The Craft Of Lyric Writing PT 2- What Makes A Hit Song

What makes a good song? What makes a great song? what makes a hit song? what makes a song you are happy with?

I have always been a word smith, with over 2,000 songs in my portfolio, and 40 years plus of song writing, I have learned what stands out the most are great lyrics. It is true there are styles of music that are very different, artistic, and all the lyric writing rules are broken, that is not a bad thing, after all art is art, but to break the rules, we ALL must know the rules first, and than we break them at will.

No matter whom you are, if you write lyrics you MUST have the song writer’s market book, it is a songwriters bible. It is mostly where to send your songs, but every year, it has several chapters on the ins and outs of the music business, the basics and a must read.

It takes many years to become great in this craft, you must learn not to over rhyme, unless its rap, LOL. you must have a strong lyric hook, and a smooth transition from verse to Choir, and your break. Over rhyming shows you are a novice, but that is OK, a writer writes, and again its art, it takes time, and that is that. You may be a complete song writer, meaning you write music and lyrics, that is the great thing about independent music, or movies, you are in the drivers seat, you make the calls and you do what you want.

The song should be like a mini movie, or a short story, this is harder than you think, and just like a novel or movie script you must have a start a middle and an end. This may be the hardest part of making a true sonic work of art. Country music is by far the best at telling a story in a song, I am not a big country fan, but I listen to country and you should to, trust me you will learn a lot as you listen evaluate and see how a well written song is put together. Modern country music is so competitive, you have to know your craft, and a great hook master, while telling a story with a start, middle and end. It amazes me how good modern country lyrics have become. If you have the nerve, listen to many country songs, or read many country lyrics and see how the song was structured.

I find that experience , pain makes the best song, you write what you lived. It is said, if a person is crying while listening to a song, it is only because the lyric writer cried first.

I have been doing a lot of film music of late, many music only songs, and music if it has a good melody and a good hook instrumentally, it also can make you cry, music is powerful. A good movie sound track can give you all the range of emotions and many times with no lyrics, just listen to Hans Zimmer or Horner and a few other greats. Listen to  the main sound track, this is the theme that is played different ways all through the movie, like brave heart, the gladiator, lord of the rings and such.

I have said many times, if you write only lyrics, you need music, never, I say again never, use the services of the song sharks you see in music magazines, send us your lyrics and we will put it to music, for a high price, it sounds awful, what they do, is many live say, in the middle of no where and have a P.O. box in say, Nashville, they use band in the box, they pick a template, a style and hit record, they do not put anything into your so called original song. A lyric writer should never pay to have there lyrics set to music, you find a person to co lab with , they do the music, and it’s a 50-50% deal, no money paid to anyone. That is how it works.

Also more on song sharks, like bogus publishers, they may give you a contract, while your song is under contract you can not shop your song anywhere else, many times Publishers will sign a lot of songs to build their portfolio, and have no intentions of shopping your song for you. Most say you must sign a one year clause, never do this, demand a max of six months, and the song, if not bought is yours and off it goes to another publisher. It can take years for a song writer to get their song shopped, because the song shark publishers always have your song. What do you do?

DIY, that is the independent way, sell your songs, online, use CD baby and others I tunes, Jango radio, and pay to play, well worth the fee. And start your own label,  or publishing co. it is very easy to do, so just do it. Take control, you may never get rich , but you will be in control. You can make a small fortune, if your a performer- soloist, band etc. and play out, you sell you're CD at your performances, and I know of many unknown Indy bands, playing clubs, Churches, halls, selling CD's ,or a card that they pay for with the cd cover art and has a code, you can buy them or make them, Disk makers has a good price a buck for each business size card, pre-paid ticket to your website where they down load your CD, a new thing in the Biz, and no 2K from disc makers, or oasis to get a CD done, just the cover CD art work and that is used on your site, and sell mp3's no over head, its all on line now.

My little Co does art work for CD covers check it out. Another thing Many young song writers do is they send their song to TAXI, or another rip-off co. and you pay a good sum of cash to have pros listen to your song and give a crappy critique, many places that say our staff is all pros, so and so was with RCA records 20 years, they forget to include the fact he was the janitor LOL.
They are very hard on the criticism, I offer free, no strings attached, song evaluation with truth but gentleness, and kindness, with encouragement, I listen all the way through every song and not 15 seconds of it like all A&R exec's do. Its free, why not send it and get a pro review, and no I was not the janitor in my music co, or in any studio, I am a  mastering and recording engineer, A&R exec , producer, artist development, my label is called, Urgent mission records, and digital goatee productions, we will very soon be shooting music videos, and Indy film's, just waiting on the funds for a video camera. it is hard times for us all. Have a dream, get it deep in you, never listen to anyone at the end of the day , but your own heart. Be creative, push the envelop, multitask, work your songs, get some networking like my favorite place Sound Click, the best, and great people on that super friendly site.

A writer writes as I say, you will find your nitch, your own style, always carry something on you , always, a digital voice recorder, pad and pen, and if your a music and lyric writer take that lap top, or palm sequencer with you every where, as you never know where, and when you hit song may come to you. So go on you can do it, just do it, take your talent to the next level. If you need help in the recording side of your audio, My small business offers, one on one mentoring ,a music recording school, via email,100% free. no strings attached. Free consultation, advice, free song review and well you name it, on line I can do it. My small business offers what no other one does, look around, and if you do, I know I will hear from you.
Have a creative week Danny Abaldo ( D'Abaldo)

My First Post From 2009- Re-Post

When I first started recording music I read large text books, read recording Magazines, and it was all trial and error. When I started there was no Internet. Today anyone can find a wealth of info on home and pre recording. You Tube has many great short videos for the beginner and pro.I have a burden to teach audio recording to the absolute beginner, why? When I started I had no one to take me under their wing and teach me. The books I read were over my head, the recording magazines and tutorials were not geared towards the musician that knew nothing. All this did not stop me from finding cheap ways to make demos as I write from 3 to 10 songs a week and always have. Music will always be an art of inspiration with a need for some basic equipment and software know how. In this blog I will attempt to bridge the gap, left. The large cavern that separates the novice from the pro.

It needs not be this way. You can learn Electronics, Math, acoustics ,editing, Mastering, software till, you drop. I feel a minimalist approach works better, you just want to record and maybe post your new music creations for the world to hear on the net. You want and need to take your music to the next level. That’s what you will find hear. log articles on the most basic subjects, let people laugh as you slowly learn the essentials with little or no math and science. How and why something works is of no need unless you want to become a pro Recording Engineer, or build a home Recording studio.

Music equipment and software prices have dropped so far anyone can afford to make pro sounding music at home. Gone are the days of you are only making demos. Now demos have their place. If you are a songwriter and want to get your song to other bands, or music publisher the most basic demo is all that is needed. A great song is still a great song no matter how it is recorded. A OK song recorded with pro gear can not make an OK song a Great song with audio tricks and effects.
I have many songs posted all over the net, my main site is on sound click, it is free and you can upload mp3's with no limit. I listen to many artist on sites and sometimes I am dumbfounded why the recording is so bad, full of noise and hiss and just poorly recorded. I make it my mission to try to give free advice to these musicians. I have a free audio recording Course for the 100% beginner. It is in an Interactive PDF level 1 and I mean free with a free newsletter and 2 hours of free phone mentoring. The free course is the same quality of the parts 2-3 that are a only 50.00 each. I have not seen a school for the new bee the new young musician. I am like the Hal Leonard books, they are the best for new recordists.I wanted a PDF school that is interactive with links to the free software needed for the course, plenty of how to videos and not 10 min samples.

Hear is where you can learn a lot about what I teach and you will learn a lot just from these blogs. My business is called Digital Goatee Productions I have been in the music business 30 years. I am a Producer, Recording Engineer. Mastering Engineer, Audio Teacher, musicians life coach, artist development and I still do my own music at home, cheap and sounds pro. You can learn to do the same. To hear my music go to
www.soundclick.com/d'abaldo
My music business site is
http://digitalgoateeproductions.weebly.com/

So take a look and hear my music, I posted in many, many styles and my audio portfolio will speak for its self.
This was my first blog and my introduction to you. The next blogs will be starting from scratch and teaching the absolute start of this, your wonderful Journey as I help you take your music to the next level.

I Am Going To Re Work This Site Why?

I maintain 10 websites, blogs write books make recordings do ministry .T. you name it, I was looking at the stats on the e-books and I am very surprised how many people are still reading the t free books on music I wrote, and this blog Is a link, and so I see the need.

I am recording a new project called 'smile in the storm'

and yes ‘for pennies on the Dollar’ LOL.

I am filming, a low fi video, poor man style, a teaching series on medical use of herbs; I am also a master herbalist. I am a dean-teacher, founder of a bible school I started, all this stuff is free. 100%. I try and keep busy.

I will be doing a teaching series on this blog, re starting the free audio recording school, by email, you ask a question, questions, I give detailed answered a different concept, that eliminates what you already know, do not need to know, or have just special things you nee help with on your project. I have nothing to sell all is free, nothing to worry about, see my main ministry site on blog spot and see all is free. The link is on this site.

Also more reviews on equipment, software, in the poor mans range, not high price equipment, that is why this is different. I will also offer free song evaluation, go ahead look, for any pro biz to do this  not free , most are sellers and just want your money and email address they can sell.  All this costs, and it should not, most of it is a sham.

Tutorials in analog recording, digital recording using a P.C. and loop recording using acid pro.

If you have any questions at all, or if I may be of help, taking you to the next level of your talent just email.

What Are U Waiting For, Over Doing Your Final Mix

                                                                            

A big mistake many recordist make is they over tweak their song so much, they end up wasting time, losing interest, and the creative fire can go out real fast.

I have written over 2,000 songs, recorded several hundreds of Songs; let me tell you something I have learned. If you are a perfectionist, are trained to read music, and are over doing every beat, syllable, note, you can lose your creative spark.

Some write and record fro the head, others from the heart, I am one that writes and records with emotion from the heart, I am not trained in music theory, and I have always just made music, from the heart. Once I started to master Recording Engineering and later Mastering Engineering, I found myself over tweaking a song, days later to find, the first take, the first final mix, was the best, I wasted time and became frustrated.

I am not saying you should not master your craft, but guess what, that happens with time, not your first recording or CD, you should sound and become better with each recording, with each year.

Composing a song, or writing lyrics should be done the same way that a story is written, I have written seven books and have many film scripts and finished non fiction novels. I have learned as a writer of stories and lyrics, just write, do not stop, a writer writes. If you just write what ever comes to your head and heart,........... That is the best start. I just write, and write and later if needed I will change a word or a line. I have been bale to do most of my stuff in the first rough draft with no re write, it’s a gift not everyone is a natural word smith, but no matter what, just write and do not stop, do not check rhymes, spelling, punctuation , nothing, this is where the creative process takes place, during your first draft.

One you learn the craft of writing esp. lyrics or poems a dead give away of a novice writer in song is to much rhyming, unless its rap LOL. Over rhyming is the dead give away, do not try to rhyme every ending verse, sometimes for artistic purposes I over rhyme, like on a song I did called Intensity-Chem trails, it called for it. Look at say U2 lyrics and see a pro lyricist and wordsmith at work see how few rhymes there are.

David Bowie said many times he would write one or two lines of lyrics cut them into slices toss them in the air and however they fell, he wrote them that way, I kid you not. I would not suggest that way, I am making a point, look at Pink Floyd lyrics, many veiled messages, allegories, and many do not even know what they are talking about. Sometimes I love allegorical lyrics, poetry that says things in a allegorical thought, it takes many listens to get what the song is saying, but I am an Indy artist, commercial artists, Country and western writers would never do that, the rule is (in commercial music) tell a story have a start, a middle and an end, so be it, I have done that as well. One song I wrote from a short story I did years ago, called Anthers Haven was a story song. Great song, depressing, about a Korean vet that sat in a N.Y. city, small grey dingy room, drinking and wanting to end his life, the pitchers painted in word are vivid, be vivid when writing, don’t over describe, make it vivid as writers will tell you, don’t tell the reader, listener, show them, you do this with dialog, scenery and action words.

Art is art, do not let anyone tell you, you have to follow any rules, most new writers should learn the rules and later break them at will, this is art.

Also in commercial music you normally have, the intro, verse 1, choir 1, verse choir 2, break, choir 3.

Many times I use the Choir first and the verses second, or no verse at all choir and breaks, its up to you. Other times I have three verses and music breaks with no choir, see, just write.

The hardest part for ant new writer is the hook; even in Indy music you need a hook. At this stage in my life and with many seasoned writers we write the hook first, and build the song around the hook. You can have a hook as an instrument part and not even a lyric, but a hook of music and lyrics is a very powerful way to write, I do that often, it will make the listener want to hear your song over and over.

The other problem that can and will hinder your creativity is using extremely complicated recording software, some software takes six months to a year to master, like pro tools, and I like to just write. I was brought up on a four track cassette I loved it, old analog sequencers  and built in sequencers in my synths, loved it, I would just compose, create, hit a button and go.

To you who use tabletop digital multi track recorders, eventually you will at least need to use a USB port to upload your song to a PC for the final edit. I know there are products out that allow you to do it all in one tabletop. Most are wanting, aside from one that records at 24 bit, if not forget it, 24 bit recording is a must and to have a great mastered audio it must be in Wav. Format at 24 bit and if possible 96 KHZ, this is the pro recording standard. I wrote on the free Kristal Sound Engine that records 24 bit and up to 192KHZ and its free, uncomplicated and just like a tabletop recorder, but free.

A cheap 4 or 8 track digital multi track is great if you’re a song writer doing demos, and that’s all you would need, also with a USB upload you can master on your PC and still have a good enough product to sell where ever you play out.

I stated in my book, The Poor Persons Guide To Market Your Music- For Pennies On The Dollar, if you have never read it, the link to free books is there. What is said was now days the only way to make money in music is from your sales table you set up, wherever you perform, no one is buying music online as they once did, but a band, a soloist anyone that has a CD, can make a good living by having them sold where you play out, mark my words, now days that’s the way to go, you can make more than from a shabby recording contact, I covered the truths a bought getting signed on this blog.

So, play from your heart, a writer writes, a musician plays and we all get the joy of hearing your great music one day.

Some New Links To Free VSTi's And VST's, I Found The Best Free VSTi Samplers Anywhere.

A fast post to let you know of some places to get great free vsti's and vst effects. The site that offers the best, sampled real instruments I found is amazing, the real instruments are as good as any sampler costing hundreds of dollars. The link to the best of the best in true instrument samplers, drum machines and some decent synths is at DSK music, download them all. The acoustic guitar will blow your mind, the strings and others. I have included a couple screen shoots of a few of the best ones they have.

                                              

http://www.dskmusic.com/

Below the link has some good stuff, the top few are broken links, but most will take you to good old KVR's site. If you cannot get the download from Kvr on the download, I use the manufacture, creator’s web site, and that way, you also see many more things KVR does not list.

http://www.stimtek.com/

There is a good astral lopper, a delay in a beta version that is good. Notice the new vsti that they will soon have out, it looks amazing, so book mark it and check back sounds like a winner.

http://plugins.timeshard.com/

The plug in is designed to fit in with Ableton live, not sure if it works with your software, it may.

If you have not subscribed to computer music you should, also their site has many free plug ins, many they develop and they always have great free samples, wavs, tutorials, gear round ups, this magazine had a different name years ago, I have been a long time reader of this magazine, and now it's on line, what a day we live in.

There you have it, more ways to make pro recordings for pennies on the dollar.

I wanted to give some random tips to getting different effects and tricks

I had a detailed post about dynamics, it is coming, today I am writing on the fly about some cool tips and tricks to getting different sounds, like how did they do that effect, how does that band get that odd re verb etc.


1. Pink Floyd, their signature odd re verb effect how do they do it, well it is simple .The take a sound , a vocal, they reverse it, than apply destructive re verb, and than reverse the sound or vox back to normal, it gives that odd full reverse effect and that's it a cool tip give it a try, you must, after you reverse your track apply destructive effects re verb chorus, destructive means it applies the effect , if it is not destructive, meaning it did not put the effect on the sound wave and you reverse it, you will have a simple normal re verb, so destructive is a must.


2.A good vocal tip to fatten up a weak vocal is simply to copy the vocal track and than slightly pan the vocal to left and right, this gives a natural chorus effect, you can also try and add re verb to one vocal, the copy vocal add a chorus effect, or dry, and pan them even further left and right, or have one dry take and one with a lush re verb and pan the re verb track only ,or both, try different panning on a doubled track and see how full you can make that sound.


3.when working with loops, many times there is a glitch a space and nothing can be done , trick , I have used many times. At the point where the loop is silent, clipped out whatever, add a single hit crash cymbal, a bass drum, a timpani and place it , till you cover up the track so the space, problem is not heard, use a good long re verb on it so in reverberates into the start of the next loop, a cover up yes, but very, very effectual I have used this hundreds of times and it also adds many time to the song.


4.If recording a band, say at practice or a gig, or church, use 2 ambient mikes, placed on , near the floor left and right, this will give an ambiance to the track that can add a real great live sound. A condenser is best. You can use on mic, but two is better, make sure they are near the floor on a low stand, or one on a wall or both on a will, there are decent mics that attach to things like walls for this purpose. You can make samples of real room re verbs this way and use your own natural re verbs. In Samplitude pro , the go to audio recorder I use for audio and mastering, it has a natural room re verb plug-in, but you must load that short re verb sound you recorded where ever you were and load that sound , it samples it and reproduces that unique re verb sound you recorded


  

You use this pro recorder to go out and do location recordings, of traffic, people, noises, anything, also you can use this to record a live performance, I used it sitting around the mid section, in the middle, that is essential, and the recording blew my mind it sounded as good as a CD, all I did was transfer the sound to my samplitude and edit the wave  for any unwanted sounds and mastered it, it recorded in wav. file so mastering is possible, This little recorder is truly amazing and you can make pro recordings, sound effects, great recordings of your practices that beat any table top recorder. Tascam also has one like it around 200.00 plus that records the same way, but is a four track recorder, and it is used for many, many things.
Try these 5 tips and tricks out, I have plenty more to share, drop me a line, and ask any question, or enroll in my email free recording school its free and email is free, so ask away.

Single Channel On A Mixer And What A USB Mixer Set Up Looks Like

Very top of this xenyx mixer  This is faded sorry , so I will write what we can not read, this is a short simple post

XLR in 
1/4 in insert
for external processor

next gain volume
Compressor great, a must pre fader needed for vox esp.
to the right a low cut fader this reduces the unwanted 40Hz hum effect inherent in sound and muddiness

Next your EQ's high, mid high, mid, low a great 4 band eq as mentioned on the last post 4 bands gives great control over sound

Next 4 aux sends 4 is unreal in what I think may be the best USB mixer in the price range Behringer has the great xynex pre amps that can produce a true pro preamp for your condenser mic, this not the norm to have 4 auxiliaries, this is where you use all the effects you want and use auxiliaries to send to different channels, like a re verb on one aux sent to the whole mix at the end .

A mute that mutes signal from main mix, next a mute and a clip light, in digital clipping will cause unwanted digital distortion; clipping is the big thing to watch out for. also above this is a button for sub mixing as said say 6 channels sub mixed into one stereo pair for drums

The last is the single fader
Note the grey white area, I mentioned on the last post, this is the designed sweet spot, where the fader should be set for the best sound with out clipping and tailored max volume, you can go above this if the sound is weak, or below, this is the best place to start and all mixers are designed with this spot at 0 dB normally.

I will cover next the dynamics, compressors, limiters, gates, multi band compressors and other dynamics.
The pitcher next is the same USB mixer and how a typical set up would be, it shows a lap top PC, if at home just look at it as your desktop

USB mixers are great, software mixers are better and can do a lot more, but a outboard mixer is many time needed by the home recordest, as you can see by the pitcher, you can record a small band in one shot, and it a big deal using just the USB port.  Until next time, have a creative day, next post great detail on dynamics and the use and abuse of them a must read.

USB mixers are great, software mixers are better and can do a lot more, but a outboard mixer is many time needed by the home recordest, as you can see by the pitcher, you can record a small band in one shot, and it a big deal using just the USB port. 
Until next time, have a creative day, next post great detail on dynamics and the use and abuse of them a must read.