Return to RobinFrederick.com

* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: fall into the void

I have been so busy that somehow the month of November has flown away without my even knowing where it went. At TAXI I have been screening songs for a very successful producer who is looking for new artists. The material that's coming in from TAXI members has been exceptionally strong and I have forwarded a number of singer-songwriters and pop/rock artists. As always, there are people who are still learning their craft but many of these are showing lots of potential and I'm hoping they'll spend time studying established artists and contemporary hits in their field (and maybe even get something from the TAXI screener critiques) that will help them get where they want to go.

I gave several songwriting classes and workshops this month, including my first intermediate songwriting course. Discovered there's a balancing act to be done between lecturing, analyzing hit songs, and giving feedback on the students' works in progress. It's been very useful for me to hunt down the current hits to find those I think are worth spending time on. I have students who are working in a variety of genres so I wanted to be sure we covered those. In pop/rock, we looked at Avril Lavigne's "My Happy Ending" (a co-write with Butch Walker, her producer) and the excellent "Pieces Of Me" recorded by Ashlee Simpson (written by Kara Dioguardi, John Shanks, and Simpson). In modern rock, we looked closely at Matchbox Twenty's wonderful "Unwell" and in R&B we studied Alicia Keys' hit "If I Ain't Got You" which I would have SWORN was a remake of a Gladys Knight hit but was actually written by Keys herself. It's obvious Keys knows the R&B field, past and present, extremely well and has decided to pay her respects with a couple of cuts on her current album.

Also found a very interesting country hit: "Mud On The Tires" by Brad Paisley. The song has a lyric filled with concrete images and telling details - all conversation and action - a great example of the lyric writer's craft from top to bottom. Country music is home to some of the best lyric writers in the business and has been for some time. The old-fashioned cornball lyric ("I hired a wino to decorate our home...") has pretty much disappeared and the emphasis is now on insights into day-to-day life and real emotions. The melodic aspects of this song are also worth a serious look - strong, repeated rhythmical phrases in the verses and a huge, hooky chorus with a memorable interval leap. The upward leap of a 5th is varied and doesn't occur in the obvious places so it gives you the feeling of being slightly off-balance and a little unpredictable - just the kind of tune that wants to take the truck out and get a little mud on the tires. (You can hear this same kind of off-kilter leap in Matchbox Twenty's "Unwell.") Structurally, the song is a little less than perfect, with a section that is either a prechorus that doesn't function well or a double verse that is too long. I don't think this song originally had a chorus, I think it was a verse / verse / bridge / verse song and the bridge was so strong, they added it after the first verse and called it a chorus.

I've been trying out a software demo that includes some wonderful digital effects. The software is the Renaissance Max Bundle from WAVES and includes compressors and EQ that sound absolutely wonderful. I am always fighting with the cold sound of digital mixes and these effects go a long way toward warming up them up. I am very pleased with the demo and plan to buy the whole package this week.

Since I'm still struggling with a chronic sinus infection, I haven't been able to sing which makes it hard to write anything new. I wanted to work on my own music for awhile so I went back and did some editing and remixing on "California Girl" (which is why I went looking for new software). I'm pleased with the results so I decided to remix a couple other songs while I was at it. Hope to have mp3's posted soon.

Gotta scoot! Will try to keep up a little better!

* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

Read A Brief History Of Love Songs by Robin Frederick at the Sound Experience Music web site.

Copyright 2004 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.