I've met some very talented people during my career in music. I've been around some good songwriters, but I've never been really interested in songwriting myself until I quit playing live.
'Fomula' in songwriting, be it lyrical or compostion, can sometimes be a touchy topic.
I was introduced to Brian Trusedale, (I hope I spelt his name right) back in 1992. At the time I had a bunch of my own songs written out in a haphazzard manner. I had been working on one song for a while, trying to make it better when I met Brian.
We talked alot about the industry and our lives on the road. He seemed quite relaxed with me, so I thought I'd ask him for a tip or two.
Now, at this time, I knew next-to-nothing of songwriting and had never heard, to my knowledgeable memory, the term 'fomula' used in relationship to songwriting.
In my usual blunt, want to know, way of speaking, I asked him for a formula on a song I was working on.
The man clammed up and refused to talk me since.
Though Brian has sold many songs, he hadn't hit the big time. He guarded his secrets thinking (and this is from friends of his who knew him well) "that if he gave out his secrets, someone would use them and write the song he should be writing", and that everyone is out to rip him off.
All I wanted was some advice, and he seemed reseptive to all my probes up until I used the term 'formula'. Brian died in 97 thinking I was after his music, not that I was asking for some help with one of my songs.
Anyway, that was my introduction into the 'fomula' writing theater.
A definition of a 'formula' can be as varied as the people who use the term.
Example: Recipe, format, arrangment, etc.
A lot of us here in this forum don't just sit down and begin to write a song on a blank page, whether on paper or mind. We usually begin when inspiration, a vist from the muse, as some would say, to kick start us.
Being inspired and writing your lyrics/music down doesn't mean you have a hit on your hands. I have hundreds of songs that are crap, all written by inspiration.
With experience and time, you, as a songwriter, develope little quwerks, formulas, for taking some insired song that you wrote and crafting it into something worth listening to. Something other people want to listen to. Some people's formulas are the structure, they use one or two structures in all their songs with success. They have a reason for this. Other people use hook placement as one of the guns from their arsenal of tricks, dug out from their basic formula.
Another example of a formula can be the Major vs Minor chords.
This is a basic rule/non-rule, mind you, that most beginning songwriters follow though they are unaware of it. Most professional songwriters I've read about or talked to use this also. Happy songs tend to fit into a chordal arrangement of Major chords, while sad songs and ballads will be peppered through out with minor chords.
This is a time tested and well used formula.
We all have cooked something in our lives, even if it's toast.
Put the toast in the toaster, before you butter the bread,,,,, etc.
A recipe is a formula.
When a formula is used in songwriting, it's doesn't mean 'rules' except to the songwriter who looks at the formula as his own rule book because they have worked well for him in the past. To my mind right now, comes the man most of us here know as Crawdad. I'm sure he uses the same time tested formulas over and again, because they work for him. Also, Joro and Chris Shaeffer. I lisen to these guys songs, over and over. They use a fomrula, whether they relalize it or not.
When working on a song, how does one determine how some horns, for example, would fit in between lines of the backup singers?
Or a structure (we all seem to be fairly secure with the term structure) one feels comfortable in while writing his/her song. Experience, over time for most of us.
"Well, that idea didn't work, I'll try this one, again. It worked before."
A song that stumbles, lyically, melodicly or otherwise, will not be replayed or asked for. It may of been written with help from the muse, but touching it up will require some kind of formula.
Some songwriters have 'rules, a 'recipe', or a 'formula' they have found that works for them, time and time again, as Brando has mentioned.
Some songwriters I know work everything out on paper, then make a cassette of it and listen to how the song moves through the different structure setup, bpm, key. If there is a pothole or a bump, they can fix it.
Chord arrangment has a long list of fomulas by various songwriters/composers.
We all use formulas in every aspect of life.
To cut firewood for your fireplace next winter, you don't go out and begin chopping hunks of wood from a standing tree.
Well, if you've never cut wood before, you might. But over time you gain experinece and learn that by cutting down the tree, trimming the limbs off you have a much easier job of stacking a cord of firewood.
Same is true with songwriting. Try and true. Live and learn. Trying other songwriters formulas.
We will develope a standard, a formula, we work by. One trick I hear quite often is to keep an open mind and be ready to adjust your time proven formula if the situation arrises. May not be a trick, but most everything can be improved upon.
We all know the saying about variety and spice.
I wrote this out after some thought. Songwriting formulas may scare some people away, like the word theory does. But like music theory, get past the verbage and down to the core, it's quite easy to grasp and utilize.
This is a short take on my idea of songwriting formulas. I have never sold a song. I'm not a songwriter. I'm a musician trying to learn to write songs. Don't take any of what I've written as the gospel. It's only my opinion.
I'd like to hear your opinions on this subject.
I'll make another post soon with some of the fomulas I use. They have been posted many times here in this forum, but never talked about until Brando started this thread.
Hopefully, we can all gain a bit of understanding and some new ideas to help us along the way by trading information with each other.
Who else have I/You/We got to turn to? Brian's dead. You're still kicking.
I hope I didn't bore anyone to tears.
)