song writing

Through this series I hope you've caught on that repetition, or by another name... organization, comes in many different forms in music. Take a listen to "Gary's Blues," your Tongue Block Study 3 study song. Listen for themes and we'll compare notes tomorrow.

In most songs we're used to hearing the harmonica and band start together, with maybe a little pickup from the harmonica. The licks fit nicely within the 12 Bar Blues and are generally intuitive to play... to feel where they belong in the form. continue reading...

"What happens when you don't repeat your A lick... can it still be considered phrasing?"

Nope. Repetition is at the core of phrasing. Without repetition you're playing lick, after lick, after lick, after lick.. after lick.. after lick... after lick... after lick.... after lick. Get it? All change is sameness, boring. At the core of all that is melodic, or that which is story telling, a recurring theme must be present. Change cannot happen without repetition.

The Af Af At Chorus Form is a great example... continue reading...

The faster the tempo of the backing (swing for example), the more repetitive Chorus Forms you'll use, AAA and AAB for example (listen to William Clarke's "Blowin' the Family Jewels," it's all AAA and AAB). The slower the backing, the more active Chorus Forms you'll use (listen to Little Walter's "Blue Midnight," the A B/A C Chorus Form is king in slow blues). So, the general guideline you can give yourself is that if the backing is active, you don't need to be. If the backing is slow and sparse, up your activity. As you can infer, it's about balance.

Songwriters have a recording device with them at all times--Inspiration comes at any moment, and a moment not captured is an opportunity lost. I carried a mini-cassette recorder with me for years and though the quality wasn't good, it did the job. Now that smartphones are ubiquitous, the voice memo app that comes with most phones (or an inexpensive recording app) provide much higher quality and are an easy way to store and backup ideas. continue reading...