Check out this great site for the daily routines of famous creative types:http://dailyroutines.typepad.com/
It's intriguing to note how many prolific writers have religiously observed rituals. Got any?
Daily Routines
Check out this great site for the daily routines of famous creative types:http://dailyroutines.typepad.com/
It's intriguing to note how many prolific writers have religiously observed rituals. Got any?
SONGVILLE SAYS (Great Quote #21 - Robert Schumann)
"To compose music, all you have to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of."
- Robert Schumann
(thanks to Glenn Teal)
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SONGVILLE SAYS (Great Quote #20 - Anton Chekhov)
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
- Anton Chekhov
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SONGVILLE SAYS (Great Quote #18 - Colin Linden Again!)
"[Toronto Producer] Terry Brown, a very wise man, gave me some great advice about 20 years ago, when I was confused and discouraged. He said, 'If you hang around and keep doing good work, the odds do improve.' A lot of the particulars in the music business have changed, but that bit of advice has remained true."
- Colin Linden
(quoted in Songwriters Magazine)
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SONGVILLE SAYS (Great Quote #17 - Colin Linden)
"Most times you don't write the song, the song writes you."- Colin Linden
(quoted in Songwriters Magazine)
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SONGVILLE SAYS (Great Quote #16 - Nick Lowe)
"… I hadn’t been writing songs very long and, like everybody else who starts out doing anything creative, you start off plundering your heroes’ style and catalogue. When you’ve exhausted that, you move on to somebody else and do the same thing with them, and the day comes when you’re rewriting your latest hero’s works, and you put in a little bit of the first guy’s thing that you ripped off, a middle eight, or a bridge, and as it goes on you include more and more of these bits and pieces that you’ve ripped off, until, suddenly, you haven’t ripped them off at all. They’ve actually become your style. And then all you need is a good idea. And then you really are in business. I remember having this idea—“What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding”—and almost falling over in astonishment that I hadn’t heard this before, that it really was an original notion."
- Nick Lowe
(Thanks to Mike Turitzen's excellent The Songwriting Process Site for discovering this quote in Vanity Fair)
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Jonathan Coulton Demonstrates Super Cool Lyric Technique
One of Songville's fine neighbours, Spencer Capier, just sent me this video for "The Future Soon" by Jonathan Coulton
. The song is a quirky and charming piece of writing, and it happens to illustrate a secret lyrical weapon that's hard to explain but can really make a song flow.
In each verse of this song, certain lines end in words that rhyme with the previous line, but then flow on to another word. It gives the song a wink and a roll that it wouldn't otherwise have. Check it out and consider putting this particular tool (or some variation of it) in your lyrical toolkit.
Pay special attention to these lyrics:
Excerpts from The Future Now (Jonathan Coulton)
Verse 1:
Last week I left a note on Laura's desk
It said I love you signed anonymous friend
Turns out she's smarter than I thought she was
She knows I wrote it, now the whole class does too ...
Verse 2:
I'll end world hunger I'll make dolphins speak
Work through the daytime, spend my nights and weekends ...
Verse 3:
I'll see her standing by the monorail
She'll look the same except for bionic eyes
She lost the real ones in the robot wars
I'll say I'm sorry, she'll say it's not your fault
Or is it?
See what we mean? Do you have any other examples of this technique?
. The song is a quirky and charming piece of writing, and it happens to illustrate a secret lyrical weapon that's hard to explain but can really make a song flow.In each verse of this song, certain lines end in words that rhyme with the previous line, but then flow on to another word. It gives the song a wink and a roll that it wouldn't otherwise have. Check it out and consider putting this particular tool (or some variation of it) in your lyrical toolkit.
Pay special attention to these lyrics:
Excerpts from The Future Now (Jonathan Coulton)
Verse 1:
Last week I left a note on Laura's desk
It said I love you signed anonymous friend
Turns out she's smarter than I thought she was
She knows I wrote it, now the whole class does too ...
Verse 2:
I'll end world hunger I'll make dolphins speak
Work through the daytime, spend my nights and weekends ...
Verse 3:
I'll see her standing by the monorail
She'll look the same except for bionic eyes
She lost the real ones in the robot wars
I'll say I'm sorry, she'll say it's not your fault
Or is it?
See what we mean? Do you have any other examples of this technique?
Write Better Lyrics #6: Is Your Lyric Passive Where it Could Be Active?
It's been pretty quiet around here lately -- the Mayor of Songville has been preoccupied with sick family members. However, we're back and open for business and ready to ask our 6th Important Lyric Question. Thanks for your patience!
In our Write Better Lyrics Series, we've been talking about key questions to ask of your lyrics to take them to the next level. So far we've looked at making sure that your SUBJECT MATTER MATTERS, that your lyric has the power that comes from SIMPLICITY AND PURITY, that you are using SPECIFIC IMAGES that are HIGHLY RELATABLE, and that you represent ABSTRACT IDEAS WITH AS MANY CONCRETE ELEMENTS AS POSSIBLE.
We are now ready to ask Lyric Question No. 6:
IS YOUR LYRIC PASSIVE WHERE IT COULD BE ACTIVE?
We've been talking about the fact that the way a listener is engaged in your song is through the imagination. The imagination is a stimulus-response mechanism; when it hears a lyrical cue (the stimulus) it searches through a bank of remembered experiences to respond with a corresponding image. We've already noted that specific, concrete images spark the imagination most strongly. But there is an additional factor. As a general rule, the more ACTION involved in an image, the more vividly it engages the imagination.
Those of you writing in a worship genre should pay special attention to how biblical writers tapped into the human need for action. "Praise God" becomes "Raise your hands!" or "Fall on your face!" or "Shout for joy!" or "Dance in His presence!" Think about the concrete, specific, active images employed for spiritual devotion: Moses' buddies holding up his arms so he can keep them outstretched to the heavens, the Israelites pouring out water to symbolize their repentance, Joshua and his crew marching round and round the city walls. Now THAT'S good writing.
So, your song is finished, and it's not bad, but it's just sort of lying there. Go through the entire lyric and search for places where you can replace passive images with active ones. "Falling on your knees" before a mystery is better than "contemplating" a mystery. "Going" in circles is weaker than "running" or "crawling" in them. If you've got a whole verse of exposition, see if you can't replace a line or two with some good, vivid verb-laden action. Your listeners will thank you for it by listening.
Next Post in This Series: Lyric Question No. 7. Bookmark or subscribe to Songville to make sure you don't miss it!
SONGVILLE SAYS (Great Quote #15) - Bono
"You can have 1000 ideas, but unless you capture an emotion, it's an essay."
- Bono
(Thanks to Greg Norlin for the quote!)
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