Wanna break through? Write a breakthrough song, Part II

Wayne Cohen, veteran multi-platinum selling ASCAP hit songwriter, producer and educator, owner of publishing/production company Stand Up Songs, also teaches individual and group songwriting tutoring sessions at his NYC Stand Up Studio and via Skype.

Part II: Tools of the trade

When I write, it can take 6 hours or it can take a year to complete a song.  To me the key to a great song is all about capturing a universal emotional truth and a momentary spirit and then crafting it until you as the writer can justify the existence of every melodic and lyrical phrase in the song.  Any of those elements can come and go in a heartbeat, so you better be ready for it when it does. Oh and fyi, let it flow, don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t write it all in 6 hours.  I find that after 30 minutes I usually know if I’ve got something worth pursuing. If you feel you don’t have that in 30 minutes, it’s probably time to call that complete and move on to greener pastures.

Here are some of my capture and craft tools of the trade that you may find useful if you want to write a breakout song.

1) Go on input – absorb the world in and outside of you.  It’s in the blog you’re reading, the conversation you’re eavesdropping on, the incorrectly heard snippet of someone else’s lyrics you just heard, it’s in how you feel about that person you can’t stop thinking about.

2) Listen to ten of your favorite #1 charting records 100 times, dissect what makes the melody and lyric special to you. I find it’s good to start by analyzing the structure of the overall song.  Is the song a verse/pre chorus/chorus, or chorus/bridge/chorus kind of thing, or some other structure? Then I like to look at the chorus melodies, usually to see what makes the melody so hooky, and then do the same for the verses, bridge, etc. Then look at the rhyme scheme of the chorus lyric. Are they AB or AA rhymes, or some other rhyme pattern?  Make a summary of the overall arc of the lyric story. What makes the lyric/story urgent, what makes it universal? What grabs the listener at the start of the song - is it a lyric, is it a melody, is it a beat?  Which of those is most effective? Once you’ve done that, you should be pumped up enough to get in touch with your inner warrior so you can say to yourself  “gee I can write something as good as that..”.

3) Get a lyric writing book and write down every idea you have that you think is a universal emotional truth, the first building block you need for a breakthrough song. If you’re passionate about it write it down, don’t judge it. You never know how a lyric idea can develop into a full-blown song.

4) Get a digital voice recorder.  There are a lot of them out there, I happen to prefer the Olympus WC-331M. Same idea here as with the lyric writing.  It’s all about capturing those moments you sing that melody idea, or play something you didn’t even remember playing, that can get your breakthrough song started.

The story goes that it worked for Keith Richards, who back in the day had a cassette recorder by his bed, woke up in the middle of the night recorded the intro riff for ‘Satisfaction’, fell back to sleep and when he woke up had no memory of it.  Good thing he recorded it huh?

5) Have something you can build a simple beat with. GarageBand, any of the Apple loops jam packs are great, Pro Tools, Logic, Abelton Live, Digital Performer all now have software loops players, any kind of drum machine (Akai MPC is my old skool fave), are all options.  I find I end up programming most beats as opposed to using an existing loop because I want a very elemental beat so as not to distract from the writing process. I find the more lo-tech the better, just make sure it is something that programs or loops easily. To make that breakthrough song come to life it’s not just about the beat. It’s about what the melody and lyric are doing in conjunction with the beat. You can always spruce up the beat if necessary, when you produce the song..    

6) And remember, there is a songwriter inside of you.

Comments

[brian]

don't forget experence. a lot of young writers and listeners have limited ex. so of corse they mostly know only their feelings (your universal emotions) and that is where you connect. but as you live longer in this world you also learn to think in the abstract. not all music is for the little-lived. allegory can be both moving and strong.

[Charles Marlowe]

I agree, with spending bout a half hour on a tune, n if nothing substantial comes out of that session, it's probably time to go back to the drawing board.
You know what does help me iz doing what I call Free Writing sessions, almost like journal writing, on your topic, emotion, ect, for like 20 minuets.
I had to write a song for a showcase I'm doing here in upstate, and the theme or topic was Smoke. So I did alot of free writing to try n get some ideas on paper, and the song turned out pretty good.
I hope there iz a part three coming?

[Michael Willow]

the question for me is not how to write a hit or a song people like, the question is how to advertise it and get poeple's attention without the help of a label
This is a great riddle for me

[Max (Nuthatch-47)]

We have a song, that hopefully will stick around, at least as long as the economy is bad :-):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9pq06MaWaY