Handwritten Song Notes

I was going through some of the bits and pieces of paper that I used to write down lyrics and chord progressions and I thought I would share them with you. As organized as I try to be in capturing my songs, sometimes I get inspiration when the only thing I have at hand to write things down is an envelope or a scrap of paper. These notes can show the process of writing songs better than any description I can provide. Sometimes the lyrics come yo me cleanly and some times I struggle to get the right words (as can be seen by the crossed-out words and lyrics out of order with arrows showing where they belong. Sometimes songwriting is messy and that is evident here.

Now onto the notes....

The sheet above are some of the lyrics to "Silly Actors Guild" (this song has not been discussed yet but that will be coming soon). As you can see, I was coming up with lyrics and needed to get them written down before I forgot them so I grabbed an envelope that already had information on it and I had to work around what was there. What you see is a couple of the verses, the chorus, and the beginning of the bridge with the chords.

Above you see an envelope I grabbed to capture some lyrics for two different songs. The first is a verse from "Real Enough" that was a late addition that was needed to maintain the structure of the song. The second part is what finally became the chorus to "Forever Stay". Again, the words come out pretty cleanly. The next one will show how messy things can get.

Above we see the chorus to "Make me love you" (an older song that I have not discussed yet). As you can see it took a while to get to to the final lyrics. Here, I was trying different things and the final result was a combination of the things I tried. Just to be clear, the final lyrics to the chorus are:

Make me love you
Make me care
Take my heart
Take me anywhere
Just remember my love for you
And try to see, the better of me

A recording of this song is on my soundcloud page here.

This is an early version of the first verse for "Make Me Love You".

The above two sheets show initial versions the lyrics for the second and third verses and the chorus for "Mountain Freedom". These lyrics represent a "stream of consciousness" that I try to get down in order to capture the ideas I want in the song. These lyrics are cleaned up later and then slightly modified to make sure they match the timing of the song. The chord progression is an early version of the chorus and was modified in the final version.

These two sheets contain the lyrics to "From Town to Town". This song was written pretty quickly (at least a version of the lyrics that is very close to the final version). Just for reference the lyrics that begin "The pretty señorita..." is for the chorus and the lyrics that begin "When I have nothing..." is for the bridge. The rest are lyrics for the verses.

This collection of sheets contain the lyrics to "After Thoughts". The initial version of this song came to me fairly quickly. I did jump around a bit when writing this song. I wrote a couple of verses then the chord progression on the second page is for the bridge. The lyrics after that are the chorus followed by more verses. The lyrics that start with "Better feelings..." were an alternate for the chorus followed by some drum loop notes. the lyrics that start "You can't say I told you..." are for the bridge. After that the rest of the lyrics are for the verses. The reason I'm going into this is that it shows the process I go through in writing my songs. I get bits of inspiration for one part of a song while working on another part (like coming up with the bridge chord progression while working on the chorus - 2nd page in this set).

These last few sheets sheet contains a revision of the lyrics for the first verse and chorus to "Make Me Love You" as well as an initial version of the second and third verses. As you can see here, I was trying a number of different things before finally settling on the final lyrics.

Just to show you how things evolve, here are the final lyrics for the verses:

I sit down on the park bench the songbirds serenade all around
Peace comes over me like a lover soft and warm I can feel the embrace
After a while I must move on this calm binds me like a ball and chain

Sometimes my mind might wander don’t forget that I still love you
You won’t let me down, if you don’t stay around I will be part of you
I might be distant from you never forget that I still want you

You don’t listen I’m not saying this silent movie we’re stranded in
We look in each others eyes suddenly words don’t mean a thing
So we walk out to the future the unknown’s brightness can blind us so

And here are the lyrics for the chorus:

Make me love you, make me care
Take my heart, take me anywhere
Just remember my love for you
And try to see, the better of me


I hope you enjoyed this peek into the early versions of my songs and get some insight into the process (if you can call it that) I use when songwriting.

The recordings for most of these songs are on my soundcloud page here.

Enjoy,

-Ron-

New Song - Forever Stay

Here is a new song called "Forever Stay". It started out as a "Homework Assignment" from my voice instructor and songwriting coach (Larry Rice) to write a sone using a different form of the A form bar chord. The song I wrote was in C so the root chord is fingered as (X 7 5 5 5 5). Using that as a start, I played around with different chord and tried different hammer-on and pull-offs but nothing seemed to work. For those of you that are not guitar players, a hammer-on is when you play a note on a guitar string and while that not is playing, you put your finger down on a different note. Pull-offs are the opposite, you remove your finger while you are playing a note. Anyhow, back to the song. I went back to the non-bar C chord and worked from there. I started playing the C - Dm - G7 progression and that sounded pretty good so I tried playing that progression at the same neck position as the original C chord and it worked. I worked on this some more and found a riff that worked, That was the original verse. For the chorus, I used a chord progression that started at the Am bar chord (5th fret 5-5-7-7-6-5) and progressed down to the F chord and then back to toe G chord (Am G F G) and then back to the funky C chord. That was OK for now but I new I needed to make changes to the chorus later. Now onto some lyrics. I normally play the chords and tryout lyrics and I hit upon some lyrics about a lost love that were promising. After some work here were the start of some lyrics for the verse.

Looking back to what I said
To figure out what I had done wrong
A blank expression mirrors what I have found

The frown on your face shows the pain
The tears in your eye can not stop them
Rain down on me like a raging storm

I see your face but don't hear your voice
A fleeting glance of what I have lost
Starting over is harder than it seems


At this point I was also working on the chord progression for the bridge and the fifth up from the root (G in this case) is a good place to start for the bridge. So I came up with the progression G - C - F - C but that was kind of boring for the whole bridge so tried a chord progression up the scale and that worked out nice. That progression is C - Dm - (skip the Em) F - G - C. So the bridge was G - C - F - C - C - Dm - F - G - C. Now for some lyrics. I was playing the bridge and the words for the second half of the bridge popped into my head "I didn't know that you were walking away. When I thought that you would forever stay". So I worked on the lyrics some more and was able to come up with the first half of the bridge "I thought my love was enough. To keep you here even though time were tough". So now I have the bridge finished. I needed lyrics for the chorus and some more lyrics for the verses.

For the chorus, I continued the the feeling of dread and loss of someone losing the person they love. So I came up with the lyrics "Feeling dark since I can't see you. Knowing that your love passed me by". The first line is kind of unusual but I wanted to use the double meaning of "dark" in this line. Dark as in depressed and also dark as in the absence of light which ties into the words "can't see you" (which also has a double meaning). OK, the chorus is somewhat done (I needed to work on the chord progression and melody but that was for later).

I needed to finish the lyrics for the verses so I continued the theme from the other verses but I also wanted to convey the sense that the main character really doesn't know why this person left him/her. The lyrics for the remaining verses are:

I was strong when I was with you
A carefree life without any troubles
So happy, I did not see the storm

Sometimes my words are not so thoughtful
Don’t mean what they seam, can sound awful
I’d take them back if I knew the pain they cause

Living the life I lived before
Now alone to carry on
with a life that a ghost of what it was


I went into the next lesson with Larry with my new song and played it for him. He immediately got that expression on his face that says "Not bad but...". The first change he suggested was in the verse and suggested replacing the riff with the chords Dm7 - Em7 - Dm7 while I was singing the verse. That progression sounded cleaner and the change in melody to accommodate the chord change sounded more interesting so I mage that change. The second change was the melody on the bridge. I wasn't happy with what I wrote and his changes made it much better. So I worked on those changes for a week and the the next lesson I played Larry the new version of the song. AT that point he thought that the bridge was too strong to be the bridge so he suggested I make that the chorus and what I had as the chorus the bridge. He also suggested a slight change in how the song returned to the C chord in each line of the (now) chorus. On the F-C chord change he suggested staying on the F chord an extra half beat and the melody changes from going to B-E to B-F-E. On the G-C change he suggested the first time using the progression G-Csus2-C and the second tine using the progression G-Cmag7-C. When you hear the demo I recorded you will hear how those chord changes work. The last suggestion was to make the chord progression and melody more interesting on the (now) bridge.

I worked of this a little bit and want the bridge to have a bit of a tie-in with the chorus so I changed the progression to Am - Em - Dm - F - C. Since Am is harmonically similar to the C chord (the key of Am contains the same noted as C major), the progression is similar to the second part of the chorus progression except the first chord is Am instead of C and it includes the Em chord. This was close but not there yet. I wanted to add a twist into the chord progression so I substituted a Bdim chord for the F chord and that was it.

I cleaned up some of the lyrics and added a second part to the bridge so here is the completed song:

I was strong when I was with you
A carefree life without any troubles
So happy, I did not see the storm

Looking back to what I said
To figure out what I had done wrong
My blank expression mirrors what I found

Chorus;
G C F F-C
I thought my love was enough
C Dm F G Csus2-C
To keep you here even though things were tough
G C F F-C
Had no idea/ that you were walking away
C Dm F G Cmag7-C
When I thought that you would forever stay


Sometimes my words are not so thoughtful
Don’t mean what they seam, can sound awful
I’d take them back if I knew the pain they caused

The frown you wear tells the story
The tears in your eyes, can not stop them
Rain down on me like a raging storm

[Chorus]

Bridge:
Am Em Dm Bdim Am
Feeling dark since I..... can’t see you
Am Em Dm Bdim Am
Knowing that your love has passed me by
So alone I feel I can’t go on
Missing the love I tasted before

I see your face but it’s not beside me
A fleeting glance of what I have lost
Starting over is harder than it seems

Living the life I lived before
Now alone to carry on
with a life that a ghost of what it was

[Chorus]


I recorded a demo of the finished song and put it on soundcloud. You can listen to it here:

Forever Stay Demo by tazthecat

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to tell everyone about the new song and I had finished it before I could write about the progress on the song. Anyway I hope you find my discussion on the writing of this song interesting or at least mildly entertaining.

Enjoy,

-ron-

Real Enough - Update 1

I've made a good bit of progress on the song "Real Enough". Most of the verses are written and I have an initial version of the bridge written. Here are the lyrics so far

You're in the room
I know you are there
I stop and stare
The fire in your eyes is real enough

I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart
I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart

You want to dance but I don't know how
And when I try
The stepping on your feet is real enough

I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart
I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart

You don't know why I act this way
When I act this way
The look upon your face is real enough

I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart
I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart

Some people think that I'm insane
I wonder if you feel the same
I hope you believe that I am real
Or at least real enough

You're all alone and love is not around
And it gets you down
The pain that you feel is real enough

I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart
I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart

I come around and try to smile
It's a sad smile
my hand upon your shoulder is real enough

I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart
I see it in your eyes
I feel it in your heart


I made some changes to the first two verses in order to make the number of syllables in the lyrics match the beats and rhythm of the song. Other than that I'm just making progress on finishing the lyrics. Here is a recording of the initial demo and the version I have so far.

Real Enough - Initial Demo by tazthecat

Real Enough - Second Version by tazthecat

Enjoy,

-ron-

Final version of Loving on the Road

I finally finished the song 'Loving on the Road' and here is the final version of the lyrics.



When I first went on the road
It was exciting it was fun
Loneliness not invited in
We were quite the rowdy ones
On the road I saw many towns
But it’s not new, the thrill is gone

Don't hate me, don't hate me
I was always true
But when it comes to loving on the road
I will still want you

Never saw a pretty face
To match you, could not match you
Your voice lingers on my mind
You're with me, you’re still with me
I don't know how I could go on
You were always the strong one

I slip back to my hotel room
Look out the window, pretend to see you
I don’t notice the night has gone by
I don’t notice it’s dawn...
It’s dawn

It’s dawn and I’m on the road again
Another day another town
It clings to me with many miles
It pulls me down, I will not go down
Soon I will be heading home
I am such the lucky one

Please love me, please love me
I was always true
When it comes to loving on the road
I will still want you


This version just has some lyrics tweaks from the last version I discussed. The first one is with the lines


I don't know how I could go on
You were always the strong one

Which was previously

I don't know how I could go on
Without you, I need you

The original intention of those two lines was to repeat the pattern set by the other line pairs in the verse. In the other line pairs in that verse, the second line repeats a phrase ( To match you, could not match you - You're with me, you’re still with me). That might have worked better if I could continue that through the song but I wanted a common tie throughout the entire song not just that verse so I changed that line. The replacement line although not lyrically similar to lines in the first and third verse, has a similar cadence to those lines. Here are the three lines that are tied together

We were quite the rowdy ones
You were always the strong one
I am such the lucky one

It might not seem like these lines have anything in common but when you listen to the song you will (hopefully) hear the similarity.

The second change was because of an oops moment in the previous lyrics for the third verse. Those were

It's dawn and I am off again
Another day, another town
Soon I will be heading home
I am such the lucky one

As you can see, this verse only has two line pairs and the others has three. So I needed to write two more lines for this verse. I had this thought of the wariness of being on the road sticking to the person in the song. That eventually became the lines

It clings to me with many miles
It pulls me down, I will not go down

The only problem is that this line made no sense within the rest of the lyrics of the third verse. The thing that is clinging is the road but that is not in any of the other lyrics. So I changed the first line from 'It's dawn and I am off again' to 'It’s dawn and I’m on the road again' and then it made sense.

Here is the recording of the final version of the song

Loving on the Road by rdlipps

Enjoy,

-ron-

Test

Test of embedded MP3 player


Loving on the Road

New Song - Real Enough

Here is a new song called "Real Enough". The chord progression for this song has been something I have been playing around with for several years and from time to time it comes up when I'm just noodling around on the guitar. Actually it is the chord change from E to Bm that I have been trying to work into a song. Well I finally got something to work and I have the beginning of a song. I'm trying something different and instead of just giving you clips, I've recorded a bit that shows the progression. This goes through my last attempt a few month ago to what I have today. As always forgive the bad singing of the melody. Here is that recording



Real Enough - Song Progression by tazthecat

I have a few preliminary lyrics that are (this is very early in writing the song so these are rough):

Well I didn't know that you were here
Cause I didn't stare
Feel that my thoughts are real enough

I see it in your smile
I feel it in my heart

You say you want to dance
I say I don't know how
The pain as I step on your feet is real enough

I was trying to come up with lyrics and the phrase 'Real Enough' popped into my head so I started writing lyrics around that. Sometimes the lyrics come from an idea, sometimes I come up with one or more verses, and sometimes I come up with the chorus first. This is the first time I've been able to write a song starting with just a phrase.

The chord progression I finally ended up with is E - Bm - Am - F - G - C. This started out as being E - Bm - Am - G - F - Am but this chord progression descended down the scale from the Bm and I wanted to break up that progression to make the song more interesting (that and I'm working on another song that has a similar descending chord progression). The last thing that I needed was a transition from the C chord back to the starting chord in the verse, which is the E chord. What I came up with is the riff that started on the c note on the fifth string of the guitar and descended down the scale. The notes in the riff are c-b-a-g-e. This was good but I needed something better so I ended the riff on an E chord instead of just the e note and to make it more interesting the second time through, I end the riff on a G chord. That is what you hear in the recording.

That's it for now. As I make progress on this song I will post updates.

Enjoy,

-ron-

Loving on the road - Update

Here is an update to the lyrics of "Loving on the Road", previously known as Untitled Song 1. I went with the second option for the bridge (discussed in a previous post) and have lyrics for the bridge as well as a first cut of the lyrics for the final verse. Here are the lyrics so far

When I first went out on the road
It was exciting it was fun
Loneliness was not invited in
We were quite the rowdy ones
Out on the road I saw many towns
But it's not new, the thrill is gone

Chorus
Don't hate me, don't hate me
I was always true
But when it comes to loving on the road
I will still want you

Never saw a pretty face
To match you, they could not match you
Your voice lingers on my mind
You're with me, you're still with me
I don't know how I could go on
Without you, I need you

Bridge
I slip back to my hotel room
Look out the window pretend I see you
I don't notice the night has gone by
I don't notice it's dawn
It's dawn

It's dawn and I am off again
Another day, another town
Soon I will be heading home
I am such the lucky one

Please love me, please love me
I was always true
When it comes to lovin on the road
I will still want you

I will still want you

The transition from the bridge back to the chorus does something that is sometimes done in a song to help make it stick in the listener's mind and that is repeating a line or phrase. I have to thank Larry Rice (my voice/songwriting coach) for this one. If you look at the end of the bridge the lyrics are

I don't notice it's dawn
It's dawn

It's dawn and I am off again

The last phrase of the bridge (it's dawn) is repeated after the bridge and then carried into the first line of the verse. I think it works well. Also at Larry's suggestion, I changed the final chorus by changing "don't hate me" with "please love me". That is why it is always good to have another person to listen to your songs and get different ideas and perspectives.

Well, I now have a first cut at the complete song and a good first cut at the melody. The next update will probably just be tweaks to the lyrics and melody. I still need to record the song, in it's current state , so you can get an idea of how it sounds and I will do that and update this post as soon as I get this done.

Update: here is a recording of the song as it is now.

Loving on the Road - Second Version by tazthecat

As always, enjoy

-Ron-

New Song Number 1 - Update

Well, I've been working on the new song number 1, which is tentatively titles "Loving on the Road". I have written the lyrics for two verses and made a slight change to lyrics in the chorus. This is a song that is not based on personal experience but one of the songs where I get into a character. This will be another of what I'm now calling my "Traveling Musician" series. I'm writing this as a musician that is touring and lamenting being away from the one he loves and the obvious problems this causes. Here is what I have so far in terms of the lyrics.

When I first went out on the road
It was exciting it was fun
Loneliness was not invited in
We were quite the rowdy ones
Out on the road I saw many towns
But it's not new, the thrill is gone

Don't hate me, don't hate me
I was always true
But when it comes to loving on the road
I will still want you

Never saw a pretty face
To match you, they could not match you
Your voice lingers on my mind
You're with me, you're still with me
I don't know how I could go on
Without you, I need you


As you recall from my last post, I had two versions of the bridge and right now I am towards the second version (the one with the Am - F - E - A chord progression). I am working on the melody for that version and getting a better chord progression that will transition back to the verse. I think I like this version because the Am & F chords are in one key and the E & A chords are in another but I like weird chord changes :)

Anyway, I will keep everyone up to date as the song progresses and will try to get a song clip recorded so you can hear the progress so far.

Enjoy,

-ron-

Three days of inspiration and humility

This past extended weekend I was at Floydfest, which is a music festival in southern Virginia near the town of Floyd. It featured diverse styles of music; bluegrass, folk, jazz, latin, African, rock, and blues. Although it was hot, it was a truly fun and remarkable experience and I heard so much incredible music and watched so many incredible musicians. If you have a chance, you should go to this festival.

I have no illusions that I'm a good musician, I'm decent and I enjoy playing but I'm a pale comparison to the professionals out there. Listening and watching the musical talent at Floydfest, however, brought a whole new level of humility to this musician. There was so much talent there even in the smaller, less known acts. Two bands in particular served me a big slice of humble pie. The first was a band called The Wave. This band was made-up of four young musicians that played like they had been together for decades. So much talent. The second was Lefty Williams, which is a blues band that is fronted by a guitarist that was born with only half of his right arm (hence his nickname). Despite his handicap, his guitar playing was amazing and easily better than most of the other guitar players at Floydfest. All I could say was WOW.

Here are links to Floydfest and the bands I discussed

Floydfest
The Wave
Lefty Williams Band

Well, I'm back home and back on the grid so I will be catching up on my posts. I also have several new songs that I am working on so you will here about them as I decide which old song I want to cover next.

Enjoy,

-ron-

Butterfly Bush Part 2

In my last post about the song "Butterfly Bush", I had discussed the initial draft of the song. It was OK but needed some work. The first thing that needed improvement was the melody of the verse. Initially the melody was the same for each line and that made the song sound dull and boring. This is how the verse sounded originally

Butterfly Bush - Original Melody by tazthecat

Here is the final version of the song (you will need to refer back to this audio for changes I discuss later in this post)

Butterfly Bush by rdlipps

What I did was sing lower on the first line of the verse and the melody followed the chord progression and the second line I sung higher and the melody starts with a couple 3rd intervals and then a descending scale back down to the root (A). This pattern repeats once more in the verse. The melody change on the second line of the verse clashed with the original chord progression so I changed the rhythm so I would get back to the Am chord sooner. I also stay on the Am chord longer than in the original (mainly to allow a chance for a breath before going to the next line). This is what you here in the final version.

I don't remember making any significant changes to the chorus. Maybe some tweaks to make sure the notes in the melody were the chords that were being played.

The first part of the bridge is close to the original with maybe some clean-up of the melody. During the D and C9 chords the melody uses an interval from d to a (decending fourth) for the D chord and an interval from d to g (descending fifth) for the C9. The C9 chord is used because the d note is the 9th (2nd) note in the C scale. OK it was actually the other way around: the C9 chord was in the chord progressing and it allowed be to use those intervals in the melody but I liked the sound of it. I'm not sure if that was the original melody or if I worked it out later but that was the only potential change in the first part of the bridge.

Here is what the original bridge sounded like.

Butterfly Bush - Original Bridge by tazthecat

the line that starts out with "Filled with so many..." was meant to be a transition back to the verse but when I was playing it to my voice/songwriting coach, he suggested a change in the melody to what was closer to the final version of the song. I liked the change so much that I rewrote that part of the bridge and made it a whole separate part of the bridge instead of just a transition. This gave the second part of the bridge a somewhat dreamy feel allows for a better transition back to the verse.

The last thing the song needed was the last verse and I used a trick that is sometimes used and that was to modify the first verse and use it as the last. If I put on my songwriting theory hat, I will tell you that this ties the end of the song to the beginning and provides the song a repetition in theme that make the song desirable. Actually I had trouble coming up with lyrics for the last verse so I just used the first verse and changed a line. So whether you like the intellectual or the lazy explanation, that's how I finished the song.

If I think of anything else that is interesting in writing "Butterfly Bush", I will post that later but for now that is it for this song. I hope this discussion was enlightening or at least not completely boring.

Thanks,

-ron-

New song number 1

We'll take a short break from the song "Butterfly Bush" to discuss a new song that I am writing. This might be a little more interesting because you will get to see the progression of the song as I'm writing it instead of relying on my ( admittedly bad) memory.

This song started out like many of my of songs do with me just fooling around on the guitar. It starts with a D chord and I was playing with a descending bass note from the root (the open D note on the third string) and the chords just spontaneously came out. The chorus chord progression quickly followed as well as the lyrics for the chorus. I'm not sure what inspired the quick progress I made on this song but I just went with it.

Here is what I have for the verse and chorus so far

Loving on the Road - Verse and Chorus by tazthecat


Here are the words for the chorus

Don't hate me, don't hate me
I was always true
When it comes to loving on the run
I will still want you

This not how a song usually progresses. I usually finish the chord progression and then work on the lyrics. Sometimes they come quickly most of the time not. Once I have the first cut of the lyrics, I get a rough idea of what the melody will be and how I want the timing and rhythm to go. I do several iterations of lyric and melody changes. At this point, I make any changes that are needed to the chords (usually to correct my tendency to use the same chord progressions over and over). I refine the lyrics, melody, rhythm, and chords one last time and the song is done! Finis. Clear a space on my wall for the gold record..... One small problem. I play this masterpiece to my voice teacher/songwriting coach and he gets the look like "Hmmm, that is interesting". he then points out about a dozen things that can improve the song and I'm back to square two (square one is creating something in the first place).


Ok enough with that, back to the song. I've got a good idea how the verses and chorus will go. Now it's time to write something for the bridge. Here is where the demon of overused chord progressions rears it's ugly head. My first try at the bridge was purely reflex and although it sounded good, it was predictable and lacked tension and interest. The chord progression is E7 - G - A - D with some passing chords added at the end. Here is that first try

Loving on the Road - Bridge Alternative 1 by tazthecat

So I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out, wait for it, a key change. Not just any key change but from a major key to a minor key. I tried several chord progressions but ended up with a progression that started with Am (the fifth above D). The progression goes: Am - F - E - A. Hey wait you say... E and A are not in the key of Am. That's right but it sounded cool and I am not one to be afraid to switch keys at will. This is how the bridge chord progression sounds.

Loving on the Road - Bridge Alternative 2 by tazthecat

I hope you will agree that this is an improvement and at least it adds interest to the song.

That is all for the new song for now. I will keep you updated on the progress of this song.

Enjoy,

-Ron-

Butterfly Bush

Ok here in the first song I am going to discuss, "Butterfly Bush". First here are the words and chords for the song.

Butterfly Bush

Am Am11 Asus4 Am11
Sits and watches the butterfly bush
Am Am11 Asus4 - Am11 Am
A cat sits and waits for his prey
Am Am11 Asus4 Am11
Watch the flowers bob up and down
Am Am11 Asus4 - Am11 Am
In the breeze the blossoms play

Chorus
A D
I wish that my life could be that easy
Bm E
That a plant could provide such fun
A D
Simple pleasures that nature can bring
Bm E
Are bountiful if you can see

Bees and butterflies come on in
The cat tenses and waits to pounce
He jumps but they are out of reach
And safely float away with the wind


D Cadd9
A nearby pond and chirping birds
G Bm A
Are of no interest to him... to him
D Cadd9
He has his spot and does not move
G Bm A
Golden eyes focused on the plant.. focused on the plant

G Bm
Filled with all of natures toys
Am D
Permeated with so much joy
G Bm
he looks out at his new kingdom
Am D
creatures all around, he just wants to play


Sits and watches the butterfly bush
A man sits and waits for his day
Watch the flowers bob up and down
In the breeze the blossoms play

The demo of the song is here.

Butterfly Bush by rdlipps

I started writing this song while sitting on the porch and watching my cat CJ chase butterflies that were flying around a butterfly bush in the yard. CJ would hide underneath the bush and leap out at the unsuspecting butterflies. The beginning of a song came in to my head and I started writing down some lyrics (shown below). I wanted the song to have a light feel so I used open chords and used the Am, Am11, Asus4, Am11 progression. This chord progression moves up and down the neck and has a playful sound. That is one of the things you want to do when writing a song, have the feel of the lyrics match the music. The first version had a slightly syncopated but even rhythm but that was changed in the final version. I will discuss the changes later.

For the chorus, I use a technique that I find effective in adding a little tension and interest to a song and that is moving from the minor chord to the major chord. You will see this in other song I will discuss. The chord progression stays in the key of A throughout the chorus. The rhythm changes to a regular beat in the chorus.

The bridge brings yet another key change (This is a thing I also do frequently). This was not something I did consciously but when I looked at what key the chords fit into it tuned out to be in the key of G. When I write the bridge I first try to start with the chord that is either a fourth or a fifth above the root chord for the song. In this case there is also a change from minor to major Am -> D (Dm is the fourth above Am). So the chord progression for the first part of the bridge is D - C9 - G - Bm - A and this repeats once. In the key of G the scale degree for this progression is V - IV9 - I - iii - II. One thing to note is the A chord is major instead of minor. I wish there was some cool musical reason for this but that is just how it came out. Originally the last part of the bridge went like this after I wrote the chord progression and a first try at the melody.

G Bm A
Golden eyes focused on the plant.. on the plant
G Bm
Filled with so many of natures toys
Am D
He plays with so much joy

As you can see this is already different from my original handwritten lyrics. The only thing that completed the song was a slightly modified repeat of the first verse. That finishes the discussion of the first cut of Butterfly Bush. The next post on this song will describe how I changed the song to get to the final version.

Enjoy,

-Ron-

Take a listen to my songs

I have put some of the demo recording for my songs on soundcloud so that people can listen to the songs, get familiar with them, and have a point of reference for when I discuss my journey in creating the song. I will apologize up front for the quality of my singing. I am a songwriter and guitar player not a singer... You have been warned.

You can find my songs here at soundcloud

I will most likely be talking about 'Butterfly Bush' first.

Enjoy,

-ron-

Music theory part 2

This is the second music theory post and we will discuss intervals and chords. An interval is basically the distance between two notes as measured in semitones (see my first music theory post for a definition of a semitones). If you remember the table of modes from my previous post (shown below), there is roman numeral for each of the scales and that represents the interval from the tonic (the note C) to the starting note in the scale. These roman numerals will also come into play when I talk about chords.

So if we look at the C major scale and the corresponding roman numerals:

C D E F G A B C
I II III IV V VI VII I

The interval from C to the other notes are:

C is unison at zero semitones
D is the second at two semitones
E is the third at four semitones
F is the fourth at five semitones
G is the fifth at seven semitones
A is the sixth at nine semitones
B is the seventh at eleven semitones
C is the octave at twelve semitones

If we look at the minor scale and remember from the circle of fifths that A minor contains the same notes as the C major scale, we have the following notes

A B C D E F G A
I II iii IV V vi vii I

A is unison at zero semitones
B is the second at two semitones
C is the minor third at three semitones (designated by lowercase roman numeral)
D is the fourth at five semitones
E is the fifth at seven semitones
F is the minor sixth at eight semitones
G is the minor seventh at ten semitones
A is the octave at twelve semitones

Why do the third, sixth and seventh intervals have a minor in their name? Because they have a different number of semitones in the interval than the third, sixth, and seventh in the major scale and because they are the notes in a minor scale they are defined as minor third, minor sixth, and minor seventh. The second, fourth, and fifth are not minor intervals because they have the same number of semitones as in the major scale. The fourth and fifth are special in that they maintain the same number of semitones whether the scale is major (Ionian and Mixolydian modes) or minor (Aeolian, Dorian, or phrygian). That is why they are called perfect intervals. The other intervals are either major or minor depending on the mode. The table below shows the intervals that are contained in the seven diatonic scales.

In two of the scales (Lydian and Locrian) you see that the fourth is augmented and the fifth is diminished. Augmented means that the interval is one semitone higher ( also called raised a semitone) and diminished means the interval is one semitone lower (also called lowered a semitone).

Chords

Chords are made from at least three notes. The first common chord is the major chord. The major chord contains the root note, the third above the root and the fifth above the root. The root identifies the chord. For example the G major chord (commonly called just a G chord) is made up of the following notes.

G B D
I III V

To get any other major chord you just take the root, the third, and fifth note from the corresponding major scale. The other commonly used chord is the minor chord. This is similar to the major chord except you use the minor third in place of the major third. If we look at the G chord again but make it a G minor (Gm), it contains the following notes

G Bb D
I iii V

Like the major chord, you can form any minor chord by taking the root, the third, and fifth note from the corresponding minor scale. OK that's cool you say but are there other chords? Yes, you can add other notes from the scale to form more chords and here are some of the common ones:

Seventh chord: this contains the root, the third, the fifth and the minor seventh
Minor seventh: this contains the root, the minor third, the fifth, and the minor seventh
Major seventh: this contains the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh
Diminished chord: this contains the root, the minor third, and a diminished fifth
Augmented chord: this contains the root, the third, and an augmented fifth

The other set of chords that I will discuss are the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords. Hey wait... The intervals only go up to seven, how can you have a ninth chord. Well the scale is cyclical so if you continue counting beyond the octave note you can get a ninth interval and that is the same note as the second interval. So this set of chords take the seventh chords and add a ninth (second), eleventh (fourth), or thirteenth (sixth) note to the chord. Below is a table that shows the construction of these chords

So those are the common chords use see used in songs. The last thing I will discuss is chord progressions. This is the series of chords that are formed by using the notes of a scale but having the root note be each note in the scale. For example in the C major scale, the notes are

C D E F G A B C

What is the C chord that fits in the scale, same with the D chord, and so on. Well the progression of chords is

Major - minor - minor - major - major - minor - minor diminished

For the C major scale that is C - Dm - Em - F - G - Am - Bm(dim)

Using roman designation again the progression is

I ii iii IV V vi vii(dim)

So we have the same relationship between chords and we do with notes. So in the key of C the Em chord is the minor third of the C chord.

So hopefully this will give you enough background on intervals and chords so you can follow along as I discuss the creation of my songs. Enjoy...

-Ron-

[Edit 7/17/11]
I forgot to add that all figures in this post were provided by Wikipedia

Music theory part 1

OK this is the first music theory post. I will try to keep to the important parts that pertain to my discussions on songwriting. The main points I will discuss are scales, intervals, and chords. This post will discuss scales. He we go...

The basic tonal building block in Western music is the note. There are 12 note names and these note names repeat over and over again and each of these cycles is called an octave. This series of twelve notes is called a chromatic scale. If you look at a piano each key is a note. The note names are:

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#
Bb Db Eb Gb Ab

So what are are those '#' and 'b' symbols. They are called sharps and flats and they increase or decrease a note by a semi-tone or half step (this will be discussed later in the interval section). The sharps and flats correspond to the black keys on a piano. I guess you are asking at this point why have letter names in combination with sharps and flats instead of just using only letter names and why have both sharps and flats when they look redundant? Well this has to do with the construction of scales.

Ok, what is a scale? A scale is a subset of notes that when played impart a particular sound to the music. Scales in traditional Western music generally consist of seven notes and repeat at the octave. Notes in the commonly used scales are separated by whole and half step intervals of tones and semitones. These seven note scales are called diatonic scales.

Ok but why are there sharps and flats. That's because the way diatonic scales are constructed, they contain every letter and each letter is represented only once in the scale (ie, a scale cannot contain an A and an A#). Why you ask.... because it is a convenient way to define diatonic scales. Seven notes in the scale and seven letters representing the notes, isn't that a coincidence. If a scale has an A and an A# then the A# is actually a Bb.

So how do you determine what notes are in a scale. Well it starts with the C note. If you start at C and progress through the letters with no sharps and flats, you have what's called the Major scale. The C Major scale contains the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B and if you look at the list of notes you see that this scale by starting at a note and use the following progression

w-w-h-w-w-w-h

Where 'h' is a half step and 'w' is a whole step (two half steps)

You can now form a major scale in any key using this progression. Wait, hold on a minute... what is a key? Its just the note you started the progression on (and is also called the root note). So a specific scale is identified by the key and the type of scale (for example the major scale that is in the key of C is called the C Major scale or in the key of C Major). If no scale type is given, it is assumed to be the major scale (e.g., in the key of C really means in the key of C Major).

Now let's try this in the key of A

A B C# D E F# G# A
w w h w w w h

Now let's try this in the key of F (using sharps)

F G A A# C D E F
w w h w w w h

Since this scale has two A notes (A and A#) so we replace the A# with Bb. That is why we have both sharps and flats. Also another rule for thumb for the diatonic scales is that the notes in the scale can contain sharps or flats but not both.

So what are the different diatonic scales? Well they are defined by starting on a different note and progressing through the letters with no sharps or flats. The different scales formed using this method are called modes. Here are the seven scales (modes) that are possible.

In this table s is a half step T is a whole step and the white note is the start of the scale. The two most import scales are the Ionian scale which is also called the Major scale and the Aeolian scale which is also called the minor scale. You can use interval sequence from the table to form any scale in any key.

There is one other concept that is important to musical scales and that is the circle of fifths. The Circle of Fifths chart used in music theory shows the relationships among the twelve tones of the Chromatic Scale, their corresponding number of sharps or flats in the key, and the associated Major and Minor keys.

At the top of the Circle Of Fifths diagram, the key of C has no sharps or flats. Starting from there and going clockwise by ascending fifths (an interval that spans five notes in a diatonic scale), the key of G has one sharp, the key of D has 2 sharps, and so on. Going counterclockwise from the top by descending fourths (an interval that spans four notes in a diatonic scale), the key of F has one flat, the key of B♭ has 2 flats, and so on. The circle is commonly used to represent the relationship between diatonic scales. Adjacent keys on the circle of fifths represent Diatonic Scales that are a perfect fifth apart and share six of their seven notes. Furthermore, the notes not held in common differ by only a semitone. Thus moving to a new scale by a perfect fifth can be accomplished in a very musical fashion.

I hope that gives you a good introduction to the concept of scales. The next music theory post will describe the basics of intervals and chords. Until then enjoy...

A continued welcome

Hey its me again... Your songwriter extraordinaire (Ha!). I was thinking about the types of things that I want to post on this blog and it occurred to me that not everybody knows about music theory and because I want my posts to have as wide an audience as possible, I might want to give a brief tutorial on music theory. That way when I talk about major vs minor chords, scales, or intervals, everybody will be able to follow along. From time to time I might have a post with some additional music theory if its needed to explain a concept I'm discussing in my song.

I will work on my first music theory post tonight and I'm putting my recorded songs in a place were people can listen to them so I will be posting where you can listen to them soon.

Thanks,

Ron

Initial Message

Welcome to the songwriter’s diaries. I created this blog in order to capture my thoughts about my songwriting experiences and a way to capture my own progress as I am writing and my memories of what went into the songs I have already written. Although I am doing this for myself in order to put into words what inspired a song, how the song was put together, what were the influences and reason for changes to the song, and my general thoughts about each song, I also wanted to share these thought in order to let other see how I write songs.

Now I know what your thinking: who is this guy and why should I care about his thought on songwriting. He must be a successful songwriter that I’ve never heard of and he has songs recorded by some of the top artists. Well no, except for some of my own demos, nobody has recorded any of my songs. Well why should I care? Because it might be fun to see what went into writing a song or maybe you write songs also and are looking for another perspective from someone else who writes songs. Whatever your reason for continuing to read this blog, I hope you find it informative and entertaining.

I will be posting mostly on my recollections of songs I have already written at first because I want to capture what I can remember about those songs before my poor brain completely forgets everything. I will, however, be posting about songs I’m currently writing from time to time to give you a more in depth look into my songwriting mind. I will try to post something every day and so far I’m 1 for 1 :)

I hope you enjoy the songwriting diaries....


        Ron