by Robin Frederick, author “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”

The hottest outlets for original songs in today’s market are film and television. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, House, Smallville, Hannah Montana, and daytime dramas like The Young and the Restless all need songs to add emotional impact to scenes. You can find lists of songs used by many of these shows at tvshowsongs.com.

Songs for film and TV require some special thought. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you write for this market:

=> Music supervisors and Music Libraries are looking for songs that focus on a single emotion. If a song switches emotions, loses emotional focus, or is unclear about the emotion at its heart, it will be a tough sell.

=> Music supervisors LOVE to hear songs that are in the style of today’s hits. If you’ve got a song that has the emotional intensity of hits by Daughtry or Nickelback, you’re in good shape. Be sure that your demo is well recorded with tight musical performances and a lead singer who handles the style well. Take a look at the charts and listen to what’s hot right now. (Go to Billboard.com and click on “Charts.” You can stream the songs you’re interested in.) Look for songs and artists you think sound similar to you. If you don’t have a sound that’s close to any of the artists in the top 20 to 30 spots, consider writing and recording a new song just for this purpose. I don’t mean that you should copy a hit artist, but try to capture the emotional essence of the sound and style.

=> Avoid using proper names, place names, and any references to specific years or time periods. As you can guess, this will limit the opportunities for placing your song. If the hook of your song is “Sarah, I Love You,” a Music Supervisor will have a hard time using it if there’s no character named Sarah in the scene! (It could work as “source music” — music that is playing on a radio in the scene, for instance — but there are fewer opportunities in this area.)

=> Music libraries are looking to get the most placements for the songs they sign. That means that even though there are times when a show might use 15 seconds of a song, there will be another show that needs a minute and a half. Make sure your entire song is well written and the track is broadcast quality — no out-of-tune guitar solos in the bridge, no pitchy vocals. A Music Supervisor or Music Library will not take the time to go through your song looking for the best bits!

=> Notice what works and what doesn’t by watching shows that use a lot of music. Try playing one of your own songs under a scene or two. Does it add to the emotional depth or detract? Try writing a song for a scene. Choose an emotion-filled scene then write a song to underscore it. Keep your demo simple and feature your vocal. Try doing this exercise a few times, then compare these songs with your others to see if there’s a difference in focus and tone.

Copyright 2009 Robin Frederick
“Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” is available at Amazon.com
For daily song tips: Twitter/RobinFrederick

by Robin Frederick, author of “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”

The title of a song is almost always a featured line in the song itself, often the first line or last line of the chorus, making it the line that listeners remember long after the song is over.

A good title is intriguing, evocative, and memorable. The best titles sum up the heart and soul of a song, recalling the whole experience for listeners, making them want to go back and listen again.

Keep it brief. Long titles can work but may be difficult for listeners to remember. These longer titles may be familiar phrases (”I Just Called to Say I Love You” “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”) which are easy to recall. To be safe, stick to five words or less.

Make a statement. One way to be memorable and catch listeners attention is to write a title that makes a strong statement. Nickelback’s “Gotta Be Somebody” is a good example. There’s a sense of urgency built into this phrase, giving the singer something to dig into emotionally.

Use an Intriguing phrase. Beyonce’s recent hit “If I Were a Boy” does exactly that. Don’t you want to know what Beyonce would do if she were a boy? Sure, you do! So the title makes you want to hear the song. Shinedown’s “The Sound of Madness” also has an intriguing title. What does it mean? What does madness sound like? What is this song going to be about?

Try an evocative image. A song title like “Mud On the Tires” works because it’s loaded with associations. The title of this Brad Paisley Country hit features an image that suggests off-roading fun, maybe a wild ride through the fields, or drive to a hidden fishing hole, all of which evoke fond memories and desires in this audience. If you choose a title like this, be aware of your listeners’ expectations and keep them in mind when writing.

Action words add drama and energy. If your title feels like it’s just sitting there, try phrasing it in a more active way. Instead of “I Love You,” try something like “Throw My Arms Around You.” Not only does it replace a familiar statement with an fresher one, it adds the energy of the word “throw.” It also suggests questions that your lyric can answer: What’s the situation? Why does the singer want to do this? How will it feel? How will the other person react?

As most songwriters know, there are many songs with the same (or very similar) titles. Make yours stand out from the crowd by using one of these techniques!

For songwriter tips, games, and hit song analysis, check out my web site: http://www.robinfrederick.com

(c) 2009. Based on “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting: 126 Proven Techniques for Writing Songs That Sell” by Robin Frederick. Available at Amazon.com.

by Robin Frederick, author of “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”

Most hit songs demonstrate at least three or four techniques you can use to broaden the emotional impact and commercial appeal of your own songs. That’s why it’s a great idea for aspiring songwriters (and even successful pro’s) to study recent hits!

It’s important to study songs you admire, not the ones you can’t stand! Look for those hit songs that move you, the ones that appeal most to you, and then ask yourself what that song is doing that draws you in. Of course there are times when I go through the Top 20 songs on the music charts and don’t hear anything that particularly attracts me. In that case, I’ll go back to songs from the previous year or so to look for ideas.

Keep a list of hit songs you like in the genre you’re interested in. Country songs are different from R&B and Rock and Pop. You’re going to hear different approaches to lyrics and melody in every genre. If you’re not sure which genre you want to write in, spend some time exploring each of the four mainstream styles. You can find current music charts and stream the Top 20 songs for free at Billboard.com. Just click on “Charts” at the top of the page, then select the style you want.

In the Hot AC genre, I like Nickelback’s “Gotta Be Somebody,” a big hit in early 2009. Chad Kroeger really knows his craft and this song proves it. Lyrically, he states the theme in the opening lines of the first verse and every lyric line after that leads the listener toward a chorus that sums up the emotional message at the heart of this song. (You can find the lyrics for this song online.)

Melodically, this song is also very strong. Notice in the pre-chorus how Kroeger uses four short phrases that echo each other rhythmically, building tension to the final phrase which he extends by a few extra syllables (”forever with”). This is a great way to build anticipation leading up to your chorus. Then check out how he creates forward momentum in the chorus melody by allowing only very short pauses, just long enough to grab a breath before roaring right into the next line.

In the Country genre, I like Montgomery Gentry’s “One In Every Crowd,” also a hit earlier this year. This is great example of a lyric with plenty of visual detail, a fresh take on the theme, and a powerful melody that builds dynamically through the verse and pre-chorus to a big emotional release. (Lyrics are available online.) The “Hey y’all” secondary hook adds plenty of fun but don’t mistake that for the chorus; it’s just icing on the cake. It doesn’t payoff the verses well enough to work as a stand-alone chorus. If you’re interested in the Country genre, this is an excellent song to study.

For more ideas and analysis, check out my web site at RobinFrederick.com. Just click on “Study the Hits”; you’ll find a detailed look at many of today’s most successful songs.

(c) 2009. Based on “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting: 126 Proven Techniques for Writing Songs That Sell” by Robin Frederick. Available at Amazon.com.

by Robin Frederick, author of “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”

Some songwriters spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting for inspiration. Waiting for an idea. Just waiting. Well, I don’t want you to wait. I want you to start doing, writing, creating. Now.

One of the things songwriters most often seem to wait for is an idea that will launch them into the deep emotional waters of a song. Not only is it unnecessary to hang around hoping an idea will magically appear, it can lead to repetition and stagnation of your creative muscle. It’s funny how, once an idea has worked, it tends to reappear over and over again.

So, here’s an idea…

You might have noticed that songs use many of the same themes that drive other types of dramatic entertainment. Just check out the list of top ten romantic films of all time or today’s favorite contemporary TV dramas. While hit songs tend to focus on relationships and emotions rather than car chases and shoot-outs, they share many of the same dramatic elements: Who is involved? What will happen next? You can use popular movies and TV shows to lead you to themes that pack a big emotional punch both for you and your listeners.

Yes, I’m telling you to watch TV and go to the movies. Remember, it’s important for you to be present emotionally in your song so start by looking for a scene that draws your emotional attention. When did you find yourself getting involved with a character? When did you identify with the character? What was the peak emotional moment for you in this character’s story? Any of these points in a storyline can provide a theme for a song. For example, here’s a scene: The lead character sits alone in a dark room after seeing an ex-lover who is now involved with someone else. If you were watching this scene and you felt moved by it, consider creating a song based on it. Use your imagination to create dialogue, images, background, and specific examples, whatever you need for your song. And you don’t have to limit yourself to romantic themes; you can write social commentary or character songs based on drama and action scenes.

(c) 2009. Based on “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting: 126 Proven Techniques for Writing Songs That Sell” by Robin Frederick. Available at Amazon.com.

by Robin Frederick (author of “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”)

Most songwriters sit down to write when they are going through an emotional time, when feelings are running high. Many great songs — many hit songs — have been written from a songwriter’s private life – the joy, love, grief, and anger of the writer’s own relationships.

So, what happens when a songwriter who has been writing solely from personal experience begins to (or wants to) earn a living from their writing? Let’s say you’re a singer-songwriter with a record deal and you have to write ten new songs for an upcoming album… or you’re a staff writer with a publishing deal who needs to write on demand. Can you rely on your life to provide enough material to keep the songs flowing? Probably not. Even if you could, it might not be the kind of life you’d want to live!

Here are a couple of ideas that can help you get around this problem:

> Use the past.
You already know that as a songwriter you need to write from your heart; you want to express your own thoughts and feelings. If your life isn’t currently filled with drama, try reaching back into the past for an event that still resonates for you, a conversation, person, or situation that has stayed in your memory. If you’ve already written a song or songs about it, consider looking at it from another angle. Try putting yourself in the other person’s place and seeing it from their point of view or use something you’ve learned since that time to add a fresh perspective.

> Imagine a situation.
Shakespeare didn’t have to endure a visit from the ghost of his dead father in order to write Hamlet. By imagining himself in Hamlet’s situation, he was able to create dialogue filled with honest emotions that have moved audiences for hundreds of years. A good writer, whether of plays, songs, or novels, doesn’t have to experience every situation himself in order to write about it truthfully.

The poet John Keats called this ability to project oneself into another’s emotional life “negative capability.” By this he meant a writer’s ability to lose his own ego and become the character he’s writing about. I just call it empathy. A good writer is one who can feel what others are going through and identify with their emotions. As soon as you can do that, you can write about it.

We all experience empathy when we lose ourselves in a good movie, book, or TV program, when we cry over a sad ending or care about what happens to the hero. You can use these empathic feelings as the basis for new songs.

Do It Now!
Choose a situation from your past or watch a dramatic TV show or movie and pick a scene that interests you. Write out the situation in your own words. Try to get inside the emotions of someone in the scene — really BE there. Imagine your surroundings, the past that led up to it and what might happen next. What emotions are you feeling? What you want to say and do in this situation. Make a list of phrases and ideas that describe what you’re feeling. Choose one of these phrases and make it the title of your song. For a variation on this idea, choose your material from a cable news channel and base your song on real people and events.

In my book, “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting,” there are several techniques that will help you develop a complete lyric from your title (Shortcuts #44 – #47), then use the lyric to suggest the raw material for a melody.

Based on “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” by Robin Frederick. Available at Amazon.com. Copyright 2009 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.

by Robin Frederick (author of “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”)

Question: If I listen to a particular song I like, I feel inspired to write a song but when I sit down and try, I end up writing the melody I have just listened to. Do you have any tips?

Answer: Melodies can easily get stuck in our brains. A hit Pop/Rock or Country song melody is very catchy; that’s a large part of the reason it’s a hit. But you’re right; this can be a problem for songwriters. Try this exercise to send your melody in a completely new direction:

1) Start by changing the pitches of the notes in the hit song melody. Just sing or play a note that is higher or lower than the original. Your melody will start to sound slightly different from the original. Play with a lot of different pitch choices. If the hit song melody has an ascending melody line, try one that moves downward. If the hit song melody skips over a few notes you can try staying on the same note without moving at all. Doing this part of the exercise will help you start thinking about note pitch as a separate element you can play with.

2) Now, try changing the lengths of the lines (or “phrases”). A “phrase” is a melodic thought with a natural beginning and end. (Lyric lines often begin and end at the same time as a melodic phrase.) Chop a phrase into two shorter phrases by adding a pause in the middle. Don’t worry about interrupting the flow of the lyric; a pause can often ADD interest to a lyric phrase. You can also add a couple of notes and words to the end of a phrase to extend it.

3) After you play with pitch and phrase length, start exploring the timing of the notes: hold a short note longer, then speed up the notes that follow, or divide a long note into several short ones.

By now, your melody should sound VERY different from the original. Remember, this is just an exercise. You are using the hit song to start training your brain to think about melody in a new way, by identifying the three main elements of a song melody–pitch, phrase length, and rhythm. When you start playing with these, you can shape your melody into anything you want! Practice this exercise to get into the habit of thinking about the different components of melody. It will help you move past those melodic ideas that “just occur to you” but may sound dated or familiar.

Based on “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” by Robin Frederick. Available at Amazon.com. Copyright 2009 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.

Robin Frederick (author, “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”)

    Every successful song has a theme. It’s the emotional message at the very heart of the song. The majority of hit songs are built around love relationship themes: I love you. You don’t love me. Your love saved me. You cheated and I’m jealous. I don’t love you anymore. We’re soulmates. You take me for granted. I miss you. 

    These are a few of the themes that songwriters visit over and over again. For instance, many songs has been written on the theme, “I’m grateful that I have your love.” Because listeners have heard this theme so often, they tend to tune it out, especially if the lyric uses the same images and phrases they’ve heard before.  So, if you want to write about this idea, you’ll need to find a way to bring it to life, make it compelling, intriguing, fresh, and exciting. 

    A great example of a recent hit song based on this theme is Alicia Keys’ “Like You’ll Never See Me Again.” In this lyric, Keys explains how she avoids taking love for granted, and urges her lover to do the same, by remembering that life itself is fleeting, sometimes separations cannot be avoided. “Kiss me like you’ll never see me again” ” ‘Cause Lord only knows another day is not really guaranteed.” 

    Her message is serious: I’m grateful that I have your love in this moment because I know we might not be here tomorrow. There’s a feeling of urgency, of mortality. Mortality isn’t an idea we usually associate with love relationships, so it gives the song’s theme a powerful, unique emotional slant. Listeners are likely to be intrigued, perhaps stop and consider their own relationships. This is exactly what you, as a songwriter, want them to do! 

DO IT NOW: 

1. Choose a theme you’d like to write about. Maybe it’s something you learned from a love relationship, or something you’ve observed about life, or something you believe or feel. 

2. Personalize your theme. Use “I” or “my” in the phrase. If your theme is “Love lasts forever,” try changing it to “My love for you will last forever.” When you make it something that has happened to YOU, the theme starts to suggest situations you can use to get your point across.

3. Now explain what you mean. Make a list of different ways you could make someone understand what you feel. Try writing sentences that start with: 

“It’s as if I…” 

“It feels like…”

“In other words…”

    Imagine that you still haven’t reached the other person with your message. Try harder to explain what you mean. Use examples, images, be as persuasive as you can! Write down everything that comes to you. Don’t think about rhyming or line lengths, just write down all your ideas. Take a break, then come back and write even more. It’s important that you communicate what you feel and persuade the other person that they should feel as you do. Try starting some of your sentences with:

“Let me explain…”

“Look at it this way…”

“Imagine that…”

“This is what I mean…”

“It’s like…”

You can drop these starting phrases later on or just keep them in your head as you write.  

    Now take a look at everything you wrote.   Is there a sentence or phrase that offers a new insight into your theme, a fresh way to look at it? Do you feel that you persuaded the other person of your point? If not, keep writing. 

    When you feel you’ve expressed your idea effectively, try using some of this material as the basis of a verse and chorus lyric. Look for the line that you think explains your idea in the most powerful way and put that line into your chorus. You might even consider making it the title of your song. Then, work up a verse lyric that supports your chorus and leads the listener toward it. 

    This is the kind of lyric that has the potential to catch the ears of an audience and make them listen to you because YOU have something to say that they haven’t heard before. Everyone is interested in a new way of thinking about emotions, life, or love. If you’ve got an insight, a little twist, a fresh approach, something surprising to say, there’s an audience that will want to hear you!

Based on “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” by Robin Frederick

Copyright 2009 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.

Robin Frederick (author, ”Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting”)

I recently read an article about Gracenote, the company that delivers info to your iPod and computer music player that tells you what song you’re listening to by which artist. The article offers an insight into something I wrote in a recent post about the importance of music genres. Here’s an excerpt from the Gracenote article…

“Gracenote’s genre classification system enables listeners to get the most out of their music collections by enabling them to automatically select the type of music they want to listen to, whether it’s “Jazz,” “Rock” or “Dance.” Created using an analysis of user preferences combined with the expertise of Gracenote’s music editorial team, Gracenote genre classifications enable developers to provide a tried-and-true list of music categories that simplify and enhance the user listening experience. Gracenote genre classifications also make it easy for users to organize and sort music, create customized playlists and discover new music, helping them enjoy the overwhelming amount of digital music now readily available.” (Market WIre)

So Gracenote is going to decide what genre your song is in. I notice this is based on a combination of “analysis of user preferences” — read ’software program’ — and “Gracenote’s music editorial team” — read ‘REAL PEOPLE’!!! Yes, real people are going to listen to your music and classify it! It will then be organized for listeners, even delivered to new listeners, who like that genre.

But what if it’s not clear what genre your song is in? What if a member of Gracenote’s “music editorial team” puts you in Easy Listening when you really want to be in Rock?  What if you are in a 1980s-sort-of-funky-folk-thing genre and the music editorial team doesn’t know where to put you?

Try deciding ahead of time what genre you think is the best fit for you. Be honest. Listen to your music like an audience member. If you can’t do that, try asking a few acquaintances or even strangers who they think you sound like. (Don’t ask close friends and family. They’ll just tell you what you want to hear!) 

Truth is, each of the mainstream genres is flexible. A Pop/Rock song may fit into the Rock genre or the Pop genre. But there is a core sound that defines many of the hits in each style. Spend some quality time listening to and studying the hit songs at the top of the charts in the genre you want to be in. Do your songs sound similar in some ways? In many ways? In no ways? Maybe you could add a few more of these elements to your song before you record it, and then aim your production in the same direction to add even more strength. 

Think like a listener. Put together a playlist of hit songs in a given genre and drop your song into the middle. Play your playlist in the car. When your song comes on, does the flow of music continue or is it interrupted in an uncomfortable way? Genres are about the listener, making the experience of listening to music an enjoyable one. To help Gracenote, as well as radio programmers and listeners, create that flow, blend the elements of a given genre into your song and sound. 

Based on “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” by Robin Frederick

Copyright 2008 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.