Writing Songs - My Creative Process, some tips and ideas.

Hello Steemit!

Contuining with my writing mood I though I could put some ideas in a post about how I go composing songs , what is my process, how I break things step by step and how I turn or try to turn a little musical idea into a more or less complete song.

First of all , I must say music and art composition in general is very subjective and a lot may disagree with the things I say here or have a completely different process ( which I would love to hear ! so please share!)

I don't think ''Art Composition'' can be taught but we can talk abouth techniques or processes that might click with you and maybe they can help you reach a desired point with what you are trying to express . I will focus on music here but I think this can be applied to most arts.

So, let's do a little walkthrough on how I might write a song.. here we go:

1. Have something to say.

This might sound a little silly but I resonate with this a lot , I can't write a song if i don't feel the need to say something.. and I need to figure out what that is on the early stages. I have this strong belief that music already exists and we are just ''photographers of sound'' .. so if at some point I feel I have this ''picture'' I want to talk about .. then I'll start writing .. it can happen at any moment and at any place.. so .. have a piece of paper or a voice recorder around.. and just ''capture the idea''.. A few words , a melody .. you can figure it out later but you need to have the initial ''image''. Every time I have tried to write by just ''vibing out'', I get nowhere, It's a dead end for me and thought it might be releasing and fun , I haven't composed a single note this way, none.

But what about improvisation?

Well , that is a whole different beast and I do focus a lot of my time in studying improvisational concepts. Even thought composition and improvisation do visit each other in music expression they are in their core concept complete opposites. So, in my opinion, improvisation should be viewed and studied with a complete different set of lenses.

2. Melody is Chief!

This is where things get more into the opinion side of things but I do belive the strongest and most distinct element of a music piece, and particularly talking about a song format is the melody. It doesn't matter how much layers of harmonic content you add up if the melody doesn't work by itself. Can you sing it? do you understand how it breathes? Where are the resting points? When does the climax happen? When does it resolve? Where is it's natural rhythm? In what measure would this work best? All of this information comes with just the melody.

It can sound crazy but melodic analysis is one of, if not, THE most important element in song composition.. So I would recommend you listening back to all the melodies that you like and figuring out why you like them, You will be surprised, trust me ;) .

3. Harmony is our "Second Storyteller".

This is also a personal approach to composition , but I believe that harmony carries a second story in the song we are expressing. It can be very straight forward and obvious with the lyrical (if the song has lyrics) and melodic idea but it can also be deceiving, ambiguous, ironical, contradictive, sarcastic, satirical ... etc. So many ways you could take the melody and lyrics to give it a complete different meaning.

A simple and silly example .. It's not the same thing to say ''Hey... that's great!'' to .. ''Oh...that's great" . See the power of italics on a sarcastic comment? hahaha now.. imagine that with a whole arsenal of music concepts at your reach , possibilities are endless.

I wrote a post where I explain this in a much detailed manner, maybe you'd like to give it a read ;D :

https://steemit.com/music/@pechichemena/an-arranger-s-handbook-harmonic-storytelling?sort=author_reputation

Talking about ''ambiguety'' .. I do have a particular voicing that I use in most of my songs, since depending on it's applicationit it can work as different things in a in a musical statement.. and that's the m7#5 voicing. That on the guitar would look like this:

Why do I like it so much?

Well, that Am7#5 voicing could be interpreted also as a Fsus2Maj7 (working as a major 9th chord too) a G7sus4add2 (a very open and lingering sound) or a Dm11 which has a very melancholic quality to it .. So , it opens up different emotional reactions and I can use it as a turning point or a pivot in the harmony at any point in time. So yes.. that's one of my ''secrets'' . LOL.

I usually ''bring down'' both the melody and the harmony at the same time when I'm composing, specially with the relationship of the main melody and the bass , that for me , establishes the skeleton of the composition to which I then ''fill up with color'' depending on what I would like to express.

4. Consistency is Key, sometimes structure can be a good a thing.

So, again we are dealing with the ''blank canvas'' situation , even though we narrowed down a little by having the main message , melody and harmony somehow ''figured out'' , it's time to put all the blocks together into something that makes sense.

Sometimes it is best to pick a few colors and build from there , if I gave you a canvas and all the palette of colors you might be lost on which ones to choose, what are the dominant colors, where the contrasts are.. ''I like blue.. but I also like red... and green.. and yellow.. and.. head explodes". But what If I gave you just two colors and told you to explore them to it's fullest.. you probably would end up visiting artistic places you didn't visit before... ''Why not paint an apple blue?''

A personal ''limitation'' I put in myself is on song structure .. 90% of my songs have Pop form...yep.. the simple A+B form and the ocassional bridge.. this way I can work either on the A or B section .. whatever comes first.. and build the second one either by contrast or taking elements that bring them together.. sometimes I need a bridge.. sometimes I don't.. and every now and then I'll include a solo spot. So that's structure and limitation put to work .. and also it gives consistency to my work as a whole. Hopefully if you put some of my songs in a row they make some sense between them :P .

5. Have personal trademarks.

Now this one can be a little tricky as I don't think they should be forced but noted when happening naturally as they become your style, your personal signature and you slowly develop a ''voice'' as an artist. This takes time and is ever changing.

My trademarks? Hmmm... that's a tough one but as a joke I think if you were to write in ''my style'' you could use this recipe:

1. Make a 4 or 5 chord sequence but include a ''troll chord'' in the mix ( refer to the m7#5 voicing). Make this the A or B section. Then work on the other section based on the first one.

2. Make the harmony somewhat contradictive to the lyrics, make a happy song revolving around sad lyrics maybe?

3. Add 7ths , 9ths , suspensions , tensions, etc. We love the jazz voicings :P

4. Vocal pads ! layer voices to create chords that carry certain key words in the song.

5. If you add a bridge.. this is where you can ''let your music nerd come out!''

6. Don't give the last resolving chord and drive @paintingangels crazy!

Boy I felt silly writing that but.. I'll leave it in anyways! LOL.. i guess.. it's somewhat true.

But , in the end don't worry about ''finding your voice'' too much .. as Picasso said "Just try to draw a perfect circle". It's impossible .. each one of us would end up drawing a completely unique circle each time , that applies to music too.

Just to at least have some music in this post , let me share you a song from it's raw state to a more worked version I did a few days ago.

El Faro - Old Version

El Faro - New Version

Well , that's it for me today :) , hopefully you can find some ideas in this creative process and please.. share yours! I'd love to hear your take on this!

Thanks for reading!

Pechiche Mena