Songwriting

Today a songwriter I met earlier in the year came over to see about collaborating with me. Her background has been in Country music and playing with a band. Her name is Irene. I forgot to get her last name. She came to one of my CAP shows and thought it would be good to see what kind of writing we could do together.

First we did the girl thing and talked for awhile. Then she played me some of her music. There are 2 songs of mine that she really likes “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “Wakantanka”. She asked me to play them and started singing some harmonies. It was cool and they sounded pretty. Every singer has their own harmony style. Hers is nice.

After that we decided that we should start working on a song. We decided it would be easiest to start with a chord and a rhythm. She likes Marshall Tucker’s song ”Fire On The Mountain” so we started with E to C on that groove. Then we structured our own verse, chorus and bridge sections. We’re going to work on the words next week.

One of the basic pop song structures is Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Out. Every song I have ever written using that structure usually gets a good response. There are a lot of songs I’ve written that don’t follow a structure like that, but once I learned what that structure was it made songwriting more of a formula.

Some people could argue that using a song structure isn’t artistic, but to me if I’m any good at my craft I should be able to create in any format I choose to. It’s kind of like poetry. I don’t have to write haiku, but if I take my vision as a writer and plug it into that established structure it becomes an interesting exercise for me in being concise.

Basically, when I’m writing a song, I’m communicating something I care about with words and music. Choosing words to convey thoughts and feelings with a melody in a given pop structure is dynamic because it requires some foreshadowing in the story with what the chorus says and how it carries the listener through to the end of the song.

I’m curious to write songs with Irene and see what we come up with. Sometimes collaboration works beautifully and when it does it can be very cool. Writing has mostly been a form of therapy and a platform for me to share ideas. This will take what I’m doing to another place in a new way. I’m excited to see how it goes.

Blessings!
Laura

If you want to hear a song I used the pop structure with, listen to “Somehow My Heart” in the online store at:
http://www.LauraCohnMusic.com
Where Music Meets Artistry