What to do when you're sick of your song
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:27 am
I put the following comments in Stephen's October SOTM thread, but felt it was more a general composition comment and not specifically to his song. So I'm reposting this here to get other people discussing this topic.
After I'm sick to death of listening to my song I give it some rest (usually only a couple of days) I usually go back then and with a very critical ear I say, what parts of this song am I the most sick of, which track is the least intersting, is the arrangement so predictable that I find no surprises in the changes once they've repeated a couple of times, where have I missed opportunities that were I to hand this song to a live band they would be bored as hell to play as it's written. Then: are there busy parts and very thin parts where much of it drops out to give several of the best sounding tracks the front end for a couple measures. While I'm working at this level now I need to compose phrases for the bass, the rhythm that weren't in the original. One method there is to do as much as the song can handle, make each repetition thru the chord progression (ie verse chorus or however it's set up) and then each time around have at least one of the parts be different and noticeably so. For instance if the background organ is playing block chords the first 2 times thru the progression, then the 3rd time I'll play single note octaves that harmonize with the lead, spreading them at least 2 octaves apart. This gives a variation and openness to that section that leaves room for something else to fill that in. Or that last time thru, I'll change the key signature and move it up from F major to Gmajor and bring in brass that wasn't in the entire song until then. That trick is to make sure people will want to listen to the whole song because there's that really cool thing that happens in the last progression. I then look at how the song ends and compare my ending with the way real bands end their songs on cds I have in a similar genre and try to make sure the ending is interesting unto itself. After this I then let it cool down a bit and play video games until I'm sick of them. The next time I listen I do this for mixing and mastering, and at this point I'm flip-flopping with other people's songs that are in the same genre as mine and listening for where I think I'm better than theirs, or where their's beats me hands down. I will usually find a few spots to alter by doing that. If I succeed at all of the above I will reach a new level of my own enjoyment of the tune, so that now when I listen to it over and over, (and believe me I listen to my songs more than 100 times thru in the first couple of weeks) there will be a new excitement and authority standing out in the song that I did't hear before in the first 99 times I hear it. Now I can play any section and think, wow there's the part where the bass does that cool run up the scale and hits the notes of the tune for a couple of beats, or this is the spot where the drums drop out and only the cymbals remain, or here come the strings doing that counter melody that didn't come to me until the 3rd week of trying to figure out what the heck was making my song sound so flat and uninteresting. I won't pretend for a minute that I achieve all this in every song, but in general those are the techniques I apply after I have the basic premise of the song laid out.
After I'm sick to death of listening to my song I give it some rest (usually only a couple of days) I usually go back then and with a very critical ear I say, what parts of this song am I the most sick of, which track is the least intersting, is the arrangement so predictable that I find no surprises in the changes once they've repeated a couple of times, where have I missed opportunities that were I to hand this song to a live band they would be bored as hell to play as it's written. Then: are there busy parts and very thin parts where much of it drops out to give several of the best sounding tracks the front end for a couple measures. While I'm working at this level now I need to compose phrases for the bass, the rhythm that weren't in the original. One method there is to do as much as the song can handle, make each repetition thru the chord progression (ie verse chorus or however it's set up) and then each time around have at least one of the parts be different and noticeably so. For instance if the background organ is playing block chords the first 2 times thru the progression, then the 3rd time I'll play single note octaves that harmonize with the lead, spreading them at least 2 octaves apart. This gives a variation and openness to that section that leaves room for something else to fill that in. Or that last time thru, I'll change the key signature and move it up from F major to Gmajor and bring in brass that wasn't in the entire song until then. That trick is to make sure people will want to listen to the whole song because there's that really cool thing that happens in the last progression. I then look at how the song ends and compare my ending with the way real bands end their songs on cds I have in a similar genre and try to make sure the ending is interesting unto itself. After this I then let it cool down a bit and play video games until I'm sick of them. The next time I listen I do this for mixing and mastering, and at this point I'm flip-flopping with other people's songs that are in the same genre as mine and listening for where I think I'm better than theirs, or where their's beats me hands down. I will usually find a few spots to alter by doing that. If I succeed at all of the above I will reach a new level of my own enjoyment of the tune, so that now when I listen to it over and over, (and believe me I listen to my songs more than 100 times thru in the first couple of weeks) there will be a new excitement and authority standing out in the song that I did't hear before in the first 99 times I hear it. Now I can play any section and think, wow there's the part where the bass does that cool run up the scale and hits the notes of the tune for a couple of beats, or this is the spot where the drums drop out and only the cymbals remain, or here come the strings doing that counter melody that didn't come to me until the 3rd week of trying to figure out what the heck was making my song sound so flat and uninteresting. I won't pretend for a minute that I achieve all this in every song, but in general those are the techniques I apply after I have the basic premise of the song laid out.
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