approach to songwriting

I was asked for my approach to songwriting and wrote the following. Others might find it helpful...

Notating the Melody

If you are a singer then your dilemma re songwriting is the same as mine and probably for the same reason - we are primarily singers and think as such rather than instrumentalists and thinking as such. It is easy for us to write the lyrics and think of a good melody - arranging is our problem. To get around this, I use Melodyne. The programme does take some learning but you can also get a training video for it. This enables me to record a vocal melody and then use the programme to convert the melody into MIDI notation.

Remember to use a metronome or simple drum pattern to record the vocals against, this will help with the timing and placement of notes. Nothing fancy, just a 3 time or 4 time beat. Set it to start with at 120bpm as this is the median of the RI tempos. You can always speed it up or slow it down a little but stay, if possible, within the 100bpm to 140bpm range so that you will be able to make good use of the RIs. There is a reason why PG maps everything to 120bpm and the key of C - not only is it mid-range tempo it is also the easiest key.

Arranging

Once the notation is down, it is very easy to arrange. Import it into BIAB and this will tell you what key your notation is in. A good clue to the melody key though is usually the most common note in the series and / or the final note of the song. Next step, transpose it to the key of C (no incidentals to worry about) which makes it very easy to see the chords to arrange it to. You can cover all the notes using 3 chords (I, IV and V7) - in the key of C, these are C, F and G7. Every note in the scale is covered with these. Look for the 'key' notes, these are the longer ones or the ones that come on the beat and are most often the first and third beats in a 4/4 bar (in a 3/4 song it is even easier because you just need to look at the first note in each bar).

In C, the I will match against C, E and G, the IV will match against F, A and C, the V7 will match against G, B, D and F. The V7 will also resolve nicely back to the I. Now that gives us every note...

C - I / IV
D - V7
E - I
F - IV / V7
G - V7 / I
A - IV
B - V7

Ok. This is simply a 3 chord trick but you can spice it up by using substitution chords. In the key of C, D can be substituted with a iim and A with a vim (i.e. the IV chord can be substituted with either iim / vim). If you want fancier chords, you can always add the extensions (2, 9, 11, 13, etc) or flatten a note in the chord to cover something in the melody where the chord you really want to use (because of a progression such as I-vi-ii-V7-I) will clash, such as an augmented chord or a b5... These extra chords are just added for flavour. Remember, EVERY song can be boiled down to the simple I, IV and V7 chords. Most probably, though not always your song will start and end on the I. Remember the Beatles? They wrote an entire song using just one single chord, which was of course the same as the key (G, if I remember right). Once you have the melody, of course, you can always use the Re-Harmonist feature in BIAB to generate a chordal progression for you but if you follow my outline above, you won't go far wrong. I mainly use the Re-Harmonist if I want to find an alternative progression in a part of a song if I am trying to avoid using a certain chord (I can play every chord in the book but some of them are preferable to others for ease of playing and for sound properties). Once you have this, you can then use the Vocal Wizard to set it to the right key for your voice (and for our area, that is primarily either C, G, D, A or E). Believe me, the above may seem very simple but it really is! About 15 or so years ago, I analysed in depth note-for-note over 250 all-time hit songs from ABBA to ZZ Top to work out how they did it and created a Decision Support System that enabled me to spot the patterns and how they were arrived at. It took a couple of months and the above was the outcome. It works.

Selecting Instrumentation

Having done this, select the instruments you would like to have in your line-up and can imagine being played by real musicians in a band you put together and then use the RIs to reflect this. The rest is down to your ears and the mixing and mastering techniques as very simply outlined by Ray in his tutorial on RB. Don't go creating arrangements with different instruments each time - we may have the ability to do this with RB but would we in real life? We can't afford to tour a whole orchestra with us just because we want an alto sax solo or a bassoon for one single number in a repertoire of 20 songs or so! Use your ears and your brain / imagination!

Selecting a Style

As to Style selection, I start with something very simple and only one instrument (usually a strumming acoustic guitar), not even drums. I want people to be able to play this at home for themselves and therefore it is very important to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). I want to walk along a beach one day or take an underground train and see a teenager playing and singing my songs on a guitar! Once I have this, I will add a second instrument (this used to be a bass but now that my g/f wants to play with me, it is an acoustic piano). These are my two main instruments - bass, rhythm and fills can be achieved with these two instruments alone (think James Blunt).

For recording purposes, I will then add drums, bass (I have an e-bass, so that is what I go for as I know I have one) and possibly, though not always, a lead guitar / sax. I will use these instruments for the backing tracks and can always have them recorded for use in live performance (still only 2 real musicians, myself and my g/f). The choice of instruments can be varied - I have an acoustic guitar, a strat clone and a jazz guitar so I have a choice of 3 different guitar sounds, a jazz e-bass and keyboards so I know I have the instruments to be able to play this line up by myself if need be.

Recording & Performance

So now we have the music, add a good quality mic for recording and we can produce great songs. Add a good PA system and you are ready for gigs.

Additional Tips

Another tip is to spend as much time as possible hanging out around the forum - on all the boards. So much can be picked up there about all sorts of things from gigs to performance techniques to tricks with the software and stored away in memory for possible future use.

HTH

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http://www.pgmusic.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=196068&an=0&page=1#Post196068

Sam