Well, I just finished watching the 80th Annual Academy Awards and, as usual, I was most interested in the Best Original Song Written for a Motion Picture.
The field of nominees this year was extremely fascinating. Three of the five nominated songs were from the Disney animated film "Enchanted." The three titles are: "Happy Working Song," "So Close," and "That's How You Know." Each song was exquisitely crafted by the amazing team of Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz whose discography of hits spans decades. Menken is an eight-time Academy Award Winner for songs from such Disney classics as "Pocohontas," "Aladdin" and "Beauty and the Beast." Schwartz has won three Oscars, a bunch of Grammys and has collaborated as a lyricist with Menken on many of his award winning songs. So...it seemed as if "the deck was a bit stacked" tonight, with no less than three of the five possibilities co-written by this hit-making power team.
BUT -- the Oscar went to newcomers Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their haunting song, "Falling Slowly," from the movie, "Once." If you didn't hear Glen's and Marketa's acceptance speeches for the award, you owe it to yourself to check them out at:
http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/winners/?pn=detail&nominee=Falling%20Slowly%20-%20Once%20-%20Music%20Song%20Nominee
For those of you who have taken my "Build-A-Song" class at Southern Methodist University, you may remember "Falling Slowly" from our sessions on melody writing. When I first heard the song, I realized that it is the essence of simplicity, using only four tones of the scale in its basic motif. It also uses the listener-friendly technique of repetition to bring home the Great Idea with its Great Hook/Title.
I encourage every aspiring songwriter to study this song carefully. Download it from iTunes. Type out the lyrics on your computer. Pay special attention to the rhymes and the melody. Then go pick out the melody line on your instrument. If you wax creative, find the harmonies too. You will be amazed at the genius of the honest, simple message conveyed by these unadorned but ever-so-memorable words and music.
You can do this! You don't have to be Alan Menken or Stephen Schwartz with a library filled with stauettes to write a great song. The winner could be YOU next year! Songwriting is ALWAYS about communicating -- writer to listener -- emotion to emotion.
It ain't rocket science. It's the Art of the Heart!
Thoughts anyone???
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
What Did You Think of the Grammys?
I'm very eager to know what you all thought of the Grammys this year. What were the highlights, as far as you were concerned? Do you think the songs and artists chosen for awards this year were ones that really "connected with listeners" (as we have been discussing in previous posts)?
Personally, I thought Herbie Hancock's award was well-deserved and long overdue. If you haven't heard his recording, "River: the Joni Letters," it's well worth the investment. A REAL musician REALLY interpreting the works of a REAL songwriter, Joni Mitchell! Wow! Could it possibly be true that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is finally starting to "get it?"
Other highlights for me were the Beyonce / Tina Turner performance of "Proud Mary." For once I agree with Bill O'Reilly who concluded after that performance that "whatever it is that Tina Turner is eating to look that good at 68, I want to eat it too." Amen to that, Bill! And what a great classic song! How could you not want to dance?
While I love Josh Grobin and Andrea Bocelli (who couldn't admire their talent?), I have to say that I have heard "The Prayer" too many times at too many high-powered events to feel any more goosebumps. Are there no new songs for great tenors these days? Maybe somebody needs to write some!!
Now, let me hear from you guys. I started this blog to interact with YOU...not to just vent into thin air in a monologue.
There's still time for Grammy Nominations 2009....
See you there!
Mary
Personally, I thought Herbie Hancock's award was well-deserved and long overdue. If you haven't heard his recording, "River: the Joni Letters," it's well worth the investment. A REAL musician REALLY interpreting the works of a REAL songwriter, Joni Mitchell! Wow! Could it possibly be true that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is finally starting to "get it?"
Other highlights for me were the Beyonce / Tina Turner performance of "Proud Mary." For once I agree with Bill O'Reilly who concluded after that performance that "whatever it is that Tina Turner is eating to look that good at 68, I want to eat it too." Amen to that, Bill! And what a great classic song! How could you not want to dance?
While I love Josh Grobin and Andrea Bocelli (who couldn't admire their talent?), I have to say that I have heard "The Prayer" too many times at too many high-powered events to feel any more goosebumps. Are there no new songs for great tenors these days? Maybe somebody needs to write some!!
Now, let me hear from you guys. I started this blog to interact with YOU...not to just vent into thin air in a monologue.
There's still time for Grammy Nominations 2009....
See you there!
Mary
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
The Mystery of the Listener's Mind
Successful songwriters intuitively learn to think like the listeners they hope to reach. They understand the "mystery of the listener's mind."
Have you ever been sitting in church, listening to a soloist sing a special song when your pre-lunch, nearly-noon stomach begins to growl? Suddenly, you begin to think of the roast that is in the crockpot at home. Your mind then quickly moves to the mashed potatoes, salad, and apple pie that will accompany your meal -- and then it drifts into thinking about what you are going to do this afternoon…take a nap, finish that new novel you've been reading or go for a walk. Before you know it, your mind has covered a couple of dozen concepts, and yet you have not missed a word or note of the solo. Some may call this simple daydreaming, but it illustrates the first fact that songwriters must understand about the listener's mind: The mind is far faster and more multi-faceted than the human ear and aided by the power of imagination, the mind can envision almost every thought as soon as it enters consciousness.
Another amazing fact about the human mind, as it relates to hearing, is that the mind is capable of tuning out many non-essential sounds. You seldom consciously realize that your refrigerator actually hums or that your air conditioner is cutting on and off all day long. In a crowded restaurant you can tune out the background sounds of other people talking and carry on a completely focused conversation with your lunch date.
A third fact about listeners is that their minds subconsciously expect to hear songs that follow certain structures or forms. They may not be aware that they even know anything about song form, but over years and years of hearing and singing songs, they have learned to expect certain elements at certain points of the song. For example, they expect to hear the title/hook as the payoff line in the chorus of a Verse/Chorus song…or in the A sections of an AAA or an AABA song. If the song they are hearing does not fulfil these subliminal expectations, the listener becomes disoriented and tends to lose interest. The songs we write must be able to cut through all the background noise of daily life, keep the listener's mind from flitting to other places and deliver the goods for his/her music expectations
I remember the first time I heard the Linda Ronstadt/Aaron Neville duet, "Don't Know Much" -- written by master songwriters Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Tom Snow. I was cleaning my house -- my kids were "helping" -- hence, we had the usual low roar of sibling chatter, quarreling over assigned tasks, vacuum cleaner noise and other assorted and sundry distractions. The radio was on at background-level volume. Suddenly, we became aware of something wonderful -- a melody and words that "broke through" all of that and caused us all at once to say, "Hey, turn up that song!"
That's great songwriting by writers who think like listeners!
Have you ever been sitting in church, listening to a soloist sing a special song when your pre-lunch, nearly-noon stomach begins to growl? Suddenly, you begin to think of the roast that is in the crockpot at home. Your mind then quickly moves to the mashed potatoes, salad, and apple pie that will accompany your meal -- and then it drifts into thinking about what you are going to do this afternoon…take a nap, finish that new novel you've been reading or go for a walk. Before you know it, your mind has covered a couple of dozen concepts, and yet you have not missed a word or note of the solo. Some may call this simple daydreaming, but it illustrates the first fact that songwriters must understand about the listener's mind: The mind is far faster and more multi-faceted than the human ear and aided by the power of imagination, the mind can envision almost every thought as soon as it enters consciousness.
Another amazing fact about the human mind, as it relates to hearing, is that the mind is capable of tuning out many non-essential sounds. You seldom consciously realize that your refrigerator actually hums or that your air conditioner is cutting on and off all day long. In a crowded restaurant you can tune out the background sounds of other people talking and carry on a completely focused conversation with your lunch date.
A third fact about listeners is that their minds subconsciously expect to hear songs that follow certain structures or forms. They may not be aware that they even know anything about song form, but over years and years of hearing and singing songs, they have learned to expect certain elements at certain points of the song. For example, they expect to hear the title/hook as the payoff line in the chorus of a Verse/Chorus song…or in the A sections of an AAA or an AABA song. If the song they are hearing does not fulfil these subliminal expectations, the listener becomes disoriented and tends to lose interest. The songs we write must be able to cut through all the background noise of daily life, keep the listener's mind from flitting to other places and deliver the goods for his/her music expectations
I remember the first time I heard the Linda Ronstadt/Aaron Neville duet, "Don't Know Much" -- written by master songwriters Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Tom Snow. I was cleaning my house -- my kids were "helping" -- hence, we had the usual low roar of sibling chatter, quarreling over assigned tasks, vacuum cleaner noise and other assorted and sundry distractions. The radio was on at background-level volume. Suddenly, we became aware of something wonderful -- a melody and words that "broke through" all of that and caused us all at once to say, "Hey, turn up that song!"
That's great songwriting by writers who think like listeners!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Thinking Like a Listener
Hi Everybody:
Thanks for the encouraging comments to my new Blog. I have been doing a lot of ruminating lately about how important it is for songwriters to start THINKING LIKE THE LISTENERS THEY HOPE WILL HEAR THEIR SONG.
Imagine this scenario: You have just written an incredible song!! You have worked hard on it. Everyone who has heard the demo (mostly your family and friends) thinks it is a "hit waiting to happen." You are convinced that your song is as good as or better than most of the songs you hear on the radio. So what is the secret to getting your song played?
Experienced songwriters and artists know that getting radioplay can be an extremely dicey deal. There are several realities -- both from the creative side and the business side of songwriting -- that must be understood before you and your song become "household names."
The first reality is simply that the radio is not primarily about songs -- it is about LISTENERS!! The primary focus of radio stations these days -- especially in the light of competition from Internet and Satellite Radio -- is to REACH and KEEP listeners. Competition among stations is fierce and program directors literally lose sleep trying to come up with new ways to attract listeners and then keep them from changing channels. Ratings are all about NUMBERS OF LISTENERS and stations with the most listeners attract the best and highest paying advertisers. The bottom line with radio -- as with any business -- is consumers. Songs and music, therefore, become the means to the end -- the way the station can increase its power and ultimately its income.
In the light of this reality, you -- the songwriter -- must learn to think and write from the listener's perspective. Resist the urge to write only for the incredible rush of venting emotions through a song, or to see how many inventive chord progressions you can put together to impress your musical colleagues. While these experiences may be personally satisfying to you as a writer or a performer, they may not even begin to appeal to John Q. Listener who knows nothing about music except whether or not he likes a song. And it is the millions of "John Q. Listeners" that the radio is trying to capture. To get a song on the radio, you need to determine what radio audiences like and then write songs that "hook" them.
How do you learn to think like a listener? First of all, you have to listen! Listen to all kinds of radio. I recommend that you have every button on your car radio set to a different genre of music. Pay attention to which songs are getting the heaviest airplay on which stations. If a station has a "Request and Dedication Program" at night, pay special attention to the songs the listening audience requests. Keep a log for a month and see which songs are requested most. Then analyze those songs. Whether you as a musician think a song is good or not, if it is selling millions of copies, there will be something about it that you can learn from. Ask yourself:
What is it about this song that "hooks" people?
What lyrical techniques capture the listener's ear?
What melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements in this song appeal to
listeners?
What universal emotions are being expressed?
Now, objectively look at that incredible song you wrote from the same perspective. As you listen to the demo, imagine that you are a listener tuning into a station that is playing your song. Would you stay tuned? Be honest. If the answer is, "No," do some re-writing and tweaking until the answer is an emphatic "Yes!"
Let me hear from you..
Thanks for the encouraging comments to my new Blog. I have been doing a lot of ruminating lately about how important it is for songwriters to start THINKING LIKE THE LISTENERS THEY HOPE WILL HEAR THEIR SONG.
Imagine this scenario: You have just written an incredible song!! You have worked hard on it. Everyone who has heard the demo (mostly your family and friends) thinks it is a "hit waiting to happen." You are convinced that your song is as good as or better than most of the songs you hear on the radio. So what is the secret to getting your song played?
Experienced songwriters and artists know that getting radioplay can be an extremely dicey deal. There are several realities -- both from the creative side and the business side of songwriting -- that must be understood before you and your song become "household names."
The first reality is simply that the radio is not primarily about songs -- it is about LISTENERS!! The primary focus of radio stations these days -- especially in the light of competition from Internet and Satellite Radio -- is to REACH and KEEP listeners. Competition among stations is fierce and program directors literally lose sleep trying to come up with new ways to attract listeners and then keep them from changing channels. Ratings are all about NUMBERS OF LISTENERS and stations with the most listeners attract the best and highest paying advertisers. The bottom line with radio -- as with any business -- is consumers. Songs and music, therefore, become the means to the end -- the way the station can increase its power and ultimately its income.
In the light of this reality, you -- the songwriter -- must learn to think and write from the listener's perspective. Resist the urge to write only for the incredible rush of venting emotions through a song, or to see how many inventive chord progressions you can put together to impress your musical colleagues. While these experiences may be personally satisfying to you as a writer or a performer, they may not even begin to appeal to John Q. Listener who knows nothing about music except whether or not he likes a song. And it is the millions of "John Q. Listeners" that the radio is trying to capture. To get a song on the radio, you need to determine what radio audiences like and then write songs that "hook" them.
How do you learn to think like a listener? First of all, you have to listen! Listen to all kinds of radio. I recommend that you have every button on your car radio set to a different genre of music. Pay attention to which songs are getting the heaviest airplay on which stations. If a station has a "Request and Dedication Program" at night, pay special attention to the songs the listening audience requests. Keep a log for a month and see which songs are requested most. Then analyze those songs. Whether you as a musician think a song is good or not, if it is selling millions of copies, there will be something about it that you can learn from. Ask yourself:
What is it about this song that "hooks" people?
What lyrical techniques capture the listener's ear?
What melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements in this song appeal to
listeners?
What universal emotions are being expressed?
Now, objectively look at that incredible song you wrote from the same perspective. As you listen to the demo, imagine that you are a listener tuning into a station that is playing your song. Would you stay tuned? Be honest. If the answer is, "No," do some re-writing and tweaking until the answer is an emphatic "Yes!"
Let me hear from you..
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