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Occasional songwriting tip or blog musing.

Come on baby make it stress so good

Guess John Cougar-Mellencamp was into his own kind’a pain with his, “Hurts So Good” tune back in the day.

Whatever. Ain’t no sinking teeth in no bones here baby.

Wrong song.

I’m into stress myself.

“Come on baby make it STRESS SO GOOD.
Sometimes songs don’t sing like they should…
Make it stress so good.”

That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.

Sometimes we’ve got a problem.

It’s a lyrical thang.

And I have the fix for it.

And so will you.

After you check out this month’s Tune Booster.

Find out what a Southern Belle, a Great Laker, and a Nerd have in common.

Pick up on six fixes to a nasty little lyric writing habit.

And we’ll take a look at three tunes, and how the sneaky little writers who penned them made the artists sing them catchy.

June’s Tune Booster.

It’s out on the street.

It’ll be out for a bit yet, but she goes bye-bye once I upload July’s issue coming up in a couple weeks.

Might want to get it now.

Just sayin’.

Until next time… keep writing from the heart.

3.5 questions I get on songwriting

With no further ado…

1. Do you write words or music first?

My answer is always, YES. Usually it’s newbie writers or interested musical civilians who ask this. I personally favor writing music and words simultaneously, but it does take me longer doing that. I get lost in the creative flow, just me and my guitar out for a casual night’s writing. I can’t have a deadline with a casual approach. I do write with a guitar to a deadline as well, but I need to focus more.

I also do both music and lyrics first. Many co-written tunes have been putting music and melody to established or morphing lyrics. For me, if I want to put the screws to it, with less time to scrutinize my own work I the moment, I’ll do lyrics first and then get out my guitar.

There isn’t a right or wrong way.

2. Where do you write your songs?

This one’s kind of embarrassing actually. But, since I don’t blush easily, and I’ve done some great writing there, here goes…

I tell them in my studio. The one poor in electricity but rich in plumbing. A smile grows on their face when they realize I’m talking about the bathroom.

I’ll dig deeper saying it’s actually the bathtub where I really do a lot of writing.

I’ll let them off the hook and say, “No, not in it. I pull back the shower curtain, set me up a beverage of choice on the rim, set my bum down on the edge of the tub facing outward, and I’ve got a perfect little amphitheater.”

I do write a lot in my office at the computer too, sometimes reaching over the guitar.

I’m not the type who needs a favorite chair, and all the settings to foster creativity. Hell, I’m writing, not taking it out on a date. Co-writes can be anywhere really. It all depends.

3. When do you know a song is done?

Usually I just say, “You can just tell when it’s met its mark and it dead ends.” Honestly, it’s intuitive for me. But, I’ve also gone back and changed something I’d written a long time ago. So who knows? It’s not like we can stick a toothpick in it to see if words stick to it, and it needs more baking time. But, there are ways to tell when you’ve rung it for all it’s worth for the most part.

3.5. Did you write anything I know?

I put this as a half-question, because it’s only half of what they’re asking.

My answer is, “Well? I don’t know WHAT you know.” Odd question when you think of it. What they are really asking is, “Oh, how good are you? Or are you just a schmuck writer? A Dylan wannabe?”

They’re looking for social proof. Here’s something in case you get this question. You or I could have a potential hit in our catalog right now. I believe I do, or so I’ve been told. Let’s assume you do too. If someone asked you this question today, then next week you see this person again after getting a Carrie Underwood single, are you any less of a talent today than a week from right now?

No. Of course not.

Funny. Nobody ever asks a pilot whether they flew with the Blue Angels before climbing aboard a plane and risking their lives.

Shoot these folks stuff their pie holes with McGrub they aren’t even sure is meat. But, they see the golden arches on TV so it’s got to be good, right?

So unless you’ve written something they recognize, they wrongly assume you’re not worth listening to.

The other answer I sometimes give is…

“Well, I wrote a tune for Tim McGraw actually.”

They get all excited until I say…

“He just doesn’t know it yet.”
Until next time… keep writing from the heart.

Are you stressing in?

A family member was having some health issues.

The doc said it was all stress related. Everything she was experiencing was a big fake-aroo. No big deal, really.

Well not that it’s this teenie-weenie thing. It’s real. But the symptoms she had, you’d swear she had heart, lung, and even muscular issues.

Nope. ONLY stress.

I Say that, because you can fix it without cost, prescription, or big expensive tests. And you aren’t keeling over grabbing your chest.

Thing is, not all the stress in her life was nasty either.

A job change for the better. Part-time job with full-time pay. Lot’s more free time to do what she wants. With flexible work hours yet.

Shoot. Who wouldn’t want that?

She had other good stuff happening in her life too.

But, it’s still stress, and your body reacts to it just the same.

Hang in here. ‘Cause you know we got a songwriting ‘tip-bit’ coming.

Point is stress, even the good kind, needs to be managed to not let it ruin a good thing, your life.

Same with your lyrics.

Just the fact you’ve got music and rhythm going on, add some words to it? Now you’ve got word stress a’happening in your tune.

And you don’t want it ruining your song either, right?

No need to see a doc, no need to spend big bucks to find out how to manage it.

Just subscribe to Tune Booster this month and find six ways to “stress in” and manage your lyric.

See you there.

Until next time… keep writing from the heart.

3 lyric points pulled from pathetic story

I was at this conference.

Minding my own ‘bidniz’ waiting for the expo center to open up.

A dude comes up behind me in line and said five words that made me turn my head in laughter as to not bust wide open in his face.

Let me start by saying he was carrying this little chair thingamajig. He said he had bad feet and couldn’t stand long.

So each time the line moved he’d pop his bum off the chair, scooch it up a few feet, slap the cheeks back down, and commence to do what he was doing.

And what was he doing?

He was telling these one-liner jokes.

Oh, but don’t get the idea I was laughing at the jokes.

Are you KIDDIN’!

How much lip curl can you get from… “What do you get when you mix a bell with a camel?”

Okay, I admit, I was laughing way before the punchline ever arrived. I couldn’t believe one adult was telling another these jokes.

I mean it was hysterically pathetic.

I started to feel sorry for the guy.

But the more he went on, the more I could hardly contain my laughter, and yet I felt really sorry for this guy.

Then came the punchline of all punchlines.

And he was dead serious and it was no joke.

To him it wasn’t anyway. Me? I nearly pissed myself right there.

He told me he was…

A STAND-UP COMEDIAN.

I am not making this up!

A stand-up comedian who can’t stand up or tell a joke?

I bet he’s still sitting in the unemployment line.

But, again. Like everything in life, we can find a nice little songwriting lesson from this poor dude.

See any similarity here to what your song should do?

When he said he couldn’t stand up long, and had his little chair there, I was somewhat curious. After all, he was the only one in line carrying his own personal EZ chair. Get a listener’s attention.

Then when Romper Room jokes emerged I was being set up. Not like he thought, but I was set up nonetheless. The funny gun was cocked and finger on the trigger. Draw in your listener.

Then came the payoff of payoffs, I never would have expected. The standup comedian bit. Let them have it good with a lyrical climax.

You could even twist it up with the unexpected, like our lame jokester here.

I see at least two more songwriting lessons from this scene. Maybe some other time on those.

This little ditty has zero to do with June’s issue of Tune Booster, but that shouldn’t prevent you from subscribing in the next day or so when subscriptions open up. Stay tuned for an e-mail on that.

Get your tune on.

Until next time… keep writing from the heart.