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The Art of Songwriting: Panel 3
Dissecting the craft with a panel of experts.
By: Gina Kay Singerhouse
Jack Rosenquist
It's a beautiful August night, up here in the Northwoods. The moon is full as it casts it's rays to light up the dark earth below. The Native Americans call this moon the Sturgeon Moon because they knew that the sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes were most readily caught during this full moon. Nonetheless it's gorgeous in all its beauty.
The Northwoods is alive on this full moon night. I feel like I am at a symphony as the sounds of frogs, crickets and toads ride upon the gentle breeze. I am sitting on a bench underneath my big Catelpa tree that is amongst my flower gardens; while listening to Mother Nature's music. The gardens are filled with moon lit magic as off in the distance I see the fire flies as they dance to the harmonizing melodies provided by the wildlife that live in my gardens. The only thing missing is the beat of a Native American drum.
It's a melody that I have heard so many times before, as I love to relish in what the silence of the night can bring. All day long I hear the dreadful hum of human kind as they go about their daily living. Nevertheless when night falls, and man is silenced, that is when the world comes alive as the creatures of the night sing their song. Its this melody that captures my heart as it drifts into my soul.
Each year we, at Strictly Country, listen to thousands of songs. We are always looking for that one particular song that will touch your heart as it enters into your soul. The song can be a heartfelt ballad that may bring tears to your eyes or it can be a light hearted melody that encourages you to stand up and dance. Either way, it touches you in such a manner that you beg to listen to it over and over again.
Too frequently, we are entertained by albums filled with songs with the same melodies. As the years progress, we find that majority of the songs released by various entertainers often contain duplicate and identical melodies. It's these duplicate melodies mixed with substandard lyrics that have prompted us to turn to the experts on the process of songwriting. Back in March, we started this extended article as we explored The Art of Songwriting.
So to help us all understand the songwriting process we thought that we would open up this discussion to the professionals. I put the call out to some of our friends who happen to be entertainers, songwriters and teachers of songwriting to come together to help us understand and address these issues. In each issue of Strictly Country, we will address another concern about songwriting and we will discuss each of these with our panel of professionals. Let me introduce you to our panel of professionals...
The first to join our panel is Mark 'Brink' Brinkman. Brink is one of the most sought after songwriters in Bluegrass, Country and Gospel genres. His songs have been recorded by some of the most notable entertainers including Larry Sparks, Grasstowne, Don Rigsby, Lou Reid & Carolina, Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road and Dave Adkins. He has won various awards including six Spirit Awards. Today, he continues to write songs and is also a songwriting instructor.
Our next expert is Judy Rodman. Judy hit the country music scene with her 1986 hit song "Until I Met You." Throughout her vocal career, she has sung background vocals for some of country music's most notorious entertainers like Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette. Prior to the release of her third album, her record label folded. Instead of being in the spotlight of the music industry, Rodman focused on the behind the scenes portion. She has earned a wide variety of awards including the 2016 Spirit Award - President Choice Award for Best Country Album for her album Here We Are, recorded with her husband John Rodman. Today, she is an award winning vocal coach, recording artist, stage and television performer, public speaker, author, multi-genre hit songwriter, studio producer and vocal consultant.
Joining our panel next is Rick Stanley. Rick is the second cousin of the infamous Stanley Brothers, Carter and Ralph Stanley. Growing up Rick spent many hours with his father, Carter and Ralph singing and enjoying time through music. By the age of fifteen, Rick penned the very famous Bluegrass song "Home In The Mountains." The song was originally recorded by Ralph Stanley, however, it was recorded by many other great Bluegrass artists and even earned Rick a Grammy nomination. In the 1990's he held a major publishing deal with Maypop Music and enjoyed touring with Stonewall Jackson. Today, Rick tours with his wife Donna Ulisse as a member of The Poor Mountain Boys. He also continues to write songs and is an instructor for Donna's Songwriting Escape workshops.
Our final professional to join our panel is Donna Ulisse. Donna first emerged onto the music scene in the 1980's as a demo singer and background vocalist in Country music. In 1991, she released her debut album Trouble At The Door. Since then she has merged over to Bluegrass and recorded nine more albums. Donna is another very highly sought after songwriter in Bluegrass. She has earned many numerous award nominations and has earned The Spirit Award's coveted President's Choice Award for Best Bluegrass Album for Hard Cry Moon in 2016. Her songs have been recorded by a variety of artists. In 2014, Donna wrote her first book, The Songwriter In Me, to earn great reviews. Today, she continues to demo, write songs and tour with her band The Poor Mountain Boys. She also is the owner and teacher of Songwriting Escape, a touring songwriting workshop.
Of course I have to add Jack and I to this panel as well. Jack is my co-host of Strictly Country's Friday night radio show Around The Campfire. Jack served in the United States Army, is a fan and a great aficionado of Rock, Country and Bluegrass music. As for myself, for over twenty-three years I have been the owner, operator and Editor in chief of Strictly Country magazine.
Now that you know our panel of experts, let's continue with the the subject of the art of songwriting. The next question we asked our panel was this - Around Strictly Country we always say that it's been done before when it comes to melodies. Is it hard to come up or create an original melody?
"Well it is...There's times when you try to avoid other melodies... " shares Brink. "The way I do it, I try to write the lyric and melody at the same time. When I'm saying a line... it has a natural melody any way. It's kind of like when they wrote the old song 'I Left My Heart In San Francisco' you know. It's like you say that...I left my heart in San Francisco...then the melody goes...I left my heart in San Francisco...it exaggerates it, but it almost mirrors the way you speak it! I'm a stickler for music being more conversational. When you sing it, it maybe a little exaggerated per a way of how you would... you sing it a little more exaggerated, but it's almost like you are saying it musically. Then it sings naturally; every word falls natural. I think a lot of amateur writers tend to put three words on one note or have three notes and try to get four words across three notes. You know something is wrong 'cause it doesn't fit it. Now maybe Joni Mitchell can get away with that, but we can't, you know..."
Brinks way of writing, using the natural flow of the spoken word, is quite brilliant. His statement really makes you think back on some of the more popular songs. Case in point, Johnny Cash's song "One Piece At A Time" with it's natural flow of the spoken word.
Think about how conscious a songwriter has to be to the melody, when writing a song.
"It is..." replied Rick Stanley. "Because you always wonder if you're stepping on something else. Another song you heard last year or a song you heard yesterday."
"You can try to be as careful..." shares Donna Ulisse. "Rick is very aware...I listen to very little music around the house, in the fear that something will be unconsciously running through my mind; that I've heard - you know. I just make my own music. That's what I listen too!"
"But really, out of the thousands and thousands of songs that have been written and recorded...it's hard to find a melody that actually sounds the same on purpose. " chimes in Rick.
"Yeah..." adds Donna. "We're real conscious of it, you know. Even so, I think it was my second or third album...I wrote a song and some body said Ooh...that sounds a little reminiscent of 'Little Birdie' or something like that and it hap had me, 'cause I had never even heard the song 'Little Birdie.' So that's how easy it is to trip up over a melody. I had honestly never heard the song 'Little Birdie.' I was really new into Bluegrass at that time and had stumbled in my innocence upon something that some body had wrote fifty - sixty years ago."
We will touch on 'stolen' melodies in the next segment of this on going article.
"You know what? Many melodies have been done a thousand times before." adds Judy. "If you change them just a little bit, you're usually good with it. There have been some lawsuits that have been won lately that the art community here, in Nashville, are not too happy about. Because really there is a melodic template to a lot of types of songs for country and blues and rock. I forgot what song it is, it was maybe the Tom Petty song 'I Won't Back Down.' On the website there's a string of different hits that use the exact same chord structure. Which is one way... you're just copying somebody else's work. The thing to do is take the melody, if you notice its like something else, and change it up just a little bit. There's just a lot of variations...there's an infinite number of variations that if you change it just a little bit, its usually good. Then also change the chord structure, is what I would say too."
In 2015 British singer and songwriter, Sam Smith released his song "Stay With Me." The song consisted of a slightly lighter version of Tom Petty's song "I Won't Back Down." Thus resulting in a lawsuit filed by Mr. Petty. The two came to an agreeable settlement shortly there after.
On November 4, 2014, a video was up loaded on YouTube. The video took six separate country music hit songs and mashed them together to prove that majority of today's country music contained the same baseline melody. Those six songs include "Sure Be Cool If You Did" by Blake Shelton, "Close Your Eyes" by Parmalee, "This is How We Roll" by Florida Georgia Line, "Ready Set Roll" by Chase Rice, "Chillin' It" by Cole Swindell, and "Drunk On You" by Luke Bryan. These six songs contained slightly different lyrics mixed to hardly noticeable melodies. The video was hard proof to fans of country music, of what we have been saying for years, that many songs harbor the same baseline melodies throughout the albums.
In 2015, Kenny Chesney released his album The Big Revival. The album consisted of eleven songs that contained the same baseline melody. Some in the industry say that this is due to the fact that entertainers and bands are now writing their own music as to save money. Where we say it is due to the fact that most use computers to create manufactured songs.
"I don't really listen to new music..." adds Jack. "As many of the songs are manufactured and not interesting. I'm happy with the 70's and 80's across the board... country and rock. The best music was in the 70's and 80's. They had a template and a lot of bands deviated from that because some of them had longer songs that contained incredible melodies. One of my favorite songs (Rush 2112) is over eighteen minutes long! The melody is always changing throughout song. Same with 'Stairway To Heaven...' It breaks all the rules!"
Many people in the industry state that all of the melodies have already been created, therefore songwriters are creating melodies that are slightly different than those previously released.
We believe that many songwriters are taking the easy approach. This is due to the fact that today's songwriters are scheduled when and where they should write a song. Where as the legendary songwriters of the past wrote songs as the ideas popped into their mind's eye. Take for instance The Beatles song "Yesterday," Paul McCartney claims that he woke up in the middle of the night and wrote most of the song. Bill Anderson wrote his break through hit song "City Lights" on top of his apartment building as he was trying to get away from the evening summer heat.
Are songwriters today, guided more by the record labels as to what to write for songs? Are they taking the easy way out, by just elaborating on existing melodies?
One of the outcomes of today's society is the attitudes of wanting it now. Therefore, many people do not take the time to learn various instruments like the legends did back in the day. Some even go as far as creating their so called music, what we call manufactured, with the use of computers rather than live instrumentalists thus creating mundane, everyday, dull as dishwater melodies. In the last twenty years we have seen an increase of less talented entertainers due to this.
Tune into the next issue as we explore more in regards to songwriting.
(This article was printed in the September / October 2016 issue of Strictly Country Magazine.)
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