Music is a creative outlet that can be explored at any age, whether you are a teenager or well into your golden years. Songwriting is an excellent way to convey your thoughts and feelings to your friends and family, regardless of whether you aim to achieve fame or fortune in the music industry.
The fact remains that few songwriters achieve fame or fortune, especially at first, if they wish to sell their songs or perform them. Nevertheless, whether you are writing music for fun or a living, having realistic expectations will make the experience worthwhile.
Songwriting takes different forms. Many begin with the melody, while others write the lyrics first. Some write the words and melody simultaneously, while others write the words and then the music.
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Your musical prowess and focus will determine how you write the actual music for a song. When you write primarily to communicate words, well-chosen guitar chords may be all you require. On the other hand, an instrumental virtuoso approaches writing music quite differently. Those with a solid musical background tend to approach songwriting with a more creative process. They can play with different musical ideas and chords to create a melody that works with the song. It is common for songwriters to construct entire songs, melody and all, without even knowing what the song will be about. After the tune is finished, the writer then thinks about lyrics that fit the mood of the music.
ADDICTION FORMULA
If you think about it, many pop songs never get old. Each successive generation rediscovers them. There are likely songs you’ve heard a thousand times, yet you still love them. The melodies, the structures, the lyrics, and the messages speak to you. They’re almost an addiction, right? That’s because they are! Writers who have made careers out of hit songs have learned to cast aside any pretension and follow a tried-and-true method known as the addiction formula.
Friedemann Findeisen, an acclaimed musician and songwriter, didn’t invent this formula, but he may be the first to break it down and teach writers the process. It’s based on a technique that encourages writers to take a holistic view of songwriting and to think about the song from the listener’s perspective, asking them to consider the song’s emotion and the message it conveys.
At the heart of this is the concept of ’emotional addiction.’ This is the idea that a song should be so emotionally engaging that the listener becomes ‘addicted’ to it. To achieve this, writers must ensure that their songs have a strong emotional core and that the song’s various elements are working together to create an emotional impact. And this impact can take many forms, even basic ones like making you want to dance or turn up the volume.
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The goal is to captivate an audience and give them something that compels them the first time they hear it. In his book, Findeisen uses well-known Billboard chart songs as examples of how this technique has been applied successfully. By creating a familiar structure, listeners quickly connect to and remember the song. These addiction principles start a musical journey that keeps the listener engaged and wanting more. By setting up a structure that builds tension, then releases it, the artist provides an experience that leaves the audience feeling satisfied yet craving another fix moments later.
The Addiction Formula uses the three tools of hype (relative energy), tension (gradual energy), and implied tension (superimposed energy) to ultimately drive undivided attention to the song, making melody, rhythm, and lyrics into a song that works. It all makes sense if you consider the most successful songwriters in popular music history and the chart-busting songs they’ve written. From classics by the Beatles to today’s dancefloor bangers, they are all structured the same way and have an instantly recognizable and hummable hook. Or, as they used to say on American Bandstand, it has a good beat, and you can dance to it!
YOU’VE WRITTEN THE NEXT MONSTER JAM? YOU’VE GOT TO PERFORM IT!
Performing your new song might seem like an obvious next step once you have generated your masterpiece. Playing for friends and family first is always a good idea before playing to an audience. Open mic nights at local coffeehouses and bars are a great place to showcase your song when you feel comfortable enough to do so. Open mic nights allow songwriters to perform one or more songs for an appreciative and attentive audience.
