Posts Tagged ‘song write’

What is a Writer? A Definitive Guide

Every writer needs to believe. In themselves. In their work.

Art of writing changes as does the changes of time. But the love of words remain steadfast and strong.

Yes, writers are an elite class of people.

For within each of us there’s a desire, to write. express, share thoughts, views and ideas. We look for that pat on the back, the praise, recognition. For writing well done. To see our name in print. A sense of self accomplishment.

Far too many of us have collections of promising articles and stories in various stages of incompletion. Fearing of not believing in ourselves.

Fearing rejection. We personally are not being rejected. Our writing is. It may not be exactly what the editor be looking for. Disappointing? Of course. End of the world? No!

Close your eyes, imagine you are an editor facing hundreds of equally qualified submissions. But the need is a mere handful for one issue. You see, editors jobs are not that easy.

Move on, because rejections are not signs of failure. Each rejection brings us closer to acceptance.

Continue to write and rewrite those articles, stories and essays to perfection. Editors are busy people.

Remember we are trying to make a sale.

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Posted by admin on December 13th, 2009 No Comments

Song Writing Tips For The Beginner Songwriter

Writing songs on the keyboard or piano.

As a song writer, you will always end up with a method that works best for you, whether or not you learn the art of songwriting from a professional songwriter.

I can only speak from my own experience as far as songwriting is concerned, so for myself, playing the guitar and a little piano has helped a lot in my own personal style of songwriting.

For someone just starting out with songwriting, I would suggest buying a small keyboard to help get ideas down.

The nice thing about the piano or keyboard is that if you stick to the key of C, the chords are very easy to play.

Another very usable feature for writing songs on the keyboard is the auto accompaniment function. Setting a good beat and style for a song before you write it can work very nicely towards getting inspired.

A note of caution though, is to remember not to use the one finger feature when creating chords, as you won’t know what it is that you played.

Why I write songs on the guitar.

The main reason why I write songs on a guitar is because that’s my main instrument. Many people who play guitar, even if they are novices at it, somehow, like myself, seem to prefer it as a song writing tool.

As a fairly advanced guitarist, and I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet here, heck, I don’t even own a trumpet.

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Posted by admin on December 11th, 2009 No Comments

Using Popular Songs to Improve Language Listening Comprehension Skills

Are you students sometimes bored in spite of your best efforts? Are you looking for some new and different techniques? Could you use a learning activity that would really wake them up? Would you like to get and keep the students’ interest? Even have them helping you? Then try this classroom-tested technique by using student-selected songs to teach listening comprehension.

Almost everyone loves music. It is a part of our language and life from before birth onwards. As babies, we hear lullabies. As young children we play, sing and dance to a myriad of nursery rhymes. As adolescents, we are consumed by the beat of popular music artists worldwide. As adults, every form of advertising we hear, every special event we experience, is in part, music. Music pervades television, movies, theater, and even the nightly news. When we exercise, when we work, when we play, when we worship and even when we die, music is there to reinforce or alter or every mood and emotion. A catchy tune is played, hummed or sung, at times in our head, as we go about our everyday lives. So, why not include music and songs in language learning as well?

Factors Contributing to Listening Comprehension of Song

• Use of new vocabulary, idioms and expressions – You’ll need to address the new material offered in each song. This includes grammar, vocabulary and usage.

• Pronunciation and accent of the singer – Every native speaker doesn’t pronounce or sing with the same accent. Students may be exposed to an accent which is outside the realm of what they might normally hear in context.

• Use of new grammar and structure Song writers and singers are notoriously “loose” when it comes to use of grammar, structure, pronunciation, stress and other language factors applied to songs. The teacher must prepare for this.

Three Principal Song Selection Criteria

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Posted by admin on December 9th, 2009 No Comments

How to Structure a Song

When thinking about how to structure your song, know that there are no absolutes. There are no wrong ways and right ways. In the popular music culture, there is definitely a predominant structure that is commonly used. But what determines which song structure to use? One important thing to consider when thinking about song structure is the purpose of your song. This will shoot you towards getting a clear idea of how you want to structure your song.

Purpose of your song

What is the purpose of your song? Is it to make money? Is it to get played on the radio? Or maybe you don’t care about the money and the radio play, but you want to make a song that evokes emotion out of its listeners. Maybe your song’s purpose is to stand the test of time and have listeners 40 years from now.

Here’s how the purpose of your song affects your song structure.

If you want to make money with your song by getting it plugged in with pop artists and into the popular radio stations, you want to follow the general song structure that is used. This isn’t true for all cases (example:Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen), but true for most. And what is this general song structure formula? It is along the lines of A-B-A-B-C-B or in other words, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus.

The point of this structure is to have a musical theme set and have it repeat to bring about a sense of familiarity to listeners, then introduce a new section (section C) which gives the listener a sense of freshness. After the new section is introduced, a theme that was introduced before is brought in again which makes the section feel both fresh and familiar. This gives the listener more of a chance to feel hooked in without feeling like the song is boring and repetitive.

This idea of creating a sense of familiarity and variety isn’t constricted to the structure A-B-A-B-C-B. The structure can be expanded to A-B-C-A-B-C-D-B aka verse-prechorus-chorus-verse-prechorus-chorus-bridge-chorus. Another example of an extension is A-B-A-B-A-B-C-B, but be weary of getting the song to sound overly repetitious. You can do this by thinking about varying the instrumentation in each section or even use variations where you might do something a little different in the third verse. Personally, repeating a verse and chorus 3 times before the bridge is too much. I give myself a ‘no more than two’ rule for sections other than the chorus. The chorus is given the ‘no more than three’ rule. You can be creative and add subtle changes to expand A-B-A-B-C-B. Another example is A-B-A-B-C-A-B where you have another verse after the bridge.

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Posted by admin on December 5th, 2009 2 Comments

Tips on Writing Songs

Looking for some tips on writing songs or maybe you are just starting out and need some inspiration. When you decide that you would like to write songs you often look for inspiration but are often unable to find it. The dreaded writers curse writer block has arrived.

If you would like to consistently wright catchy melodies , lyrics or just be able to plan your songs’ structure the is always a place for some inspiration. Song writing uses many skills, the most important being your creativity. Looking to maintain your creative flow with some inspiration, turn those ideas into songs or just simply giving you a new insight is where this article will prove helpful. Here are tips on writing songs.

Writing songs means you have something to say. Write about the things that move you or are important to you. Don’t forget that your song is a journey, take your listener some where interesting, show them something new.

Don’t lose sight of exactly who you are writing that song for. If you are taking some one on that journey make sure you know exactly who that person is and write the song accordingly.

Set your self a goal of writing a new song every day. Now they are not going to be masterpieces but even if it’s only a 40 second song the practice will eventually pay off. Train your brain to write songs-the more you do it the easier it will become.

Think back to a time in your life when you were moved by something, first love, lost love, birth or death, whatever memory has affected you emotionally. When you connect with you listeners you are trying to connect with them emotionally and I suspect most people will have encountered what you are trying to portray in your song.

Don’t ever try and over complicate your songs is a great tips on writing songs. A popular song is just that- popular, and the majority of you audience has only basic understanding of music. If your song is too complicated they will just turn of. If they cannot relate to it and understand it then you will lose them as a listener.

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Posted by admin on November 30th, 2009 No Comments