Your Songwriting Tookit

Copyright © Ben Grace 2005

It amazes me how many accomplished and talented musicians see songwriting as this elite and mysterious craft that only a few can really aspire to. I see the fear in people's eyes when they talk to me or ask me about songwriting. They either tell me they either write lyrics or tunes but never both or say that they've tried once or twice, failed dismally and have given up trying. But what a lot of people don't realise is that we all start there, we all have our failures, we all get attached to songs that aren't really that good and we all have days when the music or the lyrics are dropping slower than treacle.

So I thought I'd put together a small article focusing on what you needed for the 'craft' of songwriting. A good song does need crafting, it needs time and patience and diligence, not just a lightning strike or a brilliant idea. So here's a few things for your songwriting toolkit:

1. CAPTURING THE IDEA

   I believe strongly that you have to get in the habit of capturing ideas as they happen, even if you think they sound silly. Most good songs come a single idea and you never know when a fleeting thought might just prove to be the best inspiration you'll have all week. I started finding that ideas that I thought were great at the time didn't stick no matter how many times I sang or played them. So catch them if you can and any way you can. I have two ways I do this:

   • Recording the idea - use anything a mini disc, an MP3 player, a computer, or even your mobile phone (call your own message bank if you have to). I have a Nokia 6610i and it lets me record 1 minute sound bites and its wonderful. I've recorded over 100 ideas on it in my car and walking down the street. I even wrote part of 'Keep You First' on it!
   • Writing down the idea - whether its lyrics or notes just get something down on paper. Make yourself up a nice music book with stave paper to treasure your ideas in and take it with you. I have a few of these but my most precious is the one Sara made me for a birthday a few years back with my own personalised copyright info on the bottom of the page! Once again I actually use my mobile phone as a way to store lyric or title ideas by just saving an SMS to the archive section of my phone.
2. FLESHING THE IDEA OUT

   So once you've got an idea you're not out of the woods yet, your work has just begun. I don't want to get bogged down in methods I use at this stage of the game but rather list a bunch of tools that have helped me and other songwriters I know.

   Lyric refining tools

   • Thesaurus - So incredibly useful for finding alternative words which will help you to avoid repetition, tired clichés or words that are overused or just to take your song in a different direction e.g. more metaphoric rather than literal. Microsoft Word has one built in which is always handy!
   • Rhyming dictionary - Let's face it your high school poetry skills probably won't get you too far! I don't own one of these but would love one to help me out when I'm struggling with finding an original perfect or slant rhyme.
   • Bible concordance, Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge or Bible software - There's plenty of reasons why I think you should have any of these by your side. Like some words or phrases some Bible quotes get overused and chances are that people probably already have their favourite song with that verse in it so use these tools to find a related quote or more obscure reference. The best example of this that I know of is the beautiful track on the end of the Fisher's Tale Boundless album called 'On High' (Abbie Downer, 2003) which quotes Micah 4 in spectacular fashion. Then again 'Let Us Run' (Alison Jamieson, 2003) takes an extremely well known section of Scripture, Hebrews 12, and sets it to music in a remarkable way so who am I to tell you what to do! Having Bible tools near you will also ensure that your spiritual songs also have the direct influence of God's Word in them, even if they are more metaphorical or obscure. By the way I don't have a Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge but if anyone wants to donate one to me or buy me one for a birthday feel free!

   Music refining tools

   • Your old theory books - Dust them off. If you want to write songs, you'll need to brush up on your basic harmony and melody lessons. The thing I tell people time and time again is to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). You don't need to use every note on the piano in your melody or chuck in a fancy chord under every melody note. This is especially applicable if you're planning on writing a congregation song, keep your chord structure simple and your melody limited to an octave range preferably between D above middle C and the D above that. I won't expand on that now, I think it's an article all in itself. If you can succeed at writing a simple song your chances of writing more complex songs will be greatly increased. So my advice is not to start off trying to write epic structures with contrived modulations and heaps of words.
   • Books on songwriting - There's lots of them out there and you'll probably learn something new every time you read one. I've read a few good ones that unfortunately I can't remember the names of. I noticed last time I was in Borders that their selection was rather fantastic and that's saying something because it's rare for me to be giving big business a wrap!
3. CRITIQUING YOUR IDEA

   Last but certainly not least. I believe the mark of anyone who does something well is the desire to share their ideas and receive positive, constructive criticism. And also a desire to return to the drawing board time and time again, to practice something until its perfect. Unlike secular songs Christian songs are all about 2 things and these are the two greatest commandments; the first is love for God and the second is love for people. The person who hears every time you play your song is our Creator and so it goes without saying that the song should express something in it that is a true reflection of the divine character in some way. But your song will also have an audience in other people as well and so I believe that the feedback process is essential because you may figure out and iron out what people do or don't like about it before they get to hear the 'finished' version.

   So build a bunch of trusted friends and musicians that you can bounce ideas off or send your songs/ideas to c.a.t's music team and get ready to receive feedback. Be prepared to rewrite your song over and over, to sacrifice bits of it that you love because they don't take the song forward, to cut away until the song is stripped back to its purist and best state. Unfortunately in all of us there resides an artist that refuses to compromise our 'pure' creation (I also like to refer to this alter ego as a kindergarten author, don't you remember those first pure, unadulterated stories you wrote in crayon?) or thinks that second drafts are for wimps but just remember that God's been working on this creation for 6000 years and its still far from perfect!