I didn’t post any songwriting articles this week due to some serious growing pains as a songwriter. I was writing lyrics—slowly—but the music just wasn’t happening. I spent about five days kicking rocks and muttering darkly under my breath. And as usual, I tried to use brute force to push through, promptly burned myself out, freaked out, and contemplated the end of the songwriting road. It’s a familiar cycle.
I snapped out of it, of course. With this sudden realization:
Chords. Chords were to blame.
Writing From Stale Chords = Writing Stale Melodies
Chords are usually used to support and color a melody—all these years, I’ve almost always started songs by writing a chord progression. It took a while, but apparently I’ve finally exhausted my patience for that approach.
“Melody is King,” many songwriters say. All this time, I’ve mostly relied on using some chord progression as a sonic bed to feel out a new melody on.
That came out sounding dirty, but I’m leaving it.
Well, here’s the problem with writing from a chord progression: in most of the genres I write in, there are only so many stock chords to draw from. Repetition has worn down those chords for me. Hearing a C – F – G progression just isn’t inspiring, and it doesn’t make me want to write. It doesn’t make me want to feel out a new melody. All it makes me want to do is sleep.
To make matters worse, I’m stuck in a few habitual old strumming rhythms on my guitar.
I’m trapped in an invisible box. Help me.
The Remedy: Rhythmic Life + Renewed Focus on Melody
Now that I understand the root of my discontentment, I can get to work. This week I’ll be focusing on:
- Learning scales and arpeggios on the guitar—and singing them to get the notes into my head.
- Exploring new rhythms and finding new strumming patterns.
I will bring you all along for the ride. Stay tuned!
Photo credit: Rochelle, Just Rochelle
This is such a big issue for guitarists, me included. Piano players are used to playing the melody and harmony. Guitar players have to learn how to add a melody to what they are already doing. It’s a very hard rut to get out of.
As I’m working through the Beatles catalogue I naturally gravitate to examining the chord progressions but I’m slowly learning to focus most on the melody. It’s helping…
I think most guitarists focus on chords because melodies are so strange to visualize on the guitar. Pianists have lower pitches on the left, higher pitches on the right. A good jazz guitarist who lives near me likes to say that trying to think on the guitar is like trying to think on six pianos. Of course the analogy is flawed, but there’s some truth to that. It takes quite a time investment to fluently play melodies on the guitar, as you know Matt.
Oh, the Beatles had some really beautiful melodies. I love listening to Ted Greene play “Eleanor Rigby” and “Ticket to Ride.”
I am with Matt on this one. It is definitely something that most guitarists get stuck in a rut with, and I am one of those who writes using guitar. I think what Matt said is interesting, and I wonder actually whether some of the great chord changes in the catalogue of bands like The Beatles is because they were getting the chords to work with the melodies?
I remember one person that I used to write with wrote that way with melody first and then he’d fit the chords and music around that melody. They were great songs.
Hi Martin!
I know that McCartney wrote the melody to “Yesterday” before he wrote the lyrics, so you may be onto something there. I’m sure Matt knows more about the Beatles process–ask him!
I understand the basics of harmonizing a melody, but I haven’t spent nearly enough time playing and working at it. Got to get off my butt about it.
Thanks for swinging by, Martin–good to see you again!
alternate tunings helped move me out of that zone for a while…modes too. still chords but not the usual.
I hadn’t thought of alternate tunings! Thanks Ruth.
I will definitely be making serious study of modes and arpeggios. I think I also need to play with timbres and spend more time composing on the staff instead of on the guitar.
Looking forward to this series.
One thing that has helped me is knowing a little theory, namely some scales and the chords that accompany them. But my favorite thing to do is to simply start strumming and humming at the same time and then find the chords to go with the notes I’m hearing. Often, the note I’m hearing is a modulation, which is cool, as I think that modulation is the key to really great melodies. The Beatles were masters of this.
Hey Jeff!
Yeah, scales and chord theory are essential. I know them intellectually, but I haven’t spent enough time applying them and using them to compose. I need to focus on singing melody lines and then finding them on the fretboard, I think.
Vivaldi did some really cool things with modulation, too… and I love listening to Ornette Coleman for that reason. There are no chording instruments in his ensemble, so he changes keys freely. It sounds great.
Thanks for stopping in, Jeff!