The first rehearsals were held on Sunday, Oct.3.  As an introduction, I led the bands through an exercise on improvisation.  I tried to have each musician present an idea which the rest could build on.  There were a few moments where I had to help some people find the right chord, but overall it went surprisingly well.  I found it very interesting that the concept of listening is something that has to be taught and developed.  As an older musician, active listening is simply a fact of life to me, simply something I do.  I had forgotten just how challenging it can be for a less experienced musician to listen with intention and focus.  I plan on developing various specific exercises to help develop this listening ability.  I can’t possibly stress the importance of listening enough!

To get the bands rolling along, I suggested covering a simple song and I led them through each section.  I chose Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Come Together by The Beatles.  This exercise was hugely successful.  It gave everyone the chance to immediately perform as a band without first having to choose repertoire.  It also gave me an easy segue into the concept of song form, something I plan on going into more deeply at a later session.

Although there is so much to do still, I am really happy about how the first day went.  I continue to believe in this program and in the musicians who are contributing to it.

For more details on the program, or if you would like to get involved go to www.hummingbirdmusic.ca for contact info.  The program is located in Ottawa, ON, open to anyone over the age of 12 and I am currently building an adult band!

One great way to test out new material is to perform it.  This is the old tried and true method.  Pay attention to your audience while you perform and you will be rewarded with tons of feedback.  Pay close attention to body language as not all of this feedback will be in the form of them cheering (or not cheering).  While this is a really good way to get some solid criticism, it does have a major drawback.  You have to be willing to put that song out there!  This takes courage.

Recently I stumbled across a really good alternative for judging your own work.  It has been said that the true test of a songs greatness is playing it solo acoustic.  If the song holds up with a minimal arrangement, then it is a great song indeed.  I recently purchased a microcassette recorder for capturing my song ideas on tape.  Little did I know that I would stumble upon an amazing method for testing new songs!  After finishing a new blues in A, I recorded it with vocals and guitar on my microcassette recorder and listened back.  I found that I really enjoyed the song even though the sound quality was atrocious.  I thought about some other self recordings I’ve done on my computer that I really dislike because of quality and realized that the strength of a good song shines through even the worst recording medium.  This trick has been used for many years in mastering studios and is often called the ‘car test’.  What I suggest is that you apply it to your songwriting process.  Listening to yourself recorded can be a real eye opener.  To get the full experience listen to your new songs in hi AND low fidelity.  If you find you’re not enjoying the experience maybe its time to fix or scrap that one.

I can’t seem to find the original post I read, but the basic idea is this.  Set imaginary time constraints on your projects.  For example, let’s say you want to record an album.  Let’s also say that you have no record label hounding you for a release date.  As songwriters, we all know how picky we can be.  Recording an album can often drag on for a year or more!  A good tactic is to set a deadline whether you have to or not.  Give yourself 3 months or 6 months or one year from start of album to finish.  Map out a timeline and get to work!  This can really help with budgeting the album and with ensuring that you don’t spend forever searching for that ‘perfect’ take.  Even if you aren’t %100 satisfied, it is often better to move onto the next project and actually release something than it is to spend too long reworking old material.

Here is a really fun exercise.  Put aside some time 3 days in a row for songwriting.  On day 1, give yourself exactly two hours to write an entire song.  On day 2, give yourself one hour.  On day 3 give yourself half an hour.  I think you will find that this self-imposed time restriction will really flex your creative muscles.  In addition, you get the satisfaction of having completed three songs in three days.  They may not be your best work ever, but then again they might.  Trust your intuition and start getting work done!

By drawing from the harmonized scale, one would typically come across the following chord progression:

I – ii – IV – V

In the key of D, you would play the chords D-Em-G-A.  Sounds lovely no?  What Mr.Lennon does is a little different.  I called it the “surprise iv” because as soon as I played it I stopped dead in surprise!  It was so simple but sooo beautiful!  Mr.Lennon used the minor iv chord instead of the typical major IV.  The result is something magical and a little left of center.  The new chord progression then is:

I – ii – iv – V

In the key of D, you would play the chords D-Em-Gm-A.  Very interesting isn’t it?  Personally I wouldn’t use this chord progression repetitively.  I find it a little too arresting to be used in a common verse.  I would definitely treat it as Mr.Lennon did and have it as a single entity in the song structure.  I also found that this “surprise iv” works very well as a sort of cadence.  Instead of a typical V-I cadence, try substituting the minor iv in order to round off a progression with a iv-I cadence.  For example, try this chord progression in the key of D:

D(I) – Em(ii) – Gm(iv) – D (I)

I just love it so much when such a simple trick yields an emotional and satisfying new songwriting technique!  I thought that you might too

The best musical performers have a strong command of dynamics.  Without dynamics, music loses its emotional content almost completely which leads to what I call a ‘flat’ performance.  ‘Flat’ is NOT good.  There are many ways to work on dynamics but I want to share a cool exercise specifically for guitarists.  You could certainly apply the general concept to melody instruments with some careful arranging.  The point of this exercise is to incorporate ‘playing less’ into your performance.  I was greatly inspired to write about this after attending a Timber Timbre performance last night.  He is a hugely talented songwriter who really understands that less is more.

The most basic types of chords, major or minor chords, are made up of three distinct pitches.  The major chord is built using the first, third and fifth notes of the major scale.  For example, a C major chord is comprised of the notes C, E and G.   Minor chords are produced when the third of the scale is lowered by one semitone.  For example, a C minor chord is comprised of the notes C, Eb and G.  Typically a songwriter strings together a group of chords in an order that is pleasing and….presto!  Here is what I want you to try.  Take a chord progression you wrote and strip away any notes that are repeated.  You should end up with the same chord progression except you are only playing three strings at a time on a guitar.  There are tons of ways to play these three-string chords so experiment!  What you should get is a much more minimal sound out of your guitar.  This type of playing is perfect for quiet passages or for accompanying another chordal instrument.  After you try this, strip away another note.  now you are left with two-string chords.  These are not proper chords but are instead called ‘intervals’.  You can achieve a really excellent minimalist approach to playing by getting to know your intervals.  A great way to study them is to workout how to play the major scale on only one string at a time.  Try staring with the high e and b strings.  Once you have them separately try going up the scale on each string simultaneously.  For example, to perform a C major scale start with an open e string and the note c on the b string (fret1).  Then play the note f on the e string (fret 1) and the note d on the b string (fret 3).  Continue in this fashion all the way up the neck making sure you only play notes in the C major scale.  What you get is a very pleasing group of intervals and a great way to play minimally.  Make sure you experiment with every possible group of strings.  Don’t be afraid to use your fingers to pluck two strings that aren’t adjacent.  You can get great results using the e and g string simultaneously.

To recap my main point, learning to play ‘less’ is extremely important to realizing your full potential on stage.  Whether you are composing for melody instruments or playing a chordal instrument like a guitar, I challenge you to move through a large chunk of a song (maybe even a whole song!) using only TWO distinct notes at a time.  There can be great beauty in simplicity.

It is fickle.  When it strikes, it is like lightning.  It totally takes control of me.  It ebbs and flows.  It makes my heart beat faster.  I would die without it!
Sound familiar at all?  I was reflecting on the awesome power of creativity and noticing that I can’t help but think of it as this immense force of nature.  It can be as awe-inspiring and terrifying as a street-walking deity!  With that said, I am a person who can think very rationally at times.  Lately, I have been trying to marry my belief that logic can be applied to anything with my semi-religious fanaticism towards the Creative Spark.  Here is what I have come up with.

Any one who devotes energy to writing a song (or anything creative) knows how important a flash of inspiration can be.  My advice is to take immediate action towards accurately recording all of your creative moments.  They can happen anywhere at anytime so be prepared!  I just ordered myself a microcassette recorder on ebay for just such a purpose.  I always keep a notepad with me so that I can write down a song idea if it comes to me.  This could be a good excuse for you to learn proper musical and rhythmic notation.  Furthermore, you might want to think about organizing your creative ‘tidbits’.  For example, you could set up some file folders (virtual or physical) and sort things by chords, licks, key of song, lyrics, ambient ideas, orchestration, theme, emotion, anything at all.  Find a system that works for you and keep yourself organized!  It doesn’t take too much upkeep at all and you will thank yourself when you are moping around the house complaining about writer’s block.  In this small way we can try to apply a small amount of reason to the immense and often UN-reasonable force of creativity.

One of the most effective tools for establishing the key of a song is the V chord.  In the key of C, the V chord would be G major.  The movement from a V chord to a I chord (ex. G to C) is called a cadence.  I like to think of the cadence as a period at the end of a sentence.  It is by far the strongest way to establish the key and organize chord progressions into distinct phrases.  The V-I cadence is so central to musical theory that there are likely entire books devoted to it.  It is everywhere!  However, don’t feel unoriginal using it.  This is one of your most powerful weapons as a songwriter.  Check out these chord progressions:

I – ii – iii – I    (C – Dm – Em – C;  in the key of C)

Listen closely and you will probably hear chord I (C in this case) as the “home” sound.  Starting and ending on that chord would certainly start to establish it as the key of the song.  Now try this one.

I – ii – V – I    (C – Dm – G – C)

This should have a lot more impact.  The cadence provides a very strong resolution and firmly establishes C as the key.  Remember I am not trying to say which chord progression is “better”; that is personal choice.  What I am pointing out is the absolute strength of the cadence in grounding the key of your song.

Now lets see if we can do something a little different.  By delaying the use of the cadence, you can create long and complex chord progressions that still work.  Better yet, you build more tension in your song, so that when the cadence finally happens, the resolution is heavenly.

I – ii – iii – IV – vi – IV – ii – V -I    (C – Dm – Em – F – Am – F – Dm – G – C)

There is a lot of movement going on in this chord progression, and maybe its not the best one I’ve ever written, but you get the point.  By delaying your use of the V-I cadence you can travel quite far from the tonal center and yet still keep your song feeling grounded.  If you don’t want your song to sound grounded, then just avoid the cadence altogether!  You might find this is surprisingly hard to do.

Tension and release.

That’s it.  Please burn that short phrase into your head and think about it constantly.  How are you going to realize it in your music?  Now that I have revealed to you the sum of all my experience I can start getting into specific and creative examples.  Stay tuned.

What I have started doing, is just humming the tune in my head anywhere at anytime and waiting for a subject to come to me.  Having a definite subject to write about really narrows my focus and helps make the song take real shape.  This might seem obvious, but I have definitely met many songwriters who try to do everything in every song.  I suggest looking for an extremely specific subject to write about.  The subject can be anything; like the number 3 or the colour blue.  A while ago I settled on writing about a man who is driving down a highway in a storm with the ghost of his dead wife beside him.  There was a mystery as to whether or not he had caused her death himself.  I have no idea how I came up with that but I had that idea in my head without having written a single lyric.  It really helped to inspire lyrical ideas and shape  the song!  For the song I am currently working on, I have somehow got it into my head that it should be entirely about a creepy old man whose silouette you see in a window from time to time.  I think that one came from my reading Sherlock Holmes and watching Fantastic Mr. Fox while writing in A minor.  I don’t really know for sure.  But what I do know is that such a specific subject will greatly ease my lyrical anxiety going in!

Aside from making it seem like I only write dark, creepy music [I don't by the way ], I am hoping that this post might find and help someone else who has that same trouble with lyrics that I do.  Instead of randomly placing pen to paper, try looking for a specific subject first.  Let ANYTHING be your inspiration for the subject.  Grass, computer speakers, a reggae band living on a Mars-bound spaceship……anything!

Now is the time to put your creative juices towards the presentation of your songs!  I strongly urge you to consider the instrumentation you will be using for each individual performance of your songs.  Try finding unique ways to play around with your instruments timbre to “change” the arrangement of your songs.  For example, as a guitarist/singer, I will often completely change my strumming pattern to add different textures.  Try tapping your guitar on the body in different ways to provide a “drum” fill or beat.  At my next show, I will begin tapping my foot loudly on beats one and three during the second verse.  It doesn’t seem like much, but it certainly adds movement to a song that might otherwise seem flat without a rhythm section.  At a Dan Mangan (www.danmanganmusic.com) show, I saw him actually stop playing guitar and start banging out a simple rhythm using two mallets on a single tom right in the middle of song.  Now that is some creative instrumentation!

Don’t ever neglect dynamics.  When presenting a song alone, you should use dynamics as much as possible to keep your arrangement interesting.  Over-exaggerate them.  Don’t be afraid to whisper, or to SCREAM full volume! (away from the mic if you try that last one…)

There are so many different ways to use your instrument (or your body) to spice up a solo arrangement of a song.  I can’t cover them all here so, again, I urge creativity.  And remember to consider each performance and arrange your songs accordingly.  Maybe you should CUT OUT that third verse reserved for a sax solo if you don’t have a sax player.  Just a suggestion.