Posted in: Musical Ensemble by Ronne on September 4th, 2009 | 0 Comments
Writing a song is hard, but writing a hit song is more than just hard, it’s challenging. But here are some tips and suggestions that will help you.
Chapter One: The First Impression.
Before I start, let me introduce myself, I’m Ronne and I’ve been the songwriter for a major rock band called “EXODUS” back in my hometown, until the band’s disintegration. Since then, I’ve worked with major local and emerging bands and composers. I began writing songs when I was about ten years old, I used to write songs about the nature, but now with more than a three dozen songs to my name, and a ten years of songwriting experience, I believe I can help you think big and realize your true potential and thru improve in all ways as a songwriter.
Writing a song is hard, but writing a HIT song is more than just hard, it’s challenging. It needs a lot of persistence, high imagination, deep and undisturbed thinking. You need to identify the bone, flesh it out in such a way that it’s commercially qualified to stand on its own it’s this fast-paced world of music.
Some of the qualities of a hit song rest in its title, which should be a catching one, and of course relating to the lyric. It’s the first thing people see, it’s gives the listener the first impression on what the song is going to be, so be sure to do a lot of research before giving a title to your song. People get confused when a lot of people have the same title for each of their songs.
How to get a title? Well, for me, it’s basically easy, the spark, or the bone that helped you write that song is obviously your title. I would like to mention this little incident before I proceed any further, a couple of months ago, I made a trip to my cousins place, they are total auto-geeks, if you want to know anything about things that run with motor and on fuel, they are your guides, they know the a-b-c in that particular area. I reached there by sun fall, and to my astonishment, I saw them coloring their car like a grave. Surrendering to my curiosity, I asked them why they doing this, this was the reply “Jimmy’s going for a road-trip with his girlfriend, so we are customizing his tombstone“.
That’s was the spark, “Customize my Tombstone”, and I went on to write the song “Customize my Tombstone”. You can hear that song here, Customize my Tombstone.
A title gives a great deal of information both to the writer and to the listener. It helps the listener know what the song is going to be, whereas to the writer, it’s the first step onto writing a hit song. A good title is not just an idea, a theme or a concept, but an abstract and emotional link between the listener and the song. So keep your title away from just mere words, but put in a lot more effort so that it finds its way to the heart of listeners and ultimately onto the billboard charts.
It’s upon you to find the spark, and evolve a title from it. Trying to get a title out of a spark is not that hard, and it’s one of the signs of a true songwriter. Now that you’ve got a spark and a compelling title, lets move on to how to put flesh to the bone.
Try asking the title question. How? Why? What? When? Who? Where? Asking these questions would open doorways for you to proceed with the song. It helps you the flow the song, organize and take your lyric to new heights.
Do check out the other chapters, which would be published in the days to come.
For further assistance in songwriting and for collaboration deals: contact littleronne@gmail.com. If you are a triond user, then I suggest you grab a hold of Fegger.
