Songwriting // Caitlin Grindley by Caitlin Grindley

Lyric Techniques

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-12 19:53:12 UTC

Writing from another Different Perspective

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-12 19:54:26 UTC

Exersise

Perspective - Pencil
Your warmth of skin clutched so tight
Feeling your creative thought surging to take flight
Leaving my mark that you choose mould
I am the simple tool that can help the mind escape
placing fears into clarity and smaller things to create

Finding a title to inform the story

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-12 19:59:40 UTC

Title Ideas

Messy Sheets
Buried knife of Clarity
Glass of Life
Unforgiven Promises
Waiting for more
Cursed truth
Laugh crumbles
Cross but sad
Inbetween connection
hill to climb
Soft touch
Longing for word on your lips
Tough direction
Waiting game
Running out of time
Disserpear in a heartbeat
Trust takes time
Real me around you

Rough Lyric ideas

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-13 01:58:00 UTC

Buried knife of clarity ( internal Rhyme)
Glass of life but why carnt I see
Unforgiven primises I know you carnt keep
Time is running out
Your taking a step in a direction of you want and im poud

got to let you
go

Im waiting for more I'm waiting for more
from this connection
Im waiting for more (repetition)
The truth is on your lips
Im waiting for more
Surley this carnt be it

Cursed truth
Laughter crumbles(Metaphors)
whisper of reassurance that im there
Cross but im sad
your disserpearenc
with be bare ( Perfect rhyme)
So close yet so far (Oxymoron)
If we had more time
I would tell you want on my mind
Waiting game for you to find some trust in me
Disappear in a heart beat
As I hear you've found someone new

Questions of prompt

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-13 15:35:46 UTC

'What do you want to say'

Not ready to let an important person go
Feeling disappointed with how little has happened and the amount of time for it to happen
Wanting to feel more like me again
Letting go of worry

Questions prompt song 2

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-13 15:38:57 UTC

What do you want to say
Do what makes you happy and that happy isn't the same for everyone
I wanna feel me again
Drained of who I am

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-13 15:42:31 UTC

End Rhyme - Matching the final words of each sentence to sync in perfect rhyme i.e Love & Dove.

'Feelings of green and bluenothing that cant be solved by a brew'

Alternate Rhyme - Where you rhyme every other sentence of your lyric to create let's say an ABAB scheme.

Being a vile version of disguise
an unwanted feeling forced
the after math ache is no surprise
when a place of divorce

Enclosed Rhyme - Where the two middle phrase may rhyme, leaving the first and further line independent or visa versa i.e ABBA

Flipped back to you how do you feel Childish game to test
To see if you care less
Than when im calling for your love

Internal Rhyme - Matching sounds and Syllables found inside the words i.e My heart starts beating, meeting minds start clicking

Im my own person around you
suppressing my feeling now though they've grown
I wish I never fell in love with you
kept simple a pure of truth

Perfect Rhyme - (as mentioned above) A perfect rhyme is a case in which two words rhyme in such a way that their final stressed vowel, and all subsequent sounds, are identical. i.e sight and light, under and thunder etc...

Lost of cost of time

Imperfect Rhyme - Rhyming between a stressed and unstressed syllable i.e wing and caring, reflect and subject etc...

A sense of lingering which is bringing a sense of meaning

Slant Rhyme - Where the words have the same vowel sound, this can often be manipulated to make your lyrics match. Considering

My conceted minds
is avaperated

indoferent meaning of life
impigmented on the walls of sanity

Assonance = vowel sounds the same vs Consonance = consonant sounds the same.

Rhythm

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-17 13:50:17 UTC

There are many rythmic technique that I can start to delve into to incoparte into my music for exmple

Using different time signtaure instead of simple 4/4 I looked at using Compound signature of 3/4 and 6/8 as I feel I could play them on my guitar.I looked at song that include odd times to familerise myself what it sounded like and what it could do if I were to work with other musicians to ask to play that rythm on there instrument but for now I experemnted with compound I found a particular liked 3/4 and 6/8.I found this help slow the pace down of the songs and create of a a waltz feel and dreamy autmosphere

Pastishe Song Research

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-17 14:07:43 UTC

When looking at her lyrics I looked at the rhyming techniques she used and found that in the verses she rhymes the two middle lines which is called an enclosed rhyme so I tried to reflect this in my lyrics.

Her first line is a rhetorical question which I find is a good technique to engage the listeners straight away and get them thinking straight away so I decided to include a rhetorical question as well.

She also changes from Third person to first person depending on what section of the song for example she uses the pronouns ‘them’ and ‘they’ in the verses but uses ‘I’ in the chorus I feel this creates an inside into two different perspective of the narrative story that Billie is telling it shows what the people around her are doing then tells the audience how she reacting to the situation and how she chooses to see the situation she's in.

In terms of the subject of the song I had a look at the deeper meaning behind the song by watching a Video on youtube (Professor, 2019) and found out about people using drugs as a way of self medication for anxiety so I stuck with the theme and based my song around this matter.

I followed the same structure as xanny which goes verse chorus verse chorus which is your average pop structure.

Tonality

Billie tends to use major chords at the start of a line but then to add tension she adds a minor chord where you feel a major chord should be. She uses I V II but the D technically should be a motor in the A major key however she changes it to a minor.This has an effect of creating tension and a sense of uneasiness which reflects the meaning of the lyrics . The song is in the Key of A however I decided to change the key so it sounds slightly different but keep to the major minor pattern that Billie uses. As well as using augmented chords on the chorus reflecting her use of them creates more of a lift and difference in the song that again the listener does not expect to hear.

Rhythm

I decided to use some of the techniques used in class in term of experimenting with time signatures I decided to use ¾ time signature as I don't tend to write song in ¾ so this created a different sound than my usual song and also create a Billie eilsh sound of being a slow waltz which creates a dreamy feel which matches her soft vocals however she uses 4/4 in the song but I wanted to challenge myself out of my comfort zone

Melodic Constrast

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-19 13:08:37 UTC

I good technique that I could use to create more interesting verses is the make them more stacarto and the chorus more lagarto feel.

For rythm as it somthing I struggle with I used Logic prgrammed drums to help as a starting piont to see how the different rythms sound and to help me play along with my guitar.

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-19 13:11:57 UTC

I found logic really helpfull and is a good way to learn ho wto create my own drum beats which I feel is very important as it alows create diversity in my songwriting and help get my point across more.And write to a breaf.
I also created a playlist of songs that are similier to the style I want to write in I will pick a few to pick apart in terms of aragment to apply to my own songwriting

Molody

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-19 14:10:42 UTC

This week I looked into Melody and the different way to make my melody more iterestin and looked into different types such as melodic contour and conjuct and tryed exsperment with them my humming out come melodie lines

VOICE NOTE OF HUMMING

Contour - What dynamic shape is your melody to follow in different sections?

Tone/sound production: How do you want your melody to sounds - vocal qualities, instrumentation etc - Do not underestimate the unique tone of a vocal and what emotional impact this can have on a melody. Try coming up with a melody on the piano and then singing (or asking someone else to sing ) it with emotion adding unique texture/timbre to bring it to life. This can also be executed instrumentally.

Harmony: How different chords and applications can support your melody and really draw out key colours and emotion further. try repeating the same phrase over different chords to add variation and build tension.

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-19 14:18:39 UTC

Motif - A melodic motif is the shortest possible melodic unit and may consist of as few as two different pitches, often creating a repetitive hook.

Scale - Melodies are of course formed from scales, there are many different scales:

Major and Minor - make up most of western music
Pentatonic - 5 note scales often used in Blues, Pop and Rock
Modal - Mixing major and minor tonalities together, changing tonal centres within various scales.
Chromatic - All twelve notes within one western octave

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-19 20:41:44 UTC

Chord Progression

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-19 20:51:14 UTC

One Chord Progressions that I exsperimented this week and what I found

I V vi IV
I reckonise this as being quite popular in the music industrie and it nice and rounded and is easy on the listeners ears.
Vi V IV V
I flt that thos chord progression felt Sad but uplift doesnt as it doesnt go make to tonic making me feel as though Im on a journey.

I IV vi V
Two strong major moves to minor which I felt created a sense of loss perfect in my opinion for story telling

I vi ii V
I felt this chord progression was vey Jazz inspired and good if i wanted to write in that perspicfic genre

IV I6 V
Didinkty gave me the feel that I was on a journiny and that it was creating a story great for folk music I feel

Secondary Domanent
IV V V6/vi vi
This one is Very powerful giving of dramatic vibes and big balland sort of apprach to writing

IV iv I
This one is a minor chord change which give it a Dramatic twist for it borrows chords from its relative minor

i VI i v
Used in trap beats dark and good for writing melodies as it creates a moody feel.

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-26 12:55:05 UTC

This week I looked at harmonies and experimenting with 9th and 7th chords.I love using thses types of chords as it make the chord progression more intersting and Jazzy

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-26 13:50:10 UTC

Waiting for more

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-26 13:51:36 UTC

I cam eup with e th chorus forst my looping it and exsperimenting with different melodies till i was happy then uses the vese lyrics I came up with to get the verse written

Draft of second song

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-26 13:56:04 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-11-26 13:57:58 UTC

Lyric Ideas

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-01 13:34:55 UTC

Dusty smell of cigarettes

Mixed in with that flowered taste

Young beautiful

You know it too

Living life fast

U said 27 will do

U crush hard

On a man who doesn’t care

Your love disguised by the thing that I crave

Of being high

Want to be fun live a little want a tale to tell

Consequences or non existent

But gotta get out of my mind

Out of my mind

To stop wasting time

Outta of my mind

But isn’t this itself

Wishing for Iove when it right in your face

Safety is boring the devil disguised as why you think is true

To grow you will do

Talent grows take that pill to cure your anxious though self medicate to forget regret that

The medication caused

Chord Ideas and Song titles

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-01 13:40:47 UTC

Spotify playlist of influential artists

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-01 13:41:24 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-02 14:03:26 UTC

Lyric Idea

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-02 14:03:48 UTC

I Carnt breath

I wanna leap but something stops me

I see a situation planned out ahead of me

But suffercates all the possibilities

I don’t fit in

Stop don’t look at me

I’m behind a glass of uncertainty

Learning to Fit in is a mask for me

Don’t believe the actress of quietnessu

Don’t lie to me

Don’t lie

Cause I can tell

Cause I’ve been there before

Coughing up your lungs my

The air as cold as ice

To many thoughts attached but not enough

Sit by me and talk

Whats on your mind

Cause we’re all searching for something to hide

Cause that’s us different from what been left behind

No expectations

No loss no heart break

Seep away

No life no experience

May as well be dead

It’s easier to scream muffled in a pillow

A sad case of quietness no one wants to deal with

Got stop wasting my time

Worrying about what is right

Got get out out of my head

And just don’t let my young days slip by

Live and breath

The link of a new thing

Hold me hand softly forbidden

Temptation

Of knowing it’s wrong

If it’s easy

It’s boring

Sad but it’s true

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-02 14:10:33 UTC

I decided to collaberate with someone to bring some ideas to the table to help bring my song to life we exsperimented with different lead guitar melodies over my acoustic and I really like the reverb feel and overall sound of the electric so I hope to add that in my music in the future.

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-02 14:12:29 UTC

Parallel Scales

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-03 12:38:21 UTC

This week I looked at useing Parrelle scale within my songs and incoperating modes

For example I picked th Key of bm

Which is

Bm C# D Em F#m G A

I then worked out the reletive major
using th ecirlcle of fiths so i found that D major is the relative
D EM F#M G#M A Bm

I looked at using modes to spice the chord progession up

Phrigion

Bm C#m D Em F#m G A

Dorian
B C# D E F#m G# A ·

I found each scale had the same tonic of B working through all scales I have more choice in chord placment

Tone Timbre and Texture

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-03 12:51:32 UTC

This week I looked at the defination of thise three musical terms and how to apply them to my songwriting.
I am looking to be writing homophonic music as it th genre i prefure the most with a melody playing
I would descibe my vocal Timbre as bright,delicate,clean,light.
I were to exsperiment I would look at writing more Lo Fi tunes with lots of reverb and whispery timbre.

Rhythm Development

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-07 13:46:07 UTC

Melody Developement

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-07 13:46:16 UTC

Lyrics Development

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-07 13:46:24 UTC

Critical Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-07 13:49:34 UTC

Critical Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-07 15:37:25 UTC

I think the exercises this week helped me to challenge myself out of my comfort zone as i'm not used to writing from someone else's view point however I feel I could write from a persons perspective rather than a object to make it seem more relatable.
I found writing down titles really inspiring this week however I ended up using all the titles and put them into one song thsi was good as it allowed me to pin piont what a wanted to song to be about as well as being imaginative.

Pastiche lyric draft

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-08 15:38:39 UTC

Why do u reach for it?

Is your mind too far away

Can’t let your thoughts play

Woth out a cover up of emotion

Always a lie ahead of the finishing line

Are you really wishing you felt dread

Carnt afford food or a slice of bread

Yet your pockets are full of stolen Poisen

Im frozen in time wondering why I’m here

I’ve hardly touched the cold bear

It’s not the pill I need it’s the people who let me breath

Get out of there

It’s not you it’s them

Hmm Wakaswse up

Anxiety caring about me

For once

It’s not the pill I need it’s the people who let me breath

Just breath.

Argument are forgotten pitch of salt

So many people talking two faced

Unsure who to trust because they find They do the same

When There feeling a bit insane

Carnt remover the last time u were sober

Beautiful potential wasted on self medicatatin

Only for a work load self illumination

Look in the mirror u could waste your future

Arrangement Concepts

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 11:04:19 UTC

Structure

Some common structures I can experiment with

ABABCB
AABA
ABAB
AAA

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 11:30:47 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 12:42:57 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 16:11:09 UTC

Research

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:19:14 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:30:08 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:31:19 UTC

Critcal Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:33:56 UTC

This week I found it very informative to learn about diffeent writing techniues so that I can apply them to my own writing and try somwthing different other tahn my usual writing techniueq
I also loved looking into Billie eillish song as it opened was interesting to see what tecniques she used to make her songs commercial.

Critical Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:34:32 UTC

I personally found it very helpful to look at how different time signatures can change the feel of a song however I still nee to study this more as its something a fight quite difficult to grasp but I feel that its would help further my songwriting better I could write in different time signatures.

Loud Dilalah Montague Song research

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:35:46 UTC

Delilahs Montague song Loud which at the starts as a 6/8 syncapated feel with I tried to adopt and the beginning of my song but then its lock into the 4/4 beat when to kick comes in

She also uses 7th chords which creates a slow feel which I adopted into my song her song is in G however she borrows a chord from it sparely minor turning the BM INTO b7 giving it a haunting feel

Critical Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:38:27 UTC

This week I had a go at writing some lyrics I prefer to write my lyric on my computer so I can easily read it and edit its stricter and it seem clear more me to read and understand.
I came up with theses lyrics as an exercise to let my writing just flow and see what comes out by creating imagery as the focus.I don't think il use these lyrics as part of my final three songs because there only ideas and i'm not completely happy with them but they may spark further ideas for the final song.

Critical Refection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:43:10 UTC

I found parrellel scales to be good to look at as I hadnt heard of it before I can now here in song when this is used and how it creates tension and a different feel.

Critical Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:48:49 UTC

I decided to devlop and try somthing diffeent with my song I did for my pastishe I decided to use what i learn with drum beats and logic to create a backing track for my self pushing myself out of my comfort zone this would also act as a good demo if I was to work with a producer to get the song recorded for release.

Practice of Reach Out

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:54:20 UTC

Critical Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:54:41 UTC

I really loved working with Kai and getting someone idea into my songwriting I feel this will be a good way to write in the future as it brings something fresh to work with to the table and make me think a little bit differently about things which inspires new songs.

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-11 20:56:47 UTC

Anon, (n.d.). Piano chords by key. Chords in the key of…. [online] Available at: http://www.piano-keyboard-guide.com/chords-by-key.html [Accessed 11 Dec. 2020].

BBC (2018). BBC Music Introducing - How can I get my music selected on the BBC Music Introducing Uploader? [online] BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5JdHZqlwlxpQmS6NBFw6LjL/how-can-i-get-my-music-selected-on-the-bbc-music-introducing-uploader

Ben (2013). Seventh Chords. [online] Music Theory Academy. Available at: https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/understanding-music/seventh-chords/.

Clark, D. (18AD). Human. doddleoddle: Joe Rubel. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T60XUVrnYt4 [Accessed 11 Dec. 2020].

DelilahMontaguVEVO (2020). Delilah Montagu - Loud (Guitar Version). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BVP7W6VzMg [Accessed 11 Dec. 2020].

Eilish, B. (2019). Xanny. Available at: spotify:track:4QIo4oxwzzafcBWkKjDpXY [Accessed 19 Oct. 2020].

Grimm, G. (2019). Name That Key - Find a Song’s Key by It’s Chords. [online] MusicTheorySite. Available at: http://musictheorysite.com/namethatkey/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2020].

LANDR (2020). 10 Popular Drum Patterns Every Producer Should Know. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ffMObdxro&feature=emb_title [Accessed 11 Dec. 2020].

Merriam-webster.com. (2019). Definition of PASTICHE. [online] Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche.

Mochmann, O. (n.d.). Guitar Chord Analyzer (Chord Namer/Identifier) | Oolimo.com. [online] www.oolimo.com. Available at: https://www.oolimo.com/guitarchords/analyze.

Montagu, D. (11AD). Loud. Robin Braun. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWPZMAJA_Ms [Accessed 11 Dec. 2020].

Critical reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-14 11:39:01 UTC

I loved watching the easy brake down of drum patterns because I can try recreating them myself on Logic as a back bone for me writing and experiment with different sounds.I do really struggle with creating drum beat so it is something I need to out time into and improve as its a good skill to have.

Critical Reflection

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-14 11:49:32 UTC

I feel I usually dont think of scales when writing melodies however after researching I relised it might be usful to writing stronger verse melodies which I feel I struggle with the most.

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-16 19:10:16 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-16 19:54:03 UTC

Research

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-16 20:00:59 UTC

Content Arrangement Development

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-16 20:13:29 UTC

clgrindley17 — 2020-12-16 20:19:03 UTC

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/songwriting-101-learn-common-song-structures#what-are-the-most-common-song-structures