6 posts tagged “songwriting”

Some lovely quotes here. The only assertion I’d disagree with is ’songwriting can’t be taught’, of course

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/28/music-perfect-pop-song-pulp

“A pop song does, however, follow certain rules. It is generally around three to four minutes, has a verse and a chorus, and uses a bed of chords to support a melody, with words that convey some sort of sentiment that an audience can relate to.”

Although the ‘magic’ element is certainly true - it’s a beautiful thing, as Jarvis acknowledges;

“The beauty of songwriting is that any human being can do it,” he says. “And they learned how to do it their way. One minute someone was sitting in the living room, having a cup of coffee. The next they picked up the guitar and wrote something from nothing. That’s a miraculous event. That’s what keeps me going”.

I suppose that’s the point of the songwriting teaching at SWF - the tutors only really guide people around the technique - starting by covering (or occasionally stretching!) the above-mentioned ‘rules’, and then helping the writer to tackle the bad habits - melodic rat-runs, rhyme traps, lack of imagery, over-abstraction, verboseness etc. But what is remarkable - and rather beautiful - is that however much guidance a writer gets from the tutor, the song is still authentically the writer’s own. It’s that personal quality that everyone brings to their songs, regardless of musical skill or songwriting experience.

Some of our writers have expressed to us a fear that if they work with a tutor - or collaborator - any editing or trimming will somehow kill the authenticity of the song, making it less ‘real’ or ‘true’ because the ideas have been trimmed, edited or adapted along the way. But this fear always seems to evaporate when the song is completed. It’s connected, I’m sure, with that natural protectiveness that all writers have of their first idea - the assumption that it must be the best one simply because it arrived first. Perhaps this is because when we hear a well-written song it gives us the impression, as listeners, that it ‘comes from the heart’ regardless of how many hours the writer spent painstakingly crafting every last syllable. That emotional immediacy (of great songs) is an intoxicating trap for us as songwriters, because it can lure us into feeling that we should apply it to the creative process. Or maybe we should?!!!

There’s a really simple maxim that Andy always says when he’s teaching the MA Songwriting - the more songs you write, the easier it gets…

Our entry - what do you think?

Here’s the UK’s Eurovision entry for 2009, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Diane Warren (lyrics). Any comments on the song and the songwriting technique? And yes, Jade does miss that last note by a good half a semitone, but hey - that’s not the songwriters’ fault.

Hi everyone,

We have a lovely new site available, which will eventually replace this blog. Check it out, register for a free account and let us have your comments...

http://www.uksongwritingfestival.com

All best,

SWF team

To state the obvious, the UK Songwriting Festival is about songwriting. Specifically, it's about songwriting as opposed to performance and arrangement. We often use the metaphor of a picture frame - the arrangement and performance are the frame; the song is the picture. A song is transferable to a different performer (i.e. a cover version); a song can be arranged/interpreted in different ways (instrumentation, tempo, groove/feel, arrangement etc).
But even though these boundaries are self-evident musically, it's still very difficult to keep the song in focus when evaluating or analysing new work. After a new song has been shared in a playback session, we ask for feedback from other five or six songwriters in the group - they are, after all, the new song's first ever audience. (It often helps if we initially prevent the songwriter themselves from responding verbally, because of course they won't be able to explain or justify their creative decisions when the song is performed or broadcast  – the 'I-won't-be-there-when-you-cross-the-road' principle.)

And what tends to happen is that the audience (which, remember, consists entirely of songwriters who are completely immersed in the process all week) comment variously on the guitar arrangement, vocal interpretation or genre - i.e. everything except the song. Often the tutors find themselves dragging the discussion back to the song itself – harmony, melody and lyric.
This demonstrates an important principle - that listeners do not differentiate between the picture and the frame. An obvious example would be the meaninglessness of a Coldplay or Keane lyric. But although these particular types of lyric make little sense without a lot of inference from the listener, individual couplets work well enough in isolation. Most importantly, the phrases 'sing well' - lots of open vowels and great scansion. So although we have no idea why Noel Gallagher tells us 'Sally Can Wait' (and no information about who Sally is) in Oasis' Don't Look Back in Anger, it feels really good to sing these big vowels - especially over the melody to Manfred Mann's Pretty Flamingo (which is lifted pretty much verbatim in the chorus). Incidentally, the obvious and deliberate reference to Lennon's 'Imagine' in the piano intro to the Oasis track is an arrangement artefact, not a songwriting one. So in a publishing dispute with Oasis where Manfred Mann or Lennon's lawyers were looking at Don't Look Back in Anger, I'd be backing the Manfreds every time - because of the nine or so melody notes that are common to both choruses.
These artists' songs do make life difficult for teachers (and students) of the craft of songwriting, because their status as successful hits seems (SEEMS!) to justify and legitimise sloppy lyric writing. Which, I suppose, is another reason why we were so delighted to have Richard Thompson as our guest - every single one of his songs has a 'heart', or clear core meaning. When RT uses poetic language or imagery, it serves to support the meaning rather than cloud it - so it's possible for a songwriter to have their cake and eat it - imagery, clarity of meaning and singability. 
It always seems a shame to me if a technically poor singer or guitarist writes a great song but the audience can't see the picture for the frame. Which is why the studio sessions and House Band performances are such an integral part of SWF. We try to give the song its very best opportunity to 'survive', ensuring that the songwriter's skill (crafting form, melody, harmony and lyric) is not eclipsed by any technical shortcomings in the performance.

Preparations are going well for SWF08 - we're looking at this being our largest Festival yet (45 songwriters and around 20 staff).

This post covers some of the things you can do to help your own creative process while you're at the Festival.

CHORD CHARTS
You'll find it easier to work with others if you can write chord charts using barlines. If you're new to songwriting and you've not done this before, don't worry - the tutors (and the more experienced songwriters) will be able to help you to write clear and accurate charts. When you've written a song at the Festival, it's worth getting your chord sheet checked over (by asking someone else to play it while you sing) before you bring it to the house band - this will ensure that we play your song in the way you intended.

TEMPO
Get into the habit of writing the tempo on your song sheets to make it easier to explain your song to producers, session musicians, collaborators etc. If you don't have one, there are lots of cheap units available, starting at around £5, and you can even download free metronomes for your mobile. We rather like Guitar Toolkit for iPhone (which includes a tuner). There's a great free one online here too. Our session players James and Chris will almost certainly buy you beer if your tempi are accurate.

EQUIPMENT
Don't let your creative process be slowed down by equipment hassles - make sure you've got all the capos, spare strings, batteries, tuners etc you're going to need.

TITLES
One of the tasks we get people to do at the start of the Festival is to write 10 titles. Titles are a great starting point for songwriting, and can to avoid the 'lack of core meaning' problem that affects lots of new writers (and Coldplay). So this year, we're suggesting that you bring ten titles with you. A title can come from anywhere, and it isn't a big commitment (one member of our tutor team actually gets titles from Eastenders dialogue!).

Hope this is useful. Feel free to add comments (you'll need a Vox account) or send us an email with any questions. 

Dear Songwriter,

Welcome to the 2008 UK Songwriting Festival. As last year, the Festival will be based at our beautiful Newton Park campus, using the facilities of Bath Spa University’s music department. This, we hope, is the ideal ‘retreat’ to get those creative juices flowing!

Tutors 2008
Your tutors this year are myself (Joe Bennett), Andy West, Lucy Ray, Iain Archer, Chris Blanden, Cecilia Le Poer Power (who’s also providing session vocals), Boo Hewerdine and Davey Ray Moor. We have technical support from our studio team – Josh, Abner, Derek, Jon, Richard and Blain. There is a tutor/student ratio of around 6 to 1, meaning you’ll be able to get plenty of detailed individual advice and support with your writing throughout the week. All participants will have opportunities to record their work. All of the staff (even our helpers, technicians, session players, PA people etc) are songwriters too; we believe this is essential to provide the supportive/friendly environment for your creativity. So however experienced you are, whatever concerns you have, rest assured – we’ve all been there!

What to bring
You only need to bring the basics with you – pen and paper, and if you’re a guitarist, an acoustic. If you prefer to write lyrics on a laptop that’s fine – we suggest you also bring a USB memory stick to make printing out easier – but you’ll also have access to our suite of Apple Mac workstations. Emmanuelle, our administrator (01225 875522) will provide

everyone with a login if they need Internet access – the whole campus has Wi-Fi. See Jon the technical demonstrator in the MusicLab (01225 876324) if you need any help with laptops, printing, logging in etc.
For keyboard-based writers or non-playing songwriters, we’ll provide pianos or other instrumental support as needed; all the tutors play guitar and keyboard, and you’ll no doubt form many musical partnerships during the week. If you have any work on CD that you would like to discuss then please feel free to bring this along too. We encourage you to play and record new material, written during the festival, rather than your own ‘back catalogue’, although everyone will have an opportunity to play some of their old material during the first café-style evening open mic session.

Arrival and accommodation

Once you’ve found us, residential songwriters can register and check in between 3pm and 6pm on Sunday 17th August. On arrival, go up the main drive and park in the Michael Tippett Centre car park, then make your way to the Moreton café round the corner, where you can sign in. Evening meal will be served 6-7pm in the café (you’ll also informally meet some of the team, who will be arriving at the same time). After this, we have deliberately left that first Sunday evening free, anticipating that any residential songwriters who are new to Bath may wish to explore the city’s nightlife after checking in. So do introduce yourself to anyone in the café on that first night – everyone on that evening will be here for SWF.
Non-residential songwriters should arrive on the Monday in time for the start of the Festival proper; the first meeting/lecture is 10am in the University Theatre auditorium on Monday 18th August. If you have any difficulties or emergencies relating to your accommodation while you’re on-site, you can contact the Security Lodge on 01225 875 555. If you have any queries relating to registration/accommodation, talk to Emmanuelle 01225 875 522.

A typical day
Most days have the same basic format – breakfast in the café, then a 10am morning lecture (the whole group together), followed by an afternoon’s writing session with tutor support, then a get-together in small groups at the end of the day to play works in progress. Your tutors will give you writing tasks each day, which may continue into the evening. There will also be an opportunity to try out your material throughout the week with a friendly, supportive audience of your peers in our open-mic slots in our Moreton Café every evening. SWF Studio participants will record their work with the house band (sessions begin on the Tuesday); SWF Workshop participants will have opportunities to record their work acoustically – our tech team are on hand throughout the festival with portable digital recording rigs. Everyone gets a CD of their own work. Some of the evening sessions will also include our house band, so you’ll have a chance to hear the material you’ve written performed immediately by session players. If you’re using the house band, you’ll need to be able to write a chord sheet for your songs, using barlines and repeat marks correctly. Members of the tutor team will be able to help you with this.
 
The Wednesday (20th August) will have a slightly different format, because we’ll be working with special guest Richard Thompson, who will be participating in a demo panel, workshops and a masterclass in the afternoon.

Studios
SWF Workshop studio producers Blain and Abner will be available in Studio 1 and 2 in the Michael Tippett Centre (normal demos are guitar/piano and vocal). When you have a finished song (usually from the previous day), and you’ve rehearsed it a few times, SWF Workshop songwriters should see Abner or Blain in the coffe break during the morning session to book a recording slot. SWF Studio songwriters will be based in the MusicLab in Compton building, and Davey/Chris will be co-ordinating session times.
Please record songs that have been written during the festival – the SWF studio teams work flat-out all week, and there isn’t the time to make additional demos of your ‘back catalogue’ (most local studios will provide this type of service).

Open mic sessions
Every evening from 7.30pm-11pm we have an open mic session in Moreton café bar. The first evening (Monday) is based around your back catalogue, but a few brave souls may choose to play songs written on that first day. There’s a band area (drums, PA, backline, keyboards etc), and as the week goes on we gradually introduce the house band, including our excellent session players Chris (bass), Josh and James (drums). Other members of the team (myself, Davey, Abner etc) will provide guitar and keyboards as you require it.

Food and catering
The SWF is half-board, so all our songwriters get breakfast and evening meal as part of the package. Non-residential songwriters get evening meal only (so just turn up for the 10am session each day). Lunch is a standard pay-for hot buffet.
Breakfast is 8am-9am. Lunch is 1pm-2pm. Dinner is 6pm-7pm. There is a coffee break at 11.30 and another one at 3.30 daily. We have a bar every night apart from the arrival Sunday (17th), so residential arrivals may wish to go into town for drinks on the Sunday evening or walk along the main University drive to the Globe Inn on the roundabout.

The City of Bath
The campus is about 2 miles to the west of the City Centre - http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/about/campuses/newton-park/default.asp
If you’re determined to get in some tourism while you’re here, you can get a taxi from the main campus (01225 444444) into town for about £8, or a bus for around £2. We think you’ll be too busy for this, of course – you’ve got songs to write!

The final day
Due to an overlapping conference, we will, regrettably, need to ask some of the songwriters who have booked ensuite accommodation to move to a standard room in an adjacent building for the last two nights. This is due to factors beyond our control, and we extend our apologies to those songwriters for the inconvenience (and will be refunding the difference in cost to those individuals). There will be staff on hand to help you with the changeover if needed, between 9am-10am on Thursday 21st August.
On the Friday we will finish the Festival with a full-band evening in Moreton café. This longer session finishes at midnight. We normally record this final session, and where possible take video footage.
Breakfast will be served as normal on Saturday 23rd 8-9am.

One song per day?
Like all musical skills, songwriting improves with regular practice, so during the festival we aim to get the students writing one song per day. Don’t worry if this seems daunting; last year’s participants felt the same, and all came away with a set of original songs to be proud of.

Info form
To help us to divide the groups according to interests, styles & experience, we’d be grateful if you could complete the attached form. If you have recorded your work, please mail us a 4-track CD of some examples. For those who are particularly adept at technical matters, the ideal submission is a CD-R of MP3s with lyric metatags attached.

During the Festival we’ll be running a demo panel, so please indicate on the form whether you’d like your recorded work to be included in this crit/analysis session. If you haven’t recorded anything yet, or you’re a non-performer, feel free to send some lyrics sheets. Please use the Newton Park address at the top of this letter, and mark the envelope for my attention – to arrive by August 12th - thanks. Beginners don’t worry – if you have never written a song before we’ll have you up and running in no time!
 

Positive thinking
We all share a common goal – to make the songs as perfect as they can be. To this end, we will have various discussions (demo panels, tutor groups etc) where your work is evaluated with a view to improving/rewriting it. So we ask everyone who hears a new song to divide their critique comments into two categories – ‘strengths’ and ‘suggestions for rewrites’. Purely negative comments (e.g. ‘I didn’t like the chorus’) don’t help the writer to improve, so we always try to turn these into positive/specific suggestions (e.g. ‘could you put the title at the end of the chorus, and make it 4 bars shorter?’).

If you have any queries about the songwriting schedule or curriculum, please feel free to email me. If you have any questions about booking, payment, accommodation or any other practical matter, please get in touch with Emmanuelle. You may also want to join us on the forum to say hi to the online SWF community , or join us on myspace or Facebook.

We’re looking forward to meeting you on August 18th.

Best wishes,
 
Joe Bennett – Festival Director