Songwriting Exercise by Tom Prasado Rao.

[WarpCanada]

Hey guys check out this video and the songwriting exercise inside it.

WRITING EXERCISE:

Using "My Girl" "Stormy Monday" "Down by the Riverside" or "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You" as examples of simplicity, brevity, and repetition:

1) Write new lyrics to one of these example songs – paying close attention to the original lyric meter and rhyme scheme.
2) Re-write the groove and the melody.  If you're stuck on the original music try reciting the lyrics rather than singing them at first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcEdO8A19M4

In short, you take a well known song, several are mentioned to choose from, and then borrowing the melody, write your own song, then alter the melody so it's no longer exactly the same melody.

The idea is to play with a template that has simplicity, beauty, and repetition.

[T.C. Elliott]

I've seen this advice in songwriting books in the past and it seems like a cool exercise that could yield a damn good song, maybe. Could be this could be one of our bi-monthly challenges, too, but maybe a bit too involved? I like the idea, at any rate.

[Bluesberry]

It's almost like cut up method with the music...you could do a double cut up song this way...start with a known song.....get cut up lyrics...then cut up the music And re-arrange it.....chords and medley......very interesting idea.....

[WarpCanada]

"Stolen Songs"  would be a great festival name, if only the copyright-battle-legal world was not so batshit insane in the USA.

How about "F*ck You RIAA" fest? Too visceral?

Anyways, such a fest would have to be using ONLY traditional songs as sources, ones which have no active copyright.

Nobody currently owns "Oh my darling clementine", I believe.   But if someone does then F+++ them.

[T.C. Elliott]

I don't know. If the end result is a brand new song (new lyric, new melody) then I don't see why you'd have to stick to anything not copyrighted. Chord progressions can't be copyrighted. Obviously, if the music is exactly the same then that'd pose a problem, but with a new melody....

I would see the fest being "Stolen Song Fest - Take a current song. Write a new lyric to the melody. Then write a new melody to your new lyric. Record the new song. Must mention the source song in your post."

[BerryPatch]

Actually, stolen songs would be a very fun festival idea.

I don't think the same copyright laws would apply because you're actively changing the melody and the chords so it wouldn't a "He's So Fine" vs "My Sweet Lord" kinda deal. And besides, if we are able to post a cover of any song we want pretty easily (I hear on some other music sharing sites they don't like you posting covers) I think we'd easily be able to do a Stolen Songs Fest.

Either way, this is a great idea to get something started that I've never thought of before. Might have to use this from time to time...

[AndyR]

Ummm... (not that I usually do anything for festivals anyway - so disregard everything I say! )

But...

This is an ages old, tried and tested, and entirely valid/legal technique for writing songs.
Hundreds of hits over the years would have been started like this.
I came across it years ago in a book that I've probably still got somewhere - Cole Porter and names like that get mentioned.
In a way, I'm guessing it's how "songwriting" has evolved from wandering minstrels and church music etc.

It's especially useful if you're a member of a lyricist and composer team.

It works both ways:
A composer can write a new tune to existing hit lyrics then give the tune to a lyricist (without telling them where it came from) to complete the work.
A lyricist can write new lyrics to an existing hit melody then give them to a composer (without telling them where it came from) to complete the work.

You can do it if you do the whole thing but, in my experience, it's a lot harder to do.
I've used the technique myself with varying degrees of success.

The most recent one I can remember using the technique on was Edith Finally Gets It last year.

You rarely end up sticking to it, you don't end up with anything remotely like the original, because natural creativity and inspiration adds a bit more.
You sometimes get a "oh he/she was trying to write a song like xyz - which is EXACTLY what you were trying to do "

In fact, at the moment, I'm using aspects of it with several songs that I might or might not record one day. I recently got introduced to an artist (a singer-songwriter) who has absolutely floored me in their ability to craft songs I like (and which sell by the bucket load). So right now I'm writing songs "for or by" this artist ... This involves, eg, taking elements of something and stripping it down to see how they did it. That definitely causes things like writing some new lyrics to a hook, then rewriting the hook to the rhythm in your own lyrics. Or spotting the key changes or tempo changes that kicked up or down a gear and using those.

I'm very conscious of doing it at the moment because I've been so floored by the artist's abilities and catalogue, and I want what they've got, so I'm learning how to do it.

But I'm pretty much subconsciously lifting from stuff I like all the time. I wanna know why it moves me, then how they did it, how often they do it in other songs, etc, etc. It can be melody, lyrical approach, arrangement choices, stories of how they wrote it, when and where they wrote it, other people involved, what triggered it, ANYTHING...

If it's stuff I like, I WANT it, I want to know how to wield it in my own stuff. That's how it's always been.

So, if you're not aware of this technique, or using this technique, give it a go, it's an EYE OPENER.

(It's like copying a favourite painting - preferably in the medium it was done in - you learn SO much about how they did it and how they FELT when they did it, and then you use that new knowledge experience in your own stuff)

But a festival based on this? Called "Stolen Songs"? Err...
As long as your song does not contain the original lyrics nor the original melody, there is NO copyright issue at all.
It's not like Trigger's Broom
(Non-UK folks might have to look that up)

What I'm saying is do you really want to have a festival based on this very valid and widely used song-writing technique and label it "stolen songs"!?!?!

[BerryPatch]

Thinking about it again, you are definitely correct Andy. There's nothing "stolen" about basing a song off of preexisting song. To give it that name would be kind of slandering off on a very viable idea to get started on something.

On a related note, I was flipping around the chords to Mr. Tillman by Father John Misty (which has a very distinct progression). It's already starting to sound very different from the original song.

[WarpCanada]

Definitely it's okay to do that, and it's actually the very essence of all music.

The whole idea of diatonic scales is ripped off of whoever invented the diatonic scales.

There are only 12 notes you can sing in a chromatic scale, and every rhythm and melody  is a reference to every rhythm we ever heard.

In fact there are no original melodies and haven't been any for a hundred years.

But similarity in American Legal circles has lead to jeopardy for creatives.    Look at this horrible Katy Perry legal debacle:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ytoUuO-qvg

A use of two of the same notes in the song was basically the basis of a successful 2.8 million dollar copyright infringement suit. 

Daa daa do do daa da do do.  That's the same two notes in the same place in the minor scale, in your song and my song. So  HEY that's my song.   The american legal system deserves to be jeered and mocked, but so do the RIAA, and all the suits in that space that have destroyed music. Well done lads.

None of us songcrafters is making millions on spotify or itunes and so none of us is gonna get sued, but it's the principle of the thing that leads to my snark.

[T.C. Elliott]

I love the stolen songs title... Andy is correct that there is absolutely nothing stolen about the new song except the inspiration, I suppose. That being said, if another catchy name is proposed I won't be against it. But Stolen Songs captures what I like about the method.

Okay, hear me out. There is nothing as intimidating as a blank page. If someone says write a song here's a pen and paper I struggle. I may come up with something but it's too wide open to really get a solid take off. Now tell me, write a song from a female perspective in the key of E with a modulation and/or time change then I'll be off to the races in no time. There are parameters, limitations, challenges etc., to overcome. My creativity goes through the roof.

So are we stealing songs? Nope. Are we stealing the inspiration for the original song. Nope. But we are stealing the head start, the rev up... the let's get going? I think so. We're stealing the framework if nothing else.

All that to say... suggest to me another title and I'll shut up about.