Musician’s Notebook

So last post we had done destination writing and external and internal columns. Now we’re going to get to the good stuff!

So once you have two columns of INTERNALS and EXTERNALS you will need to get some rhyme pairs from each columns. Maybe the first time you do this you might have a little trouble, but for now just try to limit yourself of the following options. A lot of times when we work of limited things it makes you’re pushing what you got to the limits. The shorter the destination writing the shorter the columns so thats why getting used to writing as much as you can on destination writing under 5 minutes is something you need to practice.

If you’re having troubles finding rhyme pairs you can do some of the following:

- Rearrange words from the sentences to rhyme with the next.
- Take out a thesaurus and use your generic adjectives into better rhyming words of the same meaning.
- You can probably mix two sentences together to rhyme with another two combined sentences. (I did this a lot)

Honestly, if you are so limited that you have like 6 sentences to work with, I understand write another destination writing. This time have in mind that you will want to do internal and external sentences but keep that pen moving.

So once you have rhyming sentences you now need to do some toggling and use a rhyme scheme.

Rhyme schemes come in a symbol for an example..

If you see a sentence 1 rhymes with sentence 2 but doesnt rhyme with sentence 3 or 4 but 3 and 4 rhyme together.. the symbol would look like this:

Sentence 1 A
Sentence 2 A
Sentence 3 B
Sentence 4 B

Extra note: Yes not all lyrics or even poems have to rhyme but the reason why rhyming is so great is because it helps the listener remember the lyrics, lyrics that rhyme and are remembered stay stuck in your head and songs that get stuck in your head are catchy and catchy songs in the songwriting market means commercial success and commercial success means $$$$$$$ and/or a great song. This is especially important to the chorus which needs to repeat a lot to be stuck in the listener’s head, because you want that listener singing that damn catchy song that is suck in your head even if they hate it. (Perfect Example: Jame’s Blunt’s “Your Beautiful”…ugh! I know, but you can’t deny the song’s success.)

Now here’s the deal and I will say I am not Mr. Know-It-All, but I will tell you in this case there are different rhyme schemes and I don’t know them all but you can do a google search and you will find them. They come in many forms in 4-6 line verses, I’m sure you can figure it out.

Now let’s say we have rhyme pairs and rhyme schemes… what’s next? Toggling..

Toggling is when you get those lines and instead of putting them in an order of rhyme schemes you get a formation of the internal and external lines and toggling them.

Example:

Sentence 1 is External
Sentence 2 is External
Sentence 3 is External
Sentence 4 is Internal

Yes, it gets tricky when you’re limited to your short options and you need to fit the rhyme scheme and the toggle. In fact, I found this hard but with practice you will get it. It was actually advised by Andrea Stolpe that once you get more in depth with this you should do all this like every week and as you get faster do it everything and you’re songwriting skills will not just accelerate, but your songs will be more efficient so imagine writing like 7 songs a week thats 28 songs a month and multiple that by 12. You will have more chances of writing a major hit. It’s all a skill and every skill REQUIRES PRACTICE TO MASTER!!

Again there are also plenty of toggling formations as well which you can find online as well. If you have a hard time finding one, just send me a comment and I will make you a list of the most common togglings, I just want you guys to try and do the research because we can all share the great sites and some might be easier to learn than others. The best way to learn is multiple information from many sources because they are all explained differently.

You ask why do I want the last sentence to be an internal?

I will answer that next time but what I’m going to do is I’m going to post an example of one of my class assignments so you can get a good idea of how I did this, step by step. Remember, during destination writing, don’t worry about spelling just crank those words out because remember this isn’t an english class assignment. This is you digesting ideas and only you need to know what’s on there for your verse. Once you got the song written is when you make sure your actual verses and choruses are nicely polished.

“Bedroom”

The walls are silent especially with the television off. Fan blows cold air into the direction of the futon bed. The same bed that smells like sex. The silver walls shine even through its old paint. The computer stands still on the desk on its own. I lay down on the futon bed the one in which you’re laying next to me. Bodies mended naked with each other. I am glowing inside as we begin to fall asleep. I am attached like a hook in the hole holding ourselves together. The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us like an artifical moonlight or a sun. Your tongue still slides down my neck and damn its been turning me on. Your so goddamn b eautiful with your blue black hanging down to the lips I love to kiss.

External
—————–
The walls are silent especially with the television off
Fan blows cold air into the direction of the futon bed
The same bed that smells like sex.
The silver walls shine even through its old pain
he computer stands still on the desk on its own.
Bodies mended naked with each other
The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us like an artifical moonlight or a sun.
Your tongue still slides down my neck
blue black hanging down to the lips

Internal
—————–
I am glowing inside as we begin to fall asleep
I am attached like a hook in the hole holding ourselves together.
The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us like an artifical moonlight or a sun
damn its been turning me on
Your so goddamn b eautiful
I love to kiss.

* So you saw here how I did some stream conscious writing just being able to pull out anything I can about the bedroom and what I can think about in setting a scene. Remember, you want to listener/reader to be put into this scene so paint a great picture, be a director to this AWESOME movie scene that draws them in the movie and makes them feel like your characters. You see what you do here is actually set a scene using external and internals and then you get those sentences in each these columns and this is what you get so far.

Now moving on, from the two columns and the DW (destination writing). We go and construct the verse.

The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us. E <-External X <—- (X means that this sentence will not rhyme with any of the sentences)
Like an artifical moonlight or amber sun. E <—- external A<— (WILL RHYME WITH LINE 4)
Your tongue still slides right now to my neck. E <—- external X <—- (X rhymes with nothing)
And damn its been turning me on. I <— internal A <—-(BAM!! Line 2 and 4 rhyme perfectly)

So the verse is …

“The redlight on the ceiling shines down on us.
Like an artifical moonlight or amber sun.
Your tongue still slides right now to my neck.
And damn its been turning me on.”

Look over this for reference and start doing your own DWs and all the steps I mentioned so far!

Next Time, I will discuss how to use all this and apply it to song structure with this method to write some powerful songs.

So you’ve done your destination writing and thats great. I really hope you didn’t go a second over the time that the alarm rang. So now that you have all that done you will do some sorting.

So you’re going to read each sentence or half sentence and you will write down two columns.

Column One will be EXTERNAL!

Column Two will be INTERNAL!

In external you will write down the descriptions around you. The things you use your 5 senses with. External will be the picture to paint your surroundings. It’s also the best way to really describe and pull a listener/reader into the song. 

Example:

The smell of sewers filled my nose as if it were a grave of a thousand rat corpse.

That right there as far as descriptions make me feel as if we were there. It beats the whole basic description if we were to write:

The sewers smelled bad.

Which would be a generic detail! 

Sometimes externals help us describe internals a whole lot better. My teacher, Andrea Stolpe thought me the best example so I will use her example:

I felt hurt deep down inside.

VS.

I was crying laying on the floor, holding onto the phone, waiting for your call.

I know.. very dramatic, but which one do you think the listener would buy? What if you wanted to convince someone bout how you felt in a situation? Thats what you need in your songs!

Now internals do have a use. They can be descriptive in fact they can be very emotionally descriptive also without being external. 

For an example:

I was so nervous my stomach turned into a knot like the ropes around a tied victim.

I mean we wouldn’t really be able to see an emotion like this and all of a sudden a rope and a tied victim would materialize out of nowhere, right? No. It was all inside the person’s head.

So it can be tricky as to what internal and external can be sometimes, but the best way to do this is read the sentence and then think to yourself, 

For External

—————-

“If I WEREN’T a mind reader, what can I know about this character if I were there?” 

For Internal

—————–

“If I WERE a mind reader what can I know about this character deep down inside?”

So now we get these two columns of EXTERNAL sentences and INTERNAL sentences and I will explain next time on what to do on the next step.

By the way, while you’re at it, I didn’t mention my teacher Andrea Stolpe’s album is out and she also has a book released. Be sure to check out her site to obtain one of them or both of them. I learned a lot from her and I’m very sure you will too. Or just visit the site to learn more about her and see what kind of professionals are teaching at:

http://www.berkleemusic.com

http://www.andreastolpe.com

I was very impressed with the collaboration of Vocalist/MC Cee Lo Green and Producer/Composer Danger Mouse on their first album, “St. Elsewhere”. In fact, I had heard the song, “Crazy” a million times on the radio and it was a major explosion. Whenever I walked into the store that song was playing, whenever I was in someone else’s car and they had the radio on, it was playing. I loved the song and still do, but it wasn’t until a friend of mine recommended me to get the album and informed me that it was  collaboration between Cee Lo and Danger Mouse. My eyes were wide open because I always a fan of Cee Lo and heard nothing but great things about Danger Mouse’s compositions. When I picked up, “St. Elsewhere”, I was very very impressed! Great song concepts and storytelling.

Now I recently picked up Gnarl Barkley’s latest album, “The Odd Couple” and heard it through twice and I wasn’t disappointed. I do mark the fact that the album is different from the debut. If you liked more of the rapping, just be informed there is not much of that in this album. If you liked the song ,”Crazy” and Cee Lo’s singing, then you’ll enjoy, “The Odd Couple”. 

Let’s go through each song now, shall we?

Track 1: Charity Case

Great introduction soul due to the whole soul music feel. It reminds of Outkast’s , “The Love Below”. In fact a lot of the songs are like some of the songs from Outkast’s, “The Love Below, but in another level of course. The beat is continuous throughout the song and it has a female vocoder effect on a female voice at some point. I found the whole idea very impressive because a lot of times people were overusing it became sort of a new electronic music cliche, but they did it right. The mood is very chill and upbeat at the sametime, its actually very moderate feel good track. Good job guys!

Track 2: Who’s Gonna Save My Soul

This song has a chillout hip-hop feel beat-wise. The talent in the vocals is very soothing with its rich soul. The lyrics are assisted very well with the music, its sort of a downer song but yet you don’t really feel down. Something you would hear at a jazz lounge but instead the music is unique with its blend of hip-hop, lounge, and soul. When I say soul, I mean lots of soul! Like the souls in the afterlife style!

Track 3: Going On

It’s an upbeat version of the first track, “Charity Case”. It almost sounds like you could compare it to “Hey Ya” from Outkast, but in my honest opinion, this song completely gets the torch handed to it. I apologize for the comparisons, but its the best way to describe. I’m impressed how the mood switches from it being so upbeat and wild and all but then the beats begin to slow down a bit showing the remarkable beat complex composition talent of Danger Mouse. Yet throughout the whole track, you can’t help but feel your aura become brighter especially after the last track.

Track 4: Run (I’m A Natural Disaster)

I don’t listen to the radio or anything to be honest with you, but I think this is the single for the album. I think its really fair to say that this would be the best single for the album as well. It really defines what this album is mostly about. Again, that upbeat soul sound with electronic beats and it sounds nothing like anything in the Outkast album, “The Love Below”. I really love the lyrics and how the music and lyrics reflect off each other. In a sense the song is so upbeat, it kinda makes you want to run in a 60s/70s movie scene.

Track 5: Would Be Killer

Very short song, but the feel is probably a little darker than the rest of the album. I love how it starts with some gun clips being inserted. The song has its hip-hop sound but leaning more to the soul with some strange yet clever samples playing around and Cee Lo just singing his crazy heart out.

Track 6: Open Book

Nicely done reversed string sounds and a rain forest atmosphere with some complex beat sequencing. This song really shows an example of Danger Mouse’s amazing sequencing skills as its completely electronic. Vocally, I find the chorus pretty nuts, but again Cee Lo doesn’t fail us vocally throughout the song.

Track 7: Whatever

A mid-tempo short song with some synth leads and still in his form of its neo soul genre and the lyrics are simple and direct. Again great song!

Track 8: Surprise

Another upbeat song that I feel takes you back. You’ll forget you’re in the year 2008 (or whatever year it is now if this review is old). Again, this song has a strong resemblance to Charity Case and Going. I really love the hook on this song the vocals really are highlighted in this song. 

Track 9: No Time Soon 

This song has a great guitar lick with some synths again. Its very slow tempo and at some point some nice electronic beats. I really have to say the synths in this song amaze me the way it accompanies the guitar, its a pretty attractive tune. 

Track 10: She Knows

It kind of reminds of me the previous track but a bit more steady paced. The beat doesn’t change. The vocals pretty much are soulful as usual but nothing else changes. It’s a very relaxing beat nonetheless. 

Track 11: Blind Mary

I love this song. It’s a nice feel good track. The hook is extremely catchy and actually the whole composition is catchy. It all stays the same in terms of beats and stuff. Its makes me feel like I’m listening to an islander confessing his under dying love for someone, Mary. The lyrics are also very nice.

Track 12: Neighbors

This combines a faster pace typical trip-hop beat with its strong soul vocals. The beat is what really attracts me to this song. The lyrics again are also amazing and extremely interesting. I should have you read them for yourselves. The clever production of Danger Mouse really shines on this track as well.

Track 13: A Little Better

The song’s full hip-hop beat assists the vocals very well and its even got a blended funk feel. This is pretty much the conclusion to the album and the final song is pretty much a great way to end the album. I love the way the vocals just come in and attract you by coming in by stating there’s a story to be told.  The great uses of effects on the vocals towards the end and ending the album the way it started with the construction worker’s drill-like samples and something else.  

Overall

You can tell already by the review of each song that there’s no rapping at all.  In fact, I would like to consider this being more of a neo-soul, hip-hop electronic album than anything else. Whether it’s because, “Crazy” from there debut album was such a big hit or if they just felt more into doing the neo soul deal, it doesn’t matter. I thought this was a great album, nicely written songs and greatly produced. Everything musically and lyrically fell into place and with each song that I had no desire to skip. In fact, upon hearing this album only the second  time to review this article I had to go for thirds. The success of this album was so high, it still to the very day of this written article, is placed on #1 on Top Electronic Album.  I highly recommend if you guys enjoyed their first album  on the neo-soul side, you’ll will love this one! Just don’t take it from me, listen for yourself!  

A lot of us, sit down with a blank piece of paper and use a whole lot more of brain power with the results of nothing coming out. What I have learned in Berklee Music is that destination writing was one of the greatest things I have ever to accelerate and improve your songwriting techniques.

Remember everyone this is music and this is not rules, but guidelines.

There’s a method to everything so these can be your way of writing or not, it might not work for everyone but what I can tell you is, if you have a hardtime writing lyrics 90% of the people I know that have done this had no problems writing lyrics.

So here’s the deal, I’m going to list a few steps on what you do to practice destination writing.

1) Think of a place (subway, bathroom, forest, bordello, etc)
2) Use your five senses (See, Hear, Touch, Taste, and Smell) to describe this place.
3) Put an alarm for 5 minutes from right before you begin writing.
4) Then just start writing and do what I mentioned in step 2 but also include how it makes you feel (or the character, if its not you).
5) In this writing process try to provide hints of a story which relates to steps 2 and 4.
6) Once, the alarm goes off, STOP! Seriously don’t cheat you’re only cheating yourself.

At first, you might find yourself with like a small amount of words and its hard to work off of it. Relax, it’s cool. It happened to all of us, in fact, when I first started I only had a 5 sentenced paragraph. As you begin to practice this daily you’re destination writing will be a lot longer and you will have more to work with.

On the next tip I will provide you with the next step after destination writing. For now, just keep doing destination writings.

Additional Tip: Another way to improve your writing is to get a notebook and pen and have it accessible to you when you wake up. Don’t waste another second and pick up the pen and just write whatever comes to mind. You’re sleepy and everything which means your subconsciousness is still awaken. You might have a brain fart at first but just make the pen move. Who cares if its one sentence or 30 sentences. Just write whatever is on your mind it doesn’t even need to make much sense. This is another way to get lyrical ideas. Many albums successful albums were inspired by the subconsciousness.

One great example is John Petrucci, the guitarist and main lyricist of Dream Theater wrote the lyrics based on a past life regression he had, which later became Metropolis Pt.1: The Miracle And The Sleeper and then later on The epic concept album Metropolis 2: Scenes From A Memory.

Other subconsciousness success stories can be found here in this article

Anyways, just continue with the destination writing and subconsciousness writing and you’ll be closer and closer to never facing an empty sheet of paper again.