But you can dance to a disco track. Plenty of rhythm there. Does that make it a good song?
Rubbish.
I think it's time to get back to helpful suggestions for Charlie. My biggest one is this:
I once took a weekend seminar on how to successfully deal with writer's block. I was the only songwriter; most attendees were novelists or poets. That's not to say I couldn't relate to the problem and benefit from solutions, just that I was unique in that regard.
Some of the techniques discussed have proven quite useful. The most important one is:
write first, edit later. The instructor, Bernard Asbell (a fairly well-known biographer of FDR, among other achievements), had a technique he called
"Freewrite." Basically, the idea is to just write whatever you're thinking, as freely as possible, and then sort out the form and structure later. Just get it out of your mind and onto paper and work on it later. This has helped me immensely over the years.
Another technique was
lists. Write a list of words associated with your theme, then use them to form sentences. For poetry (and songs), also write a list of words that rhyme with the theme. Sometimes when I've used this method, songs nearly write themselves.
A good example is my song, "I Don't Mind Doing Dishes." I had the idea one day to write a country song about this mundane task (country has a long history of such things). I wrote a list of things I liked about doing dishes (yes, there are many) and a list of words that rhyme with "dishes," used a somewhat corny melody with a twist or two, and in ten minutes I had a song. Years of inspiration and ten minutes of work. It's the first song of mine my mother liked. Not too surprising - she was familiar with the subject matter, and it's pretty cute and funny.
One last tip I've learned from this session - or possibly Lucinda Williams' example, as she uses it a lot - is: use nouns more than adjectives. Find words that convey the emotions or ideas you want to impart, rather than just saying "I feel this or that." This can produce imagery that resonates within others. A great example of this is her "I Envy The Wind." It conveys an intense yearning for her loved one without ever using the word "love."
So, at the time I had this song
called "Writer's Block," which had been bothering me for having been incomplete for years. Indeed, all I really had was the refrain, nearly shouting the title - which was a kind of release when frustrated with being unable to finish another song. I went home after Saturday's session, and thought I'd put what I'd learned to work. Within an hour I'd finished it!
I was so impressed with this success that I decided I had to share it with the group the next day. I practiced it diligently for a good long while in order to perform it flawlessly. Everybody loved it. They got what I was talking about, even a couple of little in-jokes. Like "Wish I could tell you people/ What it is I want to say."
Well, I hope this helps. I wish I could be more helpful with the musical side of the question. I find melodies and chords come easier for me. I have tunes running through my mind all the time; I often wake up with some idea, which I'll sing or play into my phone so I don't forget. That is, if I think it's any good. Some ideas are just not that good.
But a lot of the time, a lyric will suggest a melody. I'm not sure how that works, but it's typical for me. The best songs are the ones where melody and lyrics appear together. That's pretty rare, and pretty wonderful. I'm not sure how to work that into a lesson, but it would be good to emphasize to your students that these two major elements should work together for a song to be successful. Many songs from the Tin Pan Alley and Swing eras are still popular today because of this sympathetic dynamic interaction. They should keep that in the back of their minds, at least.
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