Introduction :
Do you "hear" tunes, catchy phrases, melodies or parts of songs in your mind? Do you feel you could create songs just as good or better than some you hear on the radio, but you somehow "lose" that tune, catchy phrase, melody or part of a song? This writing contains basic information on how to create songs from the tunes or parts of songs you hear in your mind. Although written for the first time songwriter, some of this information may help other songwriters, if only to sharpen their skills.
The music terms used here are kept to a minimum and are defined or explained in simple language. There is a list of definitions, but you may want to use a dictionary to get more information on the musical terms used. You do not have to be a musician or read music to make songs, but any knowledge about music will help. "Making Songs from the Tunes in Your Mind", tells about how to use sounds you can hear in your mind to create different " building blocks" and "parts" of a song until you have a finished song ready to copyright and demo.
There is a summary of the steps taken to make songs from the tunes in your mind. Throughout "Making Songs From The Tunes In Your Mind", are "tips" that may further help to make songs.
Definitions :
(These terms are simplified for use in this writing. You may wish to look them up in a good dictionary for more information on them.)
1. Tune in the mind – A song or any part of a song one can "hear" in his/her mind. Since we are creating new songs, we will work with tunes in the mind that are new tunes, not songs already created.
2. Words – Sounds that represent something. Words can be used in creating songs because they have beat and melody or could be put to a beat and melody.
3. Beat – The drumbeat of a tune or song. The beat keeps or makes the time of the song. The fastness and slowness of a song or part of a song.
4. Melody – The main part in a song that is usually easy to remember. If you were asked to hum a song, you would probably hum the melody. The changes in sound, changes in pitch (highness and lowness) and duration (length of time) put together in a pleasing or musically pleasing way.
5. Three building blocks of a song – The words, beat, and melody. In a complex song with various background sounds, we are listening for the lead vocals (words); main beat, and main melody. This is a made-up term to indicate three things – words, beat, and melody, that can be used to build songs.
6. Repeat and expand technique – Repeating something over and over and adding something to it. "Change" can also be part of this technique.
7. A line – A group of words.
8. Three Major Parts of a song – another made-up term. The verse, chorus, and the bridge. Songs could have more or less than three Major Parts. The verse, chorus and the bridge are just different from each other in some way. We can use the repeat and expand technique to create the three building blocks of a song and the Major Parts of a song, all from the tune or tunes we hear in our mind.
9. Hook – The "catchy" part or parts of a song. Hooks could be words or music or both. There could be many hooks in a song and/or a main hook. The chorus usually has or is the main hook. The hook is easily remembered and may be what sells a song.
10. Minor Parts of a song – usually the introduction, buildups, pre-chorus, pre-bridge, and ending.
11. Buildup – a drum part or other instrument part or vocal part that leads from the end of one Major Part to another.
12. Pre-chorus – a part that comes before a chorus. It could have words, beat, or melody all of its own, or it could be a small part of a Major Part that was already played in the song or will be played.
13. Pre-bridge – same as pre-chorus but it comes before the bridge.
14. Drumtrack – the final drum beats or patterns recorded for the final demo.
15. Harmony – agreement (with the melody), chords and/or background sounds that agree, musically, and sound good with the words, beat and melody. Harmony makes the song sound better.
The Three Building Blocks
When you "hear" tunes in your mind, you are hearing sounds that you can use to build into a song. A tune usually has a line of words with a beat and a melody. You may hear other sounds such as background music but we can use the words, beat and melody as three "building blocks" to build songs. In a finished, complex song, the three building blocks could be heard as the words, main beat, and main melody.
All you need to start making a song is any one of these three building blocks. If you hear one – just words or just a melody, etc., or any combination – words and melody, words, and beat, etc. or all three together, you can use what you hear to make a line that has all three – words with a beat and melody.
Repeat and Expand Technique
I use a technique I call "repeat and expand", which is just what it says. I repeat whatever sound or sounds I hear until I can add (expand) the other building blocks to the original sound or sounds. I do this until I have a line, words with a beat and melody. You can do this in your mind or use a dictionary (for words), a drum or box (for beat), a musical instrument (for melody) or whatever may help. The important thing is to create a line that includes the words, beat and melody; the three building blocks of a song, from the original sounds or tune you heard in your mind.
Recording the Line
What I usually do next is record the line on tape so I don't forget it and I can use the recording to make more lines. Some tips: When recording, I use a room where the sound carries well, resonates, or almost echoes. I use a plain cardboard box for the beat. I usually hum the melody a few times before I sing the words. (If you can't sing, try to hum the melody, record it and write the words down for someone to sing later.) The singing at this point is not critical but the melody and beat should be duplicated from what you hear as best as possible.
Making Rhymes
When making lines, if you need words that rhyme, a simple technique is to take the word you want to rhyme and "run" it through the alphabet. For example; if you want to rhyme the word "gate", write down "ate, bate, cate, date, elate, fate, grate, hate, etc." Then from this list find the word that you might use. Then fill in the rest of the line. I repeat the line I have and hum the next line (that needs words) with the rhyming word at the end until I can fill words in the rest of the line or lines.
"It felt like love just opened up a long-time locked-up gate. I just knew her love was true, my heart refused to wait."
You may be able to rhyme naturally without much effort. Word rhyming books are also great for finding words that rhyme.
Any sound equipment is always helpful in recording, but I used an inexpensive tape recorder. If you have a good memory, you may want to go over the line in your mind and try to expand it without taping it. Sometimes it is not always possible to get a tape recorder.
Making A Second Line
Once you have a line with words, a beat, and a melody; you again repeat and expand it until you make another line. You can use the tape recording to help or you can do this in your mind.
Repeating and expanding is sometimes helped with "changing". You sometimes only have to change the words somehow, or the melody, or any combination of the three building blocks in order to make new lines. Change may naturally occur in the repeat and expand process and occur for the better.
Making the Major Parts
We have now used the repeat and expand technique to create the three building blocks and build two lines, all from the original tune or sounds we first heard in our minds. We now make more lines by doing the same thing, repeat what we created and add to it. You may find that it gets easier to create more lines because you have quite a bit to work with now.
You make enough lines until you feel they could be put together to make one or more of the Major Parts of a song. The Major Parts of a song are the verse, the chorus, and the bridge. These three Major Parts of a song are just parts that are different from each other in some way. But they somehow go together to form a song that sounds good. They do not even have to be any certain number of lines and could even be only a few words or they could be musical only, without words. Not all songs have all three. They come in different order in different songs. Sometimes they are broken into parts or changed later in the song. The important thing here is to make one of these Major Parts, a verse, chorus, or bridge out of the lines we made so far. It is not important to know which Major Part of the song we are making at this point.
The Verse
We will call our first Major Part of a song the verse. We just make enough lines and put them together and we have a verse. To make more verses, we keep the same beat and melody but change the words. The new words should have some connection with the words already created. Again, the repeat and expand technique could help here but because we already have the beat and melody, only the words may need to be changed to make new verses. Each one should be recorded for future use. Make as many as you feel you need in the song but you may only need two or three.
The Chorus
To create the chorus, just do the same steps we did to create the verse, only keep the verse in mind. You could use any part or parts of the verse – a word or theme, a drumbeat, a part of a melody, or any combination of what you created. You could also start from scratch and make completely different building blocks for the chorus. Whatever you start with, use the repeat and expand technique to make enough words or lines for the chorus. To make more choruses if needed, again, keep the same beat and melody but change the words. Sometimes you only need one chorus and it's repeated when needed in the song. The chorus usually contains the main "hook" (a catchy part of a song that is easy to remember) of the song. This is a way to know if your Major Part should be the chorus or not. Now record your chorus on tape.
The Bridge
For the bridge, again you can use the same steps you used for making the chorus. You can make a completely new part or use parts of what was created so far, only now you now have the verse and the chorus to work with. Bridges (or a verse or chorus) can be instrumental and you can hum a musical melody on tape to create a musical bridge. You could use the melody from the verse or chorus as a solo for a guitar or other instrument. Record the bridge on tape too.
Review of What We Did
So now we have verses, choruses, and a bridge – the Major Parts of a song. We created these from a tune in our mind. By using the repeat and expand technique, we built the three building blocks; words, beat, and melody; then lines, then verses, choruses, and a bridge. We used the building blocks and the various parts of our song to build more of our song.
Arrange the Major Parts
Now you can "arrange" (put in order) the verses, choruses, and bridge to how you feel they would sound best. I suggest; to keep it simple; like – verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus and end.
The Minor Parts
What I call the Minor Parts of a song are the introduction, buildups ( a drum patter that leads to a Major Part), the pre-chorus or pre-bridge (a short part that leads into a Major Part that could have words, beat, and melody, or be instrumental) and the ending. Any of these Minor Parts can be created from the Major Parts already created or they could be different from what was already created. The musician can help create Minor Parts while making the demo. To keep things simple we can have a drumbeat introduction of a verse or just start the verse in its entirety. The ending could be a sudden ending or a fade-out ending or any kind of ending you want. A fade-out ending could be done when the demo is made. The introduction and ending are the only Minor Parts that are really needed to complete a song, added to the Major Parts, but the other Minor Parts should not be overlooked.
A Finished Song
Now arrange the Major Parts and the Minor Parts together, record the song on tape, and write out the words. Congratulations, you have just made a song!
Some Tips
Listen to songs on the radio with the idea of hearing the Major Parts and Minor Parts. Listen to how they are put together. Listen for the building blocks of each part and how some parts are related to others. When you make Major Parts, don't worry if they don't sound good together. Make a lot of Major Parts and save them on tape. You may find other parts for them later.
For information to register your new song with the Copyright Office, contact the Library of Congress.
Summary :
1. Start with a tune in the mind.
2. Find the three building blocks of a song in the tune. If you can't hear all three then use the repeat and expand technique to make all three; the words, beat, and melody.
3. Use the Repeat and expand technique on the three building blocks to create a line. Record this line on tape.
4. Repeat and expand the line and make more lines until you have a verse or other Major Part of a song, the chorus, or bridge. Record this Major Part.
5. Make more verses (or Major Part) by keeping the beat and melody the same but change the words. Record these verses (or Major Parts).
6. Make a chorus (or other Major Part) by using steps 1- 5. You could start from scratch with new words, beat and melody, or work with what was already created by repeating and expanding any part of what was created. The chorus just has to be something different from the verse. It could be very different, faster, slower, higher, lower, etc., or only a little different. Record the chorus (or other Major Part).
7. Make a bridge (or remaining Major Part) the same way the other Major Parts were made but use steps 1-6. Again, you could start from scratch or use any part that was created. Again, use the repeat and expand technique. The bridge could be a beat and/or melody as could be any Major Part. (They could be instrumental.) Record the bridge.
8. Arrange the Major Parts to how you feel they would sound best. Record this if you want to.
9. Create any Minor Parts of a song – introduction, buildups, pre-choruses, pre-bridge, and ending, or Minor Part you feel you need. You can use any part of the song already made or make up new Minor Parts.
10. Arrange the Major Parts with the Minor Parts and record the finished song. Also write down the words.
11. Register the song with the Copyright Office.
This information can be used as a step by step method to help make songs or as a guideline to help make songs, using these and other techniques. For example, a musician may use a piano and this guide to create songs from the tunes in the mind, no matter what his/her musical knowledge is.
I hope the information presented here helps you to create more and more great songs from the tunes in your mind.
Paul Michael Quintilone
Copyright ©1990 by Paul M. Quintilone. All Rights reserved.