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Chandra Moon
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8/17/2010 2:11:32 PM
Words first or tune?
Since I started songwriting I always got the beat and words first, then a tune then worked out how to play it.
I've now had a melody and guitar part for nearly two years without a single lyric and it's driving me crazy.
ahhhhhhh!
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Sign of Descent
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8/17/2010 8:02:11 PM
Make it a singalong blog and have everybody who posts add a line and see what you get...lol
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Chandra Moon
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8/18/2010 2:26:41 AM
ha ha I might have to resort to that! It's quite an easy listening jazzyish tune with a middle bit and everything - most of my songs just come to me in one go so this one's really frustrating! Never mind - one of these days something will manifest hopefully.
Meanwhile other songs are on the way!
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Tom O'Brien
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8/18/2010 10:16:12 AM
Chandra,
I used to write the whole thing in one go, almost exclusively. The lyrics were musical sounds, so how could they be separated from the rest of the music?
Then, about a year ago, I started a kind of experiment. I took a notebook with me to lunch and decided to write a lyric a day, without trying to write the perfect song every time. 15 minutes to eat and 45 to write. Soon I had several notebooks filled with words. Some of them were just so-so and will never make it into a tune. But some of them were pretty good and I had lots to choose from. And almost always when I was writing, I had the rhythm of the words firmly in mind and a general melody idea. Sometimes I would even hear arrangements while just writing lyrics.
So my advice is - just start writing like crazy! If you've got a musical bone in your body (which I know you do, because I bought your CD) you'll find your voice again.
I find that the things that make a song work lyrically are 1: Don't write the same thing that's already been written about a million times. Find a new subject or a new take on an old subject. and 2. Use words that appeal to the senses. Songs are so much richer when you can see, hear, touch, smell and taste them. That's why metaphors are so strong in music. You can say you love someone or you can say your love is an orange moon rising with promise above a dusty sky. Which would you rather hear in a song?
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Chandra Moon
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8/20/2010 3:03:42 AM
Thanks Tom! Yes I'll get there - I go through phases but I'm always better at writing songs words first and this particular tune just doesn't seem to inspire lyrics - maybe I'll do it as an instrumental! I've got some lyrics from a friend that I'm going to put up here to see if anyone can make a song from - very sad lyrics. So watch this space - I'm too happy at the moment to write a really sad song. It's ironic that I seem to write all my best stuff when I'm miserable ha ha!!
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Chandra Moon
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9/14/2010 5:13:12 AM
At last this came to me at the festival - it fits exactly so I'll do an unplugged version soon. It may not make sense to many so questions on a postcard please ha ha ha!!
The Healing Tree
Warm winds across the purple plains
The candles melt away the pain
Soothing hands upon your face
Golden light fills inner space
Ancient oaks and peacock calls
Through layers of time and stone-built walls
In starry dress a goddess stands
Reaching out with loving hands
Thoughts return back to Kartong
Searching for words to fit the song
How very strange that two years on
At The Healing Tree, at last it’s done
(Instrumental break)
Ancient oaks and peacock calls
Through layers of time and stone-built walls
In starry dress a goddess stands
Reaching out with loving hands
Reaching out with loving hands
Reaching out with loving hands………….
© Chandra Moon – September 2010
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The Man With No Band
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9/16/2010 10:17:19 AM
Hi Chandra ... nice lyrics (Healing Tree) ...
I feel blessed to be, what I consider, a lyricist first and a musician after ... My brain is a constant composer, so it helps out some too... it is far superior though and much more advanced than my abilities to get out what my brain thinks but I'm working on it ...
Songs come to me in various stages ... I am always writing words and melodies just usually accompany them ... but the great part about being a lyricist is that I seem to be able to come up with lines for almost any melody ... I hear music, I think words ... often when I hear songs that others have completed, I find myself hearing completely different lyrics to their song ... it's the ditty syndrome ... blessed or cursed, lyrics consume me ... :)
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Michael J. Nielsen
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9/20/2010 4:39:40 PM
Best is go with the idea then put lyrics of the song, then build from there. If the music is there, it will fall into place. More advice on lyrics and ideas later if you want. Hope this helps. Michael
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Chandra Moon
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9/21/2010 1:00:54 AM
Well it's usually different for me - I find it much much harder to fit lyrics round a tune than to fit a tune round the lyrics ha ha! I don't know why. If I get the tune first it's quite a "fixed" thing so then the lyrics have to be very exact - more like a poem. I don't doodle on the guitar, find a tune then add lyrics which seems to be what most people do. I scribble words, or tap out a beat. Write the song then start hearing a tune in my head and lastly try and work out how to play it. I had to teach myself the guitar (not brilliantly I hasten to add) in order to get the songs out into the world as I didn't know how to play as I'd learned piano first. I've only written one song on the piano - Clear As A Dream.
If I get the words I can stretch the tune, change the timing, have different length phrases - maybe not conventional but it works for me.
It's good practice for me to try and do it the other way round but in the end the lyrics for the Healing Tree came to me in a dream state during a hopi ear candle session so it wasn't such hard work after all that struggling with that one.
Thanks for your comments - I find the process of songwriting endlessly fascinating as we all have very different as well as similar ways of doing it!
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