Rough to Release

 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. Th...

Spock: why is that music playing? Kirk: Tension Spock! Atmosphere. Spock: It's space; there is no atmosphere. Kirk: Hence the tension! There's an old saying about writing a novel that the sequential passage of events is the story, but how you chop up and present that sequence of events is your plot. And one of the key ways in which you can dice up your novel is to simply chop things out. This idea applies double to lyrics, it also applies to the music and the production as well. We'll come back to production later, but before we delve into lyrics, let's talk briefly about the music. Subverting structures To keep people interested you obviously need an attractive melody but, unless you're writing for the Baby Shark audience, you also need some variety and contrast.  In terms of song structures an easy way to add a bit of variety is to extend or contract a segment. If you've established a verse-chorus structure, then adding an extra bar or two to the second v...