Dana's Thoughts - (always under construction!)


Song Writing - Part II
-November 15th, 2003

This brings us to an interesting question: if you don't have lyrics, if you don't have traditional structure, and don't do a lot of melodies, what do you have left?

If you do it correctly, you can have one continuous idea, that flows in a logical manner, almost like a string of thoughts. That is what I aim for, even if I don't always make the cut. I guess that is for the listener to decide. So lets examine what I do:

At the very least, there is for me always a beat or a rhythm, even if it is not in the traditional drum set mode. In many cases, its the drums themselves that start the piece for me. I really love my Korg ER1, in my opinion a classic drum machine. If you aren't familiar, it is actually 4 percussion synthesizers, with some sampled hi hats and claps thrown it, plus excellent delay. Cheap, fun and addictive.

You now have drums, maybe a whopping four bars of them. What comes next? It really depends on which instrument you work with next. Being groove oriented as I am, many times I will work with the bass next. Lately this has been focused on using the EA1, since it makes fat ass bass tones, and again you can write on it alone, not needing to hook up to the computer. What I concentrate on with the bass is usually one of two things: fluidity or punch. By fluidity I mean having a flowing bass line that does not leave a lot of holes, more like a stream than a picket fence. A punchy bass line is the opposite: I want to reinforce the throb of the drums, not weave over them.

I also try and not to make anything too complicated at this point, which brings me to:

Concept #1: keep it simple and direct. It is so easy to be complicated, especially with a computer sequencer, but does that actually help you express whatever it is you are trying to say, or is it just busy? Certainly it may be a complex idea, but unless you know precisely what you want to end up with (and I envy you that!) keep it plain and vital. You can always add touches later.

Now that you have bass and drums, you have already committed to some sort of key the piece is in. One trap that is easy to fall into is writing everything in the key of C major, since that is what many sequences that are part of default programs on synths default to. That is OK if that is what you want, but if you play a wind instrument or you sing or you want to have something a little more harmonically interesting, why stick with C? One simple thing to do: take the bassline and move it up and down the keyboard, trying different scales or copy the bassline, keep the original where it is, and transpose the copy. Most of the time this will sound awful, but you never know. This brings us to:

Concept #2: always experiment. Again, I am talking to you who arent famous, or famous yet, who arent trying to write the next Brittany Spears schmaltz, but are trying to find your own unique voice. To me, writing music is the most intellectually stimulating thing I can imagine. For all the years and years I played in bands, the two best things I remember: having a crowd dancing its ass off to music that the band wrote, but even better, that first time that a song I wrote came together in band practice as an arrangement, a logical progression of musical events that satisfied my desires to have an orderly flow of ideas in a piece – and ideally kicks serious ass at the same time.

Some ways to experiment: assuming you are working with a synth and a sequencer, you can easily experiment with using different voices for some parts you have already written. I mean radically different too, like turning a drum line into a piano line for intsance. Also radically pitch shifiting, especially using samples, can give you a whole new idea. Massively slow the piece down. Or change the tempo radically, but only in one section. Remember, we are trying to keep the juices flowing, so I am not talking here about the typical end of a verse tempo change, where you slow down just a mite before coming back into the verse, which with its normal tempo now gets what feels like a boost. Modern software sequencers are very much like word processors, so just abuse the hell out of your arrangement, with cutting and pasting and dragging things around, you may find some gold there. Hardware sequencers can add a whole new element, and I recommend them highly if you can afford one. There is one big problem with computer based sequencers, which brings is to...

Concept #3: Avoid being mesmerized by the computer screen. It is quite easy to get so dazzled by the colors and patterns on the screen, and get so involved editing that way, that you can lose sight of the fact that you are writing a piece of music, not a pretty bunch of stuff that scrolls across the screen. What I try to do, as I am writing, is stop at some points, and either close my eyes and just listen, or simply turn around in my chair so that I cannot look at the screen. Don't forget, after working like crazy on one little section, to take the time and listen to the whole piece, beginning to end. You don't want to lose the flow in the details.

To be continued.....