metaphor
noun
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

If you’re a writer, of course you know what the word metaphor means. But you might not know that the word was first introduced in the year 1447 with the book The Ordinal of Alchemy by Thomas Norton. Alchemists, because of the forbidden tradition of writing down spells and secrets of their art, had to be obscure when transmitting their esoteric knowledge to prime pupils. Thus, the term metaphor was born.

It’s exciting to think of yourself as an alchemist who can turn lead into gold. You’re a wordsmith who takes language and gives it meaning. Aside from the very real gold your final creation can bring you, contributing your art to the world brings gold to your listeners in the form of improved quality of life.

My favorite technique for creating fresh metaphors is the “duh” technique (I learned this from Shane Adams). You start with your first object, cake. Think of the most obvious characteristic of the object, as in the cake is round. This is called the “duh” description. Now take the “duh” description and think of something else that has that quality or characteristic. The cake is round… duh… what else is round? The moon. Now think of a “duh” characteristic of the second object, the moon glows, the moon is distant. Now plug those new traits into the original, the cake glows like a distant moon.

Your songwriting is the language of your soul. Look within and transform the world.

Start with a single note or single word

Play a single random note and just listen to your imagination. Does a second note enter the picture? Does a chord or harmony enter the picture? If so, then add what you hear to the mix and keep listening like that. Don’t think about it or edit what you hear in your mind, just dictate.

If you don’t hear anything in your imagination, then force it. Play a single interval up or down. Does that spark another idea? If so, then dictate. If not, play a different interval. If after a number of tries your imagination doesn’t take over, then force it even more. Play a pattern or a sequence that you are familiar with and build a melody around that.

The important thing to remember here is that your melody is not going to be perfect. It’s just a first pass. You can edit after you have 32 bars or so of material to work with. The point is you can’t have a melody to edit if you don’t start writing one.

You can apply the same technique to lyric writing. Write a single word. Use a random word generator or just pick a word from a book. What does your imagination tell you to write next? If nothing comes to you (which would mean that you really just aren’t paying attention) force it by just making stuff up. Rhyme comes later. Prosody comes later. Form comes later. Same as with music, you can’t edit a lyric until you have a lot of lyrics to edit.

An exercise like this should open your mind to the constant stream of ideas that is always occurring beneath the surface of your conscious mind. Just practice opening the aperture until you always have music and lyrics to write.

There’s a quick and easy way to do this. All you need is iTunes and a couple of AppleScripts. If you’re a Windows user, it’s not as simple, but it is still possible.

Get Lyrical is an AppleScript that will grab lyrics for the current or selected track and store them in the lyrics meta tag. If it can’t find the lyrics, then Google Lyric Search is a quick little script to help you find and store the lyrics manually.

Windows users can download iArt ($10) which will also fetch album art for you.

Now that you’ve got lyrics for your MP3 collection, it’s time to do some active listening. There’s something different about listening to a lyric in real time and seeing an entire lyric laid out in front of you. You can see how rhymes connect, how the verses progress, and see the lyric’s big picture when you read the entire lyric at once.

Pay close attention to beginnings and endings. Opening lines and rhyming positions are natural spotlights. Notice what words your favorite artists put in these places. Count lines and syllables. Get a feel for the flow. Watch the point of view and look for unique metaphors.

There’s a lot to pay attention to so narrow down your first scan of the lyric and look for a single lyric writing technique. Then move on to another. Finally, see how you can use what you’ve learned in your next song.

The bottom line is to find the time to study lyrics. Having lyrics stored in your music library or iPod makes it much easier to do.

And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

Imagine getting death threats just for having an opinion about a subject that needs to be debated continuously. They won the hearts and sympathy of every single Recording Academy member.

For me, the most tense part of the night isn’t waiting to see who will win the Grammy, it’s watching all of those brave women walk up and down steps in high heels and long dresses!

Table of contents for 2006 Celebrations and Reflections

1. Top Ear Training Articles for 2006
2. Top Songwriting Articles for 2006
3. Top Music Theory Articles for 2006
4. Top Music Hacks for 2006
5. Top Peak Performance Articles for 2006
6. Top Music Business Articles of 2006
7. Top Music Technology Articles for 2006
8. The Best of The Graham English Blog 2006

I’m celebrating quite a few good songs written in the past year. And I’m reflecting on how I can make 2007 an even better year for songwriting. Look for some fresh songwriting ideas in the new year and enjoy the best songwriting articles of 2006.

• The Perfect Song Title – 5 Things To Remember
• 4 Things That Will Make Or Break Your Song
• Find New Music With Musicovery – And Songwriting Ideas Too
• List of Opensource Music Software
• Seed Your Creative Process With…
• Why I Write For The Garbage Can
• Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 10-13-06
• Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 09-29-06
• Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-22-06
• Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-09-06
• Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-03-06
• Vernon Reid Songwriting Tips Interview
• Jesse Harris Songwriting Tips Interview
• Random Word Generator
• If Leonardo da Vinci Was a Songwriter
• Perfect Rhyme and Family Rhyme
• Sexy Object Writing Word Generator
• Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
• Don’t Forget Square One…
• How To Find The Head-Turning Hook That Reels ‘Em In
• Can Hit Songs Really Be Reduced To Science? I Mean, Really?
• Songwriting For Busy People
• How Do You Develop New And Interesting Chord Changes?
• Top 10 Lyric Writing Insights
• The Astonishing Hit-Making Magic of Song Titles
• The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll
• Get My Hit Song Cheat Sheet
• MasterWriter Review

Use these five rock solid songwriting techniques to make your next song title more memorable.

The First 10 Seconds

Imagine being inside the mind of a busy A&R guy or in-demand producer. It’s running over important decisions to make, artists to direct and develop, managers to call back, record execs to please, and they probably have a personal life to take care of on top of everything else. Let’s say that all the stars are lined up for you and your demo is in their hands. They pop it in the CD player and press play.

This is the crucial moment. As they say, “you only get once chance to make a first impression.” What first impression do you give?

Give your listener a musical and rhythmic hook to grab onto right away. Head over to the billboard charts and play the first 10 seconds of the top 10. Notice the elements that pull you in. Is it the beat? Is it a melody or the harmony? Notice where they fail to pull you in. After all, just because the song is on the charts does not mean it’s a great song!

Now, knowing that you don’t have the clout of a currently charting artist, don’t make your listener wait 30 seconds to get to the meat of your song. Mix an extended version for you and your friends if you must, but keep only what’s absolutely necessary for everyone else. You will gain serious points for considering the busy schedule of someone who listens to songs for a living.

The Chorus

The chorus is the emotional high point of your song. Therefore, it must feel like it lifts. A simple way to do this is to write a melody that reaches it’s highest note during the chorus — preferably the very first note, a natural spotlight — and write the melody of the verse to lead into the chorus from below. One of the biggest mistakes I hear is a melody that peaks at the end of the verse and then drops into the chorus where it gives the listener a sense of falling energy, the exact opposite of what we want to do.

You chorus, if it is to be memorable, should be easy to sing along with and contrast the other sections. A strong chorus needs different elements than what came before, both musically and lyrically. Give your chorus a different melody, different harmony, different lyric, and a different form than the other sections of your song. Make your chorus stand out.

The Collaboration

I grew up in the age of Prince, the wonder-kid who played every instrument, wrote all the songs, sang all the vocals, and on top of all that, he danced his butt off. Me, I’m a mere mortal. I’m good at a number of things, bad at even more, and I excel at maybe a few diverse skills. I continually improve my weaknesses, strengthen my strengths, and for everything else that I’m not good at, I enlist the help of someone better than me.

In the process of collaboration, I get commitments and agreements in writing, I pick and choose my battles, and I still take responsibility for the end result. Do the same and hopefully you won’t end up getting screwed.

Confusing Mystery with Obscurity

Riddles are great… as long as you get permission. But if I don’t know you and you start a conversation with me as if I’m your personal cryptographer, then you had better pay me for my time. Don’t test your listener’s patience right from the start or assume that they care to do the preliminary scholarly or autobiographical research to find out what the hell you’re talking about.

Show, don’t tell is an admonition given to beginning writers who use too much exposition instead of using action and dialogue. If the writer uses action and dialogue to reveal a character, the story should be more interesting to the reader. The reader should feel like he is seeing the scene unfold before him. As a result, the reader can interpret the meaning of the story on his own.

Use the five senses to keep your listener involved and avoid writing about an experience, write from the experience. Write as if you are inside the emotion of your song. Then show us what it looks like, feels like, sounds like, smells like, and tastes like.

Understand and master these 4 elements of your songwriting and watch your listener appeal skyrocket.

Table of contents for Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast

1. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-03-06
2. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-09-06
3. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-22-06
4. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 09-29-06
5. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 10-13-06
6. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 04-17-07
7. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 05-20-07
8. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 06-21-07

Topics covered:
Hooks, song titles, song ideas, lyrical insights, melodic insights, hook placement, and much more…

Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 10-13-06

Subscribe with iTunes here:

Subscribe with Odeo here:

Subscribe with Podnova here:

Subscribe by RSS here:

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Table of contents for Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast

1. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-03-06
2. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-09-06
3. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-22-06
4. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 09-29-06
5. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 10-13-06
6. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 04-17-07
7. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 05-20-07
8. Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 06-21-07

Topics covered:
Top 10 Lyric Writing Insights, line length, contrasting ideas, melody, metaphor, prosody, rhyme schemes, rhythm, song forms, spotlights…

Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 08-09-06

Subscribe with iTunes here:

Subscribe with Odeo here:

Subscribe with Podnova here:

Subscribe by RSS here:

Subscribe by email here:

You knew it had to happen sooner or later. For every up, there is a down; for every light, there is a shadow; ying has its yang, Jesus has his Satan, Reagan had his Gorbachev, the Red Sox have their Yankees, Spider-Man has his Dr. Octopus, Bill Russell had his Wilt Chamberlain, and great lyricists have their bad. There is a balance to everything; natural rivalries drive the world and keep it spinning. A companion piece to my “Wordsmiths” post, I would now like to highlight some song lyrics, both old and new, that make my sense of literary goodness cringe in pain.

You gotta read this. It’s a good resource for what not to do.

As it is now, it’s perfect for object writing and brainstorming. What other uses can you find for it?

Perfect Rhyme has three characteristics:

• The rhyming syllables have the same vowel sounds
• The consonant sounds after the vowel (if any) have the same sounds
• The rhyming syllables begin differently

A good substitute for Perfect Rhyme is Family Rhyme:

• The rhyming syllables have the same vowel sounds
• The consonant sounds after the vowel are phonetically related
• The rhyming syllables begin differently

In Family Rhyme, there are three phonetic families:

• Plosives: b, d, g, p, t, k
• Fricatives: v, TH, z, zh, j, f, th, s, sh, ch
• Nasals: m, n, ng

You can substitute members of the same family: cut/luck, rich/wish, fun/sung. Use this chart to help you find family rhymes:

In the future I’ll talk about how to use rhyme to control the pace and flow of your lyrics, use rhyme to balance and unbalance your verses, and a lot more. Remember that rhyme is a powerful songwriting tool to help you say what you mean.

Yesterday I posted how to get your creative juices flowing with object writing. Today I found a great site that you can use to randomly generate objects to write about. It’s more of a surprise word generator than a random word generator because you have to type a word in first. But at least it’s fast and easy and works when you don’t have a thesaurus or dictionary around. It also tells you the relative popularity of the word you chose. Pretty cool.

Click here: WORDCOUNT / Tracking the Way We Use Language
(Found via Graphic display of quantitative information 2.0)

The technique is called Object Writing and it’s so ridiculously easy that you’ll be pissed you didn’t know about it sooner. I learned it from Pat Pattison.

Here’s how it works:

First, gather your materials. You’ll need tools for writing like a computer or pen and paper. You’ll want a thesaurus or dictionary or any book that you have lying around. Object Writing works best when you have a timer.

Second, open the book you chose earlier and randomly pick any word. Alternatively, you could write about any object you see around you.

Finally, write about the word you picked using the following guidelines.

• Write from your senses (touch, taste, sound, smell, sight). In other words, avoid abstract ideas. Keep it real.
• Write with a timer. Keep the time short. 2 to 5 minutes is best. 10 minutes max.
• Don’t stop writing. It doesn’t have to rhyme or be in complete sentences. Keep writing rapid-fire.

That’s it. It’s simple. Now here’s why it works.

Sensory language is what connects the listeners to your writing. It follows the writing principle “show, don’t tell.” If you want your song to speak to your listener’s emotions, then you have to use language that resonates in the body. Emotions are embodied. You feel emotions. Emotions aren’t ideas that you think about. They are experiences. And experiences are real. So keep your language real and concrete. This is especially true for verses. Choruses can be meta to your verses. They can talk about the verse or the idea of the song. But your verses are the blood of the song. They live and breathe and the language should reflect that.

Object writing is the tool to develop your unique perspective. Only you can make the connection between an orange maple leaf and the smell of your lover’s wool sweater. With object writing, you tap into your personal experiences and memories and find your own unique perspective about life and the meaning of things. Object writing comes from your heart.

When you need quick stimulation, object writing allows you to dive in to the depths of your experience and pull out the relevant details that will make your writing interesting. It’s instant. And it gives you more choice because you have a vault of wonderful details to consider on the other side of your 5 minutes.

Here’s what an object writing session could look like:

Object: Leaves
Crunching under my feet I look down and see leaves of gold, burnt orange, and blood red. I imagine nostalgic moments of youth in the fall – argyle sweaters and jean jackets. Walks meant to soak up the last of the luke-warm sun and to hold hands with a young girl. Football and underage drinking. Parties too cold to be outside but too much in love to care. The leaves fall from the trees and they seem to stop in mid air as I imagine a September wedding…time stood still…I look around at the guests and they’re motionless, smiling, frozen in a conversation, and I feel blessed to be alive witnessing this moment of wonder and awe at the gifts of the heart. It’s my wedding day and the woman who these people are here to help me celebrate with is hiding in the house. Perhaps she’s peaking out of a window and maybe time is standing still for her too. And I wonder if she was the girl that some lucky boy held hands with in the fall of her youth. I can see them happy walking among the leaves on the sidewalk. The air is crisp and fresh. The sun falls to the west and my heart rises in the east. The past is romantic and the future is hopeful. The present is transfixed in an absolute moment of this – a celebration of love and happiness. A union of leaves to ground and separation from the tree. The aging bark is flexible and sways in the breeze and the scene begins to move again…leaves slowly falling, voices laughing, glasses clink and hearts open to the possibility of forever and ever.

See how simple it is?

Object Writing Hacks:

• Start your day with 5 minutes of object writing. Once your inner writer is awake, it stays with you all day.
• Object write from all parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
• Whenever you get stuck in a song, stop what you are doing and object write for a couple of minutes.
• The more specific the picture, the more emotion it creates.
• Before you begin, write your senses across the top of the page: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, body, motion.
• Ignore rhyme, rhythm, and sentence structure. Your writing doesn’t have to be polished at this stage. Let it be ugly.
• Let the object take you wherever it wants. You don’t have to stay focused on the object. Follow the thoughts that arise.

Go ahead and take 2 minutes to do some quick object writing right here in the comments section. I’ll even get it started.

From Don’t forget square one…:

Horse trainer Linda Parelli says that, and her take on amateurs-vs.-experts is that the amateurs forget the fundamentals. Her husband Pat, founder of Parelli Natural Horsemanship (the most successful example of passionate users I’ve ever seen), says the same thing.

Let’s assume that we want to become experts at something. For our conversation here, we’ll focus on songwriting. Any path to mastery includes these three stages of development: pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional.

Pre-conventional: You haven’t learned a single rule, principle or convention yet. Everyone has a right to create sound or make noise and call it music.

Conventional: You discover musical patterns and morphogenetic grooves that seem to naturally arise. You call these rules or principles and you allow them to guide your musical creation.

Post-conventional: You transcend and include the conventions you learned at the previous stage. You see the wisdom in principles and patterns and you have the wisdom to know when to let them go.

Let’s use lyric setting as an example of what I’m talking about. The conventions of rhythm are rules and principles about meter, note length, relative stress level and so on. The conventions about language are syntax, definition, pronunciation and so on. Now, one of the most overlooked lyrical conventions is stress. Our dictionary defines the conventional stress of words. And since we put lyrics to rhythm, it makes sense to match the pronunciation of the word with the stress of the rhythm. When we don’t do this, we have the common problem of having our ac-CENTS on the wrong syl-LA-bles. But when we follow the principle of proper lyric setting, we bring a clear level of understanding to our message–our listeners actually understand our lyrics. (Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy)

Talk to someone at a pre-conventional stage of songwriting and they’ll either be pissed that you’re telling them what to do and stifling their creativity or they’ll be grateful to learn how to write better. Talk to someone at a conventional stage of songwriting and they’ll be bothered by any stretching of the principles. But at a post-conventional stage of songwriting you’ll be able to explain your choices and intuitively know what the song needs in order to achieve your outcome.

If you don’t care that people understand you, then do whatever you want. But don’t expect people to “get it” or even like it. But if you understand the social aspect of songwriting–there is a songwriter and a song-listener–then you probably want the listener to understand what it is you are trying to communicate. And that is where the conventions will help you.

Another overlooked convention is the definition of a song. I think many people confuse a song with the feeling they get when they first hear a piece of music. I’ve enjoyed listening to many songs that on further consideration were poorly crafted. But they don’t usually stand the test of time with me. And a time-tested theorem is one that can stand up to years of scrutiny by a jury of experts.

The problem the Parelli’s see in those trying to transition from skilled amateur to expert virtually always comes down to something from the fundamentals that they either never quite mastered, or that they forgot over time. So, perhaps that’s one more thing the superior performers do better than the rest of us–they keep practicing the fundamentals. This fits with the notion that experts practice things that aren’t necessarily fun, which can include both the things they still don’t do well, AND the non-exciting basics.

I disagree with the article I’m quoting on one basic distinction. I don’t believe “square one” is the fundamentals. Square one is the pre-conventional stage. Square one is where the desire to create something exists. And square one is not the primordial emptiness or space that exists before any fundamental principle or rule emerges–that’s square zero.

Don’t forget square zero!

And don’t forget the fundamentals either.

Some of the best athletes never forget the fundamentals–whether it’s Tiger Woods practicing the basics, or a pro basketball player working on free throws.

And don’t let your lack of fundamental mastery stop you from playing the game. It’s perfectly okay to fire and then aim. Because there’s always more fundamentals to learn and master. It’s most important to just get in the game.

But the Parelli’s have another piece of advice that I think is equally important–that you shouldn’t get stuck trying to perfect the fundamentals before moving on. There’s a girl at my barn who has been taking dressage lessons on and off for the last ten years. Both her and her horse are bored out of their minds because the trainer won’t let them progress to anything interesting until they are virtually perfect on the basics. The Parelli approach is, “Keep moving forward, because you’ll gain new tools that you can use to go back and perfect the fundamentals.” But this is where the “don’t forget square one” message comes in–the problem is with the people who do NOT use their new “superpowers” to fix what might be lacking in the basics.

So from now on, when I bring up a rule or principle, you’re going to say, “Thank you for helping me write better.” Right?

Here’s my top 10 lyric writing insights:

1. The rhythm of your melody and the rhythm of your lyrics should match.
Rhythm has *strong and week beats. So do words. When you speak to someone, you use conventional stresses–found in the dictionary–to communicate your ideas as efficiently as possible. If you spoke with the ac-CENT on the wrong syl-LA-ble, people would have a hard time understanding you. Yet this happens over and over again in lyric writing. Match your stresses and your listeners will get what you mean.

2. Show, don’t tell.
Compare “I was nervous” with “My palms were sweaty” and you’ll get the picture. The first example is about the experience while the second example is from the experience. The easiest way to do this is to stimulate your listener’s senses by using sense-bound language. Write from the 5 senses and you’ll find interesting details that will keep your listeners captivated and emotionally involved.

3. Use prosody. Support your meaning with your lyrics.
How you put your lyric together should support what you have to say. You can create prosody with:

Form: Organize your song functions into effective song forms, e.g. verse/chorus, AABA, and verse/prechorus/chorus, etc.
Musical Stress: Put words in relation to each other according to its relative stress in the bar and its relation to surrounding notes. Put the most important word in the most important stress, beat 1 of bar 1.
Line Length and Number of Lines: You can balance or unbalance a section accordance to its meaning by having an even (balanced, stable) or odd (unbalanced, unstable) number of lines. You can also match line lengths perfectly (balanced, stable) or match lines imperfectly (unbalanced, unstable).
Rhyme: Perfect rhyme and Family rhyme will support a stable or resolved meaning. The more remote rhyme types (assonance rhyme, consonance rhyme, etc.) will support an unstable or unresolved meaning.

4. Create contrasting sections.
Lyrically, line length is one of the most effective tools to create contrast. Create contrasting sections using one or more structural elements, i.e. contrasting ideas, number of lines, rhyme schemes, etc. Ask yourself, “What have I got? What’s different than that?”

5. Consider when to balance and unbalance your lyric.
The main point of balancing and unbalancing is, again, prosody: supporting your meaning with your structures. Do you need stability or instability to support your meaning? Combine all four structural elements–number of lines, line length, line rhythm, and rhyme scheme–to balance and unbalance sections.

6. Use fresh metaphor.
To see one thing as though it is something else is your unique ability. To make sure your metaphors aren’t cliche, use the “duh” method (I got this from Shane Adams). You start with your first object, cake. Think of the most obvious characteristic of the object, as in the cake is round. These are called the “duh” descriptions. Now take the “duh” description and think of something else that has that quality or characteristic. The cake is round…duh…what else is round? The moon. Now think of a “duh” characteristic of the second object, the moon glows, the moon is distant. Now plug those new traits into the original, the cake glowed like a distant moon. Now that’s original.

7. Develop your verses.
Develop your song idea from verse to verse making sure the chorus gains meaning and interest each time it is repeated. Give your final verse a “pay off” that rewards your listener for their attention. Think of how you tell stories to your friends. Usually, the point of the entire story comes at the very end. Where you begin your story and how much you share depends on what material is relevant to the understanding of the song’s climax.

8. Control the song’s point of view and verb tense.
Discuss a song’s story-line from the singer’s point of view. This solves a lot of problems: verb tense, setting, point of view, gender, etc. Write from the perspective of the singer of the song.

9. Use fresh rhymes.
Rhymes occur at the ends of lines. These positions are natural spotlights. Since your listener has time to consider what you just said before the next line begins, make it worthy of the spotlight. Avoid cliche rhymes and boring rhyme schemes. Learn how to find fresh rhymes that stick in the mind of the listener and that help you say what you mean in a unique way.

10. Spotlight important ideas.
Certain positions in a song spotlight important ideas. These power positions get special attention:

Opening lines
Balancing lines
Unbalancing positions

When you have something important to say, these techniques can help emphasize the point:

Shorten lines to spotlight important ideas
Lengthen lines to spotlight important ideas
Put your important ideas in opening lines, balancing lines and unbalancing positionsAnd use power words (action verbs, sensual adjectives, unique words, etc.) in your power positions.

Rules are definitely meant to be broken. But please learn the rules first.

*This relative pattern of strong and weak beats, from strongest to weakest:
In 4/4: Beat 1, Beat 3, Beat 4, Beat 2, Beat 4&, Beat 2&, Beat 3&, Beat 1&
In 3/4: The only strong beat in a bar of 3/4 is the downbeat. The second and third beats are weak. In order of strength, the beats line up like this: Bar 1, Bar 3, Bar 2, Beat 1, Beat 2, Beat 3, Beat 2&, Beat 3&, Beat 1&
In 6/8: Think of it as two quick bars of 3/4. In order of strength, the beats of 6/8 line up like this: Beat 1, Beat 4, Beat 6, Beat 3, Beat 2, Beat 5

Why almost everyone is completely wrong about what makes a good song title… and why this is a tremendous advantage for anyone who knows the secrets.

Most people – and shamefully, most so-called experts in songwriting – wouldn’t know a good song title if it bit them on the ass. The fact is, there is more incompetence in songwriting than any other field except, perhaps, advertising.

Lesson number one: Great songwriting – the kind that will grab your listener by the throat and force them to give you every ounce of their attention – has more in common with…

P.T. Barnum And The National Enquirer
Than With Britney Spears and Ashley Simpson

Barnum was the circus man (Barnum & Bailey’s “The Greatest Show On Earth”) who made a fortune by never underestimating the allure of sensationalism. A genius at marketing impossible-to-ignore sideshows – the one-horned goat billed as a unicorn… the bearded lady… the human pretzel. He was a man of the people, and knew what punched their buttons. He created such an urgent sense of curiosity that crowds fought to get into his shows.

And did you know that more people read the National Enquirer every week than read Time, Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal all put together? That raunchy little checkout-stand weekly sells out across the land… and yes, even people you know read it.

The hook is the headlines on the cover. The guys who come up with them are among the highest-paid writers in the world. When they hit a nerve, the publication flies off the shelves. (My favorite headlines are “Preacher Explodes On Pulpit“ and “Boy Eats Own Head“.)

Barnum and the writers at the National Enquirer understand human psychology. The unrelenting power of curiosity to pull us in. The sheer pleasure in being shocked and titillated. How to create…

An Itch
That Has To Be Scratched!

I’m assuming that you’re somewhat tech-savvy. You are reading a blog, aren’t you? You might even be reading this blog in your RSS reader. And if you’ve read this far, I can tell you why. It’s because of my title – the headline.

And if you’re one of the many songwriting underdogs (translated: you don’t have a major label deal) and you’re actively marketing your music on the internet, then what’s the first thing people see when they’re poking around iTunes looking for some new music?

Exactly. Your headline – Your Master Salesman-In-Print – Your Title.

A master salesman has a solution to the most pressing problems in your life. He possesses secrets that will make you richer, or happier, or better looking. He knows how to tease your “hot buttons” to just the right level of distress… and only then offer you sweet release through the wonders of what he is selling.

Then how, you ask, can you apply this to songwriting? Well, it’s simple, really.

What direct response song titles have in common… is that they grab the attention of their target audience (California Girls – actually, guys interested in girls)… make an irresistible offer (Please, Please, Please)… and then ask for action (I Want To Hold Your Hand). For a listen. A download. They invite you to click on the link, listen to a free sample, download a 99 cent song. And do it…

Right Now!

They ask for a response from the listener. That’s where the term “direct response” comes from.

This request for action is what sets effective, money-making songwriting apart from the glut of mediocre songwriting out there. If the appeal works, people download the song and the song is a measurable success.

One final thought: Rejoice in the fact that most people haven’t got a clue about what makes a good song title (let alone how to write a direct response song title). This puts you in rare company when you finally do understand the secrets to getting your song played in this blood-thirsty competitive market. Let the rest of the world go about their foolish ways. You’re about to be very busy keeping track of your increasing song downloads

More titles to get your creative juices flowing. Think of who the target audience is and the action involved:
Pump It Up
Gimme Some Lovin’
Baby I Need Your Loving
Let’s Stay Together
Beat It
Rock and Roll All Nite
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Lively Up Yourself
Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)

There’s many time-tested techniques for writing song titles – and some of them are great – but I’m giving you a technique to put in your arsenal that will help at least some of your songs grab people’s attention (especially useful for the internet). Use it with taste.

Single Review: Cyndi Lauper “Time After Time”:

Cyndi Lauper has withdrawn from her lover in the poignant ballad “Time After Time.”

Tearful guitars start the single, setting a lonely tone. It’s two a.m. Lauper hears the clock on her nightstand tick. She turns and touches the right side of the bed. It’s her boyfriend’s spot. She wonders how he is doing. She can’t make sense of her emotions, which seem to change every hour on the hour. She remembers cuddling in his arms at night. She nearly forgot the special moments she had with him.

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick/And think of you/Caught up in circles confusion/ Is nothing new/Flashback warm nights /Almost left behind/Suitcases of memories/Time after.

Further in the verse, she says that he thinks she’s running away from him. Although he’s tries to contact her, she has already shut him out. He pleads for her to calm down. She eventually does, but she finds herself sinking back into her melancholy.

Sometimes you picture me/ I’m walking too far ahead/You’re calling to me, I can’t hear/What you’ve said/ Then you say go slow/I fall behind/ The second hand unwinds.

In the chorus, her boyfriend says that he will be there for her whenever she needs him. He will rescue her if she starts heading towards a downward spiral. Each and every time, he will comfort her.

If you’re lost you can look and you will find me/Time after time/If you fall I will catch you, I’ll be waiting/Time after time.

In the second verse, she believes he wants nothing to do with her. She perceives herself as a lost cause. However, he’s calling her friends and family, trying to figure where she is and if she’s doing all right. He knows her better than she knows herself.

After my picture fades and darkness has/Turned to gray/Watching through windows, you’re wondering/If I’m OK/Secrets stolen from deep inside/The drum beats out of time.

The chorus is sung again.

Part of the first verse is sung again.

You said go slow/I fall behind/The second hand unwinds.

The chorus is sung again.

Lauper realizes he is not going to let her flounder and self-destruct.

Time after time/Time after time/Time after time.

In “Time After Time,” Lauper believes she is a difficult person, unworthy of love. She runs away and shuts people out. However, her devoted boyfriend who loves her unconditionally is willing to help her through anything. The relationship is given depth. The couple’s intimacy and history is apparent. They’ve been together for a long time. They love and have seen each other through every tough part of their life. Now, it’s her boyfriend’s turn to help her.

Lauper’s vocals are full of loss. But there is a glint of hope in them also. She knows she will not be abandoned, despite how much she may fight his compassion.

“Time After Time” is a sure-fire classic.

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