1. Imagery and context are usually better for communicating an emotion than simply stating it.
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2. Many think outros are easy because you can just repeat the chorus and fade. Instead, make the last lines epic by throwing a curveball to the listener.
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3. “Catchiness” is much more than just music and melody; Just as often it’s about rhythm and rhyming.
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4. Clarity is key. Your listeners may miss a word, or line, or three. So don’t rely on one small phrasing to put an entire song in context.
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5. How to copyright a song? Always preserve your music copyright by professionally registering your songs. With SongRegistration.com, it’s fast, cheap, and super-easy (and used by composers worldwide).
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Time for a little Keith Richards –
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1. Sympathy for the Devil, Paint It Black, Wild Horses, Gimme Shelter, Satisfaction… His massive publishing catalogue (with partner Jagger) goes on and on – earning enough royalties to easily support an army of composers over several thousand lifetimes (not to mention the joint band compositions he co-wrote as “Nanker/Phelge”).
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2. His original inspiration growing up in England: 1950’s American music. Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, other blues and country singers. And of course Elvis.
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3. There are NO electric guitars in Street Fighting Man. That electrified sound is Keith overloading his acoustic into the cheap cassette recorder he always had with him. Then duplicating and reverbing it over and over.
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4. He considers himself a better bassist than guitar player.
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5. “Sympathy” was originally written to be a much slower “lament.” But on recording day he and the boys started playing with it and the rest is history. It quickly evolved into its now-famous up-tempo beat, becoming one of the most instantly-recognizable songs in the universe.
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1. Focus particularly on your song’s opening lines. They’re your best chance to pull in and engage your listener.
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2. Experiment with doubling vocal lines and shifting pitches. (And since most shifts involve a higher key, try a lower one for a different mood transition).
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3. Analyze your melody’s metering, sussing out syllables and their lengths. It not only tightens things up, it may also lead to a lyrical hook popping out at you.
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4. And of course to establish copyright for a song, always document your music copyright by professionally registering your songs. With SongRegistration.com, it’s fast, cheap, and super-easy (and used by composers in 55 countries).
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A Few More Fun Music Facts:
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1. Clarence “Leo” Fender, founder of Fender Electric and inventor of the Stratocaster and Telecaster, never played guitar.
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2. A Strat is carved into Jimi Hendrix’s tombstone in Renton WA (see photo), though it’s not like Jimi’s. He played his upside-down because he was left-handed (which his father thought was a sign of Satan). In fact, Fender just launched a new Hendrix model — a “flipped-over” Strat for right-handers, with everything reversed — strings, pickups, headstock, bridge (http://www.fender.com/alter-your-axis) — hoping to re-create that distinctive Hendrix sound (good luck with that)…
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