Part 9 - Define 'finished', a summary so far.

 Welcome to either the half-way point of this blog, or the end of the blog, depending on your perspective...

This series is titled 'rough to release' because for me, the release is the end* of the process. It's the point beyond which there are no more re-writes, re-arrangements or just general tweakery. In releasing it to the public it is committed to the record.

But not all of you will work to this definition of 'finished'. For some it is enough to have a set of lyrics written down, a structure established, and a chord progression or tune notated.

And if that's you then you might be pleased to know that your work here is all but done. After this blog we'll be moving onto the 'release' part of the series. So before we take that step, let's have a quick refresher on what we've covered so far.

In part one we set the scene but didn't really broach any finishing techniques, so let's go straight onto...

Part Two - Space and Permission. This was our first concept to play around with. Making sure that you have an appropriate space to work in (whatever that space is) and giving yourself permission to dedicate time to your work / craft / hobby so that you can actually finish things.

Part Three - Spark and Spice. If 'spark' is the idea behind the song, 'spice' is the original element that you are bringing to make it interesting.  We looked at the common, all-garden love song and how various artists have applied their own spice to make something special.

Part Four - More Spark and Spice. In this instalment we moved on from the love song to look at other ways of adding some spark, including the idea of the song that doesn't make sense.

Part Five - Beyond Verse and Chorus. Here we delved into song structure, how to move beyond the simplest structures but also to ask whether we need to. We looked at a few classic and modern songs who don't follow the most common structures.

Part Six - Story Arcs. What are you trying to say? What story do you have to tell? How are you going break it up to make it interesting and unpredictable? We also started to investigate tension and release in your songs.

Part Seven - Tension and Release. Building on the previous instalments we talked about different ways to add interest and excitement to your song; subverting structures, lyrical bait-and-switches, in media res, and leaving tales untold. We also touched on the power of contrast and the risk of writing to formula.

Part Eight - Co-writing. Last week's blog was all about how to effectively share the load with writing partners and, more pertinently to this blog, how to learn from them to help you finish your songs.

Along the way we also took a brief detour into ways to tackle writer's block.


In the next few updates we're going to look at:

- the basics of recording and how to make the best of what you've got,

- how to build on that initial recording and the difference between adding and overloading a song,

- 'production' and establishing a vision,

- mixing whilst writing and the separation of duties,

- getting other people involved,

- loudness, 'mastering' and distribution,

- finally we'll do a bit of a 'problem solving' wash up at the end.

So if all of that is of neither use nor ornament, thank you for reading and hopefully you've found something worthwhile in everything we've covered so far. 

If that teaser does sound useful, or you're just a glutton for punishment, then stay tuned for next week's update.


* Well, generally it's the end. Occasionally something does get a bit of re-release but only in exceptional circumstances.

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