Serve The Song

photo by tanakawho

You’re midway through piecing together a new song and you hit a road block. The song needs… something. But what? Often times the best addition to a song is a subtraction.

What I mean by that is keep things simple and straightforward can often serve your song quite well. By stripping away the clutter you can focus your audience’s attention on the core concept of the song – this can be a riff, a rhythm, a lyric, a melody, or some combination of these. Whatever it is that’s meant to be front and center should remain clear and digestible.

Taking this idea a step further, you can actually use empty space as its own instrument. Try working with an interesting and obscure rhythm. Then slowly take away one note (or hit) at a time, leaving only the most essential backbone notes. The space that’s left in between these notes serves to add tension and anticipation for the primary components of the phrase – giving the overall sound more impact.

A few songs that come to mind which utilize this technique are:

If You Believe – Nino Moschella
Master Blaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder
Right Where It Belongs – Nine Inch Nails

photo by Annie Mole

I estimate that 99.9% of songwriters hold some kind of day job.  I’m talking about non-hobby musicians here — those of us who envision music as part of our professional future.  It’s just the nature of this business.  Only a fraction of a fraction of songwriters can actually make a living solely off of their music.

Until the royalty checks, label deals, and world tours take flight, we need to find a balance between keeping afloat financially – especially in a rough economy like this one – and turning our passion into our profession.

Don’t let the nine-to-five drain your enthusiasm!  Here are some ways to use your day-job to your advantage and work its benefits into your goals as a songwriter:

1) Enjoy the extra cash, and spend it wisely

Money should never be the only reason for taking a job.  But having cash in your pocket is never a bad thing.  When you’re pursuing a secondary career outside of your current one, you will inevitably have added expenses outside of rent, bills, and groceries.

Everyone’s situation varies, but working songwriters generally need to pay for equipment, rehearsal space, recording studio time, session players/band members, promotional materials, web design/hosting, gas and touring expenses, the list goes on…

Be sure to set aside a chunk of your paycheck for music-related expenses.  Then be sure you are spending it wisely:  Get the most out of your rehearsal and recording time, make sure your promotions are producing results, stay generally aware of how your expenses contribute to your overall progress.

2) Networking

The hardest part about beginning your career as a gigging songwriter is getting people to come out to your shows.  We have all been there. Empty rooms. Bugging your friends and family to come out to a smokey bar at 11pm on a weeknight.

Working in an office or large workplace can help here. Your co-workers are another pool of friends that you can promote your gigs to. Include your fellow staff on your promotional emails. Drop your promo cards around your workplace.  Encourage your co-workers to bring along friends when they come to see you.

3) Less Stress

It’s true that when you’re not struggling to pay the bills, you are less stressed.  When you are stress free, you are more focused, and much more productive in meeting your goals and making progress.

As songwriters, there is an added layer of stress that must be dealt with and that is emotional stress. Songwriting is all about expressing emotion, and when you are more focused and relaxed, your creative flow is enhanced and you end up with material you are much happier with.

4) Time Management

I have been a freelance web designer for the past year, going back and forth between working from home and working on-site at client’s offices. I have found that when my work schedule is confined to a set chunk of hours in the day, I’m free to spend the rest of my day working on music. However, the downside here is that you can’t harness your inspiration at any time. It’s confined only to your off-time.

While the free and open nature of working from home offers a ton of flexibility for touring and working on music whenever I feel like it, it also has its disadvantages. Non-music work seems to creep up (and pile on) when you least expect it, resulting in late nights, missed band rehearsals, and less effort in promoting gigs.

No matter which field your day job is in, and how frustrated you may feel when confined to a cubicle, just remember to keep it in balance and find ways to use it to your advantage as a working a songwriter.

photo by Kekka

It’s the force that drives us as songwriters. The flame in our belly that commands us to pick up our guitar and start strumming. The itch that makes us scribble a lyrical thought on a piece of paper. The emotion that sparks an idea. Inspiration is step number one in the life cycle of a great song.

In order to produce a great song, it’s important to understand that you need to be inspired by SOMETHING. Just sitting down with the intention of knocking out another song just won’t work. Forget about scheduling writing time, or planning a writing session. It should be spontaneous. When you find yourself in the midst of a creative flow without knowing how you got there, you’re on to something great.

The things that inspire us are uncontrollable. They are the things that draw emotion in us and drive us to pour out what we’re feeling into a song. Maybe it’s the up’s and down’s of your relationship with someone. Or the way a great movie hits home with you in a certain way. Maybe it’s built up frustration with something, or the burning need to broadcast a political message.

Inspiration comes naturally, but it doesn’t always come frequently. Sometimes it’s best to accept the fact that you’re just not “feeling it” at this moment. It’s much better to put your instrument down (for now) or switch to practicing written songs for the time being, than to try and force out a mediocre attempt at a new song. Just know that you this emptiness will pass, and you will write another great song. Just not right now.

If you accomplish anything at all during a forced writing sessions, it most likely won’t live up to your personal standards. This might cause you to doubt yourself as a songwriter and can lead to a longer than necessary writer’s block.

I have found that my songwriting output comes in waves. I tend to write sets of three songs with a good month or two in between each batch. Something tugs at my emotions, which snowballs into a two-three week writing frenzy. Then I’ll spend roughly the next month developing those ideas into complete works. The original inspiration has passed, I spend the emotional down time fleshing out those songs, practicing different arrangements, laying down rough recordings, and practicing old songs.

How do you harness your inspiration? How do you deal when the juices just aren’t flowing?

photo by Vinterstille

My friends… We must return our path to that of our forefathers and re-claim our stake in the dream we all hold so dear.  I pledge to you today to always serve the… (suddenly you hear this vinyl recording come to a scratching halt)

Enough political banter for one U.S. election year.  This is first article of Serve The Song, a blog about the craft of songwriting, production, and shameless self-promotion of the stuff we hold so dear to our artistic hearts – our music.  Welcome.

Serve The Song?

Serve the song.  It’s a saying that sums up the essence of what we do as songwriters.  In a way, I see the process of writing a song as a series of small decisions which craft the direction and overall presentation of the musical idea.

You know you’re on to something good when the song itself begins to dictate these decisions.  The song takes on a life of its own, and it’s up to you as the songwriter to harness its energy, and give the song what it wants, or take away what it doesn’t.  Stay true to your inspiration.  Serve the song.

Who am I?

I’m one of you.  A songwriter and lover of well-crafted musical works.  No big flashy success stories here, and absolutely no ego-mania… Just a healthy flow of ideas to share and a desire to connect with others like myself.

Learn more about me at the about page.

Stay Tuned…

Obviously, this blog is still in its infancy.  Content-wise, you can expect a variety of directions, all relating to to the craft of songwriting, recording and production techniques, live performance tips, and both online and offline promotion ideas.

As for the website, I’ll be continuously tinkering with the layout, adding cool and useful features, and nurturing a growing community of like-minded people.

Serve The Song is born…