Creative Exercises

The Theory of Relativity – Do People Relate To Your Songs?

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© I.Woloshen

There was a question in the RMMS newsgroup recently about whether or not there are “too many” love songs out there. This lead me to thinking about the topics we choose to write about and how we choose them. Are there “too many” love songs?

When you think about the topic of love, there are at least a zillion ways of approaching it…okay, so a zillion is an exaggeration, but think about it for a moment. There’s the ‘falling in love’, the ‘unrequited love‘, the ‘love from a distance’, the ‘first time’, the ‘breakup’, ‘jealousy’, and on and on. So you can approach the subject from a whole bunch of angles and then some!

But the core reason that songwriters almost always have a whole bunch of love songs to their credit, is because it is a universal event or emotion that pretty much everybody can relate to on some level. We’ve all been there! And the subject of love itself is so BIG, that it is virtually impossible to say everything there is to say about it all in one song. Maybe what the original poster meant was that there are too many BAD love songs out there 🙂 From his viewpoint, that is!

Once you have come past the desire to simply express yourself and want to move onto the point of having other people hear your songs, your most IMPORTANT consideration will be whether or not people can relate to them. But don’t get it mixed up with the idea that you have to tell someone else’s story exactly how THEY remember it…you don’t necessarily have to second-guess everything you write! What you DO need to do is to write YOUR story, and tell it in the very best way you can. Do you know anything about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity?

Well, I’m certainly not going to go into some long-winded physics dissertation, but let me apply just a small part of it to songs…just as two people at two different physical locations view a moving train in two different ways, they will also hear your songs from different ‘places’. You will NEVER write a song that will relate in exactly the same way to EVERYBODY so don’t even try!! Each person has his/her own sieve of experience to process a song through. You will often be surprised when you hear what somebody “got” from listening to it, sometimes it is something that you had no idea you were saying!

The theory of relativity also applies to taste…now if I were a real scientist, I would guess that our physical makeup has something to do with how we hear music. We are ATTRACTED to certain sounds, notes, chords, voices, and instruments. Someone who listens to and loves jazz MAY have a different way of listening than someone who likes rap. Some people enjoy simple sounds, some love complex, some love all of it at once! I also believe that age and time often have an effect on our taste in music. But beyond that, think about the person who is listening to your song, and always take that into consideration when you get a reaction from them. Someone who hates country music will not like your country song, no matter HOW well it is written or performed. Your mother will LOVE everything you write because she loves YOU. That is a real lesson in “relativity” 🙂

A person who just broke up with someone will probably not like your “I’m So In Love” song. At that point in their lifetime, it will likely be a complete turn-off. But that’s not your fault! It’s simply how they are able (or not able) to relate to your song. And it is also really important to understand the theory of relativity when you present your songs to other people. Your friends and family are NOT the measuring stick by which you should judge whether or not you’ve written a “great” song. Relatively speaking, they have an emotional connection to you that is difficult for them to separate themselves from. You wouldn’t want to play your soft and sensitive love song as an opening act for a metal band either 🙂 I mean, you might find a FEW fans, but you get what I mean 🙂 Understand your “target” audience and seek them out. Know who you are writing for (that includes yourself!), and you will more easily understand whether or not you are getting your message across. The other night, I played at a songwriter-in-the-round event. We were all very DIFFERENT writers and our in our audience were DIFFERENT listeners. But hell, we sure don’t all want to sound the same, do we?

So, in conclusion, the very best you can do is to write from your own experience or imagination and try to express that as clearly and as powerfully as you can, and look forward to the time when someone comes running up to you saying “how did you KNOW so much about me??”!

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Rhymes – They’re Tricker Than You Think!

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

The main purpose of a rhyme in a lyric is simple…it gives the lyric a certain predictability that makes it memorable. In the oldest form of songwriting, folk, the idea was to relay a story that would be passed on from person to person. If I was to take a wild guess, it would be that someone came up with the idea of rhyming in order to remember the lines. Or, it could have been one of those “happy accidents” that make the whole process so much fun 🙂

Either way, we all know how crucial rhyming can be to songwriting. In fact, one thing I notice most with newer songwriters is that they spend more time on the rhyme than they do on the reason 🙂 Does that make sense? Let’s look at it this way: when you have a word at the end of a line that you need to rhyme, do you think about the meaning of the song and the story you’re telling, or do you grab the rhyming dictionary and start looking for a word to rhyme it with? AHAH!!! Caught ya!

We all begin by using those predictable rhymes…moon/June, love/above, etc. The reason we resort to the most common rhymes is because they are what we’ve heard many times before, and because we simply don’t know enough words! In your first 50 lyrics, you are likely only repeating what you’ve heard rather than coming up with your own lyrical “voice”. This is why your lyrics feel so “cheesy”…they are OLD, they have been DONE BEFORE. In order to help you break out of that bad habit, let’s look at rhymes a little more closely.

RHYMING WORDS…First we’ll tackle the actual rhyming process. In songwriting, there are a number of ways to rhyme. The first and most common, is called a “perfect rhyme” at the end of a line. “Love” and “above” are perfect rhymes because they end with the same combination of letters in the last syllable. Some songwriters fervently avoid perfect rhymes, thinking that they are too easy and predictable, but there is nothing wrong with it as long as it is a new one! Ha! Well, you might have a hard time finding a “new” rhyme, but if you want to use one, look for uncommon words to rhyme. Also, consider using “double rhymes” where two syllables in a word rhyme (e.g. prediction, conviction), but don’t over-do it! The other less-taken path would be to rhyme something other than the last syllable (eg. carrot, caring).

The next kind of rhyme is an imperfect or near-rhyme. What other word could you use to rhyme with love that doesn’t end in “ove”, but has the same kind of sound? How about “enough” or “rough”? Because the “f” sound in “ough” is very close to the “ove” sound in “love”, it maintains the sound of a rhyme without being perfect. This is my favourite kind of rhyme 🙂

RHYMING SCHEMES: Sometimes it is where you place the rhyme that makes the difference. We all know the predictable structure of rhyming every first and third, or second and fourth line in a lyric:

There is a man who looks like Truman Capote
He wears a slanted smile and a wide-brimmed hat
A little pigeon-toed, a lot eccentric
He gets a kick out of what he’s smiling at
(“Simple Life” Copyright © 2000 I. Woloshen SOCAN)

Here, the 2nd and 4th lines rhyme fairly simply with the words “hat” and “at”. Some people like to rhyme BOTH the 1st and 3rd and the 2nd and 4th line. To me, unless the lines are each longer, this can sometimes be overkill. However, you be the judge!

Another rhyme scheme might be in a song with a slightly different structure, say 5 lines in a verse instead of 4. You have lots of options here, but sometimes the line length really comes into play here. Think of a limerick structure for a moment:

There one was a man from Peru(A),
Who dreamed of eating his shoe(A),
He awoke with a fright (B),
In the middle of the night (B),
And found that his dream had come true! (A)

So, mapping out the rhyme scheme, we’ve got A, A, B, B, A. The 1st, 2nd and 5th lines rhyme and the 3rd and 4th do as well. The 3rd and 4th lines also have the same shorter length and (almost) number of syllables and same rhythm or meter, which is what makes the rhyming feel natural here. The rhyme scheme and the meter of a limerick is what makes it stand out.

Another way of rhyming is something called an “internal rhyme”. This is when there is a rhyme within a line of a lyric, not necessarily at the end of it. Here’s a sample:

There, where the rubber meets the road
You’ve got to make your decision
Before the trail goes cold
Cause the dust will settle
And the rust invade
If you sit too still, let it go to waste
(“Green Light” Copyright © 2000 I. Woloshen SOCAN)

The words “dust” and “rust” fall inside their respective lines, rather than on the end. Playing around with internal rhymes is fun…especially when you have one of those “happy accidents”. Boy, I’ve gotta write an article just about that! But back to the previous verse again…if you look at the overall rhyme scheme, the 1st and 3rd lines rhyme and the 5th and 6th. And the end rhymes are all imperfect…”road” and “cold”, “invade” and “waste”.

A third rhyme is something I’ve discovered in my own writing and have only rarely seen it in other lyrics…I call it a “Ghost Rhyme”, and so far I haven’t heard another term for it. This definitely is one of those “accidents” I was referring to. Take this example:

There is a woman, must be in her 90’s
She sells her pumpkins every Hallowe’en
She’s all bent over with the weight of something
And every year her crops the best I’ve seen
(“Simple Life” Copyright © 2000 I. Woloshen SOCAN)

When I wrote this verse, it wasn’t until I sang it that I noticed the “ghost rhyme”. Just try speaking the verse to yourself and tell me where you get a sense of a rhyme that doesn’t really exist!! If you comment below, I’ll tell you if you’re right!

But before you go, REMEMBER to NEVER sacrifice your content for a rhyme…the story will ALWAYS be more important than how well you rhyme a verse!!

Here’s a little rhyme widget, just to get you going 🙂

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I’m Too Happy To Write

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

I was at a songwriter‘s night recently where two writers said they hadn’t written anything for months because they were too happy! Does this mean that you have to be miserable to be creative? Well, that my friends, is a songwriting myth!

It’s obvious that when you are in one of your dark periods, you can better tap into the emotions that go along with it. But if you feel that you are a slave to your moods and can’t produce without them, you haven’t tried hard enough yet. How would staff songwriters at publishing companies ever eat if they had to depend on their state-of-mind?

First of all, you limit yourself if you think that the only good songs are miserable ones. You may be attracted to them, but they are only a small portion of what you are capable of. And you ALSO limit yourself if you decide ahead of time that an uplifting song is going to be crap. Have you ever written a happy song? Trust me, I write lots of ’em and they can be a lot of fun to write! So my first piece of advice to you is to write in opposite feelings than you are used to…spread your wings a bit and try a different emotional feel.

Secondly, you are not new to this world, you’ve been here awhile (even if you’re only 15!). You have had many experiences already, some of them quite traumatic, that you can draw from if you insist on writing something miserable 🙂 But getting to that creative “place” will take a little work.

Here are some ideas: If you’ve ever meditated, do so. Clearing your head of all present thoughts and feelings will also clear your emotional slate and give you a chance to really remember those times. If you don’t know a thing about meditation, it is really about releasing yourself from thinking for a little while. It’s hard to do at first, but keep at it…just sit there and think of NOTHING. Hard to do, eh? 🙂

Once you feel you are ‘blank’ enough, go back in your mind to a time when you were really unhappy, angry, sad or distraught. Only YOU know what those times were. Close your eyes and visualize that period of time…think about how that emotion felt in your body, picture every detail about that time that you can. The more detail you remember, the closer you will come to re-experiencing it. Spend a little time there, and then pull out a pen or your instrument, whichever you use first. Either write out a description of those feelings…all of it, physical, emotional, everything…or play some chords that get close to that feeling. Just a warning though…once you’re finished, DO take the time to visualize yourself back into your present, happy state 🙂

I’ll give you an example of something that I often use in my writing, especially when trying to express sorrow or grief. It is a picture I’ve had in my head since I was 14…it is my mother’s bedroom, she is dying of cancer, she is holding my hand and that act alone is scaring me. She is saying goodbye, although at the time I don’t realize it’s her last goodbye. To this day, I become overwhelmed when I think of that scene. I have used it many times to get myself into that emotional frame of mind.

I have also used memories from wonderful, flirtatious experiences to write romantic or lustful songs 🙂 And if I want to write something self-effacing, I remember some stupid things I did in my life…you see what I mean? You’ve already got a headful (literally) of experiences to draw upon when you are “Too Happy To Write”!! Oh yeah, how about not taking a bath or shower for a couple of days? That’ll make you pretty miserable 🙂







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Success – What’s Standing In Your Way?

Posted on by IJ
A digital sound recorder
Image via Wikipedia

© I.Woloshen

“Success” is a relative word, and your idea of it can change as you inevitably do. For instance, in my teens and 20’s (ugh!) I measured success by my position, my income and the number of friends I had. Well, the part about friends hasn’t changed much 🙂 But everything else has!

These days I define my success much more simply…I ask myself, am I doing what I want and love to do? Most of the time, I’m happy to say, the answer is yes! But it took me a long time to get here…

I believe that the largest hurdles we have in front of us are the ones we put there ourselves. Never mind what the “others” say, what are the things you tell yourself? Have you ever listened to your own thoughts? I know, that sounds weird and new agey, but have you? What kinds of things do you tell yourself? Do you encourage yourself and keep a positive attitude, or do you tell yourself over and over “I’m a terrible writer, I can’t do this, I’m not going to make it”? Creative people, on the whole, tend to be extremely sensitive…it is that sensitive part of ourselves that gives us the insight to our own creative juices, but it can also be a burden. The downside to sensitivity is the old chip-on-the-shoulder syndrome when things aren’t going the way we’d like.

But knowing all of that, what can we do to get a little closer to our idea of success? Being songwriters, sometimes we lose our ability to come down to earth and establish some structure in our lives! But structure, organization, plans and work are all necessary ingredients! Here are a few steps you can take:

1. Identify – write out what your idea of success is! Sometimes we meander around the subject without really clearly identifying anything about it. What is success to you? You can give yourself a time line, if you like. “In five years I’d like to be…” Work your way backwards, all the way to what you can do today!

2. The Steps – what steps can you take to achieve your goals? Make two lists…one will be the more major steps (ie…I want to get a publishing deal, I want to record a CD…etc.), the other will be the little steps! I can tell you right now that the little steps will be the most important!! For instance, if you want a publishing deal, there are several things you need to do to make that happen. You need to identify the publishers who might be interested in your songs, you have to have a decent recording of your songs, you need to collect addresses, make a list of who you’ve sent to, etc., etc.

Perhaps your primary goal is to become a better writer. Well, that goal is never off my list! Again, you would benefit by sitting down and determining what it is that YOU NEED in order to begin achieving that. Do you need to improve your lyric skills? Do you need to be around other writers? A few visits to some open mics? Are a couple of piano lessons in order?

3. Be Prepared To Change – For heaven’s sake, if something isn’t working, let it go! It’s okay to move onto something else! Stubbornness and determination are admirable qualities, until they are just plain stupid!

4. Opportunity Meeting Preparedness – I’m sure you’ve heard that expression before. People who have achieved success weren’t just sitting around waiting for it to fall into their laps. Well, most of them anyway! They were able to recognize an opportunity when it hit them square in the face. You may think that is obvious…but you can never be sure exactly when it’s going to hit, or how. A little story, if I might: When I’m almost finished recording a song, I tend to make a DAT copy of it (digital audio tape) just so I can have it there to listen to for myself, and for whatever else I might need it for. A couple of months ago, my husband and I had a business meeting with an old friend in our home, not related to songwriting in anyway, just an investment opportunity. This friend brought his business partner with him, and we spent an hour or so discussing this new business. At the end of the talk, we started chit chatting about other things, and it so happened that this friend mentioned to his partner that I was a songwriter and had a studio downstairs. Lucky for me, I’d cleaned it that morning 🙂 So I invited them down to see the studio. I happened to have my DAT machine hooked up with the tape in it, and my friend wanted to hear the latest version of Catnip (a song he’d participated in recording). It JUST SO HAPPENED that his business partner was ALSO a songwriter and NOT ONLY THAT, but he had a line on a guy who was looking for material for an up and coming group, so I played him some of the songs…was that a coincidence? No, it was opportunity meeting preparedness 🙂 What comes of it doesn’t matter, but I was ready!

5. Critical Line – ever heard of this expression? It refers to the steps that have to be taken in order to achieve goals. Even at their jobs, most people spend a great deal of time doing the peripheral things that aren’t getting them any closer to getting the job done. Like sharpening pencils and tidying the desk, or getting distracted by something entirely un-job-related. Try to spend 1/2 an hour each day completely devoted to your critical line…doing something you need to do, even if it’s just a boring “little step”. Time is everything! So is discipline!

6. Discipline – is not one of my strong points. I consider myself a naturally lazy person, and have had to battle with myself most of my life to do what I need to do. This can be applied to just about anything in your life…but in order to succeed, you need discipline! Instead of throwing too much on yourself too quickly, take those “little steps”…see how important they are? But taking just one of those will make you feel better! And when you feel better, you’re likely to do more! It’s magic 🙂

7. More Irons in the Fire! – I know you’ve heard quite the opposite…that you can’t have too much on the go, but I’m here to tell you that when it comes to writing songs, the more your songs are “out there” the better it is for you! I don’t mean that you should be careless about it, BUT, if you’ve ever listened to some of the stories of how songwriters got their music heard, most of them had quite a long trail of opportunities. Someone just happened to hear a recording in the other room that someone’s cousin was playing that just happened to be sitting on the top of a pile…you know what I’m saying? Great songs aren’t just AUTOMATICALLY HEARD BY ALL THE “RIGHT” PEOPLE! It can take years for a great song to get the attention it deserves! So multiply your opportunities…let other people perform your song, play them at every chance, let people hear ’em!

8. Diversify – You’ve heard the saying “putting all of your eggs in one basket”. Having any kind of career in music means you have to diversify. The statistics are that less than 1% of songwriters make more than $5000 a year from their writing. That means that more than 99% of us have to have some other kind of income. I teach guitar, write music for television, write and perform…when some areas are not as profitable or emotionally satisfying, others are! As long as it is music-related, I’m happy. If it comes down to employment (and it inevitably does!), try to find work that is related somehow to your music, or at the very least, find work that allows you to BE a songwriter, go to open mics, or run off to the bathroom and record an idea when you have one 🙂 Then again, a job that is completely non-music related is sometimes perfectly satisfying! I’ve met writers who LOVE songwriting, but also love their jobs. Wouldn’t that be nice? 🙂

Okay, well there you have it…some ideas as to how you can achieve your idea of success. You know, half the time I write these articles as much for myself as I do for you 🙂

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Getting Down to Details

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

Many times when I’m writing, I’ll fill in a line with something just to put it there until I’m ready to start the crafting process. I’d like to take you through the process of taking a rather ordinary line or phrase, and souping it up. Of course, one line without the context of a song to work from limits the scope of what we might be able to do with it. When I begin the work on the lyrics, I like to have a thread that runs through the whole song lyrically and ties it together. So many decisions that I make lyrically depend on this thread that I’m trying to create. If you find that you have a line in a song that sounds pretty common and you want to make it more interesting, this might help you.

Let’s take a line like this:

“I got up off the chair and walked to the door”

There are two things we have to keep in mind when we change this, certainly if we want to say the same thing, we have to create a picture that shows us exactly this act. The other thing we have to keep in mind is the meter…that makes our choice of words and syllables limited. Let’s first look at the meter, which I will identify as this:

I got up off the chair, and walked to the door
ta da DA ta da DAAA, ta DA ta da DAAA

Looking at the first half of the line, now, I’ll try to pinpoint what makes it unemotional and uninteresting. Getting up off the chair describes an action, but does it say anything at all about me? For instance, even if I changed it to:

I jumped up off the chair

I’ve already implied something different…I could be anxious now, or excited, or frightened. The visual implies a very quick motion that could easily apply to any of these emotions. Maybe I also want to say more about the chair. Why? Pay attention to details! You’d be amazed at how much these little almost insignificant changes can affect the whole song. If you were watching a movie based on a story in the last century, it wouldn’t make much sense if one of the characters suddenly opened a bag of cheesies. That’s a detail. So let’s say more about the chair…it could be a couch. What does that matter? Well, a chair could be in any room…kitchen, livingroom, dining room, even bedroom. A couch implies a livingroom. Does that matter? Maybe not, but it gives a better picture of where I am, rather than a more vague one. So now we have:

I jumped up off the couch

Let’s take a look at the second half:

And walked to the door

Pretty uninteresting…an action but there’s nothing that really draws me into it. Let’s focus on one of the possible emotions we described above. Let’s try it from a fearful perspective…I jumped up off the couch, so how might I move towards the door? I might sneak or slip or…maybe I don’t even move at all, but I look at the door in some fearful way. But I still have to remain within the confines of the meter. Maybe I’d take a whole different approach like this:

I jumped up off the couch, eyes glued to the door

Now let’s compare it with the original:

I got up off the chair and walked to the door
I jumped up off the couch, eyes glued to the door

In the first line there is a person (me) a place (the chair/the door) and an action (walked). In the second line all of these things still exist in a similar context with one addition–EMOTION. Songwriting isn’t like writing a how-to manual…the key is, as someone wisely said “telling MY story in YOUR song”. Details.

If you sat down with this line for days or weeks or months, you could come up with many, many ways to make it more interesting. Always keep in mind the context of the song…always remember the details.

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