II. Your material

Most of us probably started out without giving the choice of material much conscious thought, and you can get a long way just “playing it by ear”, but as soon as you start working on a set list for a full-length concert or for a CD, you might want to think about the genre and the overall mood, but first, let’s have a quick look at the end goal of music, which is to express some kind of emotion (and/or thought, if you have lyrics), and elicit some kind of emotional response. I find it useful to think of this in terms of arousing vs. soothing, and positive vs. negative (see table II.2).

Table II.1 – Emotions

	Arousing	Soothing
Positive	Joy	Love
	Surprise, curiosity/interest	Recognition, understanding
	Anticipation, hope, desire	Contentment, satisfaction, fulfilment, gratitude
	Amusement, Thoughtfulness Inspiration Awe
either	Disbelief Fear Distrust	Belief Confidence Trust
Negative	Anger Hate	Sadness Complacency, indifference Boredom

Arousal is achieved by creating tension, and resolution of that tension soothes or relaxes. This ebb and flow of tension and relaxation occurs at several levels. Within songs, fast beats, dissonance, unexpected key changes, unusual arrangements or unexpected instruments, loudness or large differences in volume etc. all cause tension, while slower beats, harmony, and musical clichés relax. Within the set list, you can vary the types of songs, the instrumentation, etc. And these tides of tension and relaxation also exist between you and your audience, in the form of expectations and fulfillment. If they expect you to play your most popular song, you can create tension by making them wait for it, or if they expect you to play a song a certain way and you don’t …

The positive-negative axis is influenced mostly by the lyrics (more on this later), but the music can also be important: sadness is associated with soft, minor chords; anger with loud major chords, thoughtfulness with major seventh chords and varying beats per minute, etc.

Most people learn to express their emotions musically without giving the process much conscious thought. One thing you might want to think about, however, is the tension between your current musical identity (= the sum of all the choices you make as regards genre, mood, lyrics etc.) and who you want to be in future.

Most musicians start out by emulating other musicians that make music they like, then slowly progressing away from their heroes, to create their own brand of music. If you have done this for a while and still find it hard to decide what kind of music you would like to make, you might want to think in terms of where the music comes from, and who listens to it.

Genre

All popular music starts out with a close connection to some culture, subculture, ethnic or demographic group. Gospel, blues, soul and funk started out being made for and by African Americans; country music, bluegrass and folk used to be for and by white people from rural areas in the U.S., disco originated from the urban gay scene. For the musician, the thing to think about is whether you fit your audience’s expectations. If you are white, western European, middle class, but like funk and soul, you will have to work harder to gain acceptance from an audience than it you do folk or rock. For some subgenres, age is critical: teenagers want songs about budding romance or issues in school to be sung by musicians that are only slightly older than themselves, not some balding 60-year old that could be their father or teacher.  

On the other hand, audiences and musicians alike are always looking for something new, both within and beyond the boundaries of the narrow confines of “their” genre. When musicians adopt music from a subculture other than their own, this creates a kind of tension that is usually resolved by changing it a bit: just think of what British musicians in the sixties (the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton) did with American black music. And the end result is an endlessly changing panorama of subgenres. At the moment, there are literally hundreds of different styles and subgenres in popular music, many with its own audience. You either need to find the niche that fits you, or create it yourself. (This is more true of acts that make original music than cover bands, but even cover bands have a niche, but more on this later).

Lyrics

Music is more about feeling than thinking, but as soon as you include lyrics, you are asking people to turn on at least a small part of their brain, and not just their limbic system. With the exception of dance or party music, most lyrics are either stories or “pictures” (descriptions of impressions and feelings).

Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t care about lyrics, and only understand and remember a small part of the lyrics (often only the main part or hook of the refrain) of the songs they like. The same is true of musicians: some care about lyrics, and some don’t. This is fine: a lot of great music doesn’t even have lyrics. If there are lyrics, however, you need to make sure they don’t stick out like a sore thumb (by avoiding boring, uninspired similes, poor grammar, etc.), and it is best if they don’t give rise to embarrasing misunderstandings (funny misunderstandings are fine – see the text box).

But even if your audience may not understand each word, the overall content is important. It may help to think of songs with lyrics in terms of how “serious” they are. Songs about the environment, politics, religion, or other social or humanitarian issues are generally considered more serious than confessional songs, or songs about relationships, human emotions (love, hate, jealousy, etc.), and dance songs tend to have lyrics that can be summarized in one simple command (Dance!)[1].

Many popular musicians including Roberta Flack, Elton John and Stevie Wonder started with more serious lyrics, and later segued into lighter stuff later in their career; others (like the Beatles) took the opposite route, starting out with lighter material, and later progressing into more serious stuff. There is no right or wrong choice here, but whatever you choose will help determine who wants to listen to you.

 

Mood

The mood of a song is defined by a combination of the music, which can be upbeat or downbeat, fast or slow, and overall content of the lyrics (serious or light). With the exception of parodies, where the mood of the lyrics often clashes with that of the music on purpose, the musical mood tends to mirror the lyrical content: serious songs tend to be darker musically (slower beat, more minor and diminished chords), while lighter material tends to be more upbeat, and uses lots of major and 7^th chords.

Genre + mood + lyrics/music

In figure 1, I have “mapped” various common genres that normally have lyrics against their mood and the relative importance of the lyrics as opposed to the music.

Figure II.1

Lyrics	Country	Rap Folk
	Pop Easy listening               R&B Jazz standards Funk	Blues Progressive rock Punk Rock Hip-hop Heavy metal
Music	Psychedelic rock (acid rock)
	Light	Serious

 

Covers or original songs?

Are you mostly interested in developing your craftsmanship on the beaten track, or do you want to push the artistic envelope, strike off into unexplored territory? And if you want to be original, at what level or scope? Maybe you only want to do cover songs in a slightly different way, or maybe you are looking to create a new sound or – god forbid – a whole new subgenre of music. I have nothing useful to say about the last (mainly because I do not believe you can create a new genre on purpose, it just happens from time to time, as a result of mixing genres and tweaking the sound and the beat), but I do have some ideas on the other issues, and especially on the choice between covers and original songs.

With the exception of tribute bands, acts that only or mostly play cover songs tend to play at events where the music is important, but not the center of attention (weddings, parties), in venues not specifically dedicated to music (hotels, restaurants and bars), and to a transient, constantly changing audience that do not necessarily have a bond with the band, while acts that are mostly about original music aim for concerts in venues and events dedicated specifically to music, and try to build a longer-term connection with their audience. Correctly chosen cover material can make it easier to evoke a positive response from the audience than is the case with original material, but the effect is relatively superficial/ephemeral; getting people to like original material requires more work, but if done well, the effect lasts longer.

Of course, many original bands also include covers in their set list in the beginning of their careers, as a way to get an “in” with their audience, but to them, their own material is the important part: they need to prove, to themselves and to agents, managers, venue owners and organizers, that they have something new and worthwhile to offer (once they have done that, they can safely do covers again).

The business model is also different: cover bands get paid according to the amount of time played; original bands get some of their income from the copyright revenues, which in turn means spending more time in the studio.

Irrespective of whether you play covers or original material, you might want to think about the Tweedledee and Tweedledum of music: tension and relaxation. Musically, tension is created by fast beats, dissonance, unexpected key changes, unusual arrangements or unexpected instruments, loudness (or large differences in volume) etc. Relaxation is created by slower beats, harmony, musical clichés. Lyrics can be viewed the same way: challenging lyrics (controversial subjects or views, expletives, etc.) arouse, while clichés tend to be soothing. You need to find the right balance in this. Too familiar, and you’re boring; too original (or controversial), and very few people (including the members of your own band, if you have one) will want to listen to you for very long.

Should you care what other people think? It depends on what you are aiming for. If you are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of your musical vision, and don’t care what anyone else thinks, that’s up to you. Who knows, you may really be a musical genius. But this guide is for people who want to make popular music, which by definition means you need an audience, in which case you will have to strike some kind of balance between what you want, and what the audience wants. On average, audiences tend to be more “conservative” than musicians, because musicians spend more time on music, so that what is still new to the audience might be boring or predictable to the musician. In the end, the best way to strike that balance is by trial and error, with an/your audience.

Selecting and arranging covers

On the whole, cover bands need to have a bigger repertoire and a wider range of genres and sounds than acts that mainly play their own music. They also need to be quite flexible, because they will usually play for a wider range of audiences, each of which will require slightly different material. When adapting the set list, recognizability is key: the audience needs to recognize (and like) at least 20 percent of the songs played, and preferably more. 

Writing your own songs

When you are just starting out, it can be difficult to separate originality from poor craftsmanship, especially because skill limitations can be the very reason for inventing something new. Still, just because the structure of the song (or the riff, or the sounds used or whatever) is different from anything anyone has done before, does not mean that it is a good idea. To paraphrase Picasso: you have to learn the rules before learning how to break them. And by learning I mean not just knowing what they are, but internalizing them, and applying them many times before you decide to do things differently. The easiest way is to start from known territory – listen to a song you like, and create something similar – and keep at it until you have created something that you can truly call your own, and is worth presenting to an audience.

But even before you let the audience judge, it is almost always a good idea to have the structure, melody, harmony, hook, riffs, arrangement, lyrics etc. of your songs evaluated by other musicians. This can be a painful process – you will hear things you don’t want to hear, and often will find difficult to believe – but it is essential. It can also help you decide whether you want to “go it alone” (by which I mean retaining full creative control over your songs), or accept input from other (sharing control and credits).

Getting good feedback is not always easy, because people in the know are not always interested in giving feedback, and because the way it is given can make the feedback difficult to accept. If you are in a band, you should be able to rely on other band members for feedback (see the section on bands), but not everyone is equally qualified or good at giving feedback. Best is if you can find a musician (in a genre other than your own) who you look up to and can trust to be honest.

Protecting your songs

Many budding songwriters are worried that they will write a hit song that will then be stolen by someone. This does not happen often, but it does happen: “Angels” as made famous by Robbie Williams was written and composed by a guy called Ray Hefferman, who only found out about the recording after the fact, and accepted 7,500 pounds for the song (probably thinking it was a good deal at the time). So it is a good idea to protect your material before you show it to others (and especially to other musicians or music producers). They are various ways to do this, but possibly the easiest is to register your material with associations like …

You sound

It is not absolutely necessary to have your own distinctive sound, but if you write your own material, it will definitely help get more gigs, because having your own sound means (1) you have matured as a band (2) people will remember you better. You need to be a bit different, a bit special, a bit separate. For this last issue, your band image (see the next section) is also very important, but it is definitely nice to not be called “that band that sounds like so-and-so, but isn’t” for years on end.

Range or variety

Acts that make original music tend to stick to the same overall genre and overall sound, while professional cover bands have to be able to handle several genres, but all acts should be able to vary the mood enough to avoid getting boring. More on this later, in the pieces on the set list and albums.

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[1] Satires and parody songs cover the complete range, from deadly serious to very light.

I. Introduction

This blog is meant for amateurs who

·      have had very little formal training in music,

·      want to perform and/or record music, and

·      play song-based music (originals or covers) in popular genres such as rock, folk, blues, r&b, soul, gospel, pop, funk, (light) jazz, indie, etc.

It is not meant for professional musicians who have finished formal training, musicians/DJs who make and/or perform lounge, background music, trance or house, etc., choirs, marching bands and the like, although they might find interesting things here as well.

The goal is to give a general overview of all the things you might want to do or think about if music is currently a serious hobby and you want to take it one step further (see table 1 in Appendix III for more on the various stages). Some issues are so basic and vague that hardly anybody ever thinks about them, such as whether your main focus is on expressing or on entertaining, on you or the audience, and on feeling, thinking or doing, but things become clearer once you turn you focus on the practical issue of how you want to achieve your goals, e.g.

·      by creating (writing original songs) or re-creating (arranging and performing covers),

·      flying solo vs. being in a band, and

·      recording and producing (your own songs or those of others) vs. performing live.

Each of these choices has an impact on what you will need to do or have, and the number of possibilities are almost endless, so I will only explore the most common ones.