ------------------------------------- Whatever You Say.
lm, l9m7, lVm, lll ------------------------------ Shotgun Me
lm, lm/add9, lVsus2, Vl7 -------------------- Only In My Dreams
lm7, lV9, lV, Vllm7, Vm7, lll, #ll9 ----------- Say, Shaylata
lm, lVm, Vm -------------------------------------- Wash Away My Blues
lm, Vm, Vlm, -------------------------------------- Better Now Than Later
lm, Vl, V, lll, -------------------------------------- Every Move I Make,
lm, bVl, bVll -------------------------------------- Make It Last Forever
lm, bVl, blll, bVll5 -------------------------------- Don't Be Sad
lm, bVll -------------------------------------------- Sleep Talk
And what did Joro say to me that tripped my trigger some months ago?
"Have fun writing songs."
I had made my whole life around music. When asked what I did for a living, I'd reply, "Musician." What I didn't say was; "I'm a serious, narrow minded, stuck in a rut, fucking musican, confined within my own strick code for making a living at it, and after so many years of coveting it, I can see no other way, other than my own."
"Fun?" you ask.
"Yeah, when I wrote my last five songs, I had fun doing it." I say, "And it felt good."
Funny and ironic, in a strange sorta way.
I had 323 songs.
Now I have 36.
There were several reasons why I dumped most of my songs.
1. Some were terrible.
2. I found around thirty songs that sounded alike.
3. Repitition in lyrics or melody, or structure, etc.
4. I knew they sucked.
I've been writing songs over forty years and playing music longer than songwriting, and only in the past two and a half years have I come to take the task of songwriting serious enough to begin to 'care'.
I made notes about each and every song I discarded to see if I could find why my songs sounded like shit.
Just one event within all the songs I trashed is what I want to talk about here.
And that is, a lot of them were in the same progression. The keys, tempo, arrangement and structure changed in most of them, but the progression was still the same old comfortable progression I always fell back on. Thus most of the songs I dumped sounded like the same old bluesy tune as all the rest, with some difference of course.
A shit slapping 64% of the songs I trashed had the same progression. I recorded 45 minutes of them on a cassette tape. (no, you do not want to hear it) I listed the songs so the tempo and keys would varey from one song to the next.
Not bad, but I felt a bit bored. Simular to playing a 45 minute set in the same key. But not as bad as fast.
I think I'm about half way through recording (less mix & mastering) my first CD. This is another reason for the weeding out of the crap I've saved since I was fourteen.
I was kinda suprised that so many of my songs were in the same old progression and I was totally unaware of it. This caused me to pick songs from my list of 36 that didn't have the same progression. (It's my CD and this is what I want on it. I know a duplicate progression can be used. But I am what I am. Fanatical) I had thirteen that I wanted on this CD out of the 36, but that left a lot of blank space on the CD. So I picked one cover, a hit back in 1869, and wrote five new songs in the past two months.
Five songs in two months is nothing new for me. But five songs in a row, that I like? Unheard of.
When ever I would write a song it would be as such;
Strumming my guitar or keyboard with some drums, finding some chords that fit my mood, adding a melody, then the lyrics. It'd work almost every time. Cripes, I had over three hundred tunes to prove it worked.
After I started getting serious and down to business with my songwriting, I came to realize that it sounded 'like it' worked almost every time, too.
I was in a songwriting rut, and the muse was tired of pulling me out of the hole I dug for myself.
I started something different in my way of writing songs, for two reasons.
One to better my own understanding of what the hell I was aiming at, and two, to collab with a good friend of mine.
Without his knowing it, Joro kicked my ass in gear and got me thinking about a new way to build a song. It didn't fall into place though until I found out I was in a progression rut.
What I did was figure out five new progressions. Then I built those five new songs around the progressions.
With what Joro said to me one day, and what I saw in my own writings, I came up with this progression first instead of some haphazard chord configuration and the melody and lyrics.
So, sometime when your up against the wall, the muse seems to of forgotten you exist, you want try a new way to write a song, what ever the reason you can come up with, try this.
Create a progression you don't usually use.
Play it through over and over, using various tempos and keys. Get comfortable with it.
Build the song around the progression.
Keep the building of your song flexible though so you are not confined within ridged guidlines.
And have fun.
Here is the list of songs, less the cover, and the progressions I'm using. Damn if I don't feel like I'm getting a grip on something besides the same old way I have been writing songs for years.
I hope it helps someone see things in a new light like I have.
l, lllm, llm, V ------------------------------------- It's What I've Become
l, lllm7, lV9, Vl7sus, Vl -------------------- Winter Tree
l, lllm, Vlm, lV ----------------------------------- Beyond The Dawn
ladd9, lV6/sus4, 1m, Vlm, Vll, V5 -------- Soft Southern Breeze
l, lV, V, Vlm, ------------------------------------ Another Bitter Tear
l, V6, llm7, C ------------------------------------ Eyes Filled With Tears
l7, V7, Vl7 ------------------------------------- Feeling Good
l, Vlm, llm, V ----------------------------------- Woolton Church
l, Vlm, lV, V. ------------------------------------- Whatever You Say.
lm, l9m7, lVm, lll ------------------------------ Shotgun Me
lm, lm/add9, lVsus2, Vl7 -------------------- Only In My Dreams
lm7, lV9, lV, Vllm7, Vm7, lll, #ll9 ----------- Say, Shaylata
lm, lVm, Vm -------------------------------------- Wash Away My Blues
lm, Vm, Vlm, -------------------------------------- Better Now Than Later
lm, Vl, V, lll, -------------------------------------- Every Move I Make,
lm, bVl, bVll -------------------------------------- Make It Last Forever
lm, bVl, blll, bVll5 -------------------------------- Don't Be Sad
lm, bVll -------------------------------------------- Sleep Talk
And what did Joro say to me that tripped my trigger some months ago?
"Have fun writing songs."
I had made my whole life around music. When asked what I did for a living, I'd reply, "Musician." What I didn't say was; "I'm a serious, narrow minded, stuck in a rut, fucking musican, confined within my own strick code for making a living at it, and after so many years of coveting it, I can see no other way, other than my own."
"Fun?" you ask.
"Yeah, when I wrote my last five songs, I had fun doing it." I say, "And it felt good."
Funny and ironic, in a strange sorta way.