Songwriters Workbench

UPDATE (Songwriting books still available)

2007-11-17T17:43:00.000-06:00

This blog has been discontinued.

'From Wanna-Be to Living Dreams' may still be purchased here. 'Top 10 Songwriting Mistakes and Correcting Them' is now only made available as a bonus when purchasing From Wanna-Be to Living Dreams.

Measuring a Hit & A Closer Look: 'Take Me There'

2007-09-15T10:19:00.000-05:00

This weeks #1 country song contains two unusual occurrences. A title “preview” and a change in the rhyme pattern in the second verse.

See my markup and comments.

Measuring a Hit & A Closer Look: 'More Than A Memory'

2007-09-11T11:51:00.000-05:00

In the early nineties when Garth Brooks was on fire, I received a couple of phone calls from him (as did several publishers on Music Row) when he was beginning the search for material for new projects.

One of those conversations sticks in my mind. As we talked a few minutes about what he was looking for in a song, his bottom-line was, “Keith, bring me the songs that knock you out.”

There’s been much talk over Garth’s business savvy and how much he’s put that college marketing degree to work during his career. No matter your opinion, you’ve got to give credit to an artist that in the end asks you to bring material that you find personally appealing.

I never landed a cut on any Garth projects, but I did gain respect for him during those conversations.

So is his #1 on this comeback a “knock-out” song? You be the judge.

As usual, here’s my markup of the lyric

* Each week I measure the #1 song of the week in “Measuring a Hit” for you to readily see common threads in today’s biggest hits. A posting called “A Closer Look” follows in a few days that brings a few craft issues of the song to your attention.

Blackburn honored for work in "Congressional Songwriters Caucus"

2007-09-06T15:09:00.000-05:00

Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was honored by The Recording Academy along with musical pioneer Quincy Jones and Sen. Ted Kennedy during this evening's "Grammys on the Hill" event at the Willard Hotel in downtown Washington, DC.

Blackburn, the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Songwriter's Caucus, was recognized with the Grammys on the Hill Award for her work on issues including intellectual property rights protection and changes to the law governing taxation of a songwriter's catalog sales.

According to a press release from Blackburn's office, songwriters were disadvantaged by the tax code before the change, which required them to pay income tax when selling their life’s work. The sale is now considered as a capital gain, classified in line with other intellectual property creations.

Blackburn issued a statement saying that she was "deeply honored" by the "Grammys on the Hill" tribute.

"The creative community is our nation's second largest exporter of goods and services, and Tennessee's 7th district has arguably the world's largest population of songwriters. We must respect their constitutional right to protect their intellectual property, ensure that their work is respected as private property, and to make sure these rights are not violated."

A Closer Look: 'These Are My People'

2007-09-04T10:37:00.000-05:00

Let’s look closer at the #1 country song from last week. The song uses inside rhyme, specificity, recurrence, and good prosody.

See my markup of this lyric and the notes on prosody.

Measuring a Hit:'These Are My People'

2007-09-03T09:55:00.000-05:00

Before years end we’ll begin looking at the common threads found in the hit songs we’ve looked at. We’ll compare them to modern historical hits so you can easily see what top songwriters already know when it comes to songwriting for mass public ‘consumption’.

Here’s this week’s ‘measurement’.

          These Are My People
          Dave Berg/Rivers Rutherford

          time signature:                         4/4
          intro length:                              :10
          time to chorus:                         :58
          time to title:                              :58
          # title appearances:                6
          general subject:                       everyday people
          viewpoint:                                 1st
          form:                                          V-V-C-V-C-B-inst-C
          style written:                            story
          rhyme (predominant):        single & double perfect
          length:                                         3:25
          tempo:                                         mid

** Each week I measure the #1 song of the week in “Measuring a Hit” for you to readily see common threads in the songwriting of today's biggest hits (hint: we’ll find many!). A post titled “A Closer Look” follows in a few days which brings a few songwriting craft issues of the song to your attention.

Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at this song.

YouTube signs royalties deal with U.K. songwriters

2007-09-01T15:15:00.000-05:00

YouTube has reached an agreement with British performing rights organization MCPS-PRS Alliance, to pay for use of songs the organization represents.

Progressions: “Pedal Tones”

2007-08-27T16:14:00.000-05:00

Not long ago I received an email from someone who, after viewing my analysis of ‘Lost in This Moment’, asked about something that’s been around in songwriting for a very long time when they asked, “What’s a ‘Pedal Tone’?”

Since answering that email I’ve discussed this in 2 consultations with up-and-coming songwriters, so… seems like a good subject to cover here.

What is it?

A pedal tone (or pedal point) is a note that remains unchanged while chords change over/around it. It’s easier for some people to think of it as an ‘anchor’ while the chords change ‘on top’. It’s common for the pedal tone to be either the root or 5th of the key.

Who Uses it?

Pedal tones are used in every style of music. Beethoven used them, as did other classical composers; it’s found regularly in dance music; and rock n’ roll & heavy metal make use of it as well.

You’ll often find a pedal tone used to create a dramatic effect and the bass frequently given the job of holding the root of the key as the pedal tone.

An Example

In ‘Lost in This Moment’ the pedal tone first makes an appearance in the first verse. Listen to the song closely and you’ll here the steady ‘B’ note held throughout the verse as well as the ‘B’ arpeggio of the electric guitar while a very lightly mixed acoustic makes the 5-4-1 chord changes.

If your ear can’t pick out the acoustic guitar, listen to the second verse. The electric guitar maintains the ‘B’ arpeggio while the bass moves from 5-4-1.

Note that the song is in the key of ‘B’, so this is a root pedal tone.

What Makes it Work?

The pedal tone in ‘Lost in This Moment’ helps create a tension and release. The verses begin with the 5 chord (F) of which the pedal tone (B) is a 4th and thereby creating added tension to the already dominant chord. The next chord in the verse progression is a 4 chord (E) of which the pedal tone is a 5th (the dominant of the chord), before the song moves to the 1 chord (B) which brings the pedal tone to function as the root. So the pedal tone in this case creates added tension to the ‘lead’ chord. It’s subsequent place as a fifth and root adds to the feeling of release felt at the end of each line.

print version

Til next time, keep writing!

5 weeks at #1 for 'Never Wanted Nothing More'

2007-08-23T16:53:00.000-05:00

It ran to the top quick, and there it remains folks.

Forget pop music, it's all about ringtones

2007-08-21T10:00:00.001-05:00

Anytime Rick Carnes is out and hears a song played as someone's ringtone, well, it's like music to his ears.

Carnes, a songwriter for nearly three decades, laughs when he considers that his work is more valuable as a ringtone--just a few seconds of his music--than a full version of one of his songs downloaded from the Web.

"Where's the logic in that?" asks Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America.

Until last October, music publishers were able to pocket 10 percent of the retail price for a song, according to Steve Gordon, a copyright attorney. This meant that for a $2.99 ringtone, the publisher could make 30 cents and typically split half with the songwriter.

But the labels are now threatening to choke off that extra income. Record companies claim songwriters and music publishers charge too much and want prices restricted to a rate of 9.1 cents per song.

The labels argue that they are entitled to the extra money because music publishers pay nothing of the large upfront costs associated with producing master recordings, according to Gordon.

Carnes, 57, who has written songs for Alabama, Reba McEntire and Dean Martin, said that all the songwriters want is to be allowed to negotiate the price of their music.

Read full article

'Never Wanted Nothing More' #1 for 4th week

2007-08-17T17:10:00.000-05:00

'Never Wanted Nothing More' keeps its grip on the top spot of the country music charts for the 4th week. Perhaps a good time for you to review and compare analysis of the previous #1's we've looked at over the past few months.

The 3 Stooges - Insincerity, Triteness and just plain Drivel!

2007-08-14T11:05:00.001-05:00

Insincere small talk, trite phrases, and even drivel, sprinkle all of our conversational lives at times and mostly without consequence. But in songwriting, place these in your lyric and you’ve got a disaster on your hands.

There are songs I hear from time to time in which a mini-movie rolls through my mind.

Read my article at:
San Diego Chronicle

From "White Christmas" to Sgt. Pepper: The Conceptual Revolution in Popular Music

2007-08-12T14:51:00.000-05:00

In a 'working paper' just issued, University of Chicago's David Galenson argues that the shift in songwriting style from the Tin Pan Alley era to the music of Bob Dylan and John Lennon brought a drastic change to the general songwriting approach and hence the songwriting labor market (Galenson is an economist, thus the labor market viewpoint).

I found the paper very interesting and it coincides with my longtime belief in the approach Dylan and Lennon took in much of their writing. It also tackles the subject of age vs. creativity. Galenson makes an intriguing, and I believe accurate, distinction between 'experimental creators' and ' conceptual creators'.

"Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and other songwriters of the Golden Era wrote popular songs that treated common topics clearly and simply. During the mid-1960s Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney created a new kind of popular music that was personal and often obscure. This shift, which transformed popular music from an experimental into a conceptual art, produced a distinct change in the creative life cycles of songwriters. Golden Era songwriters were generally at their best during their 30s and 40s, whereas since the mid-'60s popular songwriters have consistently done their best work during their 20s. The revolution in popular music occurred at a time when young innovators were making similar transformations in other arts: Jean-Luc Godard and his fellow New Wave directors created a conceptual revolution in film in the early '60s, just as Andy Warhol and other Pop artists made painting a conceptual activity."

Galenson's entire paper is here.

3rd week is a charm for 'Never Wanted Nothing More'

2007-08-12T14:44:00.001-05:00

'Never Wanted Nothing More' remained the #1 country song this past week, making it the top song for 3 weeks now.

CINCINNATI MAN SENTENCED TO TEN MONTHS IN PRISON FOR MUSIC PIRACY

2007-08-05T13:55:00.000-05:00

Federal Judge William Haynes sentenced Decharmus Grover to 10 months in jail (U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle TN). Caught selling CDs and DVDs in the parking lot of a Dollar General store in Nashville, the FBI and Nashville police found over 500 hundred copyrighted recordings and films copied onto CDs and DVDs along with copying equipment powered by the car’s battery. Authorities also confiscated nearly $10,000 in cash, which will be paid to the victim industries as restitution.

In a release issued by the U.S. Attorney's office, U.S. Attorney Craig Morford stated that "Violations of intellectual property crimes and copyright laws such as this occupy a high priority with both the Department of Justice and this U.S. Attorney's office in particular, given that so many residents of Middle Tennessee are involved in the recording industry."

What? You Want Me to PAY for This Coffee?!

2007-08-04T12:26:00.000-05:00

A few days ago a friend sent me a link to a discussion on MusicBanter.com which had posted an article from The Detroit Free Press.

The article is about a gourmet coffee shop in Florida and it’s anger over ASCAP approaching them for payment for live, in-store performances. The shop has been asked to pay $400/year and the owners are angry. It always amazes me how some folks think… or don’t.

I posted a response and want you all to see the immediate reaction I received. The general public is so naïve in that they perceive a “right” to free music. These folks don’t seem to understand they couldn’t buy groceries if they weren’t employed by a business that sells a product or service.

I have a very good friend who’s a professional airline pilot. He’s definitely no dummy, yet he’s taken part in illegal peer-to-peer music swap sites for several years and no matter how many angles I use to describe to him that it’s stealing, he fails to get my point (of course if a stowaway were discovered on my friends airplane I suspect he’d be the first to become red-faced and toss them off).

People that would never load their grocery cart or buggy at Wal-Mart then walk out without paying are stealing on a regular basis. I suspect it’s often not actually a failure to understand, as much as knowing they won’t be caught. The only difference between those folks and shoplifters at Wal-Mart is tenacity.

Below is my post in regard to the Detroit Free Press article and the first response to that post:

“$400 per year is likely a great investment in their business. It's $1.10 per day. If performance of cover tunes causes customers to come in or 'hang-out' longer, how many coffees, teas, or muffins do you suppose they'll have to sell before they recoup that $1.10 investment and then reap the rewards of more sales?

Even if the other two performing rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC are the only ones in the U.S., NOT the "three biggest") are paid the same amount, it's a total of $1200 for the entire year, equaling roughly $3.30 per day.

The article quotes the gourmet coffee shop owner as saying, "It makes me so angry"... "I feel like the greedy music industry..."

GREEDY?? Really? For wanting to be paid for use of a product?

Next time I travel through Florida I'll have to swing by their coffee shop, drink a cup of coffee, tea, or eat a muffin, then walk out without paying. Surely the GREEDY owners of the product won't expect me to pay for it.”

Four minutes later I received this response:

“What utter rubbish.

Could you imagine the state of the world if the publishing industry took the same example with books? Imagine schools having to pay money out to quote books , imagine libraries being closed down because of illegal sharing of free books.

The music industry is full of crooks & opportunists and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Sadly, many share this perspective based on ignorance. So I answered by explaining that books are not different than music when it comes to paying for use. I explained that libraries and schools are permitted use of copyrighted material by way of “Fair Use” which is part of the U.S Copyright Act.

I explained that libraries have to purchase many of their books with our tax money, spending an average of 20-30% of their budget for materials, with around 85% of that funding coming from taxes and not donations. Based on this I suggested he should include book publishers in his description of "crooks and opportunists".

Of course, just like my friend he didn’t get it; and I’ll still be expected for some strange reason to pay for my next cup of joe at my favorite coffee house tomorrow.

The Song Remains the Same

2007-08-03T13:33:00.001-05:00

'Never Wanted Nothing More' continued to hold the #1 spot on the charts this week, so no analysis til next week.

Prince's Experiment With Free CDs Raises a Ruckus

2007-08-01T08:51:00.000-05:00

The artist Prince caused a huge stir in the music industry a few days ago when 2.9 million copies of his new CD Planet Earth were bundled with Sunday copies of the UK newspaper The Mail. There was a furious backlash from the music industry -- including his own label, Sony BMG -- at this act of heresy of giving music away free. But it will probably pay off for Prince in the long run. To begin with, The Mail paid him a reported $500,000 for this venture.

Prince's overall logic? Well, his last CD sold only 80,000 copies in the UK. As a so-called heritage artist (meaning one who's been around a while and doesn't sell millions of CDs anymore), he figures since his main income derives from selling concert tickets and merchandise, including sales of his previous CDs, it makes sense to try to attract new listeners and expand his fan base. And offering free music may be the best way to do that. And the UK has been way ahead with that. For years, British music magazines such as Mojo and Q have done that with sampler CDs inserted in their magazines, and the Oxford American does that here at home.

If the music industry had gotten out in front of paid music downloads in a timely fashion, the industry wouldn't be in the pickle it now finds itself in. As it is, the only viable solution for the downloading issue came from a music industry outsider -- Apple's Steve Jobs with his iTunes and iPod. As CD sales continue to plummet, there are few options left for the music business...

Read entire article here.

A Closer Look: 'Never Wanted Nothing More'

2007-07-30T08:27:00.000-05:00

** Each week I measure the #1 song of the week in “Measuring a Hit” for you to readily see common threads in today’s biggest hits (hint: we’ll find many!). A posting called “A Closer Look” follows in a few days that brings a few craft issues of the song to your attention.

Straight from Nashville… let’s take a closer look at this past week’s #1 country song.

Look at my markup.

Measuring a Hit:'Never Wanted Nothing More'

2007-07-28T15:11:00.000-05:00

** Each week I measure the #1 song of the week in “Measuring a Hit” for you to readily see common threads in the songwriting of today's biggest hits (hint: we’ll find many!). A post titled “A Closer Look” follows in a few days which brings a few songwriting craft issues of the song to your attention.

Here’s this week’s ‘measurement’.

          Never Wanted Nothing More
          Ronnie Bowman/Chris Stapleton

          time signature:                         4/4
          intro length:                              :12
          time to chorus:                         n/a
          time to title:                              :31
          # title appearances:                9
          general subject:                       life's desires
          viewpoint:                                 1st
          form:                                          A A B A - B A - B
          style written:                            story
          rhyme (predominant):         single perfect
          length:                                        3:29
          tempo:                                        mid

Songwriting Mistakes: Restating

2007-07-26T12:46:00.000-05:00

I’ve had several consultations lately with newer writers whose songs suffer from the same ailment, and as a result I’ve received permission from one of those songwriters to post the beginnings of a song he’s currently writing to illustrate.

Before we talk about that let me make a brief point.

For newer writers it’s important not to become discouraged at the amount of rewriting that needs to be done. Learning to write solid songs is like a funnel. In the beginning you’ll need to rework large sections dealing with the more basic issues of successful songwriting. As you learn and write more, it’s the ever-smaller details that need to be picked apart and polished.

Keep in mind that even for professionals great songs are rarely written, they’re re-written.

The first draft of the song from my benevolent ‘student’ suffers primarily from a lack of moving forward, due in part to not focusing on a specific scenario. Each and every line of your song should move the song forward rather than restate something or merely provide non-descriptive, general information. Many newer writers fall prey to writing their first line then restating that line throughout the majority of the song. Without a specific scenario in your head, it’s difficult.

Successful songwriters, in and out of Nashville, learn to ‘speak’ in a fresh way about the same subjects. How many ways are there to say I miss someone?

     Here are just a few ways it’s been said:
     (think how each approaches the subject differently)

     “Crazy Arms” (Seals/Mooney)
     “Act Naturally” (Russell/Morrison)
     “I Still Miss Someone” (Cash)
     “Hello Walls” (Nelson)
     “I Miss My Mary Tonight” (Ketchum)
     “Loving Her Was Easier” (Kristofferson)
     “I Fall to Pieces” (Howard/Cochran)
     “Half a Man’” (Nelson)
     “Farewell Party” (Williams)
    etc.

How many hits has Alan Jackson written on this one subject?
(again, focus on how each approaches the subject differently)

     “She’s Got the Rhythm” (Jackson/Travis)
     “Here in the Real World” (Jackson/Irwin)
     “Who Says You Can’t Have it All” (Jackson/McBride)
     “Wanted” (Jackson/Craig)
     “Dallas” (Jackson/Stegall)
    etc.

So with that, here are some of the notes I made for the songwriter I mentioned at the beginning of this post regarding the first draft of a song in progress.

Til next time…

#1 holds spot for 2nd week

2007-07-20T15:34:00.000-05:00

"Lost in This Moment" remains the #1 country song for the 2nd week, so there'll be no "Measuring a Hit" or "A Closer Look" this week.

Progressions: “Prosody” in Songwriting

2007-07-19T13:57:00.000-05:00

In previous Progressions posts, we’ve looked at the current hit, “A Different World”, written by Jennifer Hanson, Mark Nesler, and Tony Martin when talking about Chord Substitution and Cutting Measures.

At the end of one of those posts I mentioned “the power in the way it [“A Different World”] was written with the minor chord falling at the end of ‘smoke and drank’, and ‘lead based paint’.” And as I said then, “That’s nice prosody to begin the song”.

Prosody is the marriage of melody/chord with lyric and good prosody is when the music of a song accurately reflects the lyric. It's concerned with things such as the choice of chords, deciding what single note should accompany a certain word of the lyric, the rhythm of lines and certain words, etc.

In “A Different World”, the minor chords falling at the end of ‘smoke and drank’, and ‘lead based paint’ reflect the negative connotation of the words.

Let’s look at prosody in 2 lines of another well-known song, Alan Jackson’s “Here in the Real World”. I also look at this song when discussing melodic phrasing in my book, “Top 10 Songwriting Mistakes… and Correcting Them” (see sidebar for a FREE copy or visit http://www.Top10SongwritingMistakes.com).

If you can’t hear the melody in your head listen to it now and notice how the melody of the 3rd and 4th lines of the verse differ. The 3rd line’s melody contains the highest notes of the verse as we hear in the first verse that, “love is a sweet dream that always comes true”. Just as the tone of voice rises when there’s excitement when we talk, the melody accurately reflects what we’re hearing. And just as the tone of our voice naturally falls with disappointment, the 4th line’s melody steadily descends as we hear, “if life were like the movies I’d never be blue”.

The second verse continues the good prosody with the 3rd line's higher melody paired with, “and tonight on that silver screen it’ll end like it should”. And once again, the 4th line's lyric is a nice match to the downward sloping melody with, “two lovers will make it through like I hoped we would”.

Play songs you’ve written with attention to prosody and see if there’re places you can better match the emotion of your lyric with the melody and chord choice. For ideas on chord choices read the Progressions post, “Substitution in Songwriting”.

Print version

The Record Industry's Decline

2007-07-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

In my 3-part series, "It’s a New World", we looked at how record companies are solving (actually not) their problem of cliff-diving record sales and the further diversification into the music publishing arena being the “answer” for many. We also looked at a couple of new models being tried in the music business.

Below is part of an article from Rolling Stone which discusses the tough times record labels are facing.

…"How is it that the people that make the product of music are going bankrupt, while the use of the product is skyrocketing?" asks the Firm's Kwatinetz. "The model is wrong."

Kwatinetz sees other, leaner kinds of companies -- from management firms like his own, which now doubles as a record label, to outsiders such as Starbucks -- stepping in. Paul McCartney recently abandoned his longtime relationship with EMI Records to sign with Starbucks' fledgling Hear Music. Video-game giant Electronic Arts also started a label, exploiting the promotional value of its games, and the newly revived CBS Records will sell music featured in CBS TV shows.

Licensing music to video games, movies, TV shows and online subscription services is becoming an increasing source of revenue. "We expect to be a brand licensing organization," says Cohen of Warner, which in May started a new division, Den of Thieves, devoted to producing TV shows and other video content from its music properties. And the record companies are looking to increase their takes in the booming music publishing business, which collects songwriting royalties from radio play and other sources. The performance-rights organization ASCAP reported a record $785 million in revenue in 2006, a five percent increase from 2005. Revenues are up "across the board," according to Martin Bandier, CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which controls the Beatles' publishing. "Music publishing will become a more important part of the business," he says. "If I worked for a record company, I'd be pulling my hair out. The recorded-music business is in total confusion, looking for a way out."

You can read the entire article here.

A Closer Look: 'Lost in This Moment'

2007-07-15T19:18:00.000-05:00

** Each week I measure the #1 song of the week in “Measuring a Hit” for you to readily see common threads in today's biggest hits. A post titled “A Closer Look” follows in a few days that brings a few craft issues of the song to your attention.

After holding the #1 spot for two weeks, “Lucky Man” gives up the top spot to Big & Rich and “Lost in This Moment”. We’re given pedal tones, imagery, and a clear progression of the moment.

Here's my markup.