How to Make It in the Music Industry

Stratums are ‘note-ranges’ in music, and planning stratums are important for making tracks sound professional. They will prevent the melody getting muddled up and losing focus. The listener will naturally hear the melody as the highest note, so it’s important not to have higher notes from elsewhere above the melody line.

Typical stratums in music are the bass stratum, chord stratum and melody stratum. Crucially, if the tune were played on the piano, you would be able to divide the keys for each stratum, and the notes relevant to that stratum would never leave that range. This prevents, say, for example, a note of chord stratum appearing inside the melody stratum. Working in this way will produce a much more balanced, less ‘messy’ and more ’solid’ sound.

My Chords Don’t Fit

For bass notes that drift into the chord stratum, drop them an octave.

For chords that do not fit within their stratum, you should invert the chord. Inversion means playing the same chord but reordering the notes… e.g. C Major - C E G might be rearranged and played (from low to high) as E G C. Notice that this now means that the root note of the chord, C, is now the highest note. This might make the chord sound ‘thinner’, however, when played with the bass stratum, this illusion vanishes, and the chord will flesh out.

Don’t Clutter Vocals

If you are using harmonies for vocals, consider carefully how using the harmony will affect the listener’s perception of the melody. Usually, harmonies lower than the melody will not affect the way the melody sounds. If the harmony is higher than the melody, you might find the listener singing the harmony instead of the melody, and this will weaken the melody. Make sure you consider how any arrangement will be perceived by the listener.

Conclusion

Stratums might seem like a chore to think about, but the only reason that this discussion exists is because it is a more advanced technique of improving a track in a methodical way, and you should at least try arranging your tunes with the stratums in mind and seeing if they sound better. Often, they will.

If you are the singer or songwriter of a band, you have a pretty substantial responsibility. One way or another,the music will be cast in your own image. If you do not play any instruments but only sing, the challenge can be tougher when having to write songs. You will need to write with a band.

So here is my golden rule for songwriting with a band: turn up with lyrics. Ideally learn them. Do not come in hoping you will be inspired during the practice- you probably won’t. Make sure you have a decent selection, a lot of stuff might not work the way you planned. Turning up without anything is seriously bad form.

The process of writing songs with a band can sometimes be more natural than with a solo artist. The guitarist will probably play something, and everybody else will join in. You then do your best to adlib a melody for your lyrics over what is played. Usually this manifests in a variety of revisions suggested by different band members until the song begins to sound pretty good. Funnilly enough, this doesn’t always depend on the talent of the individual members of the band. Often a band will be formed with very capable musicians, who are incapable of playing together (’Dreamtheater’ is a good example of this). Such a substantial part of it is chemistry that nothing could be better than a bunch of friends getting together to have fun playing (e.g. ‘Arctic Monkeys’).  Consquently, chill out and don’t worry too much about it. Ego and music rarely mix.

Remeber the golden rule number 1, always make sure you turn up with well penned lyrics. The quality will be much higher and all the other problems will work themselves out.

Writing a song without physically ever writing it down, but just working it out in your head and on instruments of your choice may seem tough, until you’ve done it. But it’s a practice I find works well. Celebrated rapper Jay-Z (reputed by some to be the best rapper in the world) is well known for writing his tracks simply by listening to the backing on loop and working it all out, without pen and paper, and when he’s ready, he delivers it to the mic.

Why You Might Want to Try This

In my experience, this method of writing produces better songs. This is for several reasons. Unless the lyric you come up with is any good, you’ll forget it in no time. This is good because it disposes of less than golden lines. Secondly, working something like this out will require you to practice over and over, and use your ears. This means that the finished product is very well rehearsed, and all the writing and lyrical glitches and bumps are ironed out. Most experienced song writings will be able to relate to this in some shape or form.

The best songs I’ve written have been mostly or entirely worked out this way. These days I write down much less than used to, but conversely play much more.

How to Do It

Easy. Play your guitar/piano /whatever over and over again and sing over it. Just make up the words, any crap, doesn’t even have to make sense. That will give you a natural hook all on it’s own. I find if you don’t constrain yourself you automatically gravitate to a strong melody. Now repeat, over, and over, and over, everyday, and the ideas will surely come. Sometimes I am cycling ideas around literally for months, a few times every day, and the end result is then a masterpiece.

It’s Easy

This is a very easy thing to do and very effective. Don’t be put off because you sound stupid just babbling at first, or because the songs you are singing naturally aren’t the songs you want to sing (e.g. if you want to sing about death but all you end up writing are love songs, get over it, you’re a romantic). Make sure you don’t try and force yourself in any particular direction too early on.

Probably my best song to date (’Don’t Fall For Me’, which you will hear when the studio sessions are over), was written this way.

Conclusion

There is a case against this method- I have also had brilliant success writing by other means, and this merely proves there are no rules in songwriting. The best thing to do is keep this in mind, and one day pull it out of the hat and write a splendid tune with it.

This is a method I rarely use, but my friend Bonnie swears by it, so I’ll share it with you. It can be applied to things other than songwriting too.

Songwriting is often 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. The second part is the hard part, taking an idea and making a finished song out of it.

The coffee cup method is simple. You go to a coffee shop, and you sit down at a table, on your own, and you sit and drink coffee until you finish writing your song. This frees you from distractions and focusses you on the task at hand. You are not permitted to leave until the song is complete, and the more coffee you drink the more you will want to finish it, as I’m sure too much coffee will make you feel ill.

Like I said, I don’t always use this method but I will admit songwriting is often just a matter of ‘turning up’ and putting in the time, and the results come after a hard slog. I’ve used this method before for some tunes, and it can work wonders, usually by ending months of creative procrastination in just a couple of hours that weren’t so hard after all.

Good luck.

I think this article I have found online captures the whole essence of songwriting in a conscise fashion. Of course, nobody can tell you how to write brilliant songs, but advice is helpful. Rather than create an inferior article, you can read it directly from the link below.

The article can be found here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Song

Here is a simple trick that you can use in songs to make them sound a lot slicker.  Contra-melody is a term I have made up to describe it, and the principle is very simple.

If you have a descending bass line or descending chords, you have a melody that is ascending, i.e. for each note the bass line goes down, your singing melody takes a higher note, or vice versa.

This tends to create a more epic feel, and it is why you will hear this kind of melody a lot in classical or theatrical music. It has a knack of sounding great to the listener when used right.

In this article we are going to discuss a very simple concept, that is question and response melodies. We are not, in this article, referring the questions and answers with respect to lyrics.

Usually melodies appear in couplets, or pairs, where the melody is different. So if a verse had four lines you might have (in a relatively simple song):
Line 1 Melody 1
Line 2 Melody 2
Line 3 Melody 1
Line 4 Melody 2

where Melody 1 is the question and Melody 2 in the response. This means that Melody 1 (question) will end on a high note (like when asking a question, and this leaves the melody ‘unresolved’), and Melody 2 (response) ends on a lower or root note (the ’solution’).

Question and Response is a very natural structure and is present in most melodic music, including classical, jazz and pop. It is worth mentioning that most composers will have formed melodies in this way naturally, without realising that they have done so. Therefore it is probably best to be aware of question & response when writing, but without directly forcing it upon any melody or song.

This, ladies and gents, is more important than it seems. If your tunes are any good, you might find yourself the envy of less accomplished writers. This is a good thing, but it has it’s drawbacks. The main one is being ripped off. This is a bad thing because somebody else is benefiting from your work without you receiving your fair share of the credit. The ‘International Association of Songwriters’ cites a case in their guide where a budding songwriter sent a reputable music publishing company a demo, and some months later, a friend heard the entire first verse in a song on the radio. He had no proof of copyright, and needless to say the publisher had no recollection of the demo. Consequently, he had no case against them.

Getting Ripped Off By Your Mates

This happens more often that not. What can happen is that you play your song or idea to your friend, who is also a budding musician, and they think, “that idea is bloody fantastic”. Then, secretly, they use this idea, and heavily incorporate it into a song of their own. They play this song to lots of people, or record it, but never play it you, or are embarrassed or nervous to do so. This is darn right theft, but, there is a good reason behind it. Everybody is desperate in this game, and sometimes you just have better ideas than others. The feeling of desperation may overcome some people who really struggle with songwriting or creativity, and may lead to them leeching ideas out of frustration. So, the lesson is, be careful, and follow the instructions below.

Copyrighting Made Easy

When you write a song, it is copyrighted automatically as yours. But, from a legal perspective, you have to be able to prove that you wrote your song and when you wrote it.

The easiest, most common, oldest tried and tested way of doing this is super simple:

1. Write down your lyrics, and include your name on the same sheet.
2. Put in an envelope.
3. Include any recordings if you have any.
4. Seal the envelope.
5. Write your name and address on the front.
6. Put a stamp on it and post it to yourself.

The postmark, stamped by the post office, which includes the date, is proof enough in most legal eyes that you wrote the song on or before this date. If you have written a decent tune, this could mean the difference between making money of music, and being ‘oh-so-close’ and bitter for the rest of your days.

All songs have a structure, whether intentional or not. Songs can have any kind of structure, although some are more common than others. Different kinds of music use different structures, be it jazz, classical, rock, hip hop or anything else. Songs can be completely different from each other but share a similar structure. Structure is particularly important because it gives the listener something to get their head around; music without some kind of structure is very unlikely to attract much attention.

The Bog Standard ‘Pop’ Song Structure

I want to discuss this song structure for two main reasons. One, because it is the most common. Two, because, in my experience, it works very well at maintaining listener interest, not matter what more pretentious artists might say.

It goes something like this:

Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Chorus
Bridge
Chorus

Obviously there are no rules when it comes to songwriting, however this song structure has a knack of keeping the listener interested throughout, despite how often it is used. I have no idea why this is the case. It is worth pointing out that people never sat down and decided that this song structure would yield the most money making records, rather, it has evolved naturally over many years and seems to be the kind of structure that gives songs a good balance.

My own personal experience of it is that it works very well indeed. It has a knack of making songs sound professional. In my opinion, listeners often naturally expect songs to take this structure, and subconsciously prefer it when the song structure is familiar.

It also makes quite a good template for writing songs. Often, I might have a verse and a chorus, but not a bridge, and this forces me to write another section, which usually works out very positively.

The Pre-chorus Variation

A good (or may be even better) variation on this structure is to include a pre-chorus between verses and choruses. In some cases this can remove the need for a bridge, as it makes the song longer

A good example of this (apologies for stylistic choice but we all know the tune) is in Avril Lavigne’s Complicated.

Verse 1

Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you’re acting like you’re somebody else gets me frustrated
Life’s like this you
And you fall and you crawl and you break
and you take what you get and you turn it into honesty
and promise me I’m never gonna find you fake it
no no no

And so on…

There are many reasons why this song was so successful, but strict adherence to an obvious structure was key.

Smarter Technique - Following Through Sections

You can improve the slickness of your melody and lyric if you can make it follow through from section to section, e.g. from Verse to Pre-chorus to Chorus. If you look closely at Complicated lyrics above, you will notice that the lyric flows between the sections without pausing (in other words you could not end a sentance at the of a section or it wouldn’t make sense). This kind of lyrics makes the song sound snappier, slicker, and keeps it moving. It also makes the whole thing sound effortless, rather than creating a more fragmented feel by focussing on each section seperately.

Conclusion

Structure is key. Make sure your songs have good structure. If you’ve only got a first verse and chorus, force yourself write a second verse. If you’ve got verses and chorus, force yourself to write a bridge. Keep going, and you find that you naturally start making your songs more interesting, and the whole standard of what you do improves.

It is very common to hear aspiring musicians say “I want to concentrate on my own music.” Usually this has one of two consequences, the person ends up practicing endlessly in their bedroom, with no audience, and no band, or the musician ends up spending hours dilly dallying in front of the computer trying to record their songs, or a combination of the two.

Neither of these are a bad thing, BUT, few people succeed on their own. There’s a lot to be said to for getting the vibe when playing a band that suddenly fills people with inspiration. For example, the drummer will play a beat and suddenly the guitarist joins in with a fantastic part that just naturally fits. This sort of thing happens all the time when playing with others. It’s rarely possible for one person to have all the ideas, and often good musicians can take mediocre tunes and turn them into masterpieces.

A second reason for working with other people is that its social. Getting signed is as much a matter of who you know as how good you are. If there are two of you, the number of contacts you have has suddenly doubled, 5 of you, 5x time the contacts & opportunity. For example, here is what happened to me last week:

I replied to an ad on www.gumtree.com looking for an acoustic guitarist to play along with a soul singer. I thought why not, in the worst case I’ll meet an attractive girl and in the best case she’ll be an amazing singer too. Turns out she was amazing (and attractive though attached). While rehearsing, I played one of my songs to her and her flatmate. Turns out her flatmate is a p/a for a leading music law firm in London. What are the odds? A music law firm has a big interest in getting artists signed as they can recruit them as clients. She said the tune I played was top 40 for sure, and she’d take my demo and play it round. I know better than to take compliments like that easily, but now there is an opportunity which occurred just because I followed a social path and made a connection.

Another good reason for playing with other people is that they can be better than you. For example, I can play the guitar quite well; I’ve been playing for years. But I’m unlikely to be able to kick out a solo like Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb solo anyday soon. But somebody else certainly will be able to, and if they did it on my tunes, all the better. I like to surround myself with really good musicians who are better than me, they can make my tunes sound amazing. Usually they’re all too happy to play if I lead them and write the material.

Performing as a band is far more interesting than a solo performer. There is only so long that an anonymous solo artist, performing orginal material, can hold the interest of the audience. A band can let you explore territory that just isn’t possible on your own.

Recording as a band is also brilliant. Records that have been to a click, with sampled drums (even very good sampled drums) sound lifeless, and nothing like a live record, which usually sounds ‘hot’.

My compadres and I have realised (and voiced it) that no one of us is good enough to make it alone. We realise that if we help each other, and bring our particular skills together, we stand a much better chance. I’m more than happy to play other people’s songs if they write them!

In truth though, the best reason to play with others, more than any other, is that it’s damn good fun, and you will have many adventures together that will be memorable in years to come. I fill my life with colour and music and I love it for that reason.