How to write? Part II: LYRICS

  • Thread starter Thread starter AJ_Cantos
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this might be sorta off topic, but read. Most of the good writers I know are all well read. I know for me it has helped. read everything and all the time.

my two worthless cents
dave
 
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DrSpankenstein said:
this might be sorta off topic, but read. Most of the good writers I know are all well read. I know for me it has helped. read everything and all the time.

my two worthless cents
deve
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I think those are valuable pennies. In fact, I would expand it. Read, listen to musical genres outside your own, go to museums and art galleries, plays, dance etc etc.... art translates


btw Aaron, good posts ... I'd take your class any time, even though I am skeptical about the extent to which songwriting can be taught!!!
 
LI_Slim said:
...even though I am skeptical about the extent to which songwriting can be taught!!!
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Ahh... such is the nature of art.

One of the first things I express (right after declaring the class a BFZ) is that songwriting does have rules that can be taught, learned, and followed. After the class gets done protesting I use this example:

A painter is an artist, but he has rules he must follow: for example the laws of light, color, and perspective. However... an artist can break those rules as well. Take Escher, whose drawings distort perspective regularly, or Dali's surreal landscapes that bend the rules of color and light. They are both brilliant artists that prove something very valuable: that rules lead to understanding. Once you have achieved understanding, then you can break the rules brilliantly.

Understanding is the leap that seperates the true artist from the amateur.

How many times have you seen someone look at a painting (Picasso perhaps), and say "It looks like a child did it. I could do it just as well...". But they are wrong. They lack the understanding that comes from learning the rules of the art. Maybe they could get lucky one time out of a thousand, but they could never "do just as well" on a consistent basis.

So... I teach the rules of songwriting, and I believe they can be learned. But gaining the understanding one needs to transcend the rules.... that's all up to the individual.

A
www.aaroncheney.com


p.s. I've been toying with idea of writing a book on the subject. I've certainly got enough notes from my class. Now I just need the time....
 
Aaron Cheney said:
Ahh... such is the nature of art.

One of the first things I express (right after declaring the class a BFZ) is that songwriting does have rules that can be taught, learned, and followed. After the class gets done protesting I use this example:

A painter is an artist, but he has rules he must follow: for example the laws of light, color, and perspective. However... an artist can break those rules as well. Take Escher, whose drawings distort perspective regularly, or Dali's surreal landscapes that bend the rules of color and light. They are both brilliant artists that prove something very valuable: that rules lead to understanding. Once you have achieved understanding, then you can break the rules brilliantly.

Understanding is the leap that seperates the true artist from the amateur.

How many times have you seen someone look at a painting (Picasso perhaps), and say "It looks like a child did it. I could do it just as well...". But they are wrong. They lack the understanding that comes from learning the rules of the art. Maybe they could get lucky one time out of a thousand, but they could never "do just as well" on a consistent basis.

So... I teach the rules of songwriting, and I believe they can be learned. But gaining the understanding one needs to transcend the rules.... that's all up to the individual.

A
www.aaroncheney.com


p.s. I've been toying with idea of writing a book on the subject. I've certainly got enough notes from my class. Now I just need the time....
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Besides understanding, I think, talent, innate inspiration, whatever it is, also separates the amateur from the true(r) artist.


Your book should include a CD, of course.
 
Lyrics for me can be a very hard long, tedious slog. I can get a snippet of a lyric, wrap it around a melody, come up with a great idea for a song and then I have to get a headache getting verse 2 and 3 out. The first verse and chorus usual come a the blink of an eye.
If i can nail the topic it helps.

In response to the Beatles guy up there - I often sit in amazement after listening to please please me and then Sgt Pepper back to back. 5 years?? how the hell did they get from Love Me Do to A Day In The Life in just 5 years?? Im not talking just lyrics here either... wow...
 
In response to the Beatles guy up there - I often sit in amazement after listening to please please me and then Sgt Pepper back to back. 5 years?? how the hell did they get from Love Me Do to A Day In The Life in just 5 years?? Im not talking just lyrics here either... wow...
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drugs???


Nah, theyre easily my favourite band and im probably their biggest fan but drugs woulda helped!

As a side note i think they just played the sort of love me do and please please me and hard days night songs to get popular. Once that was accomplished, they started experimenting - with amazing results.

y
 
yiordanaki said:
i think they just played the sort of love me do and please please me and hard days night songs to get popular. Once that was accomplished, they started experimenting
y
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Exactly, and that is something so many young, "idealistic" musicians fail to understand: you have to play the game for a while until you arrive at a point where you can become more self-serving in the kinds of music you're making.

Sting is another great example. His songs are very lyricly and musicly complex. He uses weird instrumentation and arrangement. Sometimes his bridges are so different from the rest of the song that could almost be a whole different song. He put himself in a position to make that kind of music by "playing the game" in the Police and writing songs like "Doo Doo Doo, Daa Daa Daa" and "Every Breath YOu take", which are brilliant in their own right, but very simplistic in comparison. Now his songs are routinely in time signitures like 7/8 or 5/4.

He does it all brilliantly, I might add (witht he exception of his new album, which totaly bites!! Sting, dude... what were you thinking???)

A
www.aaroncheney.com
 
John and Paul were also competing for the album spots, The best songs were the ones that made the album. George Martin said that it was a fierce competition...but a very productive one.

Sometimes pressure is what it takes to write great songs. Steve Tyler fiddle farts around until all the music is finished...and he is still just humming the vocal line...has no words for the songs. The rest of the Aerosmith band finally tells him to get off his ass and write the words...."we're done and waiting on you....write the word man" He gets pissed off, goes home, and writes the words.

His lyrics have stood the test of time.
 
What I find interesting is Love Me Do and a Day In the Life,Pantera, weezer, the cure, bau haus, swing,led zepplin, ozric tentacles, the shins, beach boys, and a host of other music makes me feel the exact same way. They all touch me in some ways (some down deep in my icky parts)

I think after I grew up some and stoped trying to get girls with my music, I just want to connect with others. I would be so stoked if I made sombody feel something because of my music. What ever emotion I am feeling I can find a song to match it. In fact sometimes I find I am thinking in music. Like friday was such a Cure day :cool:

Anyway off topic,sorry just thinking out loud. I really like this board.

dave
 
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