
10th October 2008 - by Chris Chew
How To Write Songs That Your Audience Like
So you would like to write your own original songs. However the
few attempts that you have made did not turn out as you would
have liked because the tune or the melody were not flowing so
well or were not catchy enough for your audience to like.
So how do you write songs that your audience will like or will
sing and hum along as you are performing them? Well, brace
yourself because one of the methods to write catchy and be
rather controversial, but it not only works and works darn
well!
Sometimes, when somebody's original melody sounds good, they
also sounded like another song. But you just cannot figure out
which other song it sounded like. There is this vaguely
familiar feeling that you have heard a sort of similar song
before. Have you had that feeling?
I am sure all of us had this feeling before and I can even dare
to say that it will happen again and again with other new
songs. Actually, this subconscious feeling is rather common as
after all because every song is a somewhat recycled tune given
the limited number of musical notation, chords and rhythms.
So all new songs will somehow or other overlap other songs that
are already in existence. Therefore all songs will have parts
of their tune similar with another song or even songs.
Therefore it is perfectly alright if parts of your song sounds
like another song although you did not intend it that way.
As a matter of fact, if your new song sounds familiar, that may
be a good thing. Before you jump up and shout copyright
infringement, please be aware that I am not talking about
infringing other songwriter's copyright, I am talking about a
part of your tune that sounds somewhat like another song.
So why is this similarity a good thing? Well, it is simply
because people can relate to your tune even more and so, they
will like the song and remember it. They will want to listen to
your song because of the familiarity. Song familiarity invoke a
pleasant feeling of emotion and most of the time, they don't
even know why they felt good hearing your melody. This is why
your song can easily be remembered and will keep humming in
people's head.
Even if your listeners realized parts of your song is somewhat
similar to another song, so what, no big deal because as a
whole, the song is in your own original song with your own
original lyrics, your own melody and expressions and thus it is
your own original song!
I must stress the point that you must not intentionally
infringe upon other songwriter's copyright. This is not about
ripping off other composer's works. This is about creating your
own melodies and tunes that sound like a familiar tune.
So how do I go about writing familiar sounding songs? Well,
let's start by choosing a song that you like and is familiar
with and hum the tune. Just hum it but don't sing the lyrics
out. This will get you thinking 'melodically' and soon, you
should be able to hum certain variations of that tune. Just let
your imagination take over and toss the melody around as you
imagined it and let your creative juices flow.
Once you can jumble out the tune nicely, then sing it aloud and
this will become your own tune. It is really that simple.
Another way to do this is to choose a song that you don't even
know or heard of before. Listen to this song once, and then
listen to it again. The second time when you are listening to
it, sing along with the song. Yes, you probably will not
remember the tune very well, but nevertheless, just sing along
and this is when you make up a melody line of your own with the
melodic structure of this obscure song.
Whichever method you have chosen to write a song with a
somewhat familiar tune, you must feel good about it. It is your
gut feeling of feeling pleasant that you know you have written
a good catchy original tune that your audience will like and
remember.
Article Source: http://www.megamusictalent.com
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