{ Lick That Riff! }

Soooo, a post about songwriting. Well, didn’t think that I would do a post about songwriting but a friend convinced me to share some tips with you. Instead of putting it all in one big post I’ve decided to write a series of posts so that you all can take it step by step! Please bare in mind that a lot of this drab has been paraphrased and taken from a Total Guitar issue on songwriting.

This week I am going to concentrate mainly on three aspects of songwriting. These will become clearer later on in the post.

Firstly a definition:

Songwriting – Songwriting is the ability to write lyrics and compose musical composition or melody, whilst joining these two aspects together. Someone who just writes lyrics is a Lyricist. Someone who just composes music and melody is a Composer.

Before I start I would like to say that Songwriting, in its simplest form, is extremely easy! Now I know a lot of you might not agree with that statement, and I also know a lot of you will. If you listen to most of the greatest songwriters out there they will all give off the impression that there is some mysterious art to the world of songwriting, or that there is some helping hand from God. That may be true for about one in one thousand songs written, but in all it’s not. As a guitaring magazine once wrote, “It’s nine parts perspiration and one part… Creative Borrowing.”

And they are right! Don’t be afraid to ever borrow creative idea’s from another song, as 99% of the time, this is exactly what your heroes have done before you. The first thing to remember when songwriting is that nearly every song has rhythm, melody, tempo, key, lyric, time signature and a lil more thrown in for good measure. Even any song those twins from X Factor write will have these things. The other things that as a guitarist you can throw in are an intro, solo, riff, middle eight, harmony and arrangement.

So here’s the first aspect I’m going to look at.

Melody

Essentially, melody is a sequence of notes in a unique order. Well, so is your phone number when dialled on a touch-tone pad. Memorise the 11 digit series of tones, split them into sections of three, four and three, lengthen some notes and shorten others. There it is; your first line of melody. The rest of the melody will be inversions of this first line.

Rhythm

You’ve got a hundred different styles to choose from, all listed on the menu of that old Casio Keyboard you got in the 90′s for Christmas one year; Salsa, Disco, Shuffle, Reggae, etc. Chances are you’ll play it safe and choose ‘Classic Rock.’ Fair enough. But remember good rhythms can also be born out of open ears and open minds. From the hammer falling in the Deep South chain gangs that turned slave spirituals into the blues, to the sound of the subway train that inspired The Bee Gee’s Jive Talking, rhythms are all around us in everyday life. So go out on the street and listen to the traffic. Go to the creche and listen to them babies crying. Go to the gym and hear people pumping iron!

And rhythms are, in fact, surprisingly similar and adaptable. Listen to the riff that syncopates the beat on Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, and then Led Zeppelin’s Trampled Underfoot – Spookily Similar aren’t they? So before you start try to leave genre snobbery behind.

Tempo

Tempo is the speed at which the song is played. Let’s say you’ve got your four chords and a rough idea of a melody. Try it slower. Now increase the speed a bit. It sounds stupidly simple. But just remember Fatboy Slim earned a mint by speeding up Cornershop’s Brimful Of Asha, and calling it a remix. But he was right: A couple of beats per minute faster and a drab indie trundler was turned into a sprakling guitar/dance crossover hit!

The trick here is to get your bpm right. One notch either way can make a huge difference to the feel of your song, so try lots of tempos until one feels right.

To help you out, you can call upon some standard clichés. For Example, most dance music has a very strict bpm guide set at a rhythm that’s a notch ahead of the human heartbeat, leading to the desired effect of euphoria. Conversely, Reggae and some trance tracks take the bpm down to a rate just below the heart rate, causing a chilled out effect. When it comes to straightforward rock, this music favours the ‘f-beat’ – the carnal rhythm. Shagging in other words. Presumably varies depending on the age of the band.

So that's this weeks post on songwriting with a few tips thrown in from me. Hope you enjoyed it and I hope I might have inspired you to write some anthems in your life. If I have be sure who to credit it to

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