Help Figuring Out First Pop-Piano Composition

[Alana]

Hello all! Even though piano was my first instrument, at age five, I've never been able to write a song on piano. Years before I learned guitar, everything that I tried to write was always on guitar in my head. Now that know how to play guitar and am getting more involved with song writing, I'd really like to try to write for the piano. I think my style for piano is kind of in the vein of Ingrid Michaelson or Lily Allen. I imagine a sense of pop-song repetition. However, even after learning to play these kinds of songs on piano... I still can't seem to come up with my own piano arrangements. I get stuck with a melody with chords below it, which I feel sounds better on guitar. How do I arrange these chords into an actual piano part? How did you all start? Can you recommend some experimentation or exercises? Am I even making sense?

-Alana

Edited September 14, 2010 by Alana

[Coises]

I still can't seem to come up with my own piano arrangements. I get stuck with a melody with chords below it, which I feel sounds better on guitar. How do I arrange these chords into an actual piano part? How did you all start?

Three things have helped me: improvisation, accompanying myself “by ear” to songs I know, and writing things down.

It seems like I’ve loved to improvise almost since I started playing piano. Early on I learned that when improvising, there are no mistakes — never stop, just keep going and look for a context that will make that clunker fit. (A friend and I used to joke that you could judge how bad a clunker was by how many times you have to repeat it before it sounds like you must have meant it.)

Playing “by ear” while you sing songs you know (but don’t know the piano for) will teach you how to find something halfway interesting to do besides plink out the melody in the right hand and chord in the left... though perhaps you’re already playing bass lines with the left hand and spelling out the chords, with passing tones, in the right. You’ll still be playing a lot like a guitar, but like a finger-picked guitar with some walking bass and transitional notes. Soon, you’ll be doing some things you’d never be able to do on a guitar.

When I really want a strong piano part that’s more than just bass, chords and an occasional passing tone, I sometimes find it’s best to write it out on staves. These days I use a notation program instead of pencil and paper. I key in the melody first, then with keyboard at hand, work a few measures at a time to develop a line that complements the melody. That allows me to use more transitional chords and counter-melodies than I could ever keep straight in my head, while being certain that they work with the melody rather than distract from it. (A main rule is to try to keep the piano relatively still while the voice is moving, and put something melodic in the piano when the voice is holding a note or silent.)

An example of a song I wrote this way is Just Bring Me Home. (That’s a link to the sheet music — there is no recording yet. True to form, I’ve written a piano part that’s too difficult for me to play well... and it really needs a female voice.)

Improvising and playing by ear are the big things, though. When you can improvise an accompaniment to someone else’s melody and chords, you’ll be able to write one to your own. It’s just easier to start with something you can already hear clearly in your mind without trying to write at the same time.

[john]

Hi Alana

Nothing beats experimentation. For example, take a simple song (not your own) and try playing it using different styles. Try dropping the melody from the piano and focus on the basic chord voicing and the rhythm so that the accompaniment compliments the vocal emotion. Try playing a harmony on the piano rather than the melody.

When you learn note for note the songs of other people do you take apart the arrangement to see how it works as a solo instrument section by section? Observed how it interacts with other instrumentation. Solo instrument arrangements often don't exactly match the records. They are intended for piano and vocal.. so listen to the actual recordings and work out where the notation arranger has taken liberties.

For your own material you can then bring to bear understanding of song structure, the notion of other instrumentation and the very strong link in arrangement between the emotions of the vocal and the emotions of the backing instrumentation. It then becomes "I want to evoke this feeling, and to do that I know that these techniques and this approach will work". That does not necessarily mean the process stops there. Your understanding gets you in the ballpark, but this is where the mixture of experimentation and a critical ear makes choices and eventually hones the arrangement. This gets easier and easier to do to the point it becomes almost intuitive, and you no longer need to have the instrument in front of you to know what will work and how it will sound before you even try it.

Learning about songwriting or arrangement is very like adopting a new instrument and learning how to play it. Mastery is a mixture of learning technique, training your ear, experimentation and practice practice practice.