Songwriting tips and tricks
How I wrote my new song
Recently I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the multitude of varying approaches I have taken when writing new music through the years. As a self-produced, self-prublished independent songwriter, without any specific deadlines or output quotas, I’m free to create new music as and when I please. I have found that this can often lead to a spiral of procrastination, waiting for ‘inspiration’ to strike. However, if I’m being totally honest, that’s just a rationalisation of putting creativity off. At least in my case.
In every case where I have seen a song through from idea to completion, it required a certain amount of self-discipline or application. Getting ideas for chords for a verse or a chorus is the easy part. Connecting those ideas to other ideas to build something that more closely resembles a finished song takes, well… persistence. I also believe that, as Bob Dylan once said of songwriting, “The best ones are written very quickly. The longer it takes to finish the song the more difficulty it takes to pin it down and focus in on it and lose your original intention. I’ve done that a few times. I sort of just leave those songs go.” It was with that mindset that I approached the writing and recording of my upcoming single ‘Get to Nowhere.’
The songwriting process
Having recently taken up playing the ukulele again I got the idea of using it to quickly record a very sparse arrangment of a simple tune in an effort to put myself through my paces. As a tactic for pushing through any potential procrastination or creative block, I decided to set some strict rules as a creative brief for the project to keep things focused and contained. These rules were as follows:
Keep the arrangement simple (no more than a handful of parts)
No melodic fluff - simple rhythm accompaniment
Solo vocal part with no harmonies
Use interesting chords but keep the song structure simple (ended up with a A-B-C-B-C-D-B-C-E)
Write and record the whole song in less than 48 hours!
I didn’t write using the ukulele. I tend to do all my songwriting on the keyboard and then arrange parts for other instruments based on the chords and melodies I find there. I quickly came up with the intro in 4/4 starting on a Cb5 chord jumping to an Ebmaj7#5 and a G7/D which was a sound I was really interested in. I came up with a simple melodic idea to go along with those chords and then I said… ‘okay… next…’ I didn’t want to get hung up on tweaking things and wondering ‘what if…’ too much. I wanted to go with my instincts a lot here.
Using this same approach I then came up with chords and melody for a verse, chorus and a bridge pretty much in the space of an hour. I tend to write melodies in tandem with chords, as there’s an interplay between the two in terms of outlining the modal quality of a chord with notes that accentuate this. I often find that I don’t do this as much with the bass line. I tend to lock-in the basic root note of the bass line, then go back and add a little more melody and syncopation to the part - looking for opportunities to create tension against the upper melody.
Within a few hours I had a complete song structure with harmony and melody set to a fairly straightfoward 4/4 time signature. Whilst I do like to play around sometimes with time signatures, I opted for simplicity in this case. Now it was time to refine some lyrics…
Writing the lyrics
From conversations I’ve had with other songwriters and from the wide range of content I have consumed about songwriting, the question of ‘What comes first? Lyrics or melody?’ is a topic that comes up frequently. However, it’s not one that I’ve ever wrestled with too much. Each time I write a song I know the feeling or emotion I am trying to convey and I usually have some sort of story or idea that I am trying to convey. However, it’s never very speicific in terms of lyrics or words. I might have a few fun ideas for phrases or wordplay at best. I always start with shaping a melody that gets my imagination going first. Then, upon listening to that melody, words or phrases might suggest themselves.
In the case of this song I knew the idea and feeling I wanted to get across and used that to inform the sound choices. When it came time to come up with some lyrics I sat down with a pen and paper and played the demo track several times, scribbling down ideas, singing them out loud and just chipping away at things. I don’t have a great way of describing it in further detail and I’m certainly not interested in boring you with explaining the meaning behind the lyrics… that’s part of the fun of songs; letting the listener find something they can relate to in the sounds and the words. I don’t believe anyone wants an artist to sit and explain their work - to me that defeats the whole purpose of the work.
Home recording process
Equipped with a completely written song, on the second day I recorded ukulele, shaker, bass, keyboard and vocals. I recorded this track using a single Rode condensor microphone into my Focusrite Scarlet audio interface in my home studio setup. My preferred DAW is Presonus Studio 1. Everything was pretty much done in one or two takes. I had my instruments and voice quite close to the mic as I wanted more of an intimate sound for this - I was sort of inspired by some of the more intimate sounding recordings on the album Friends by The Beach Boys (pure fun if you haven’t listened yet). Most of my older recordings have double tracked vocals for that smooth, shimmery sound, but lately I’ve been enjoying the more natural sound of single tracked vocals and that felt right for this sparse arrangement. I also added some nice kettle drum samples to beef up the bass in the intro and chorus.
In terms of plugins I don’t use too many these days, I like to keep things as simple as possible. In recent years I have become a big Fab Filter fan. Their EQ and saturation plugins in particular I find very effective at creating the texture I am looking for. In the case of Get to Nowhere, I knew I wanted an up front and in your face vocal sound, so I pushed the compression quite a bit and added plenty of saturation. I added quite a bit of saturation to the ukulele also. I wrapped everything up by adding a little bit of reverb and I was pretty much done. As I said at the start, this was sort of an excercise in making a gut decision and going with it.
The finished song is out on the 4th July and I’m quite pleased with how it all came together, given that it was created in less than two days. I could have spent ages trying out so many variations of melodies and chords, or adding extra parts to add more interest and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I am sure there are many more songs to come from me as a songwriter with complex arrangements. :)
P.S. Links to equipment in this journal entry are Amazon affiliate links and I make a commission on any subsequent sales :)