Artist or Songwriter?
I was wondering how many of you regard yourselves as performing artists who write and how many are ‘pure’ songwriters who perform occasionally if at all?
I think many of us here are a mix — it’s interesting to me because I sometimes find myself trying to write generic lyrics that can have universal appeal and singability but I worry that they are a bit bland.
Then I might write a more personal song that only I would perform and is probably borderline unintelligible.
How do you find the right balance?
/edwin
Songsville — One Song Per Week For A Year
Special guest 2009 – Chris Difford
We’re delighted to welcome back to the Festival songwriting legend Chris Difford.
One song per day – for a month!
This lovely songwriting project is by friend of SWF and fellow Bathonian She Tells Lies, who’s writing one song per day for the whole of March. Will she manage all 31 songs in time?!
Follow the project’s progress on her myspace blog.
Forum now live!
The Songwriters’ Forum is now live – give it a go and let us know what you think.
Master’s degree course in songwriting
Songwriters collaborating
Bath Spa University’s Master’s course in Songwriting (the only MA in the world in this subject) is now taking applications for September 2009 entry; full-time (1-year) and part-time (2 year) routes are available. Entry is by songwriting portfolio and interview, and the course is taught exclusively at our Newton Park campus in Bath.
Bath Spa University
Songs wanted for project
This request just in from our Facebook group.
Join SWF Facebook group here.
Songwriting in the dock: Satriani vs. Coldplay case
I’m sure lots of our community will remember the recent Satriani/Coldplay case
Midge Ure on songwriting – and a Scottish songwriting competition
Here’s a video of Midge Ure (SWF special guest 2006) on songwriting, with some useful comments on clichÈ in his own first attempts at songwriting – hopefully this should give heart to some of our new writers!
‘My Time’ – Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Our entry – what do you think?
Will Hodgkinson article
Some lovely quotes here. The only assertion I’d disagree with is ‘songwriting can’t be taught’, of course 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/28/music-perfect-pop-song-pulp
“A pop song does, however, follow certain rules. It is generally around three to four minutes, has a verse and a chorus, and uses a bed of chords to support a melody, with words that convey some sort of sentiment that an audience can relate to.”
Although the ‘magic’ element is certainly true – it’s a beautiful thing, as Jarvis acknowledges;
“The beauty of songwriting is that any human being can do it,” he says. “And they learned how to do it their way. One minute someone was sitting in the living room, having a cup of coffee. The next they picked up the guitar and wrote something from nothing. That’s a miraculous event. That’s what keeps me going”.
I suppose that’s the point of the songwriting teaching at SWF – the tutors only really guide people around the technique – starting by covering (or occasionally stretching!) the above-mentioned ‘rules’, and then helping the writer to tackle the bad habits – melodic rat-runs, rhyme traps, lack of imagery, over-abstraction, verboseness etc. But what is remarkable – and rather beautiful – is that however much guidance a writer gets from the tutor, the song is still authentically the writer’s own. It’s that personal quality that everyone brings to their songs, regardless of musical skill or songwriting experience.
Some of our writers have expressed to us a fear that if they work with a tutor – or collaborator – any editing or trimming will somehow kill the authenticity of the song, making it less ‘real’ or ‘true’ because the ideas have been trimmed, edited or adapted along the way. But this fear always seems to evaporate when the song is completed. It’s connected, I’m sure, with that natural protectiveness that all writers have of their first idea – the assumption that it must be the best one simply because it arrived first. Perhaps this is because when we hear a well-written song it gives us the impression, as listeners, that it ‘comes from the heart’ regardless of how many hours the writer spent painstakingly crafting every last syllable. That emotional immediacy (of great songs) is an intoxicating trap for us as songwriters, because it can lure us into feeling that we should apply it to the creative process. Or maybe we should?!!!
There’s a really simple maxim that Andy always says when he’s teaching the MA Songwriting – the more songs you write, the easier it gets…
