h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi
I've been doing a music project for some years and I'd appreciate it if people take a look at my space and give me some feedback and opinions. My space gives all the details about the project. I'd like some people with an interest in writing songs and music to jump on board
Cheers!
SS

I LOVE TO WRITE LYRICS, I HAVE A SON 19, WHO SINGS, HE IS TRAINED,I WANT TO WRITE 2 SONGS TO GO INTO THE STUDIO [A FRIENDS]AND SEE WHAT COMES OUT. HE SINGS EVERYTHING FROM SINATRA TO BACKSTREET BOYS,BUT SOMETHING MODERN IS WHAT IS REQUIRED. IF YOU CAN HELP DROP ME A LINE.
CHEERS.

THERE'S NO NEED TO SHOUT I can hear you fine

I'm 20 and I play the guitar. Virtually no experience in anything so far, but I'd like to give anything a go.

TK

Hi Scollop and STB
I'm talking to Intellectual Property experts at the moment about protecting the idea. Once I've done that I'm hoping I can get a project going to see how well the method works for other people. I'll keep you posted.

SS

I write loads of lyrics - usually parodies, though there's some original stuff. I submit parodies on-line to amiright.com (http://www.amiright.com/parody/authors/philalexander.shtml), as they've also a voting schema and comments which allow for a load of feedback about the songs.

Incidentally, I'd agree with your thesis that SA&W had a mechanistic way of churning out hits (though how many of them deserve to be called "songs" is open to debate), whether they realised it or not: IIRC Waterman got quite uppity about the suggestion But then, I reckon my nine-year-old daughter is writing better songs than he's ever managed

Phil

Damn! the above link has taken the ) as part of the link... it should be:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/authors/philalexander.shtml

Phil

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some sytems used to write music. A common theory is that some songs are just other songs cut up and stuck together.
I've always been interested in writing music more than lyrics as I consider it to be more of a challenge. I'd guess a good tune can be a success with poor (meaningless?) lyrics, though I can't think of any cases of great lyrics succeeding with a poor tune (Do you know of any?). Most of my lyrics are just dumped on the melody as an afterthought.
I'll have a look at the link and let you know what I think.

SS

> though I can't think of any cases of great lyrics succeeding with a poor
> tune (Do you know of any?).
Things like "Streets of London", or most of Dylan's output: I know, the tunes aren't that poor, but they wouldn't have done anything without the words that went with them.

..or "Star Trekkin'" by The Firm: totally naff tune, silly squared but hit number one (hell, I still listen to it )

or even "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead?

Phil

Yes, to be honest I rate the Firm song very highly as a novelty song. Also the 'Anfield Rap' by Liverpool.
I've always thought that a good sure-fire xmas novelty hit would be Jocky Wilson covering 'Reet Petite'.

I'm sure that would hit the bull's eye

Phil

PS "The Anfield Rap" - the way they've been playing of late, I think they left the 'C' out

Phil

That reminds me, I came close to writing some novelty lyrics for Three Lions in 2000, called 'Three Lions in the sh*t'. I wish I'd done that now. The way the net works something like that can go round the world in less than a day.

Don't know that much about Liverpool FC but didn't Mike Oldfield (of Tubular Bells 1-17 fame) decide like yourself, that there must be some kind of secret formula for producing a hit single? He sat down, thought about it for a bit and came up with Moonlight Shadow (sung by Maggie Reilly) which was reasonably succesful. It had rather daft lyrics as I remember it but some nice guitar playing. He must have hit on some kind of formula, I guess.

Om

"the riff is everything"(keith richards...i think)

I didn't know that Moonlight Shadow was written to a formula. I guess is couldn't have been foolproof or Mike Oldfield would still be churning out loads of hits.

I think the song "Sherrie" by Four Seasons was supposed to be the most commercial song of all time (at the time) including many features of succesful songs. Billy Joel repeated the formula with his song "Uptown Girl".

I'd disagree with Keith Richards as I think a melody is the most important thing. Although "Satisfaction" wouldn't be half the song it is without the famous riff.

I don't know if my methods could be described as a "formula". Time will tell, I hope

Odd that after lots of nothing at the Guild you should be starting a music project too. It's not really the same as mine though.

Anyhow sticking to your thread, music has pretty much always been written to some sort of formula as long as recorded history. I'm not restricting this to songs. Some people only implicitly know the rules whereas others explicitly follow them. The rules vary a bit between cultures but there's some underlying maths too (and sociology when it comes to the other aspects). You may run into problems with trying to get intellectual property rights if it turns out you've only rediscovered what a lot of people already knew - even if they didn't happen to write pop songs. Of course, there's no way of telling without seeing your methods and obviously that wouldn't be appropriate! At some point you'd probably better check with some music theory/history experts rather than just lawyers though.

Regardless of that caveat, if it works for you there's certainly not going to be anyone stopping you using any method you like to create music yourself. It's just that it may not turn out to be something which is patentable and for which you can then charge other people - other than via sales of an instruction manual in the technique. Self-help books always seem to do well though and it might be even better as a video or even an interactive computer program.

Hello peeps

This method I've devised should be published at www.musesmuse.com soon. I'd like to try it out on some people first. If you're interested, could you contact me on the email address on my profile? Then I'll forward it to you.

Thanks, SS.

Hello again.

Well, after a little research, I've found out that my method isn't as 'new' as I would have hoped. However, I still think it's a valid songwriting/composing tool and will be new to some - and no doubt useful.

Check out my guide entry:

A116834 "A Productive Method For Songwriting/Composing"


All feedback gratefully received.

Your first bit of feedback is that it helps to type the right page number A1166834.

Apologies.

I'll go set fire to myself.

Thanks