How To Write Good Songs - Tips In Creating Music As A Guitarist

Are you a guitarist and want to know how to write good songs? As a guitarist and singer, it can be a little intimidating trying to come up with your very first tune. The process can be long and frustrating, but it can also be fun once you break through the creative wall and good songs start flowing out. A good song has two main ingredients, which are a great melody and awesome lyrics.

Before picking up your guitar and starting the process of writing a new song, an important tip to remember is input before output. This means that you first have to listen to songs that you like and which will inspire you to create good music. This is exactly the reason music artists sound like one another in their own genres. Artists inspire one another and challenge one another in writing music.

The first step in songwriting is to create a playlist of music that you like and how you would like your songs to sound. Listen to that playlist every day and just absorb the music. The playlist of songs will soon inspire you and melodies will start popping into your head. When this starts to happen, many tunes will be coming out of your head, and it'll be overwhelming in trying to remember how they all sound.

Therefore, what to remember is to always carry around a digital voice recorder. When a tune forms in your head, take out your recorder and lay it down by singing the melody or by playing it on your guitar. Soon you'll have a whole batch of melodies of potential songs pre-recorded and will make the song writing process a little easier.

During all this, what you should also be doing is coming up with and writing down lyrics for the songs you will be developing. Inspiration for writing lyrics can come from anywhere as well. This can happen while reading a book with lots of descriptive words and creative writing, or it can come from watching a movie. And of course it will also come from your inspirational playlist of music.

Carry around a small notepad or use your cell phone notepad for jotting down lyrics. When it finally comes time to start writing songs, take your guitar and take out your voice recorder and notepad of lyrics. Find and piece together three melodies that go well together, which will be used as the verse, chorus, and bridge. When you're done, you can then use your lyrics to come up with the singing hooks. Soon you'll have many good songs that family, friends and fans will enjoy.

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Learn Piano For You

Do You Want to Play Piano?

Do you listen to the piano and think, I wish that was me? Then why isn't it you? Everyone decides what they want to do in life and everyone is faced with the big hurdle: that is to start. Let us make no mistake that a concert pianist has spent a lot of time practicing, perhaps a very large percentage of their life. But also make no mistake that a moderate amount of time spent in well-guided regular practice will also bear fruit. This could be the new you.

Motivation to Start

When you depress a single key and play one note there is a musical quality associated with that note. It has a pitch and a resonance. from there you learn the progression of notes in a scale and eventually the association of notes yielding harmony in a chord, or if desired a discord.

By selecting a suitable learn to play the piano book or a suitable learn to play the piano software and setting aside perhaps just 15 minutes or 30 minutes a day you will find that as with most things the early learning curve is quite steep. I would be surprised if you are not playing some single note, melody, tunes within the first few days.

Decide now just how important it is to you to learn to play the piano. If it is worth a little time and effort you will be where I was when I decided to teach myself. I must admit that within a short time I became hooked, spending more and more time at practice. Often, after a challenging day at work and traveling I would sit at the piano. Because of the attention required, and as a result of the calming effect of the balance and harmony in the music that I was playing a sense of relaxation and peace took over. You see the bonus benefit that not only was I learning to play the piano, but I was also benefiting from the therapy of music.

This will not happen on day one, but just persevere and be a little patient, and it will happen soon enough.

A Few Words of Lesson

You will already know that it helps to be able to read music. Yes it does, and it is not all so difficult, although initially this can be daunting. Music in its simplicity is not much more than a step ladder that climbs from low notes to high notes. Some of the steps are reduced to a half step signified by a flat or a sharp, suitably represented by symbols. The step ladder spans groups of 5 spaced lines, called a stave. Another symbol at the start of these sets of lines indicates whether it is a higher treble clef, or a lower bass clef or perhaps another of the less numerous clefs.

The individual notes are coded A, B, C, D, E, F, G and then another set of A, B and so on.

Add a time signature, for example where a 4 indicates four notes in each bar segment. So a musician might well count 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on providing period and rhythm.

It is clearly impossible for me to teach you all about music in a few short sentences, however in a way it is almost just too simple, says one who knows. Just accept that you can do it, it is not rocket science, it is just enshrined in mystery, until the mystique is pealed away.

Playing by Ear, for Some

Quite apart from the need for music, many can play by ear. This requires attentive listening and keen hearing. You select the notes by their sound, you select groups of notes by the harmony of the notes you are seeking.

I would encourage you to start learning with music and a suitable course of instruction, and let the option of playing by ear be a consideration for the future.

Start Right

It is important to be guided and to have correct instruction so that just as music has its steps, so too you must take it a step at a time. This will avoid unnecessary frustration and it will enable you to progress. The measure of success will become obvious if you assess your progress over months or years of time. Looking back will give you satisfaction and surprise you. Even Mozart didn't start off without those early steps.

There is no doubt that if you put your mind to it, devote regular time each and every day you too will become a pianist, the measure of your talent and effort will be the only limitation on whether you become really great, or like me just enjoy the fun and wonder at how you ever achieved so much. Enjoy!

Ronald Heron plays several instruments, including piano and wants others to share in the wonder of music.

Website: http://www.urban-rise.com/

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Ten Tips for Memorizing Music

Do you memorize sheet music by playing it over and over, hoping it will somehow stick in your brain after playing a song many times through? Sometimes this will work, especially if you are playing a short piece.

If you have ever experienced forgetting where you are at a lesson or recital, you might want to try these ten ideas to make memorizing easier for you.

1. Learn the song first before you begin to memorize it.

2. Use the proper fingering.

3. Practice slowly and steadily at first.

4. Watch your hands as you play.

5. Memorize your hands separately.

6. Memorize small sections, maybe one or two measures of music. Don't try to memorize the whole song in a day.

7. Divide the piece into sections and plan to learn some each day. Then review all the sections. Start anywhere and play through the A and B section of a song. Focus on the ending to the song, so with the knowing the last measure, you can end strong.

8. Analyze the music. Notice notes and sections that repeat. Pay attention to where the music changes. Memorize the dynamics and other markings in the song.

9. Practice mentally away from the piano, tapping your fingers on the table or visualizing the music in front of you.

10. Repetition.

Many teachers consider memorization one of the most important aspects of piano playing. Most books, which discuss the how-to of memorization, stress the importance of understanding the details of musical form. So, start an opening phrase of music and learn it without the music.

Then consider the physical demands the piece of music is making. Look for tricky fingering that comes up at a certain point. Play it many times over and over, remember the feeling. Are your hands playing together or separately? Are they moving in opposite directions? On which notes does the thumb go?

Each time you hit a blind spot, you need to refer to the printed music. Remember that when you hit your first blank moment, open your music book and find the place in the music you couldn't remember. Play through it a few times. Now you've begun to deepen your understanding of the song.

Most importantly, every now and then play the song you memorized because some memorization is only short-term. The advantages to following these points are many. By memorizing, the music is unfolding in a new way.

Diana Rogers is a piano teacher and music teacher for a kindergarten class. A free monthly newsletter is available at http://ladydpiano.com/.

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Teaching Guitar in the 21st Century

Could I be teaching guitar without a computer? I could but I don't! The computer is part of most people lives today with Facebook, Google, Twitter, iTunes and more. It is big part of my teaching business. My uses for the computer include research, developing teacher materials, transcribing, marketing, sales, website, email, and recording.

I research online what other teachers are teaching and how they teach it. I see the good and the bad. This helps me improve my teaching ability. I also shop for books for students and myself to use for lessons. Google books is great for this. You can get "a look inside" of book you are shopping for. You can also see some reviews.

A guitar teacher not using a computer is not being competitive. The ability to produce clean and professional handouts and materials with software greatly improves student's and parents perception of the teacher. I have built a nice folder of files for my students ranging from open chords, notes on the guitar to advanced chords and polyrhythm. I do not have to write things in each lesson. It is already done. I have the printed out or can email them to the student.

I use software for transcribing. I have software that will slowdown MP3's to make it easier and more accurately to transcribe. I save these slowdown versions for students so they can practice songs slowly and gradually speed up to the proper tempo. This is important. The software will also change pitch, which comes in handy with bands that tune down. I can raise the pitch to regular tuning or in the case of drop C or B tunings, to drop D. I do not have to retune my whole guitar. I use another software to write out the songs or solos I am learning. I do this for my students and myself. I also encourage my students to do the same.

I use recording software to record custom backing tracks and exercises for my students. The backing tracks are used for learning to solo with different techniques. When a student learns to play a song, they can record with the backing into the computer during a lesson. Recording songs, techniques, and exercises with a video camera into the computer also helps students practice and review what was done in the lesson.

Other use of the computer for the guitar teacher is a website. A guitar teacher needs a website. When someone is looking for a local teacher, most of them go to Google and do a search. Having a website is necessary to get students. Teachers can develop a website online at various hosting companies. I did this for a while but I was getting annoyed and impatience with having to go online to change or add anything to the site. I eventually bought website software so I have more control and quicker updates to the site. Potential students contact me via phone or email from information posted on my website. Potential students contact me via phone or email from information posted on my website. Current students can go to the site and do ear training, watch videos and more.

I feel without the use of the computer for various aspects of my teaching business, I would have less students and less money.

Hopefully, this helps.

Brian has over 18 years Music industry experience and a guitar player for over 30 years. Brian currently teaches in Rockland County, NY. He can be contacted at guitarhelper@guitarhelper.net.

http://www.guitarhelper.net/

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The Homage Technique of Hit Song Writing

People always ask; "How do you write a hit song?" They don't actually ask me that, but I have my opinions just the same. First you need to realize just what is a hit song? Most laymen will say a hit song is any song that appears on the charts, gets substantial radio airplay and sells copies. But if you've ever watched a record company exec listen to your demo tape you know they're listening for a particular song format. They want to hear a short, catchy and unique intro followed by a short, catchy and unique verse followed by a repeating chorus. This is the formula of a hit song. Sound and musical style also enters into it as it can sound immediately passé or dated if the currently popular drum sound or echo effect isn't used but those are arrangement issues, not song writing issues.

Record company professionals always say the surest way to have a hit record is to record a hit song, meaning do a remake of an old hit. As an aspiring songwriter this advise doesn't help you unless you realize that you can rewrite an old hit song. Many people including Paul MacCartney have admitted to using this technique.

Using the Homage approach to hit song writing gives you some advantages such as a ready formed hit song format. You already know how long your intro, verse and chorus are going to be and how many verses and choruses you're going to have. You may also have the key and mode and even the basic chord structure. Mostly though, you will have a mood or vibe from which to build your hit.

A great example of an album chock full of Homage Hits is Paul Revere & The Raiders - Greatest Hits. An American answer to the British Invasion even to the point of wearing Revolutionary War uniforms, their big hits of the era are virtual remakes of the British invaders' songs.

* Just Like Me - This copy of the Kinks' power chord tune, All Day and All of the Night, even features the hectic guitar solo style first heard on the Kink's hit, You Really Got Me.

* Kicks - The twelve string intro with the sliding bass line is right out of the Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man.

* Hungry - The fuzz tone guitar doubling the bass riff would have been cutting edge in 1966 if not for the Rolling Stone's Satisfaction of 1965.

* Steppin' Out - Listen to the chord structure, the pulsating bass line and the twangy guitar of the intro and then tell me this hasn't anything to do with the Nashville Teens' Tobacco Road.

I'm not criticizing the band at all for recording songs that bare such striking similarities. The Raiders didn't write their material and most of their hits were written by the major songwriters of the day such as Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (Kicks and Hungry). I am saying that those songs are good examples of taking a proven formula and changing it enough to make it something original and your own. One of the benefits of rewriting a hit song, besides writing a potential new hit, is that because you're consciously duplicating a previous work you know how far to go to make it sound original. Many times you're caught by surprise when you've written what you think is a completely original composition only to have someone point out it is uncomfortably close to an oldie. At least if you do it intentionally you'll know what to expect.

Neal Warner is an artist, writer, filmmaker, member of the multimedia band, The Tooners and founder of Director's Clip the Music Video Sponsorship Site ( http://www.directorsclip.com/ ).

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Music Theory Is Actually Redundant

I have always been fascinated by traditional African percussion. I'm no expert on percussion but I have had the good fortune to study with some great people in many places including Brazil, Uruguay, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. These experiences have influenced me a lot as a person and as a musician. I went to these countries innocently enough, just looking to learn some cool drum rhythms. But what I ultimately learned was a totally different way of relating to music, a different value system. Music serves a different purpose in these places. In my opinion, it serves a better purpose. Its function is not so much to entertain or impress but rather to heal and to connect people with their past, with each other and with nature.

They also have a completely different approach to teaching music. I was surprised when I found out that my percussion teachers had no way of writing down their music. Not only that, but in fact they didn't even have any way to talk about their music! The whole Western idea of half-notes, quarter-notes, rests and measures was completely unknown to them. And I'm talking about some of the most well-known and respected musicians in Brazil and West Africa. These guys are "masters" in the most austere sense of the word. They are incredibly precise and clear-thinking. They have complete mastery over the sound of their instruments and they know a seemingly infinite repertoire of compositions and arrangements. When you get a few of them together to play it's an awesome experience. Their music is thunderous, beautiful, joyful and frightening all at the same time!

When I discovered that they have no names or symbols for the rhythms they play, I figured that their music must be largely improvised, kind of like the hippie "drum circles" that are common in the U.S. and Europe but maybe with a higher skill level. This assumption also turned out to be wrong. In fact the pieces they play are very rigidly defined right down to every last little sixteenth-note. They have different sections with 1st and 2nd endings, codas and the like. And each section consists of multiple parts to be played simultaneously by several different drummers. There are even sections for call-and-response and improvisation. But these are all my words, my way of explaining how their music works. They don't use any of these terms. They don't even know what a measure is. Their music has triplets and eighth-notes, but the musicians themselves have no words to say, "triplets and eighth-notes."

What was most astonishing to me was the absolute perfection and simplicity in their use of time. I mean, if nobody has any concept of a measure or a time signature then probably there will be a few measures with extra beats, won't there? In fact there is nothing of the kind. They play in absolutely perfect 4/4 time, or 3/4 or 6/8 or what have you, with no deviation ever from the basic time signature.

It is actually very easy to notate their music with our Western music staves and symbols because their music is so extremely precise and well-ordered, despite the fact that they live their entire lives without ever analyzing it visually. Being a typical Westerner I was very impressed that people could achieve so much despite the lack of theory. But the real story is about what they are able to achieve as a result of their lack of theory. Unencumbered by a parallel language, they can concentrate entirely on the language of sounds. They simply live inside this world of sounds and they get to know all of its elements so deeply that it never even occurs to them to name the elements that make up their music.

In our own culture we are obsessed with naming things. If we can't reduce something to words we feel like we don't really understand it. In music, this obsession has driven us to invent a staggering number of musical concepts that students are now required to read about and memorize. Every conceivable way to group notes together has been declared a "scale" and has been given some exotic name. Every possible type of harmonic movement has been painstakingly identified and catalogued. College music professors today are more concerned about our ability to correctly name all these techniques than they are about our ability to actually make music.

And yet, despite all our theory and all our names, almost nobody in our society has any idea how music works. Most music theory professors can't improvise or compose anything. Nor can they recognize the harmony in the songs they hear on the radio. Paradoxically, we only begin to understand how music works when we stop asking the question. The question itself pulls us out of the world of sounds and throws us into the world of discussion about sounds. What we are really doing is shifting our attention to a parallel language alongside what was already a very highly organized language. This is why I say that music theory is redundant. Music itself is already so very elegant, so supremely well organized, that its mere contemplation leads one to comprehend it perfectly.

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Singing Exercises Are the Push-Ups of Voice Training

Are singing exercises really mandatory? No, they are not. They are only mandatory if you want to become a successful singer with a long and important career. Sure, some singers may never have done a scale in their lives. But then again, some people win the Lottery with the first ticket they buy. Willie Nelson probably never warbled a mee-mee-mee in his whole life. (Only guessing here; I've never asked) But few people have the charisma and sincerity that we see in Willie. He is a poet who puts tunes to his poems when he reads them.

For the rest of us, the answer to that question is a resounding "YES." Singing is an athletic endeavor. And just like any other athletic activity, in order to be most effective, a subtle combination of brain, body and voice needs to be coordinated. These elements should be awakened by singing exercises so they can work freely together.

A singer needs to sing scales and exercises in order to practice the elements of the techniques they are learning in a "pure" form. By that, I mean, without being distracted by issues like words, rhythm and interpretation. This is the time a singer gets to totally concentrate on the body, brain and voice synergy.

Singing exercises build a kind of muscle memory intended to allow the singer to forget about issues like breathing and support so they can concentrate on performance aspects when they are singing onstage or in the studio. It's too late to concentrate on breathing and support when you're standing onstage. That's when a singer must forget about the basics and perform. You have to rely on muscle memory. And the way to build that muscle memory is to do what every vocal coach hopes you will do, and that is to practice your exercises.

Exercises. That sounds like a lot of work and not much fun, doesn't it? Well, you could be right, but think of them like you would physical training. Crunches aren't much fun either, but when you don't do them, it shows in your performance and in your body.

Fabled violinist Jascha Heifetz made a good point when he said, "If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it."

For singers, I recommend warm-ups that work like building blocks, starting with the number one, all-time fundamental building block, which is effortless breathing. If you get the breathing part right, you stand a good chance of doing well with the rest of it. If you fail to establish your breathing correctly you will always be off-kilter.

The next step is to incorporate your method of support. Then focus on your resonating system and add it to the mix. I also recommend that as you go through your singing exercises, you begin with scales that are short and in a comfortable voice range for you. Build slowly by gradually lengthening the spread of the notes you sing and begin exploring the boundaries of both upper and lower registers.

There is a temptation to view singing exercises as a mindless activity. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They are only worth doing if you concentrate on building a smooth working machine that incorporates body, brain, and voice. Record yourself and monitor your progress. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. To quote football coach Vincent Lombardi, "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect!"

Nashville vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams helped make stars out of many top artists: Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Dixie Chicks, Miley Cyrus, Huey Lewis, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Jason Aldean, Christina Aguilera...

Author of "Voice Power" AMACOM (NY), Renee offers insider's information via on-line lessons.

Click http://cybervoicestudio.com/ for a PDF of "Answers to Singers' 7 Most Important Questions" and free weekly video NewsLessons.

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