Songwriting - week 2

October 16, 2009 - Friday
Week 2 - Songwriting
Current mood: blessed

Well hello there.

Week 2 of the course and I can't believe how much I have learnt already.

This week we listened and discussed lots of Hank Williams, Robert Johnnson and even some Johnny Cash :-)

I managed to grasp more info about the Music Industry in 2 and a half hours than I have ever before in my lifetime!!

However, with every question answered, another unfolds...

I'm thinking a lot about commercial music - the balance between writing for what matters to the songwriter and writing to have a 'hit'. To make money. Is there a middle ground? Does a songwriter have to like what they write?

I found an article, discussing how songwritings are being to encourage to explore new genres. Rather than take on genre specific writers, the writers they have are being pushed to write for new genres:

"But Warner/Chappell Music has set out to match some of its genre-specific songwriters with artists outside of their traditional musical scope. The idea is to diversify songwriters' talent and ultimately find success on the charts, says Greg Sowders, senior VP/head of A&R (artists and repertoire) U.S. at Warner/Chappell Music.
"Pop music today is a mishmash of everything -- it's a hip-hop song next to a rock song, with maybe a Taylor Swift country ballad that sneaks in," Sowders says. "So to compete with the way things are now -- and to keep up with the iTunes market, where it's clearly a singles-driven business -- we had to take our writers and decide how to move forward."
(http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE5790UW20090810)

Does this diminish the hope for new songwriters? Or is it indeed hopeful that the music industry is fighting back to stay with the different times?

Another module that we take, encourages us (or forces us!) to write a new song for the group each week and crticique each other's work and receive a critique from the course tutor. Last week, I struggled somewhat. With all the new information my unexercised brain has recieved regarding AABA structures or ABCDE or AAA, making sure a song has momentum to keep moving forward (be it through the lyrics or the chord progression) and all the music we listened to from the 1920's to 1950's. Combined with reading about balanced and unbalanced verses, the number of syllables one can/should/not use, and where the primary and secondary stresses are... I became a bit overloaded!!! - and I think I began to focus on everything apart from what the song meant to me.

So after several 'half' songs I wrote 'Let the sunshine' which was simple in structure, and really summed up the happiness I have felt over the past couple of weeks.

In other news, I have started to explore the wonders and confusion that is the mac and the recording software of Logic. This has been fun.(hmmm) Would have been better if I'd known what on earth I was doing. But with the tutorials that begin next week I know that a whole other side of songwriting is going to open up for me... ooh I can't wait!!!

The people I am starting to get to know are holding in me in more awe than ever.
And the family,friends and boyfriend I have already, I appreciate more than I could have imagined.
I think doing a course in what you love is soul strengthening. My main focus of my life at the moment is on everything I want it to be - And not many people get to say this.

I am fully aware that this kind of thing isn't something I can take for granted and life can drop you hard as quickly as it lifts you up.
But for now I am the biting, barmy, ballooning, bouncing baffled blighter.
Much love
Linzi x x x