For Revising:
In the first week we paid close attention to pronouns, the cast members in the movies in our songs. This week, I would like to encourage us to pay attention to verb tense: the setting and time of our songs. How does a song change when you set it all in the past tense? All in the present? The future, even? What happens if the chorus suggests one tense and the verses another? Be aware of the ways in which the present tense can sound, at times, like the statement of a truth or the assertion of a principle, whereas the past tense might feel more like a biographical or historical fact. How does a tense shift impact the scope of your song's message? Its impact? What is gained or lost when you shift the tenses?
For Creating:
Since so many of these concepts have been lyrical ones, what follows is a musical imperative. Write a song in which you use the HOME chord (the 1 chord, the tonic, the chord that bears the same name as the key) as few times as possible. As if it were a rare and precious coin you were going to spend but you only own one (or two, or three, or...). What happens, for instance, if you...
- only use it once (like in the bridge)?
- as the last chord of the chorus?
- as the first chord of the chorus?
- in a seemingly inconsequential place in the verse (in other words, touch "home" but don't begin or end up there)
What emotional energy does this withholding create? Does it impact your melodic choices as well? Treating the 1 chord like it is precious currency gives us a heightened awareness of its power and worth. Sometimes what is not said speaks loudest in our songs. Or as Miles Davis once remarked when asked how to craft a solo: "Think of a note and don't play it."
Exercises like these arise from the class The Songwriter's Workshop at The Songwriting School of Los Angeles. Every Wednesday night, songwriters gather to play songs or songs-in-progress for feedback and constructive input from their peers, the faculty moderators, and regular industry guests. To discuss your own candidacy for this audition-only class, call 818-848-7664.
© Rob Seals, 2010, for The Songwriting School of Los Angeles. All Rights Reserved.
