Songwriting Blog
Previously "The News"...
This page is dynamic and contains periodic, informal updates, stories, notes, ideas etc. on my own music projects as well as any other related music or songwriting topics. If you find these articles interesting, please stop by occasionally for an update, or feel free to drop me a line.
Check Previous Notes and News Articles (history) Here
Some of the articles below may not all be chronological since I posted many of this on my family website first. Later, I realized that I should have posted these articles here and I am hoping to keep this page more up-to-date with my own music, song and recording updates...
I am also not posting the cover song recordings that I did here since this site is for Original songs and music and there are legal issues with posting cover songs on websites.
9/1/2018 - My Latest YouTube Music Project Test
What I wanted to do (for a while now) is to check the audio quality of YouTube Videos to see if the new recordings that I have been planning on doing (now that I know much more about audio mixing) sound much better after the audio is recorded to a sound file > then to a video file > and then uploaded to YouTube.
See: The $3 Master Recording Engineer, below for more on the mixing skills that I have learned.
So anyway, here's what I did. I took the 2 recordings of the Jim Croce song "Age" that I did a while ago (nothing new) where the first one is the old mix and the second is the new mix that I applied my new mixing knowledge to and loaded them both into a video project.
Then I just played a short segment of each version to the video, with a caption saying which one it is which (after going back and forth a few times I just played the last verses with the new mix).
The video doesn't even really have any actual video or even photos (it's just black) cause the goal here was to test the audio quality. The results: Yes, there is a big difference in the audio quality of the 2 mixes on YouTube!
I also played this on various devices (which is part of the mastering process) to check the quality on different devices and the new mix sounds WAY better on most medium to high quality playback devices (that I have anyway). It wasn't all that great on my iPhone speaker without headphones (sounds great with the headphones though) so I need to work a little more on the mastering process for low end devices.
Actually the mix should sound as good as possible on high-end playback systems as well as low-end devices like cell phones, laptop speakers, etc.. I am reading another book on the Mastering process and hope to get the final mix to sound as good as possible on all devices.
On the surface the new version is louder, of course, which is one of the goals for commercial music recordings but it is also much fatter. You can hear the parts that don't come through in the original mix. Like all the inflections in my voice and even when I take a breath (at times).
I used the "Age" recording since the main song is mostly just acoustic guitar and vocal. Then I wanted to add Bass at least (since I wanted to keep the guitar sounding bright and acoustic without adding the bass to it) and of course, I always have to add a little extra color so I used the "Lush Strings" sound on my synth for bass (with strings as a side benefit). Then I also added a little synthesized mandolin for some additional frosting on the mix. Other than that the song is a pretty simple acoustic guitar and vocal song.
I have not yet used my new mixing skills on a song with drums or percussion so that is going to be another challenge when I get to that. I still have the poor mans synthesized drums and percussion at this time but I'll try to get that as good as possible.
I have also not used the new mix on harmony vocals yet so that is one more challenge ahead.
OK, enough talkin... Here is the YouTube link:
YouTube Audio Mixing Test - Jim Croce Age song.
It's not listed on YouTube since this is a copyrighted song by someone else but I feel safe enough to include it here (as a learning aid :-))
7/16/2018 - New D'Addario Soundhole Guitar Tuner
A friend of mine just sent me a new guitar tuner and it is my favorite so far. It is called the D'Addario NS Micro Soundhole Tuner. I had been using a SuperSnark headstock tuner and I still like that one but the D'Addario tuner has some advantages.
I had no idea that something so tiny could work so well. The first thing I did, since I am creature of habit, was to use it with my original Snark tuner (that I also really like but may now be replaced) just to be sure that everything was calibrated right and all.
Well the D'Addario and the Snark worked perfectly together. Really no variances in the pitches that registered, which is nice to know in general that they have this technology down so well. But the new D'Addario tuner was much better for refining the smallest variations whereas the Snark didn't register the pitch as sharp or flat until it was a little more so either way.
Then on top of that, which I already knew just by looking at the thing, is that the D'Addario tuner can be left on my guitar permanently even when taking it in and out of the case. Plus since I can just leave it on all the time it is really easy to turn on and off when I'm tuning and done tuning to save the battery.
There could be a minor issue when I use my guitar hole pick up. I might have to move it or take it out for that but I almost never use that pickup anymore now anyway so that’s not even really an issue.
4/28/2018 -The $3 Master Recording Engineer, Plus Enhanced Listening Skills
Yea, that's me! I have mastered the fine art of audio recording and production (and for just $3.00)! OK, I am saying this in a joking way, but seriously, I invested $3 in a Kindle book on audio recording (mixing and mastering that Jeff recommended), spent some time reading it and trying to absorb the important parts then experimented a little and I think I can now make WAY BETTER audio recordings.
Yes, I understand that I have not really mastered the art. I'm not sure if that is actually possible anyway. I would think that you would just keep improving with experience. So I am looking forward to that. It is so nice to have time now that I am retired to be able to do these kinds of things.
So for the details, the Kindle book that I bought was called: Audio Effects, Mixing and Mastering (the link here will take you to the Amazon page for the book if anyone is interested). The book has a lot of good information on recording tools and techniques but goes a little too far into the physics of sound for me in some places.
For an experiment, I took the last recording that I made with my new digital recording software (Age by Jim Croce) and remixed and remastered it using the fancy-dancy stuff that I done just learned.
I am really amazed at how much better this recording came out! I would highly recommend reading up on recording basics, mixing and mastering for anyone who is doing their own recordings.
Unfortunately, since the Age song is a cover song and I try to keep this site legal with no copyright issues, I am not able to post the results here. I will, however, include the next original song that I record using my new skills as soon as it is available.
Aside from being able to get more volume on this version I think that the individual tracks stand out more and just sound better (even my vocal!).
A really nice side benefit that I got from this process is that I believe it has Enhanced My Listening Skills. When you start to zero in on all the different dimensions of quality stereo recordings it can help you appreciate the quality of the recording as well as the recorded music itself.
What FUN! right?
2/17/2018 - Cover Mania! and The Cutting Room Floor
I have decided that I am going to keep my Cover Songs my Family website and use my music site - RobChapmanMusic.com for my Original Songs. The reason for this is that I try to keep this site out of the search results (Google, Bing, etc) and my music site is more public.
I learned (not that long ago actually) that it is technically not legal to record and post cover songs (even your own recordings of them) on the internet although most publishers do not really seem to care. Still I am trying to stay mostly legal (OK, so this site will be the rebel law breaker! Yea, I drive over the speed limit sometimes too :-)).
You may have noticed that the I have updated my songs to play directly in your web browser rather than requiring a plug-in to play them (this is done with the Audio Tag in html and is a much more current and standard format). I also found a conversion program to get all of my old song files out of that obsolete Real Audio format and into standardized MP3 files.
Then I also updated my Cutting Room Floor page on my song site so that all of my really old "B-List" rejected songs are easier to play too (Great! Now the bad songs are easier to play! :-)).
2/11/2018 - Age Recording - Where are my Chops!
OK, I just completed another cover song recording. I may still Remix this one or tweak it some so if you stop by another time it could be different. I just wanted to get it out on the website so I can check it out myself on different devices occasionally. I'll include a version number and date with the song so you can tell if it's changed.
This record is the song Age by Jim Croce. The name is kind of stupid because I don't think that the word "Age" is even in the song. It should be called Where I Started Again or something. You may not know the song anyway.
Anyway, I am still just recording cover songs right now because I need the practice to get my chops back. You non-musicians out there may not be familiar with Chops but musicians use it all the time. Well what are Chops anyway!!! I kinda know but I don't know where mine went. Where are my Chops! I need more chops! :-)
Anyway, I do the song slower than Jim (probably cause I'm old!) and since he wrote it and is the pro, he does it better (but at least I have more current recording equipment!). I'll include a link to the original song too - although I think it plays an ad first so you might have to endure that until you can skip it.
I tried to keep this recording pretty simple but I usually end up adding some additional "color" (like background tracks) since I don't think I sound that great with acoustic and vocal alone... It is still mostly just acoustic and vocals though.
Here is the original song from Jim Croce (in a YouTube video)
Later,
2/3/2018 - New Recording Studio and a New/Old Song Medley
I have been wanting a new "Recording Studio" for years now.Well, I finally got it. 
OK, it's not actually a "studio" cause it is just recording equipment that I use in my bedroom (which I guess is the studio). The cool thing is that it is really professional stuff and is small enough and affordable enough to get and keep in my bedroom.
The photo here shows most of the stuff. You may need to click on for the larger version to actually see it.
Some of this stuff gets complicated (like the mixing software) but here is what I got and I will try to just keep it simple (if possible):
A Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Interface - This is just the red box in the photo that allows you to plug in mics and instruments which then get routed into my Laptop PC (via a USB cable) for the recordings.
Mixcraft Pro 8 Recording/Mixing Software - This is software used for mixing the sounds and is what is showing on the screens in the photo.
An Audio-Technica Cardioid Condenser Microphone - A pretty good recording mic
Sennheiser HD 380 pro Headphones - Decent headphones to monitor the sound mixing.
OK, I actually got a couple of other things but they were not exclusively for recordings. Like my PC upgrade was partially for this and I had an internal K&K Guitar Pickup installed in my guitar (which can be used for live or recordings).
It was a little tricky getting the interface setup right but the most complicated part was learning the Mixcraft Mixing Software. It reminded me of learning new technical products when I used to work but it looked like Adobe Premiere movie editing software too. It took me a couple of days to learn it good enough to use it.
OK, so I've recorded a few songs while learning how to use all of this stuff. For the latest one, I wanted to try some of the bass and drum loops that are included with the software so I found a song medley that I used to play years ago that mostly fit the bass and drum patterns.
I don't see me doing these kinds of recordings a lot but it was fun to do and I think it is entertaining too. It's only about 2 minutes so play the whole thing to get the full effect.
1/25/2018 - Mountain Rock Video Posted.
The Facebook post from today
Here's another video version of one of my old original song recordings. I wrote this song in 1982 and the photos are from 2007 and 2009 so I think it qualifies for Flashback Thursday. You'll need sound to hear the song, of course. The old recording is not that good of quality but I think that the video is pretty entertaining.
Then I included the YouTube link: Mountain Rock YouTube Video.
Beyond Facebook:
Well as you can see from the Facebook post (and the credits at the end of the video) I have been working on this thing for over 35 years! OK, well I did some other stuff too I guess.
Even though this the recording is not that good (it was one of the first ones that I recorded on my compressed sound 4 track recorder), The song is an upbeat and fun kind of boogie rockabilly type song. So I figured that it would be entertaining.
I knew that I had a lot of good mountain photos from our vacations in Wyoming and Colorado so I went through the photos and found some good ones for the video. The photos are mostly from our old 5mp Kodak digital cameras so they are not as good of quality as my current camera but the scenery more than makes up for that! So I also got some more mileage out of those photos by using them in the video.
I took most of the photos in the video but Dara and Corinne got those excellent moose photos one early morning in Colorado. Of course, I would not have been up that early. :-) The photos are classic though!
This was one of the first songs that I ever wrote and I wrote it on my first drive through the Rocky Mountains on my way to see Ron, my old college roommate, in Oregon. I took a ton of photos on that trip too but there were on a film camera and not nearly as good as the digital ones anyway.
My original idea for the video was to play a slide show of the photos on my big screen TV with me in front of the TV fake-playing the keyboard. I was telling Corinne about my idea and she asked why I wouldn't just use a Green Screen effect for the video. Well I never did that before but looked it up on the internet and also found that my video software, Adobe Premiere Elements 12, had the capability to do this. How cool is that!
The Green Screen allows you to create a video and make the background transparent so it can be layered on to another video. This is how I got myself fake-playing the piano in the video with the mountain scenes behind me.
My first attempt was to use a green sleeping bag behind me and that did not work but then Corinne gave me a green screen fabric that worked great! It took some time to try to get it right but with the right lighting I finally got it pretty good. In the end I was a little disappointed that the piano video was a little chopped off on the sides but since I was way over budget on the production :-) I just went with the best version that I had. 
I just recorded the video on my iPhone. Here is a photo of my Green Screen Studio (my bedroom with the light shades off and curtains taken down for as much light as possible). Click on the photo for the larger version.
I actually did a couple of versions of this video. In the first version I wore a wig under the Cubs hat. It was pretty funny and I wanted to use it but I did not get the fake-piano-playing nearly as good so I went with the no-wig version.
Well I hope people at least find the videos entertaining. :-)
1/17/2018 - Fantasy Land Music Video
The Facebook post from today:
I have been wanting to post some of my old original songs as YouTube videos for a while now and just completed the second one. This is a song from about 15 years ago. The recording sound is not that great but I still kind of like the song. You need to have sound to get what the song is like. See www.RobandDara.com for more as usual...
And I included the YouTube Link to the Fantasy Land Video
Beyond Facebook:
Well I hope this one goes over better than the last old-original-song conversion to YouTube Video that I did (I think I got 4 likes on that one). Anyway, even though the recording is really old and not that great I still like some of these songs.
For this one, I decided to include Dale and my photos that I over-saturated with color one time for an experiment. Since the song is about Fantasy Land, I thought that was OK.
I also decided to create another YouTube Channel for my music videos. The first few videos that I posted to youtube I just included in my personal/family channel but since I am hoping to post more music soon - Old and NEW recordings - I decided to create a new channel just for the music videos. This is the first video on my new music video channel.
My son Casey played Clarinet for a short time and I actually included him playing a short clarinet riff in this recording. OK, it's really short and not real loud but you can hear it if you know where it is and it really adds to the song too!
I recorded all the tracks for this song (except the clarinet of course) on guitar and synth. I used a drum machine on most of my older recordings and for this one I actually composed the drum track from scratch myself. I think that worked well for this particular song.
OK, it's getting late. I may tweak this update tomorrow but that's it fer now.
February 4, 2018 - Song Samples Playback Format Change
Once again, in an effort to get this website into a more current format, I have changed all of the Playback Links on the Song Samples page to a more current format.
Previously the Song Playback links would open in a new window or require a browser plug-in to play them. Often they would play with Windows Media Player if you were on a PC. I have changed this to use the <Audio> tag (within the html code for the song samples page) since this is very standard now and works with all the popular browsers.
I hope this helps to make the song playbacks easier for everyone...
October 5, 2017 - Entire Website Makeover
As you can see by the previous posts here, I have not updated these pages in over 14 years! Sorry about that. :-) Well this post is not specifically about songwriting since I haven't created songs for about the same amount of time (but still hope to get back to it soon). This update is about the fact that I just completed an Entire Website Makeover of this site.
I published this website in around 1999 and the old format was primitive and kind of looked like a high-school kids homework project. I did intentionally mean for it to be entertaining but at this point I wanted the site to look more professional and also wanted to be mobile device friendly.
If you are curious what the old format looked like go to Legacy Website Pages (this link is also at the bottom of the Site Map page.
Now that I am getting back into playing music more, I have been referencing this site more and I still think that most of the songs are good but the website itself looked a little goofy.
The recording on the site are still pretty low quality but I am hoping to improve that as much as I can soon and I am also trying to post more of the songs on YouTube (like Feel Like I Felt on the Song Samples page)
That's it for now... I hope you like the new format.
9/30/2017 - Feel the Video
I put together a video of one of my old songs. I am planning on doing a complete make-over of my song site (so it is not so old and embarrassing) and I also considered adding some of my old original songs to YouTube. Well I started with a video of my song Feel Like I Felt.
I used my original 4-track recording. It's a little better quality than the one on my song site (but it's still an old 4 track). Then I added the lyrics to the video - most as scrolling text but some just faded in and out - then I added original photos. So the video only uses my material so it is completely legal. The photos are mostly from my bike trail photos since that is where I have the most photos from my DSLR camera.
So here's the latest draft of Feel Like I Felt. This one is still a draft and I'm not sure if I will use it as the "official" video of the song.
Original Song Video - Feel Like I Felt (v2) - Draft
Man, videos take a lot of time! At least I have the time now...
BACK to 2003...
January 6, 2003 Ride With Me Status, Movie Seeds...
Sorry it's been so long beween updates... AGAIN
I got "Ride With Me" to a point and have been stuck there for a while... In addition, my reality-based day job situation has been stressful and taking a lot of my time (I am now between jobs (unemployed) and it's taking some major efforts to get that back on track again... sheesh...) and I am not sure if I am even going to record "Ride.." at this point...
OK, getting to the real song-writing part... It takes quite a bit of time for me to record my songs. I know I could do much simpler productions (just guitar and vocals and maybe a little fill) but once I start the recording, the ideas start comming (and it is really a lot of fun (mixed with frustration) ) and I just can't seem to leave it as a simple production. So, I may not record all of my latest material, although, if I don't record them, sometimes they get forgotten and will never be heard (some people may NOT see this as much of a loss to the world... :-) ). Alright, I guess it comes down to... If I get the time I'll record it.
The next thing I have re-visited (as they say) is using movie stories as seeds for songs. I tried this a while back and didn't really follow through with it. Now, I have been wanting to get more content to my songs (ie a little more of a story/scene rather than simple single themes) and it is just way too time consuming to think of and write short stories for each song. So... I tried an experiment by summarizing a movie and trying to use the storyline as the song story.
I'm not sure how well this will work, but I do think that is has some good possibilities. I have a lot of freedom with the lyrics, because the song doesn't have to be that close to the original movie story but it gives the song a nice core story and direction.
I was a little concerned about the legalities of this process, but I really don't think that that is a problem. I don't think it matters where your song idea came from, as long as the song (music, lyrics) is original. It should not conflict with the copyrighting of the original movie... I guess this is where I would need a lawyer for the finer points... (If I make any money doing this, I guess I'll look into that in a little more detail :-) ).
OK, so I suppose you are all wondering what movie I choose... Well... I just thought of some movies that I liked and some that were not overly popular and obvious (to start with)... A light movie, with some emotion to it (OK, some may say a "chick flick")... I started with "Overboard", an old Goldie Hawn movie...
OK, I gott go, more later... (hopefully sooner)
December 11, 2002 Ride With Me...
Sorry it's been so long beween updates...
I've been working on my next song for a while now (as usual... it seems that I always have at least on "in the oven"). I believe that this one will be called "Ride With Me" (unless it goes through some unexpected radical changes before it is complete).
My original idea was to write a song with a basic hopeful theme, but from an experienced, "been down" point of view (as opposed to a I'm so happy/cheerful/hopeful suns-shinney point of view).
It still takes me forever to get decent lyrics and then they never seem to meet my expectations anyway. I am also trying to persist at songwriting, but I am going through a difficult "why am I doing this", disappointment in everything that I have done phase... Ah well... I guess that comes with the territory and I don't see any practical way to quit right now :-)
OK, so anyway, I've spent quite a bit of time on some disjointed lyrics and finally got a verse and a chours together and started to work on the music (I actually usually have some basic melodic ideas as I am doing the lyrics... kind of a mostly lyrics-first with melody and melodic rhythm evolving at almost the same time...)
I was getting a little disappointed in the song and my own progress and just about trashed another one (I have had a handful that ended up on the cutting room floor) Then... just tonight it started to come together pretty well!!! I can now see some real potential to this one.
So far, it seems like the music is a little stronger than the lyrics in this one (in my opinion) but the lyrics do have a decent direction and some meaning (maybe just not as much of a story/theme/setting or as conversational as I would like, but I am working on that). It seems like the kind of song that can lend itself well to a very dynamic production. (I just wish I had better equipment to do a higher quality production of what I have in my head)...
OK, I guess I have made up a little for lost time! :-) Stay tuned, more to come!
November 2, 2002 - A Songwriting Excercise ...
I'm sure this has been done before and is documented somewhere in the Official Book of Songwriting or something, but I did an interesting songwriting exercise today that I thought I would pass along...
I was struggling with some semantics related to songwriting and emotions. I believe that the lyrics to a song should generate an emotion or at least a feeling (part of the problem here even is differentiating between an emotion and a feeling). So at first I was attempting to make a list of emotions and feelings ("I Feel ___") and what thing (or word(s)) would bring on the specific emotion ("____ makes me feel ____"). I made some progress, but this was a pretty difficult exercise.
My next exercise is the one that I actually wanted to mention though. I went through an old list of all-time-great-songs (you know some of the biggest hits over the last few decades) and simply attempted to describe the emotion, or feeling that (in my opinion) each song generated. One little twist here is do you relate to the song and/or emotion from the singers point of view or the singees (?) point of view... (ie, like in Elton Johns "Your Song" the lyrics "my gift is my song and... this one's for you", do you relate to giving a song or receiving the song).
Anyway, this is not quite as difficult and is pretty interesting... (I think anyway...) You can put together a list of any group of songs you like and just go through each song and take a minute to describe the emotions/feelings that the song (lyrics mostly) generates. Here are a few of my samples:
Song |
Feeling |
Yesterday |
Reminiscent, Sad |
Like a Rolling Stone |
Humbled |
Your Song |
Grateful |
Dream On |
Hopeful |
Song |
Feeling |
Bridge Over |
Gererous |
Good Vibrations |
Hopeful |
Rock&Roll |
Exhileration |
Smooth |
Sensual,
Cool, |
Song |
Feeling |
Born to be Wild |
Free, |
We are the |
Pride |
Here Comes the Sun |
Peaceful |
Born to Run |
Free, CareFree |
Etc, etc.
The emotions/feelings generated are totally personal, of course and the descriptions are pretty subjective but it can be interesting. I'm sure one could take a huge amount of time and make an extensive study in this area and accumulate a lot of interesing statistics... Styles of music and the dominant emotion/feeling of most songs within each genere, etc, etc.
For the moderate group of songs that I did, and with my own opinions of the emotions generated I came up with the following emotions/feelings on the top of the list:
Hopeful, Pride, Grateful, Free, Reminiscent
Well, I hope this was interesing to some of you and I hope that it can help some of us to write some better songs!
Stay tuned, check back soon....
October 22, 2002 - Post, Release... Never enough Time... Songwriting Balance...
I haven't received a lot of rave revueues on "Babes in the Wild" (yet) but I am happy with the song, production and release. (it hasn't hit MP3.com yet. That takes forever these days...) I've reviewed it quite a bit (on my car stereo) and it's pretty decent. The only thing is it doesn't really fall in to that "up" category. "Up" songs always seem to go over better (for me anyway)....
OK, for those of you who don't know me, I am also a programmer and I am taking a Java class at a Jr. College by us. What does this have to do with music and songs??? Well, it is another activity taking another slice of my time and this particular class is very difficult and time consuming. Therefore, I beleive that I will be focusing on the class for the next 2 months and will probably have a little delay before the next release. :-(
Even when I am focusing on other things, I find that I still always have various songs ideas going around in my head so I'll still be working at it at times, I just don't think that I will have the time to really work on a song and get it recorded and produced real soon...
I did take a little time to review my songwriting goals again recently... I have some problems with the commercial side of things versus the artistic side and what I believe that I do best. When it comes right down to it, I can't ignore the commercial side, because ultimately my goals still involve getting a song (or songs) published. But then again, I believe that you must stay true to your own music and can't "sell out" to what is popular or the latest craze. I guess this is just a balancing game.
I find that my best chances seem to fall into either rock, pop or possibly even country but I believe that they are usually looking for harder rock than I do, younger pop than I do (like kid stuff) or country which I am only really a little close to (I used to call what we did in the 70s "country-rock").
I guess I will just try to keep the songs sounding current, stay true to my own musical styles and directions, keep trying to improve the quality and see how it goes! Sheesh... what a long shot! :-)
October 15, 2002 - The Internet Release
"Babes in the Wild" has been released to the interenet! See the scoop behind the song, lyrics and of course give it a listen... (and let me know what you think...)
October 9, 2002 - The New Songs, Maybe Free CDs Again...
I've started the recording and some of my next song "Babes in the Wild" and done a rough mix on to a CD for review in my car. I like it. It's a little more layed back than my last few but it has a real nice groove and a catchy melody in the chorus. Unfortunately, I know it is going to be a while still before I do the internet release. I've just started a new job and have a heavy load of homework still from a class that I am taking (yea, I know excuses, excuses...)
I've also written the song about Palatine (where I live), but now I am not really sure if I will take the time to tweak it and spend the time recording and mixing it... It's a nice novel idea, but I am thinking that I will probably just keep working on the old standard common (more universal) theme songs...
I have also been giving some thoughts to reviving my Free CD offers. The idea was basically for exposure and was an interesting experiment. It turned out to be great in some ways and not so good in others. I got some decent (and some very nice) feedback on my songs and found that there are people out there that really enjoy the songs (at least some of them :-) ).
The only thing that I really disliked is that there are also people out there that will ask for anything that is free, just because it is free... Also, the over-seas shipments were a little difficult, because I had to fill out extra forms and go to the post office to send them (in addition to the extra costs).
So I imagine that I will have to limit my offer to US only (although, I would still like to keep the offer global). More importantly, I need to figure out a way to limit the offer to people with a real interest in the music and not just something free... I'm not exactly sure how to do this yet... any ideas out there?
September 28, 2002 - Melodies, Nice Reply...
I am starting to believe that the mucic really counts a little more so than the lyrics for the most part, although there are obviously many many components to a great song/performance/production. As far as the "melody" goes, it really is multiple melodies in most songs. The melody itself really consists of multiple phrases (mini melodies in themselves) and the harmonies can be melodies also... At a bare minimum there is usually at least one melody for the verse and one for the chorus (they can have a relationship or even be 100% different).
I guess my point here is keep those melodies strong, interesting and use as many as needed for the song (one is not usually enough to carry the whole song).
On another subject, I just got a reply from a publisher that I sent my song "Spare a Little Love" to back in March! Yes, it can be a really slow process. It was another "thanks but no thanks" theme (i.e. rejection), but a really nice reply. I quoted the good parts in my "what people are saying" section (of the Request a CD page).
I have had a few contacts with this publisher (Dan Schafer, Faverett Music Group) and have had a good experience and have been very impressed. I checked out his site and he's had pictures of himself on stage playing with Shania T. and they are located right on Music Row (I went there when I was in Nashville).
Even though he is popular and has some great contacts, he actually finds the time to listen to the songs (from us unpublished start upss) and replies... OK, I don't know that he personally does it all, but it appears that way from the communications that I have from him. Here's a reply that I got from him regarding the song About: Spare A Little Love:
"Great tune. Good 4 U! You definitely have writing talent... " -- Dan Schafer, Creative Director, Faverett Music Group
He is on the top of my list for publisher contacts as far as that goes. Unfortunately, I don't think that my material is a real good fit for the types of material that they seem to work with (pop and country) and I am beginning to think that my material is very "stylized" (as I have been told) and I am not sure of my chances of getting other musicians to record it. If I did get a song published, I'm sure it would be in a more unique area of rock. In other words, I'm not sure which direction my songwriting will take right now and my goals (and the things that I find important) are constantly changing.
About the only thing that I am sure of now is that I will continue to write and strive to improve. I do believe that songwriting (for me) is a little bit of an additction. To me that means something that gives you pleasure, is habit forming and you find yourself compelled to keep doing it in spite of the fact that it costs you time and money and you could and should be doing more productive and useful things.
Wow am I into the commentaries tonight, or what??? :-) More later, stay tuned!
September 20, 2002 - One More Written, The Personal and Specific approach.
I've completed the lyrics and music to my next song "Babes In The Wild". I may have gone from lyrics that are too light to possibly too heavy... I think that many people will still be able to relate to it though... We'll see how it goes... Unfortunately, I have some major homework comming up for my Java II programming class so I'm sure that the song will have to sit a while before I get it recorded, mixed, etc. and up to the internet...
I have also started another song with a very different approach. OK, I admit that it is basically is a cheap commercial gimmicy concept but I don't think that it really compromises my songwriting and it still gives me the opportunity to write, improve and experiment.
My idea is to write some songs with subjects that are very specific and personal to a limited number of people, as opposed to trying to write generically for the widest possible audience. In the process, I was hoping for some additional interest in the song and interest in my other works.
It is not real practical to write songs specifically for an individual (most of the time) so I am considering subjects that would be specific and personal to a moderate number of people (hundreds or thousands of people... but NOT necessarily everyone). My ideas were specific schools, towns, organizations, etc. etc. and my first experiment is my own town of Palatine. Yep, I'm just writing a song about Palatine, Illinois... I didn't find any songs about Palatine on the internet other than a few instrumentals with the name alone. This would most likely appeal to a limited number of people, by design, but with very specific lyrics it may just have MORE of an appeal to Palatine residents and generate an interest from them...
It is kind of a novelty type of approach but I am not going for comedy songs (of course, you never know how it could be taken :-) ). This approach can, of course, be applied to many specific subjects if it works out... It's kind of a target marketing type of thing... Not aimed at everyone, but more personal to those to whom it does reach.
Well, we will see how this goes... As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, etc... Let me know... more later... Rob.
September 8, 2002 - A 9/11 Song link, and a Keyless attitude...
First, with 9/11 comming up I thought that I would pass on a link to a great, inspirational, patriotic 9/11 song that I got via my IFS newsletter (see the Links page if you are interested in getting IFS). The song is called We Will Stand, and here is the link www.mp3.com/erichorner. It's not at all a style that I would do myself, but I really think that it is very inspirational and fits the 9/11 anniversary coming up.
Next, just a note on a song writing technique that I have been keeping in mind recently. This has to do with those of us who have a formal musical background and have learned instruments by taking lessons, reading music, studying music theory, etc.
Lessons, notation and music theory are, of course good things for the most part, but sometimes they can get in the way when it comes to raw creativity. I have found that when I am writing a melody or chord pattern I just naturally consider the key that I am in and the related chords... so I start trying the 4'th, 5'th, minor II or VI (in place of a IV) etc, etc. and don't just go with an odd chord like a Major III or just start trying any chords, with an open mind (outside the box/key) (the same goes for a melody also).
Recently I have been trying to be much more open in this way and concentrate on a Keyless attitude. Of course, the chords and melody still have to work! And this doesn't mean that I am transitioning to some real weird, open keyless music. It's just an attitude and tool to use in the creation process.
I also find that after some experimentation, I end up with many of the traditional chords and scale patterns anyway but maybe in a more interesting way or maybe with some very unique chords and melodies. I think that a lack of formal training has also helped some other great musicians and writers (specifically I was thinking of the Beatles).
That's my thought for today... Don't let your training and education get in your way...
Stay tuned. Rob.