[stylist] Feature article

Mon Dec 6 11:17:46 UTC 2010

Thanks Shelly. In your writing you bring up  something in the literal 
writing field that is becoming a larger focus in songwriting these 
days... a niche market. With your love for trains you've got a niche 
of which to write, that's good targeting whether you intended it or 
just do it for the love of it. I pretty much feel its the latter for you :).

Brad

On 12/6/2010  02:24 AM Shelley J. Alongi said...
>nice article, Brad.
>
>
>Shelley J. Alongi
>Cell/text: (714) 525-9632
>Read my Metrolink writings and other essays and stories
>http://www.storymania.com/cgibin/sm2/smshowauthorbox.cgi?page=1&author=AlongiSJ&alpha=A
>
>Updated: October 16, 2010
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad Dunse" <lists at braddunsemusic.com>
>To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 8:49 PM
>Subject: Re: [stylist] Feature article
>
>
>
>>Robert and Marion,
>
>Thanks. Sure, where they will be published is at:
>http://www.musesmuse.com/musenews.html
>
>An older sample is below. Now that it is in a
>venue beyond just my site I'll try to put the
>grammarian hat on a little tighter :)
>
>This month's tip deals with music and melody
>rather than lyrical content. Melodies and music
>are like people's lives, they like a bit of
>repetition, patterns, and familiarity. Not every
>one of course but the majority by far.
>
>Most people like a certain amount of predictable
>direction, their expectations being met, and
>sense of familiarity so they feel at home and can
>join in comfortably. Ever have a couple friends
>play a card game you never played, they ask you
>to join in and you say "No thanks, I'll watch for
>a while and see how it's played first." People
>like adventure but they do like things somewhat
>familiar to them so they can join in comfortably and safely.
>
>Melody and music is very similar. Have you been
>at an open mike night, heard a song that starts
>out cool, and you think you might want to sing
>along or at least feel comfortable with its
>direction? Then as the song went on the melody
>kept drifting to and fro, up and down, twisting
>around in all directions and never seeming to
>have any sense or pattern to it? It felt like
>going from Point A to Point B by landmark
>directions only without any indication of how far
>between landmarks. It seemed like it lasted
>forever right? No doubt you found it frustrating.
>Or worse you were the one behind the mike and
>wondered why you lost folk's attention.
>
>Getting people into your music quickly is easier
>if you set up the melody or music with cyclical
>patterns or some set of shorter phrasings easily
>remembered. Blues guitarists do this often with
>their short but catchy "call and response" type
>riffs. Repeating phrases, building tension, and
>then releasing it. This can be done in your
>songwriting, including the background
>instrumentation to compliment the melody and syllable patterns.
>
>Here are a few examples of what I mean. Take a
>good listen you can search for these songs on You
>Tube and hear what I mean. Check out Billy Joel's
>"We Didn't Start The Fire". There are a ton of
>items in this song what we call a grocery list. A
>smattering of names, places, events in history
>and other assorted goodies. I'm sure Billy knew
>that there just weren't no way his listeners were
>about to memorize all that stuff. So the
>instrumentation, melody, and music had to be very
>cyclical. Both verse and chorus are filled with
>short similar phrases and though he doesn't stick
>to a constant syllable uniformity, the melody
>feel and phrasings are all similar in fulfilling a listener's expectation.
>
> From the Country market you can find another
>example with Dierks Bentley's "What Was I
>Thinkin'". Again a very repetitive familiar
>pattern with the choppy one line rhyme scheme to
>help it along. Another advantage to introducing
>your listener to this in your songs is it can
>serve as a catapult for your hook or chorus.
>Folks get just enough taste of the familiar
>phrasing and before they get to the point of "OK,
>I've heard this enough times now I'm ready for
>different", you take them to a pre-chorus or lift
>and slingshot them to the chorus.
>
>Some other examples to check out are: Runaway by
>Love and Theft, Sweet Thing by Keith Urban, Dirty
>Laundry by Don Henley, Ironic by Alanis
>Morissette, and maybe Enrique Iglesias's I Can Be
>Your Hero. All of these examples use short catchy
>repetitive phrases which have made them huge
>hits. They are easy for people to remember, to
>sing along with, and to ask for on the radio or when searching I-Tunes.
>
>Take a look at what you've been writing. Are your
>melody lines stretched out and complicated? Are
>they difficult for people to remember? Perhaps
>you can find one in your catalog to use as a
>project to rewrite the melody and groove using
>the characteristics of the above examples making
>it more memorable and attractive to a listener.
>Or you can purpose to write a new song this week
>using these tools and see how your writing and
>thinking about your songs might change. One way
>is to take one of the above songs and write a
>different lyric to it following the syllable
>pattern and feel, then go back and re-write a different melody to it.
>
>Happy writing. see you next month!
>
>
>
>
>
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Brad Dunse

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. --Oscar Wilde

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