Get Creative - Part 1

Don't write a song, craft it. The art of your storytelling lies in your ability to paint a picture in your listeners mind using imagery.

Here's a great example from the first line of the Shawn Mullins song, 'Gulf of Mexico.'

"She cooks him ham and ho-cakes, 5:30 every morn."

He could have said, "She makes him breakfast early every morning."

By referencing the actual food, Shawn creates an image that draws the listener closer.

Try this... Describe a man watching a beautiful woman walk into a room. Then, get creative with it. Do it again. Make it better.

That's songcrafting.

I'll share with you what I came up with in this exercise in my next edition of SongCrafting.

Comments

  1. The BlueDreamAugust 1, 2019 at 1:45 PM

    You catch my eyes From across the room, I can help but notice you noticing me too, I’m breathless, nervous & so confused, but I cannot show this to you, So we play our games & act like there’s nothing happening here,
    But you too know as well as I do, I’ll be leaving with you__ tonight & we will have the time of our lives, So poor some whisk & wine & have A few drinks more_ we both know where the night is going , We’ve been....
    & fuck the past it is no longer, all that matters is where we are going, & as my eyes catch yours there’s no need for words, because you’re eyes say everything, that you’re lips are holding back from me, & I can’t read through your million dollar smile, but it tells me all I need to know, you are an angel, You are..

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Present, Past, and Future Tenses | Different Ways of Telling The Story

When crafting your song, try telling it in each of these tenses, present, past, and future. Just by changing the tense, you could seriously affect a change that turns your song from 'good' to 'great.' Here's an example: Present - "She's looking my way on this sunny day and I've got something to say." Past - "She looked my way on that sunny day and I had something to say." Future - "She'll look my way on a sunny day and I'll have something to say." You can even experiment with mixing you're tenses. If your story has a timeline, you could change the tense of the chorus to reflect the previous verse.
Read more

Rhymes: 4-Ways To Improve Your SongCrafting

4-Rhyming Patterns To Improve Your Song Crafting When crafting a song, it's a good idea to choose a rhyming pattern early in the process. The rhyming pattern determines the structure of your song. There are many patterns to choose from. The good news is that you may choose one and stick with it throughout the song or you may mix and match. Although there are many more, here are 4-patterns that you may want to try in your next creation. ABAB In a four-line verse, an ABAB rhyming pattern has the last word of the first and third lines rhyming and the second and fourth lines rhyming. Here's a sample of ABAB rhyming: It's a matter of the heart A feeling deep inside Like the piercing of a flaming dart Something you just can't hide AAAX This rhyming pattern has the last word of the first three-lines rhyming with the last word not rhyming. It doesn't need to rhyme If you give it a little time It'll all be fine If that's the way it's meant to
Read more

Get Creative - Part Deux

In my last post, I tasked you with this exercise, 'Describe a man watching a beautiful woman walk into a room. Then, get creative with it. Do it again. Make it better.' Hopefully, you've had a chance to give it a shot. Here's what I came up with. 'Dimly lit and full of smoke, the room grew loud as people spoke. Her silhouette filled the door, I knew that I must see more.' The beauty of song crafting is that there are many ways to say the same thing. Many ways to convey a moment or a feeling. Why not try it again? Tap into your creative self.
Read more