Comments on: Is This The Most Overlooked Aspect Of Good Songwriting? https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/ Songwriter, Producer, and Coach, based in New York City. Sat, 11 Aug 2018 17:47:56 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Mark Permann https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7401 Sat, 11 Aug 2018 17:47:56 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7401 Hi Tony,
Thanks for picking a song which was very popular and also contains a such a spare melody (by which I mean, few notes) to illustrate your point. I had been saving this article for a while until I would take the relatively short but focused amount of time to really listen and understand what you’re saying…and having done so, I get it!

]]> By: Tony Conniff https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7400 Fri, 18 May 2018 03:02:33 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7400 In reply to Anthony Aloysius Marshall.

Anthony,
This not only applies to rap, I think rap has led the way in this area for decades.
Since raps usually don’t have a lot of melodic intervals, variety in rhythm (including rhyming) and sound is the coin of the realm.
Thanks for reading and writing!
Best wishes,
Tony

]]> By: Anthony Aloysius Marshall https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7399 Fri, 04 May 2018 03:37:09 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7399 How about Rap song compositions 🙂

]]> By: Tony Conniff https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7398 Wed, 25 Apr 2018 02:57:09 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7398 In reply to Dutch.

Much appreciated, Dutch! I hope you keep reading and commenting.
Best wishes,
Tony

]]> By: Tony Conniff https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7397 Wed, 25 Apr 2018 02:56:07 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7397 In reply to Bill Topper.

Thank you Bill from Vegas!
Best wishes,
Tony

]]> By: Tony Conniff https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7396 Wed, 25 Apr 2018 02:55:46 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7396 In reply to Rich Meitin.

Rich,
If I gave the impression I thought repeating rhythms was a bad idea, I gave the wrong impression. A song wouldn’t sound like a song without them. I was speaking of rhythms that repeated exactly, or almost exactly, line after line. I think it’s easy to see that Gershwin, Porter, McCartney, and other great writers avoid that.
I agree totally with your 2nd point… and I think that’s what Springsteen is doing here. Listen to the words that land on the strong notes, even as he changes the phrasing.
Thanks for reading and writing,
Tony

]]> By: Dutch https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7395 Mon, 23 Apr 2018 08:49:39 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7395 A useful tool for songwriters – especially those who are learning their craft. Thank you.

]]> By: Bill Topper https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7394 Thu, 19 Apr 2018 14:03:12 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7394 As a novice songwriter, I find every word and idea on this subject fascinating and useful. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

Bill Topper
Vegas

]]> By: Rich Meitin https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7393 Sat, 14 Apr 2018 15:57:52 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7393 I think it is a great idea to examine your initial drafts of a song to see whether altering repeated rhythms is a useful thing to do. Sometimes, that wall spice things up perfectly. But at other times, repeating the rhythms of a given line of verse doesn’t bother me at all. When you think of all the songs of Gershwin and Porter, or the way McCartney often writes, the way that they deliberately repeat lyric rhythms seems elegant and correct, rather than something boring that needs to be shaken up.

But if you DO want to alter the lyric rythms to get the effect that you are pointing to, I think it’s also helpful to shift the rhythm of where the principal notes of the melody fall in each phrase. If all you are doing is adding extra pickup notes, I don’t think you get much power out of the technique.

Makes sense?

]]> By: Tony Conniff https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7392 Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:47:14 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7392 In reply to wayne somerville.

Wayne,
That is a different issue, but a GREAT point. I’ll probably use it as a subject for a future post!
Thanks for reading and contributing.
Best wishes,
Tony

]]> By: wayne somerville https://tonyconniff.com/is-this-the-most-overlooked-aspect-of-good-songwriting/#comment-7391 Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:07:48 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=3710#comment-7391 And don’t forget variation in the the harmonic rhythm. New songwriters get stuck in the rhythms they set up at the beginning of their song and it seems they don’t even consider the possibility of changing those rhythms.

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