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Ferenc on Songwriting


I pulled this article from the Yahoo Group archives. Ferenc from Pollo Del Mar created this great post on songwriting way back on 16 December 2002. People still refer to it to this day, so I had to archive it here on the new site. Enjoy!
"surfbandbill " wrote:
>
> Greetings all,
> After some ever-so helpful tips from Pollo Del Ferenc, I thought I'd
> put the question to the whole group: how can I improve my
> songwriting? Should I start with a chord structure? A scale? Or do
> I just write a melody line and see how things fall in?
> I've been really happy with what I've written thus far for The Lava
> Rats, but feel like I'm still missing some of the finer "ins and
> outs" of writing in the surf idiom. I'd be really interested to hear
> how some of you others with more experience go about penning your
> tunes.
> Thanks, and a happy holidays to all!
> ~Bill~

Bill,
First, I want you to know that I was not criticizing your songs... Song
appreciation is a matter of taste, as is the writing of the song.
Presumably, one writes a song to express themselves in an artistic manner. There
are other motives for writing a song, but if you are writing
surf/instro, it can't be for the money.

So the task becomes: what do you want out of the songs you write? Are you trying
to tell a story or capture a mood? Is it about releasing your
aggression in a positive way? Are you trying to imitate or improve on your
hero's work?

There are many different ideas of exactly what a song is and how it should be
written-- what comes first? the groove, the melody, the chord
structure? I think we can all site examples of when a song has too much of one
of these elements, but not enough of another. Then again, there
are different listeners who might prefer an all groove song (think Rap), all
chords- or riffs (think death metal), or all melody (think
Teen-pop). ((I am using extreme examples of each of these genres, please don't
start a thread telling me that Slayer has a song with a good
melody, or that when Mary J Blige did a duet with Redman, it was a merge of
melody and rap- I know, I don't care)).

Bill, as to your question about where to start when writing a song. You can
start with any one the axis'- melody, chord or groove. (If you are
writing vocal tunes, lyrics would be a fourth axis). If you are interested in
writing for the surf genre, there is a trademark groove associated
already (boom da da boom boom da), although you are definitely not limited to
this groove by any means as surf was open from the get go to beats
from around the world.

Now- chords or melody? It has been my experience that a song that starts with a
melody will lead to more unusual chord structures, and hence a
more original song. Many people site the melody as the most important part of
surf music, so maybe you SHOULD start there. And, starting with an
exotic scale can lead to a cool song. I read about the Hungarian Minor, worked
on it a bit and came up with Magyara- it turned out to be my
Dad's (a hungarian) favorite song of mine.

But, if you are stuck for a melody, starting out with a chord structure and then
coming up with a melody that fits can be extremely satisfying,
and no less original.

Major or Minor? It has been my experience that minor keys lean more towards mood
and that major keys provoke melody. I guess that is obvious,
but turning this around is yet another exciting challenge to be undertaken.

There is an important fourth element- arrangement, or when recording-
production. I think it is extremely important not to confuse
arrangement/production with song writing. Arrangements define a genre rather
than a song. A good song should be able to be arranged for a
variety of genres. But to start out the song writing process by saying, well I'm
going to have a glissando going into a reverb kick followed by
the drum lick to Wipe Out and then the bassline to Pipeline with some pingy
notes on top, will create a completely unoriginal, paint by numbers
surf song. And, to my ear, there is lot of that happening in surf music these
days. Arrangements are the wrapping for the present, but don't
skimp on the gift for fancy paper and bows.

I think a big mistake that people make is to listen only to songs in a single
genre for inspiration. The originators of the surf genre reached
far and wide to come up with the influences that distilled into "surf music",
and even though the genre is 40 years old and well established,
you should too.

Here is another point- are you writing for a 4 piece or a trio? Sometimes when I
watch a trio, it just seems like the guitarist is noodling
around playing solos rather than playing a defined melody. Largely this is due
to the fact that there are no chords to show movement and
counterpoint to the melody. Great arrangers, like Dave Wronski, will play the
melody and chords at the same time. Dave is also an extremely
talented guitar player to be sure, but you don't have to be as skilled as he to
throw in double stops or triads in your melody to give hints of
the chord structure.

An extreme act of labor or gift from god? Sometimes a whole song just pops into
your head, as if the muse had landed on your shoulder. And
sometimes you just have to sit down and work it out and keep on massaging what
you've got until it is right. If you are going to sit around and
wait for the muse, you might be waiting a long time, so be prepared to do the
work. Personally, some of my songs have taken years to write- a
riff that just turns over and over until it find the write counterpoint line.
Many times I go to my 4 track with nothing and put down some
chords and keep scratching that itch for a week 'til it comes together.

A great exercise is to take apart your favorite songs. I don't mean to just
learn how to play it, but to really examine where the melody starts
in relation to the key of the song, and how the melody shifts as chords change.
Really, look at it note by note against the chords.

I think this is a very brief introduction to song writing. Really, it is
different for everyone. One could write volumes about the subject, but
rather than talk about it, it is better actually get yourself going. Talk about
the songs after they are done. Write a lot-- not everything you
write will be a gem and some deserve to get tossed out; keep the good parts and
use them later. You don't have to be a great musician to write a
song, in fact, some of the best musicians I know don't write at all. In summary,
I think that the most important part is to make sure that your
motivation for writing in the first place is to express yourself. A song is a
good song if the writer has pusued his motivations fully, and
completed them to his personal satisfaction. If anybody else likes it, that is a
bonus, and if not, well, there is no accounting for taste.

As Paul Westerberg said about song writing, "Nobody knows how to do it, but if
you have to do it, you just do it"

Ferenc

This story has 5 comments.


1.
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I remember reading this and thinking, "Ferenc expresses himself as well writing as he does with his music." Such a well thought out treatise on surf song writing, and song writing in general.

A classic! Thanks to Brian for bringing this back to life.

WindanseaBeachBoy | 28-Mar-2006 19:04:47 | Flag
2.
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Boy, this is just what I needed to read! Well said, and quite educational also. No wonder the band is successful with a mind like that involved. Thanks for posting it.

Joelman | 30-Sep-2006 02:06:24 | Flag
3.
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wow it answered every single question i had about songwriting with detail. thanks ferenc!

Mr_Reverb63 | 18-Dec-2007 17:09:43 | Flag
4.
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Very well said. I agree with all of this!

And, as I always say, you can't buy inspiration at a music store.

scruzdj | 08-Dec-2010 19:09:22 | Flag
5.
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Sometimes I write a song by considering someone else's song that started down an interesting road but wandered off. It left me feeling that there is something terrific on the road ahead but we never got there. In classical music one such piece is Cesar Franck's Symphony in D. Repeatedly it shows an exciting riff but then lets it fade out without developing it. In contrast, in Les Preludes Franz Liszt develops riffs into lively melodies with sizzling rhythms.

Sometimes the resulting song does not resemble the inspiring piece. Other times it sounds derivative. Usually it sounds different but there is a hint of familiarity.

I occasionally write a vocal with this method. One vocal effort like this trapped me. I could sing the song alone but when playing with my band I was unable to sing the melody I wrote. I could sing only the melody of the song I had started with. Now I must write a new melody.

Squid | 14-Dec-2010 16:44:16 | Flag

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