A SONG DOCTOR'S CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING & REVISING SONGS

In THE ROOTS songwriting class we explore the roles of the right- and left-brain: the “Artist” and the “Critic,” and train them to work together like a great co-writing team.  More Lennon & McCartney, less Curly & Moe.

The more the Artist can be freed to generate ideas and the Critic can be charged with finding what interests us (and not with poking us in the eyes for what does not interest us...), the more powerfully and freely we might express our truth.

The time to edit is not when we are dreaming up the song. That is the time to play, bravely and presently. When we find ourselves at the feet of a first draft, or typically putting a tag on the cold toe of that draft, the creative act of editing and revising can revive the dying song.

If we don't have access to a song doctor in the odd hours of the night, here is a partial checklist to help us make good decisions about the health of the song. Each idea stocks our writerly bag with a practical tool to examine the song (like a stethoscope for a wheezing rhythm and rhyme or an x-ray for a hard to spot message in the chorus). The checklist might help us bring the song to life for a listener.


PART 1:  LYRICS
VOICE and POINT OF VIEW
•    In what person is the song written (first=I/me/we/us; second=you; third=he/him, she/her, they/them)?  Is this the most effective way to communicate these ideas?  What happens when you re-cast the movie (change the point of view)?
•    Is the voice of the song believable and consistent? 
•    Do the words emanating from that voice sound like the kind of things that voice would say?

LANGUAGE AND DETAIL
•    If a song is a 3:30 movie, the songwriter is not just the screenwriter but the prop-master, location scout, cinematographer, editor, director, etc.  Writers use imagery to accomplish these tasks. Details must serve multiple roles:  not only to set the scene but to tell the story and communicate its emotional weight.  Does the song have any details that do this?  In other words, can you find any nouns that are actual THINGS (car keys, faded photograph, torn letter, etc.) and not just CONCEPTS (love, chance, anxiety, etc.)?
•    If the song creates a metaphor, does that metaphor make sense?  Is the song consistent with the metaphor?  Does the song involve too many metaphors or perhaps mix them and thus weaken the central one?
•    Is the language beautiful?  Pleasing?  Memorable?  How could it be more so?

THE NARRATIVE
•    If there is a story, does it make sense?
•    Most powerful stories involve conflict.  Does this song have a conflict?  Does the conflict feel meaningful?
•    Does the story begin in a compelling place?  In other words, has the songwriter included lines or a verse that they needed to write in order to arrive where they did, but that the listener did not need to hear?  The songwriter must get us to the starting point as economically as possible.
•    Examine the timeline of the story:  does it unfold in the most powerful way?  Often, the linear, chronological timeline does not yield the most powerful story.
•    Does the resolution feel “earned”?  Does it have power?  Is this where the song should end?  In other words, did it go too far or not far enough?

MEANING AND MESSAGE
•    For songs in the popular tradition, the chorus (or if there’s no chorus, the repeated refrain) should package and convey the largest idea of the song.  Does the chorus successfully do that?  Memorably?  Artfully?  In a fresh way?
•     Not all songs have a bridge, but if you decided your song needed one, the bridge affords the lyricist not only the opportunity to introduce a fresh perspective but to deepen our understanding of the message in the chorus.  Does the bridge bring something fresh lyrically to this song? 


RHYTHM AND RHYME:  MEANING BY SOUND AND SENSE
•    Songs of course do not have to rhyme.  But if they do, they must do so with a natural feel so that the rhymes themselves have an inevitability about them.  Assess the rhymes in the song.  If they clumsily or predictably call attention to themselves, they break the spell of the song, and rather than aiding its unfolding they inhibit.
•    The strong line should come second in a rhyming pair.  Often when our rhymes sound “cheesy” we have written a great line...and then tried to rhyme with it.  If the power of rhyme is the sense of expectation it creates in the listener, the strong line must be the rhyme, not the set-up.  How does flipping the order of lines impact the meaning and sounds of the line? 
•    Do the lines possess a clear rhythmic pattern?  Variations in the pattern can have a pleasing effect.  But we must first create a pattern for a variation to have impact.  Otherwise we simply have a variety.  Seek the difference between a stylistic choice that introduces valuable surprise to a line and a hastily composed line whose rhythm feels bulky and awkward.

STRUCTURE
•    If a song’s structure serves as the road map for the listener on his or her journey through the song, was this map constructed properly?  Do we stay too long in one place, lyrically or musically?  Do we arrive at the right place at the right time?  Is there enough consistency to promote memorability and clarity (familiarity), yet enough pleasing variations to hold our interest (surprise)?
•     As human beings our brains enjoy symmetry:  when a structure is evenly balanced.  But beware the “structural fatigue” a listener can experience when that desire for balance leads us to create predictable structures, without genuine and pleasing structural surprises in them.  How symmetrical is this song?  What could you do to mess up its hair?  Drop the second pre-chorus?  Make the second verse half as long?  Start the song with just the hook?  Bring the bridge back in the out? 
•    Think of your songs as being modular:  parts are interchangeable, movable, and removable.  This re-introduces artist-like playfulness in what can feel like a left-brain task.  The right brain’s gift is for spotting patterns.  Engage it and let it tinker with the structure until the song feels like a toy you can’t put down.  We might not be able to either.

This leads us naturally to an examination of music, which we will deal with next time.

(Some of these materials were first published in 2007 and have been revised for this publication.)

Coming...

PART 2:  MUSIC
This will include a discussion of components such as
-    Melody
-    Harmony
-    Groove
-    Dynamics