Which comes first, music or lyrics?

Q: Could you give me some advice on how to structure lyrics – is it a question of writing lyrics in repect to the rhythm or write the lyrics and construct the chords and rhythm around them?

A:

For better or worse, there are no hard and fast rules in songwriting.

Many many successful, professional songwriters write the lyrics first or add music to lyrics already written by a co-writer.

And many many just as successful songwriters do it the other way around. They write the lyrics first and then the music.

Then there are those who do both at the same time.

I heard an interesting concept the other day. The idea is that the music is IN the words and the words are IN the music. Certainly the music conveys a mood and informs the writer what sort of lyrics to write.

Likewise, when you write lyrics first, they make it clear whether it should be a sad, happy or bittersweet song. Should it be uptempo, slow or something in between?

Good luck. I hope I’ve given you something to think about.

3 tips to beat writer’s block

• 1 Try this first.  Keep a journal. You can find books on journaling in your public library or at any bookstore, online or otherwise.The idea in a nutshell is to discipline yourself to write in the journal every day. It might start out as a commitment to write for 15 minutes every day. I think you’ll find that it’s easy to go on for longer. The important thing is that you do it every day.

  Another important element to journalling is that you write whatever comes into your head, without censoring it, editing it or worrying about grammar, spelling, what your mother might think. It’s amazing how freeing this is. And it amazes me how this opens up the creative flow.

• 2 As an exercise, try another art form. Any art form will do, especially if you have no experience with it. If you never did sculpture, try that.  Make a collage, get out the watercolors. Work with childrens’ clay or crayons.   It doesn’t matter.The idea is to give over your attention to this endeavor 100 per cent and with no expectations. You don’t have to finish it, because this is just an exercise.   It doesn’t need to be a masterpiece because this isn’t your medium. I don’t know why it works, but it frequently does.
• 3 Play. Take off your adult hat and become a child again. Play any childrens games you like, including physical games like hop scotch, jump rope and catch. Play a board game. Do not watch TV.You need interactive play by yourself or better yet with children. At its best, children’s play is always creative. Don’t worry or even think about songwriting or creativity. Just play and have fun.

Beatles remasters to be packaged as USB

The recently remastered Beatles catalog is being offered on a limited edition apple-shaped USB drive. This is the first time Beatles catalog has officially been sold as digital files separate from the CDs.

Limited to 30,000 units, the 16MB USB features 14 Beatles stereo releases as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original U.K. album art, rare photos and expanded liner notes.

A specially designed Flash interface has been installed, and audio and visual contents will be provided in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats. The content is fully compatible with Mac and PC.

Pre-order it here.

Love in Spades

Congratulations to my friends David, Mary and Lilly. They and their team created the short, Love in Spades, which won the 2nd place audience award at the screening and 4th Runner-Up in the Washington DC 24-Hour Film Race competition.

The entire film was conceived, written, produced and edited in 24 hours by the Overnight Delivery Productions team.

David also wrote the song you hear in the film, also within the 24 hour time limit.

Topics for songs

This question recently dropped in my inbox.

How do I decide on a topic when I’m thinking about writing a song?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. Here’s what I do to get around the problem. Hopefully there will be something in here that helps you.

My strongest songs are always the ones written about a specific topic (or person, place, idea, etc) I really care about. It can be anything from my pet iguana to my baseball card collection, from chess to downhill skiing, from social causes to my favorite cartoon.

It doesn’t matter what your topic is, as long as you are passionate about it. Whenever I try to write a song on a topic that I’m not really interested in, it turns out lame, or I lose interest altogether before finishing it. It helps to be a passionate person with a lot of interests.

What kinds of things are you passionate about – think of your hobbies, your interests, your loves (and that can mean romantic love, love for your mom, your kids or your hotrod).

Another source of topics and ideas for songs is quotations. I subscribe to a free daily inspirational email quote service. There are many of these on the web. You can also get a book of quotations at your library or bookstore.

Here’s an example. I’m passionate about my guitar, no surprise there. But one time with Valentine’s Day approaching, my songwriting partner and I thought we should try to write a love song for our respective wives. It turned out a little different than we expected.

Bassman’s Lament

one amazing multi-instrumentalist

Do you appreciate live jazz? Do you like Chick Corea? If so, you’ll get a kick out of this guy.

When is the best time to write?

When is the best time to write? My stock answer is right now. Don’t procrastinate or make excuses or justify any reason not to write right now.

Of course, I’m not suggesting you neglect your family and work obligations. I am suggesting you look at your priorities. Because it’s all too easy to fall into habits that go counter to our priorities.

I’ll give an example from my own experience. Songwriting is my greatest challenge and greatest joy. Nothing is more satisfying to me than writing a new song. Still, when I come home from my day job, after dinner, I often have an evening or part of an evening free. You’d think I’d go right to my desk or pull out my guitar and work on my latest song. But often I’ll sit down and watch a show on the boob tube (or YouTube or Hulu).

Not a huge sin, but one show leads to another and before you know it, I’ve blown the whole evening and lost an opportunity to do what I really love. So take stock for yourself. For me it was the tube, for you it might be Wii, xBox, Twitter, IM or something else.

Another way to ‘write right now’ is to multi-task. Lots of us are able to write while driving and while mowing the lawn and other mindless, but necessary tasks. Try writing while walking or jogging.

Finally, don’t wait until you’re in the ‘mood’ to write. Force yourself to write everyday, even when you’re not in the mood. Soon, you’ll find that a certain ‘mood’ is not a requirement for writing. And the more you write, the easier it will be to write the next time. Don’t expect a masterpiece every time, just keep writing.

Talent is not enough

If I’ve learned anything about getting ahead in the ‘music biz,’ it’s that talent is not enough. Of course, you must have talent. That’s a given.

You can be a musical genius in your garage, but to make a career of it, you must leave the garage and attend to many non-musical tasks. There is no magic bullet, no single thing you can do that will make you succeed. It’s lots and lots of little and not so little things you must do. Each of these ‘things’ add up and build upon each other to create buzz and momentum and a complete picture.

Some of the things are easy. Some aren’t. Some examples of the interlocking little things that most indie musicians must do to succeed are:

• 1. Live performances to put you face to face with your fans
• 2. Have at least one product to sell: your CD, swag, etc.
• 3. Radio airplay: commercial, college, online, satellite.
• 4. Ongoing communication with fans: your mailing list
• 5. Have a presence on the web where fans can buy your stuff
• 6. Have a press kit
• 7. Make friends with and stay in contact with industry people, including successful local musicians, engineers, producers, DJs, journalists, indie label people. These folks are all potential supporters. If you can find a way to help them, they will want to help you.
• 8. I’m sure there are plenty others I’m forgetting.

These individual efforts build upon each other, so over time the total effect is often greater than the sum of the parts. Sometimes they even take on a life of their own and are no
longer in your control. Fans tell their friends, put up their own fan websites about you and so on.

If you can do each and every one of these to some extent, it will make it easier for you to succeed. If you skip one, you’ll have to make it work with the remaining pieces. I know some of these may seem impossible, depending on your circumstances.

Sometimes the task may feel overwhelming. That’s where, in addition to talent, you need drive, heart, perseverance and patience.

Here’s some help for #5: Use Facebook and ReverbNation. They are and free and they can be set up very quickly. At the very least it’s a web presence for you until you can develop your own site. You’re going to need to gather all the elements of a web site: photos, mp3s, blog, bio, gig calendar, etc. You can use now them for Myspace, then use the same ones later in your full blown site. Or, if you already have a web site, you can re-use many of the elements in your new Facebook and ReverbNation sites.

Check out my band’s Facebook site.

Here’s some help with #6. The 29 most important elements in creating music publicity materials are explained in a publication called Killer Press Kits.

Here’s some help with #7, see the previous blog entry, called I’d Rather Be Networking than Not Working.

I’d rather be networking than not working

I just read an interesting article about networking in the music business, called The Fine Art of Networking by Kenny Kerner.

It starts like this

“Don’t be afraid of the word. It doesn’t bite. In the music business, “networking” is just a fancy term for “hanging out.” For our Jewish readership, it’s “schmoozing.” There, I can see you’re smiling already. That’s better.

The best way to learn and to make connections is to hang out—I mean network. Back in the ’70s, when I wanted to learn about producing records, I hung out at recording studios and asked questions of other producers and engineers. And even though I was just hanging out, to others in the Biz, I was in fact, networking.

Enough already. I’m going to assume you now know what the word means and move on to more important things—like how to network and why it’s so incredibly important to your careers.”

Read the whole article.

Reprinted with permission from TAXI: the world’s leading independent A&R company helping unsigned bands, artists and songwriters get record deals, publishing deals and placement in films and TV shows.

© 2004 TAXI. All rights reserved.