SONGWRITING
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED | Kevin MacDougall
One of the most helpful tools I’ve returned to
over the years is something so simple that
it’s easy to overlook. For those newer and
occasional songwriters especially, this idea is
one that is as easy to utilize as it is to forget
about entirely. Veterans of the craft might not
even think to mention it when we attend their
conferences and workshops. They might
assume it’s so obvious that all songwriters must
be doing it automatically.
Spoiler alert: They are not. I’ve worked with
enough teams and writers to know this to be
true.
And this helpful tool? It’s a question. It’s
something you learn to ask yourself at just the
right moment in the process of creating a song.
And if it’s not a question you ask instinctively as
you write, it’s still a good one to learn to ask.
When I’m ironing out the arrangement of any
given song I’m working on, a variant of this
question plays in my head.
But it’s not a question I can ask until a certain
amount of the song is completed. Let’s walk
through how I arrive at the question:
• I get an idea for chords and melody.
• I put pen to paper.
• The emotional “tone” of the music directs me
to themes and imagery.
• Themes and imagery give way to lyrics.
• Words are experimented with, and the ones
that last grow into phrases.
• Phrases become a complete and formatted
section.
And then, for the first time, I sit back and play
what I have so far. Typically, it still needs polish,
but I understand right away if what I have is a
chorus or a verse. I understand if I’ve begun
with the center of the song, or somewhere
along the path, still yearning for and reaching
towards a center that is yet to be discovered.
(Understanding where you want the song to
peak dynamically is crucial to this.) Once this
idea is established for the section of the song it
will occupy, new ideas build on the foundation
it provides. That first completed section informs
everything else.
But often, I hit a wall. After getting more of the
song in place, I get a sense that it’s not doing
what I’d like it to do. Something about the
whole is less than the sum of its parts. And so, I
put the song away for a time. And when I return
to the part(s) of the song I had constructed
before, I remember that first section I got down.
The one I’ve been attempting to build on.
And then comes the helpful question… Is that
the chorus? Is it? Really? Am I sure?
A lot of times, I realize that I am not sure. At
all. This simple question, which has become
second nature to me, is a small exercise in
lateral thinking. It shakes up any ideas that
have become needlessly entrenched, and
reinvigorates the freedom of my creative
process.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming the
first part of a song you come up with must
be the chorus or must be the verse. And with
that foregone conclusion in mind, you can
really impede the song evolving as it wants
to. All it takes is one early assumption like
that to obstruct your progress and inhibit your
imagination.
Maybe that first piece you completed belongs
somewhere else entirely? Maybe that original
section which provided the basis for a new
28 August 2020
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