There are 'six types of songs that shaped human nature - friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love songs' (Levitin, 2008, pg. 7) and it's hard to argue against that. Even though there are songs that exist that do no immediately fit into that category it's maybe that they are just a sub-catergory of these 6 fundamental song 'topics'. Also, just because there are six categories, it doesn't mean that a piece of music can't fit into more than one. For example, the song 'Fix you' by Coldplay is a song that everyone is familiar with. When first hearing it, you could easily class it as a love song however the song was originally written for his ex wife as a result of her father passing away. Therefore, the song also fits into the category of comfort and also friendship, showing the diversity and complexity of how songs fit into a category.
So how does this relate to me? Well my previous post was about my writing and recording my first song so I thought it would be nice to share my thought process to help inspire others our there that may want to follow the same route as I've started on!
I stated that my song 'Home' was partially inspired by a dream that I had but also - like most modern day 'love songs' about my past relationship.
The hardest thing to do I think is how to start writing? Those first few words that you put down help shape the rest of the song, whether you know it or not.
As I had a bit of trouble with this, although a had an idea of what to write about, I decided to listen to a bit of music as a kind of musical catalyst. As I shuffled songs, the first song that came on was 'Budapest' by George Ezra. If you haven't listened to him before, I urge you to! He has a soul/blues vibe with a voice that is rich and almost sounds unusual because of the fact that he sounds older than he is. This kinda of almost blues/folk song inspired the song I wrote in the fact that the guitar finger picking is similar and so is the way I sung the song.
When it came to the lyrics, I found that a rhyming dictionary really helped! Of course sometimes it was obvious what to put that, a) rhymed and b) made sense, however other times, I was stuck and the dictionary helped. Also, I found that I was writing, the song didn't need to rhyme all the time in the ABAB style that songs usually follow. For example, in the first verse, I chose to rhyme both parts of the 'B line' then rhyme that with the 2nd B line (eyes, deny, mine...technically 'soft rhymes'). In the second verse however, the only use of rhyme is in the in the first A line (grey, days).
Writing in this unorthodox style has definitely helped to broaden my writing style because it's obvious from just only one song so far, that breaking tradition can be a good thing.
The chorus is the second hardest thing to do (after starting a song) because it is the thing that people remember if they remember the song at all (which has something to do with the fact that its repeated so many times). Therefore, to create a memorable and simple chorus was something I also struggled with. At first, I came up with one line that I repeated twice (which ended up just being the second line of the chorus) however as I got to the end of the song, I found that singing the same line 8 times became a bit monotonous. I think I was just messing around and came up with the words:
'to remind me, who I am'
Not only did this fit in the song, it made sense and I thought it was quite poetic (and yes, when I found out it fit into the song, I was smiling like the Joker).
(Capo on the 3rd fret - everything is relative to the capo, don't worry)
This is what I came up for both the introduction and for the verses. It's a simple melody that may look complicated at first but it really isn't. It is basically a G and a C chord finger from the root note and the 2 strings immediately below. When I first came up with this, I liked it as it had a folky undertone that I thought fitted well with the song.
The next piece was that I had to tab out to fit in with the song was the pre-chorus. I wanted the pre-chorus to be a light melody to fit in with the happy tone of the tone. Again, it looks difficult but is such a D chord into a C chord.
This is the tab for the chorus which is probably the hardest and also the simplest of all of the 4 tabbed pieces that create the song. It is basically 4 chords however its simple as long as you keep your ring finger on the 2nd string, 3rd fret. After that, it's just a case of using both your index and middle finger on the 6th and 5th string on the 3rd and 2nd frets. You should find that you go in a box pattern, which isn't difficult at all.
This is the final piece of tab that is used in the song as is the riff after the chorus for the first time and finally at the end before ending on a G chord. It's a simple G chord anyway however all you're doing is taking your middle finger off the 2nd string, 3rd fret when playing the chord for the second time, then putting it back on again and the pattern repeats. What inspired this riff was the Acoustic version of 'Sex' by The 1975 that I did, where a similar style was used for the C chord.
So there you have it, an insight into my first song. When you break it down, it isn't as scary as it seems. Coming up with the first line of a song means you're on your way, to finishing it. Once you start, your brain is flooded with all these ideas on the song and it's your job as the songwriter to eliminate all the rubbish ideas, and save the best ones to jot down. Remember, a great song isn't thought up and written within an hour. Take your time, it's your song after all!
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