Lazz

Tragically inconsolable, myself.

"On Tuesday, Muzak Holdings LLC – the makers of the ambient instrumental music that has been a staple of elevators, supermarkets and the waiting rooms of thousands of dentists for 75 years – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid efforts to refinance its heavy debt load. Like videotapes and CDs, Muzak's music is in danger of being reduced to irrelevancy by the digital age. The Fort Mill, S.C., company is struggling to find audiences for its unobtrusive, watered-down versions of pop songs in a changing world where video screens are omnipresent, everyone is plugged into iPods and retailers are signing lucrative deals to play and promote the latest Top 40 hits." Globe & Mail story

Yeah - I was presuming your area wasn't classical/orchestral. My only experience of these places is first from occasional visits to sell stuff or set up workshops, and second from hanging and working with guys who went through those colleges. Admittedly, those joints I favour focus on jazz. In my experience, whatever the genre, players who have learned from that tradition tend to have a wider range of appropriate stylistic vocabulary than any classically trained or go-it-alone geezers. Hands down. No contest. The possession of a broader harmonic palette that comes from those courses is in my book a great asset for a songwriter. I wish I'd had the opportunity myself. Anyway - that's the basis of my preferences - Leeds, Manchester, Guildhall and Middlesex are the places where you learn the skills to work as a jobbing pro in popular music. The intensity of orchestral academies, and the training processes most have gone through to get there, generally erode improvisational 'ear' skills and the ability to simply 'make' music away from a written score. Not much use in getting gigs - unless you want to work in a classical ensemble (shrinking opportunities) or teach. BIMM is a new one to me (well, it's new, innit ?) But they do look to have some interesting visiting tutors. And a new course on songwriting - which the places on my list don't have. Could be worthwhile - but then again could be more business model than educational institution. I have a few reasonably successful career musician friends living in Brighton, though, who are likely to have informed opinion. If you wish, I can ask them what they think. They may even be amenable to communicating with you directly about it. Let me know.

Not much to write home about. "It Really Doesn't Matter" and "Something" have melodies courtesy of my good self. "I Hate Babies" and "Birdie Dance" I am completely responsible for. Shows my limitations immediately. But I do occasionally spend time transcribing other folks' melodies. Jazz solos, I mean. I think that's a great way to develop melodically. And a great way to really 'learn' a tune.

Because I had to. Quickly and on-the-job. I had internalised some kind of feel and intuitive understanding from years of avid listening but had never much thought about how to conceptualise the patterns before. Then, suddenly, life launched me into performance and I found that not only did I need to be able to communicate effectively with proper musos on gigs, but that these musos were liable to be different people each time. I knew there was a shared language I had to learn. It was a problem that needed a solution. All the guys I worked with were tip-top, experienced, hip, could really play. Way better than me. (Always a good thing.) They all supported and encouraged my eagerness to learn – which was not necessarily a characteristic normally associated with singers – so they found my attitude somewhat refreshing and unexpected and they didn’t mind so much putting me straight because they learned I didn’t forget what they told me. Example of a simple lesson: When giving a count, I started out with a tendency to snap my fingers – on each beat. Problem a) was that not everybody on stage could hear my voice on the count (I do it away from the microphone) – but they could hear my finger snap. Problem was that the hip and practiced muso hears the finger snap as the off-beat. And so the tune kicks off straight away with some kind of train-wreck with the rhythm section being a beat askew with each other. Lucky I was working with professionals who had years of experience playing for a whole host of singers who never really knew what the feck they were doing. Bless their hearts, they were able to take swift and immediate remedial action and saved me from embarrassment. That’s what pros do In the break, the bass-player took time to explain what I had done wrong. And I never did it again. Next – having finally learned how to count ‘em in, for tunes that everyone knew, I had to be able to call the right key, and I had to be able to communicate a ‘feel’ effectively. For tunes that risked being less familiar – I soon figured out that I would need ‘lead-sheets’. Road-maps for each piece. So I studied how other people did those – and prepared accordingly. I needed one lead-sheet for each chordal instrument in Concert piano, guitar) One lead sheet for Bb instruments (tenor or trumpet) One for bass. And one for drums. Having personal lead-sheets was rare for a singer and earned me brownie points. Having lead-sheets for the drums was even more uncommon – and earned me more brownie points. It also meant that wherever I went, even if the first place I met my accompanists was on the band-stand, we had a repertoire ready to go without problems. Every gig was also an opportunity to learn stuff from people better than me. Putting it all together in some semblence of coherence happened later when I asked a pianist for a couple of lessons in theory and harmony – and in those two lessons I got enough info to move forward in baby steps for many years. Very important was that he gave me tools to work on analysis of other people’s music, standard repertoire, turnarounds, progressions … and that’s how I learned - by studying great writers - and that's NOT generally what you hear in charts or radio - looking at the seminal great writers is reeeeeeeeeely important. I didn’t go to college for it. I went to school on the bandstand, in the back room, and in bars and kitchens. But I wanted to learn. Absolutely essential For me, harmony takes top slot.

Exactly the issue. even though it is that 'tie' which makes it a song

I think it is worth noting the fact now Dena (Venus) has added the lyrics for us, that she uses the terms 'verse', 'chorus', 'bridge' and 'coda'. And I believe this illustrates non-musical thinking about lyrics. (sorry, Dena, no slight intended - just observations in the light of our earlier discussions) As well as a conceptual trap set-up through applying these terms a priori - before really taking a good analytical look at what's actually going on in terms of structure. 'coda' is right but 'verse', 'chorus' and 'bridge' aren't really helpful as tools in this here case.

Yes !!

That's big. How do we achieve this ?

Yes I agree. It's actually a damn good idea.

That is a fair assessment, I'd say. Working gigging musicians build careers from networks - more so than in any other area I know. And it will get you where you want to go so much swifter than would the 'go-it-alone' approach. For pro jobbing muso skills - I mean for someone aiming to work outside the traditional legit areas of classical orchestras and the like but more in the popular music side of things - then Leeds is the most established with great tutors and a deserved reputation that attracts a lot of talented applicants. There used to be a Mabel Fletcher College in Liverpool, too, which was more than decent, but I have an idea it may have been swallowed into Paul McCartney's 'Fame' Academy. There are some great experienced teachers up there. Manchester is also excellent. London has the Guildhall school - waaayyy better than the others for non-legit-orchestral stuff - or Middlesex out in the suburbs of Oakwood. Brighton ? I guess you may mean Sussex ? (is it ?) I know a couple of guys from there, both trumpet, both great, but nothing else about teachers or institutional values. My personal top 3 would be Leeds, Guildhall, and Middlesex. Maybe even in the reverse order. Good luck on your applications.

"The world don’t need anymore songs. No. They’ve got way too many. As a matter of fact, if nobody wrote any songs from this day on, the world ain’t gonna suffer for it. Nobody cares. There’s enough songs for people to listen to, if they want to listen to songs. For every man, woman and child on earth, they could be sent, probably, each of them, a hundred records, and never be repeated. There’s enough songs. Unless someone’s gonna come along with a pure heart and has something to say. That’s a different story. But as far as songwriting, any idiot could do it…… …. what can you say ? The world don’t need any more poems, it’s got Shakespeare." Bob Dylan

Introducing new platforms or delivery mechanisms is a nifty way of re-selling catalogue that's already in the library. It appears to have become the dominant revenue strategy of the last two decades. And this seems to be a new way for which the target market is already wired-up, so to speak. I think the sweet essence of the model is that there is no need to roll-out any new platform - they're banking on the fact that every kid already has a cell-phone - so they don't need to sell players - and the user won't have to switch formats much more than slipping a new card into the slot. So delivery is sorted. And, with rule numero uno in the music biz being that the artist doesn't get paid (with a few exceptions), the promised price-point suggests there may be enough take-up momentum for some serious take-off. Seems a beezer wheeze to me - ripe and ready for exploitation - you wonder why nobody already thought of it before. Content will always be an issue and always has been in any media. (Except where I'm in charge of it, of course.) I believe they will adresss it. But then I don't have a cell-phone anyway.

Might be helpful if what I was referring to was made a bit clearer: Hoagy always wrote music first, I believe, and appears to have been conceiving melody horizontally rather than vertically - much like the way Burt Bacharach does, away from the piano, to come up with all those odd bar lengths and changing time signatires which are so neat and so right that you don't even notice what's going until you start to transcribe and analyse his stuff.... anyway, here are the structural outlines for two of Hoagy Carmichael's lovely standards: I Get Along Without You Very Well A1 - 10 bars A2 - 7 bars Bridge - 8 bars A3 - 7 bars Skylark A1 - 8 bars A2 - 9 bars Bridge - 8 bars A3 - 7 bars Wierd, eh ? But very lovely tunes.

The Consultant A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote Welsh pasture when a BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Prada suit, Gucci shoes, Dior sunglasses and D+G tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd: "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one of them?" The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and answers: "All right" The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook, connects it to his mobile, surfs to a NASA page on the internet where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of formulae. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a minute, receives a response. Finally, he prints out full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the shepherd and says: "You have exactly 1,586 sheep". "That's right says the shepherd. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep," He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the boot of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man: "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my animal?" The young man thinks about it for a second and then says: "Okay, why not?". "You're a consultant," says the shepherd. "Wow! That's correct," says the guy. "But how did you guess that?" "No guessing required," answers the shepherd. "You showed up here even though nobody called you, you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, on a subject you know f*ck all about. "Now give me back my dog."

Look out !! They're doing it again: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...rsonalTech/home

Welcome back, Tom. Wonderful to see you. Tell me of your life.

My position is that the music is most important. Not true for all - but definitely true for me. My aim is that the words don't let it down. Very first time Mr PC (Pat Coleman) and I set out to write a song, I gave him an old lyric I had been carrying around - "Song For A New Day". Pat's first four bars spoke so clearly in their own momentum and colour that I tore up the words and started completely afresh as the music demanded and deserved. It's still a favourite piece for both of us.

Wow. That's HUGE. My pleasure should be an arrestable offence. As indicated in the 'Anecdotal Diversion', I was kick-started into the theme myself by Hoagy Carmichael. Happy to pass the parcel.

Should be finished any minute - the pigeon hasn't arrived yet. I could forward you a lead-sheet, Don No idea when it will get recorded.

Thanks guys. If I could just sum up where the answers seem to have got to so far: Qualitatively: Tom wants a mix of surprise with the comfort of cliché, warm sounds, tactile Like Steve, he stresses a sense of musicality (everyone says Hammerstein had it, even though he didn’t play an instrument) In a neighbouring and related thread, John also identified important personal qualities the lyricist should possess: experience, able to communicate with musicians, simbiotically sympatico, and a willing flexibility for making practical accomodations – i.e. ready to re-write. Structurally: Steve and John both think, like Ghandi’s opinion of english civilisation, that it would be a good idea – to have some structure, I mean – the essential element of song architecture. And rhythmic phrasing, too, please. NEXT: • Do we have any more wood for the fire ? • Anyone ? *** Anecdotal diversion: Personally, I strive to make the architecture transparent – so partner Pat can see right through it. And when we got a sudden sniff of interest for our “I Don’t Think About You Anymore” idea (the working lyric for which was published here at Songstuff last year) and Mr PC had reason to start turning it into a song, he was on the ‘phone pretty sharpish. We sorted the bridge quick and easy where melody demanded a contour change, but the real issue was in the ‘A’ sections. Weeks before, I had recited the verbals into his shell-like. No melodic inferences. Just told the story. Really sold the lyric. He loved it. And now it was sticky. Quite transparently, each line of the ‘A’ section had a sweet two-bar phrase-length – were it not for those obstinate extra beats of line 1: “I don’t think about you anymore – not very much”. He was badly aggravated by this, I could tell. Almost as if I had turned-up for supper mad drunk and improperly dressed. Just been taking a renewed look at Hoagy’s stuff, I explained – (Hoagy Carmichael, self-taught pianist, natural southern bohemian, party-animal, quit law for music, serious viper, hung tight with Bix Beiderbecke, writer of ‘Georgia’ among many others) – and thought I’d try wearing one of his old waist-coats…. I intended for ‘A’ to be 9-bars. The response was swift and gruff. “I don’t do that.” Those ‘A’ sections are now eight measure. Sorted.

There was a thread about collaborative strategy a little while back, initiated by the valued absent Carnival (MIA, 2008, NW Pacific). Maybe we should revive it alongside these current ones. The turn of phrase, coupled your reasons for caution, suggests you’re talking about the challenge of being expected to compose music for pre-written words here. But, let’s just say for argument you have found someone with whom you communicate well and who works with a musical awareness of structure, …. how would you approach composition if you aimed to feed them music to write to ? What are your working preferences ?

For all those others here who, like myself, are merely lyricists - what is it you think constitute essential requirements of a good song lyric ? When I say 'merely lyricists" here, it is in recognition that words don't make a song until given the tune to fly on. So just what is it you aim for, qualitatively and structurally, to serve the expectations of a composer-collaborator ?

Amanda Ghost (“The Unsung hero of British Music” - The Independent) is the new president of Epic Records. "As well as working with artists signed to Epic," - and that includes Franz Ferdinand, Jennifer Lopez, Editors, Sade, Ozzy Osbourne, etcetera.... "she plans to continue her writing/production partnerships with Ian Dench, Jack Splash, Stargate, the Rural and FutureCut, and will also continue to work with artists Hugo Chakra and Scott McFarnon." WTF does it all mean ? Does the woman who wrote the chorus to James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" have what it takes to be a label executive ? "... just like hiring lawyers turned out to be a fallacious solution to record business problems, hiring inexperienced songwriters/failed performers is no better solution. A good songwriter is a lousy businessman. A failed artist has no blueprint for what it takes to make it." says Bob Lefsetz. It's certainly an odd choice. So what does it signify ? What's going on ?

Sorry Tim - I think that example is a classic in a folk-genre which absolutely demands obscenity to be authentic. The limerick packs laughs anatomical In space that is quite economical, But the good ones I've seen So seldom are clean, And the clean ones so seldom are comical. I always enjoy your enthusiasm but, tell me, what do you mean when you call the limerick 'a new kind of poetry' ? The tradition is hundreds of years old. What's so new with that ? Edward Lear was the prime populariser, I guess. Although, if you were to read a collection of his nonsense, I'm sure you would soon tire of the relative innocuous 'tame-ness' of his limericks. It robs them of entertainment value. They don't fully come into their own until they get low-down crude and dirty while keeping some style of cleverness fully intact. That's my opinion, for sure. But it's one seems universally shared by all scholars and historians of the form. While Titian was mixing rose madder His model posed nude on a ladder The position - to Titian Suggested coition So he ran up the ladder and 'ad 'er !! ('Rose madder' is a colour made from the crushed root of Rubia tinctorium in a recipe dating back to the rose-pink textile dyes of ancient Egypt.) Maybe it's about time you Discovered the 'Clerihew' Which has also been new for some quite considerable time And is most widely known for the comical tone lent by a complete abandonment of any reference to normally accepted ideas of syllabic meter to thus postpone the eventual arrival of a welcome rhyme But - I will elect - Purely for the sake of humorous effect.