Lyrics

Dynamics and Tension: What They Are and How To Use Them

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

Having spent many years listening to and reviewing other songwriter’s songs, and working on my own, I am struck by a number of recurring problems that songwriters have. The obvious ones, like a low quality recording or not having a great singing voice, aren’t the only problems. What seems to be an affliction of many of the songs is that they lack dynamics and tension.

What exactly are dynamics in songwriting? Simply speaking, they are contrasting parts. For example…if you write a song with the chord progression and/or the melody the same in both the verses and chorus, you risk having a pretty dull sounding song. That is not to say that it hasn’t been done effectively, but this is just one example that I came across while reviewing songs. By putting a little contrast in different places, your song will stand out!

What exactly do I mean by “contrast”? All I’m really talking about is change…you can create contrast by having a different melody in the chorus than in the verses. When it comes to melody, you can also create these dynamics within a verse. For instance, maybe the melody starts out in a lower register (lower notes) at the beginning of the verse, but gets higher as the verse progresses. Or, you can change chord progressions within a verse toward the same end. So, for example, the first line might contain 2 bars of G followed by two bars of C. Maybe the next line is the same. But the third line could begin with a D and so on, just to create that contrast. But it doesn’t stop there! Dynamics and contrast can also be achieved lyrically…the mood or emotion can change from verse to verse or verse to chorus. As an example, the song might start out with the main character walking into an empty bedroom and feeling low because his lover has left him…the next verse might be him reminiscing about their relationship, about what they had and lost…and then the chorus could be filled with his anger at being jilted. Do you hear it? I mean, just by reading those words, can you almost hear what the music would be like? Interesting 🙂 That’s the natural dynamic of the story, almost begging you to put the right chords and melody to it!

Dynamics and contrast can also be achieved within the meter of a song (the rhythm of the words). As an example, in one of my songs, Let’s Make Trouble:

“He said ‘Damn! If you don’t look good tonight
……………………………………….
You’re a little bit of trouble and it’s just not right.’
……………………………………….”
But with a wink of her eye, he forgot what he said
Thoughts on fire and a body hell bent”
……………………………………….
……………………………………….
(“Let’s Make Trouble” Copyright © 2000 I. Woloshen SOCAN)

So what I’ve done in the example above (without actually showing you the music) is to show you how the lyrics work within the verse. There is a line of lyric, then just an instrumental line, then another line of lyric. THEN, I do two lines of lyric in a row, followed by two instrumental lines in a row. So the feel of the first half of the verse is more spacey, but the two lines in a row create a kind of build, feeling like I’m singing faster, and then there’s the release of the two instrumental lines. (If you’re interesting in actually hearing it, you can listen to Let’s Make Trouble on my Soundclick page. Scan down the page to find it…) So a dynamic is created within this verse by having the first half different from the second half. The length of lines can also be a contrast. In a verse of a song, you might have a long first line and a shorter second one, etc. You could also have, in a 4 line verse, three shorter lines and then a long 4th line. If you make everything exactly the same and don’t build in a few contrasts, there is no dynamic, and the song can sound pretty dull pretty quick!

Tension is another aspect that is often lacking in a lot of the songs I hear. Quite often, you’ll find choruses have a higher range of notes than the verses in order to create a dynamic effect. So there’s the “contrast” we spoke of earlier. But this kind of build up to the chorus does something else: it creates tension. Let’s put it this way. If you hold a rubber band loosely, and then slowly start to pull both ends of it, this would be what the verse is trying to accomplish…you pull and pull…then SNAP!! The chorus is the release of the rubber band…the release of tension. The next verse creates that kind of build again up to the chorus and the whole process repeats. But tension can also be created lyrically…think of a standup comic telling a story. He’s setting the stage, telling the story just right so that when he gets to the punchline or the payoff, you’ll howl with laughter! And then he might go onto another related story, occasionally referring back to the first one. He’s manipulating your emotions, playing you in order to get his laughs exactly where he wants them. And just like the comic, timing is another factor in songwriting, where you sing and where you leave a space can really produce an effect or leave an audience flat. Building up to something and then not delivering can be a disaster! You’ll never get a slot at Yuk Yuk’s again!

A great songwriter knows how to time everything…it can be done with humour, with anger, with any type of emotion…for example, expressing a deep longing and make you feel it too in exactly the right place and at the right time. A great movie maker can do the same thing. In fact, I think songs are very much like stories and movies…all stuffed into 3 or 4 minutes!

One other note: these effects…dynamics, contrast and tension…are also often achieved in the production of a song when it comes to the recording process. Different parts of a song can be supported by different instruments, a build of instrumentation, softer or heavier, louder or quiet. But if a song has all of these elements to begin with, you don’t have to rely on creating it in the studio! The best songs can be sung with one voice and one instrument creating that wonderful array of dynamics, contrast, tension and release without any need for anything else!

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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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Songwriting As Storytelling

Posted on by IJ

© I.Woloshen

Most people don’t equate songwriting with telling stories unless it’s in the form of a folk song. Folk songs often have what is called an AAA structure, with “A” representing the verses and no chorus, therefore lending themselves easily to a story format. Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger and many of the 60’s folk artists wrote in this style, which is in fact one of the oldest songwriting formats around.

A lot of pop songs on the charts these days don’t rely very heavily on storytelling or even good lyric writing! I’m sure you can think of popular songs where you have no idea what it’s really about, but you can relate to parts of it and it has a great musical hook, so it’s on your list of favourites. Does that mean you can get away with writing nonsense lyrics? Nonsense!

As far as stories go, any good one will draw you in from the first sentence, hold your attention all the way through and satisfy you with a great ending…maybe even leave you wanting more! When you write a song, even if it isn’t in the folk or storytelling format, you need to remember to have the same elements…a beginning, a middle, and an end. But what if there isn’t a “story” in your song? How do you accomplish this task?

These days when I sit down to write lyrics, I often start with the first line before even knowing what the song is going to be about! As I add each line, an idea starts to unfold, and once I have a first draft I more or less know what the song is about. But not everyone approaches their lyric writing this way, and some songwriters find that their end product is lacking some kind of cohesion. There are several things to look for that may be contributing to this:

1. THE ‘HEAR’ AND NOW: Is your lyric taking place in the present, past, future, or a mixture of all of these? A listener can get confused pretty quickly if you jump from one to the other for no obvious reason. The most POWERFUL tense is the present, but as you know, many of us long for the past or hope for the future, and all tenses can all be used with equal impact if you know what you’re doing. A lyric that moves from past to future can also give a sense of continuity to your song. Look over your lyrics and clear up any inconsistencies in this area.

2. DRAWING A PICTURE: Some writers, when getting ideas for their lyrics, first sit down and actually write a paragraph or two about what they want to say. Having the full picture in front of you can help you to build the song lyric in a clear, intelligible way, and maybe even give you a better idea as to how to structure it. Think about grade school when you were learning how to construct a story. Remember the “5 W’s” (who, what, when, where, why)? This is a very useful tool when putting together your lyric. Who is this about? What is happening? When and where is it taking place? Why is it happening?

3. PURPOSEFUL SONG PARTS: Each part of a song has a job. The chorus is a summation of the song, the central theme or idea. The job of the verses is to flesh out this idea a little further, going into more detail and carrying the song forward. If there is a bridge, its purpose is to take a fresh look at the whole subject. Normally the music in the bridge goes into a different progression or melody from the rest of the song, and the lyric does the same. It’s a kind of “break” from the repetitiveness of the rest of the song. Use your song parts correctly and the rest of the song will fall into place. Don’t be afraid to change the parts around either. Maybe what you call your first verse is REALLY better as a chorus!

4. ‘THREADS’: Each part of a song should tie into the one before and the one after, in what I like to call “threads”. When you examine your verses, look for continuity of thought…are you carrying through on your central theme? To simplify the process, write out a one phrase description of each verse, the chorus, bridge and any other part of the song to see how each part works with the rest. Some people critique songs using this idea…they’ll map out each part of the song to see whether or not it flows.

5. RHYMING FOR NO REASON: Sometimes we get so caught up in finding a rhyme for a word, that we forget what the song is about…I KNOW that any of you who have tried to write a lyric have found yourself in this position before. In fact, I’ve seen complete lyrics that seem to be a series of unconnected rhymes, a play on words perhaps, but with no thought to anything else!

6. WASTED SPACE: I know you’ve done this too…filling in a line or a phrase with something that fits the meter, but has nothing to do with the song. I call these “throw away lines”, and I DO use them sometimes just to fill the space for the time being until I can come up with something better. When I’m in the polishing stage or the re-writing stage, is when I will pull these parts out and replace them. And when I do, I’m ALWAYS looking for threads.

7. TOO MANY COOKS: Another problem that can overwhelm a lyric is too many ideas! Don’t try to write seven songs in one lyric…take it apart and write about one element, or decide more clearly what that one element IS and then make the others work around it. Ever walked into a terribly messy room? Your eyes don’t know where to look first, and it can actually create stress in your body! The same thing can happen with a “busy” lyric…the ear doesn’t know WHAT to hang onto and a headache is just around the corner!

So there you have some ideas for making a story out of your song. And though even the most popular song lyrics out there don’t necessarily follow these “rules”, that only means there’s hope yet for all of us!

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Performance Tips

Posted on by IJ
Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest
Image by bfest4 via Flickr, Joe Cocker

© I.Woloshen

I was in Grade 5 when I first performed in front of a big audience…in the school gymnasium at Christmas for parents, teachers and students. I was picked in an audition to perform half of the Christmas song “Good King Wenceslas“. I’m not sure why the teacher had two of us share the song…I was ready to do the whole thing myself! It was a definite highlight of my childhood…the first time I heard that applause, I was hooked! It wasn’t until I was older that I began to deal with things like performance anxiety (more of that later), or consider the idea of how I was presenting my material. These days, I’m very conscious of the connection I make with an audience, and the way the songs come across.

I have performed at many open mics over the years, and I find them to be the most difficult performances! There is no time to warm up…sometimes a song or two is what you need to get comfortable with where you are, but then it’s over! If it’s an open mic that I haven’t performed at before, that makes it worse! So many things can affect the performance…the people there, the sound system, if there is one, the room itself, and the other performances ahead of you. Over time, I’ve managed to make a mental list for myself of the things I have to remember when I’m playing, and the things I watch for in others:

1. EYE CONTACT – When I watch a performer with his/her head bowed down staring at the guitar or the floor, I feel disconnected from them. Not only that, but their nervous behaviour distracts me, makes me feel sorry for them, and I don’t listen to the song! Some performers say that they can better focus on the song if they keep their eyes closed the whole time…but what about the people you’re playing to? A performance is literally an exchange of energy between the performer and the audience…if you cut the audience off, they have nothing to return to you! If you find it difficult to look at someone, there are two things you can do. You can either look for the person who is most obviously enjoying your performance and feed off of them, or you can make a person up! Just look out there as if you were looking at someone who was smiling at you, and smile back! I do this all the time, especially if I’m in a situation where there isn’t much of an audience, or I’m in a room where no one is really listening.

I’ve sung at two funeral services…just less than 20 years apart. I was 20 years old at the first service. I had trouble looking at the family who was sitting in the front row, so I stared blankly at a window at the back of the church. I felt my performance was disastrous and underwhelming…my nervousness was more prominent than my song! The second one, I made a conscious decision to look straight at the audience, right into their eyes, and connect the song with each one of them. I was given so many smiles, mixed with tears of course, but it was a beautiful, and ultimately uplifting, experience!

2. ENUNCIATION – You may be a “music” person, not as concerned with getting your lyrics across, but you’d be surprised to know just how many people LOVE lyrics! When the mouth is dry and the brain muddy with terror, even the most wonderful lyrics can be reduced to an unintelligible mumble. Before you even GET to that open mic, practice EXAGGERATING your lyrics when you sing them. Hit every consonant hard, open your mouth WIDE. At first, it’ll feel pretty silly, but it will keep you conscious of getting your message across. When you want someone to hear what you’re saying when you are speaking to them, you make your voice a little louder, look straight at them and enunciate. Think of the same thing when you’re singing.

3. DYNAMICS – If you’re a guitar player, you’re likely to pound away at the strings when you’re nervous, completely dominating your vocal. Practice doing this: when you’re playing the parts of the song when you’re not singing, let yourself pound. When you ARE singing, pull the guitar way back, soften it up, make it weave around your lyrics. Not only will it help your lyrics stand out…it will create quite a dramatic effect to your performance! Try it out!

4. EMOTE – If you’re singing a happy song, remember what your kindergarten teacher said the first time you sang in front of your parents at a school event. SMILE!! If the song is more somber, don’t smile! Nothing more confusing than dark lyrics and a grin. They’ll think you’re on a weekend pass… Performing is very much like acting. You certainly need to “be yourself”, but you are also emoting and re-creating the topic of the song to your audience every time you perform it. Listen to the words as you’re singing them, and try to remember where they came from when you wrote that song!

5. ENERGY – I was told once by my music teacher that I moved too much when I sang. She told me it was distracting. Most of it was, of course, nervous energy. If you move around like Joe Cocker, you’re likely to distract from your song (unless you ARE Joe Cocker, in which case you can do whatever you like :-). But, having said that, music is a full body experience! Sitting or standing with your body as stiff as a board translates into negative vibes for your audience. Move around a little and that will help you relax and also release some of that nervous energy. As Gino Vannelli said: You gotta move 🙂

6. BANTER – If there is a little story behind your song, tell it. Practice ahead of time just so you get the story straight! Two don’ts: Don’t tell the whole story, let the song say most of it. And don’t go on and on, umming and ahhing and losing your focus. But a little chatter between songs gives the audience a chance to connect with you on another level. It endears you to them beyond the songs. One of my most successful banters is when I talk about the nature of the bald eagle before I sing my song “Eagles Eyes”. People love to hear some of the facts behind this amazing creature. It relates to, but doesn’t give away the topic of the song. And almost every time I do that, someone will come up to me after and mention it!

7. GRACIOUSNESS – When you receive applause it is the greatest gift, so stay for a moment and soak it in! I remember a telethon I did once, where right after my two songs, I turned to run off stage. The host at the time was a VJ at MuchMusic here in Canada. She got a hold of me and made me hang around a bit…she asked me a few questions on air, and said “They’re applauding you! Enjoy it!” I’m sure it was my own nervousness that inspired the desire to turn and run…but what I was also doing was, in fact, snubbing the audience by not acknowledging their applause. I don’t “milk it” now, but I do allow myself and the audience a chance to enjoy those few moments! What else do we do it for?

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Putting Music with Lyrics

Posted on by IJ

Here’s an email I recently received:

“Dear Irene,

I play guitar (lefty), just started, and i find it sometimes abit hard to get songs i like (like, by famous people, from the radio, whatever) abit hard to play, because i can’t get the exact tune. So i wanted to start writing my own songs. So i sat down to write some, and i couldn’t. i mean, i wrote a couple, but i can’t seem to accompany my voice (which isn’t very good) with my guitar. i like chords more than notes, so i just go through all the chords i know, just the main ones, and try to fit it together. Anyway, the whole point of me writing, is to say thankyou, you’ve helped me quite abit. But could you please put abit more about putting music with lyrics.”

I began writing songs for the same reason you did…I couldn’t play my favourite radio hits! In fact, over the years I’ve met many songwriters who started for the same reason.

When I was in Grade 12, I was given the opportunity to write some music to several poems in the play “Through The Looking Glass”. The idea was that I would play and sing them during the performance with the cast…I was put up in a loft at the back of the stage with a sound system. But the first REAL challenge was writing the music. I had always come from a “music first” place in my songwriting, and never before had tried it the other way around, so when I first sat down with all of these strange poems, I had no idea where to start. After succeeding with one of them, the others came more easily. Here’s what I learned, and what I use to this day…maybe some of it will help you:

1. A song lyric should have a built in rhythm, or “meter”….which means when you read it out loud, you can sense a beat to the words. This will help you to establish the time signature…4/4 is most common, four beats to the bar. Simply speaking, the strum pattern on your guitar should reflect this time signature.

2. Before you even establish the chords, you need to find a melody that matches the lyrics. Don’t go near any instruments until you’ve tried just singing the lyrics accapella (without accompaniment) and found a melody. This takes practice! Look at the structure of the verses…how many lines are there? Are the lines the same length of syllables, or are they different? If you’ve got an even number of lines, say 4 or 6, try singing one melody for the first line, and then another for the second…repeat the first melody for the 3rd line and the second melody for the 4th…see how that feels. Keep it simple. When you get to the chorus, that should be a different melody. Try singing it higher up…the chorus is a kind of climax, if you will, so it needs to be more dramatic in some way. Raising the melody at the chorus is one way of achieving that. If there is a bridge…sing that differently too. Essentially, each part of the song has its own mini-melody, but they all fit together. Creating a great melody is not achieved instantly! Well, not in most cases anyway 🙂

3. Let’s assume you’ve found a melody…now what are the chords? There are several ways you can go about this, most of them take time! First of all, you can randomly look for a chord that “fits” what you’re singing. Knowing a little bit about chords will take you a long way. Is it a sad song? Should the chords be minor chords, or is it upbeat? Do you hear chords around it already in your head when you sing the melody? If you play guitar and have a capo, use that as a means of getting into a key that suits your voice and the melody…you don’t have to play barre chords or fancy progressions, just use the capo up the neck until you find something that’s close. Get yourself a chord book and find out what chords are in a key…which chords go together, in other words. Try out some of the other chords in the key you decide on.

4. When should a chord change? This is where your “ear” really comes in handy. When you listen to a song on the radio, can you hear when the chord changes? If you can, you’re already half way there. Start out simply, by playing one chord all the way through the first verse, let’s call it “Chord 1″…when you hear that the melody doesn’t “fit” that chord, that’s where you should change chords! Okay, so now you need to find “Chord 2″…look in your chord book at all of the chords associated with and in the same key as “Chord 1″…and try them each out. Most likely, one of them will fit. So now we have “Chord 1” and “Chord 2”. Maybe your verse looks like this:

Chord 1
La, la, da da da, la, la, la

Chord 2
La, da da, la, da da

Is the rest of the verse repeating these phrases? Or are they different somehow? If they are the same, use the same two chords again. If they’re not, try another “associated” chord, or a chord in the same key. Now maybe you’re getting a feel to your song. Use the same process for the chorus, if you have a chorus, and the bridge, if there is one.

That is a beginner’s approach to writing melodies/chords to lyrics…remember to keep it simple! And when it gets “boring”, make a change! No one can write those melodies for you, it is something you learn to develop in yourself over time and with much patience (and sometimes none 🙂 Good luck!

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