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Friday, January 15, 2016

Songwriting problems

So what are problems in my songwriting, and what are not problems?

Melody is not a problem. I come up with melodies that I like and that other people like well enough. They are songs, they have melodies.

Harmony is difficult, but not problematic. I just use the harmonies I know.

Rhythm is not a problem. Notating rhythm can be hard for me, but that is a notation problem. I have a natural sense of what the rhythm of a song should be.

Simplicity and complexity. Is that a problem? Well, a very simple song can be good, and making it more complex doesn't make it better. I can make my songs a little more complex than they are, and at least have that option, but I don't need to use as many chords as possible in every song.

Lyrics are difficult, but not a problem. The difficulty of lyrics is that they always seem perfectible to me. You can change them to make them better and they always seem provisional when they aren't brilliant (as mine haven't been). Perhaps I have higher standards, being a poet and not a musician, so that my music satisfies me easily, but my lyrics don't.

Structure is a problem. I have an intuitive sense of what it should be, but the song tends to break down during the bridge.

Notation is difficult but not necessarily a problem. I can notate pitch and rhythm, but it is tedious and I have to go back and fix mistakes constantly.

Performance is a problem. I have a hard time getting through a song without mistakes. I am not a good piano player at all, and having to sing on top of that is very hard.

Recording is also cumbersome.


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