May 2007
Guild Tidings
The official publication of
The International Songwriters Guild
Volume 12, No. 5
NEXT MEETING: 5:00pm Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Songwriters, composers, performers, publishers, and the curious are encouraged to join us. Non-members are invited to attend a meeting or two to get a feel for our group and what we do. For more information, visit our website at www.isgorlando.org .
Officers:
President/Treasurer
Russ Robinson (407) 851-5328
Vice President/Member Reception/Newsletter
Matthew Griffin (407) 903-1212
Secretary
Jacquelyn Fain, crosstyes1@yahoo.com
Website
Carlos Colon (352) 326-4295
Archives
Barbara Ross (407) 862-2795
Membership
Gilda Corrales (407) 327-5494
President's Letter
Dear Members,
The month of May seems to be a favorite time for songwriting contests. I’ve just learned of a contest sponsored by American Songwriter bimonthly magazine. Winners are awarded an acoustic solid guitar with case. The overall winner wins a round-trip flight to Nashville on American Airlines and has their winning song recorded at Music City Recording Studios. Wow, wouldn’t it be great to have an ISG member be the winner! But hey, I want to go too.
I hope you’re as excited about this as I am. So seriously, get busy and dig out your best tape or CD and bring it to Sunday’s meeting. The local writer with the best song has a great chance to be the one going to Nashville . Your originals would be heard by record producers in Nashville and at least you’d have a professional recording of your own song to bring home.
I’ll be expecting to hear something of yours on Sunday. Hey, this will be fun! If you don’t have one, you can be a good listener like me. See you then.
Russ
Music and Lyrics
by Matt Griffin
My wife and I recently saw the movie “Music and Lyrics” about an aging former pop star and composer (played by Hugh Grant) trying to write a song with a naturally-talented but novice lyricist (played by Drew Barrymore). The movie was more amusing than most romantic comedies, which so often these days seem heavy on romance and light on comedy, don’t they? The first five minutes of the movie are especially inspired, as it shows a spot-on imitation of an 80’s video featuring Grant’s old pop group. It was sidesplitting, and the song (“Pop Goes My Heart”) was surprisingly catchy.
Of course, this movie was intended for general audiences and not aging songwriters in particular. So there wasn’t much in the way of really showing the creative process, not a lot of music theory or technical terms. But from a songwriting perspective, they really got one thing right: the words and the music need to mesh for the song to be a good one.
I’ve written about this a number of times, but it bears repeating. A great song has both great music and great lyrics, and they match up in every sense of the word. For starters, they need to pack a similar emotional punch. Music alone can convey many emotions; you can prove it to yourself by listening to instrumental versions of songs you’re unfamiliar with. Music by itself can sound enthusiastic or nostalgic or angry or playful or bitter or joyous, or any of many other emotions and shades in between. You’ll want your words to strike the same emotional tone as your music. If this seems obvious, you’re ready to think about prosody.
Prosody is the mating of words to music, syllable by syllable and line by line. Spoken language is by its nature rather musical, with accented or stressed syllables, “down” unstressed syllables and even little “pickup note”-type words. The idea is to perfectly match a lyric line to a melody line, so that the stressed syllables match up with stressed notes and down syllables with unstressed notes. Perfection may be unachievable, but it’s a worthy goal! Obviously, it also helps greatly if the words are singable; no reason to match up great music to words that are hard to sing. :^)
If you’re collaborating, you and your co-writer(s) need to think about this a little harder. Each contributor needs to consider not only the part he/she is composing, but also how well it fits with the other parts. Suppose a lyricist is going to write words, and a composer is planning to put music to those words. The lyricist should strive to put together singable lines in a song-like pattern, preferably using a version of one of the several common song forms (the topic of song forms is worthy of another article or two all by itself). Then the composer needs to listen to the words to establish the mood, and write melody and music that matches both that mood and the words themselves. There are, of course, many other ways to collaborate on a song; the point is that each of the writers should focus on the whole song, even if working on only a small piece.
When it works, the results can be astonishing. Think of a song you consider to be great; it’s impossible to think of the words without the music, or the melody without the lyrics. A song meeting that high standard is the brass ring for any songwriter. That Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore wrote a great song together is no surprise; the romantic comedy had to have its happy ending. The real question is, how will you and I fare? J
ISG Bulletin Board
Jeff Mason’s gig schedule:
Appearing At O'Keefe's Irish Pub, Fridays & Saturdays from 5pm, musicians welcome!
115 S. Rockingham Tavares, FL, 352-343-2157
Appearing at Tijuana Flats on the Patio (weather permitting), Thursdays at 6pm
444 S. Hunt Club Blvd , Apopka , FL 407 774 0402
Lead Sheet preparation by Carlos Colon. A simple lead sheet contains the melody, lyrics and chord symbols. For more information, visit my website at www.cecoriginals.com and click on “Lead Sheets” at the top of the page. Website design also available. Use your website address in advertising. Newspapers, business cards, fliers, to name a few and let’s not forget the use of email. Send your link to potential clients. For more information, visit a few of my clients sites at http://www.ticopeach.net/clients.htm.
Meeting space graciously provided by Central Florida Musicians Association, Local 389. You are invited to join the largest union in the world, representing the interests of the professional musician. Visit their website at afm389.org for more information. You may reach them by phone at: 407-894-8666.
We’re always looking for material for the newsletter. If you have any information that you would like to see added to the newsletter, please see Matt Griffin at the meetings or email him at isgorl@cfl.rr.com . Please keep your articles brief and to the point. Print deadline for the newsletter is approximately two weeks prior to the monthly meeting.
Classified advertising may be placed free of charge to members in good standing with the ISG . For more information on display advertising and/or classified advertising for non-members, please call Russ or Matt or email: isgorl@cfl.rr.com .
Why isn't your gig announced here? Call us with your appearance schedule!
Place your classified ad or gig announcement here! Free to ISG members as always! Just get your text to Matt by the print deadline (usually the Friday 16 days prior to the monthly meeting); email is best ( isgorl@cfl.rr.com ).
New members always welcome!
April Top Songs—Results of monthly critique session
No critiques in April--check back next month!
© 2007 ISG