DianaDee Osborne EASY Songwriting Hints: 2014

Friday, December 5, 2014

Avoiding Blah Tunes .... by DianaDee Osborne

   An old game show "Name that Tune" tested people's ability to remember old songs. Another game show could be "Name that BAND." Musicians tend to have favorite chords and progressions and sound mix textures.

If you want to bring amazing FRESHNESS into your songs,
Don't just start a song with a melody:
   STOP.... LISTEN... Not just a cliche:

Go outdoors and listen to sounds:
The birds, the wind in the trees, traffic noise, the overhead jets...
       the cadence of people talking and laughing.
Go indoors and listen: Washing machine swirling, the fan's spin,
the undulation waves of the refrigerator motor....

Drum out beats with your hand on any surface-- from your lap (low beat) to
crunchy leaves.
Sometimes REST awhile in the percussion of the
world around you.... and wait for the melody
      to come into your head.

EXAMPLE:
Combinatoric Waves Peace
FREE MUSIC LINK ©2012 DianaDee Osborne: CLICK HERE
FREE LYRICS and MUSIC sheet LINKs: DianaDeeOsborneSongs.com

SONG HISTORY:

Ocean waves were crashing against a pointed rock barrier, coming from two directions. One day I noticed something “different” in the sound as I stood by the water at dawn. I closed my eyes... listened... realized that

to my left, the water was like the usual 4/4 time with a heavy hit on the rocks as “Count 1” and a lighter hit on “count 3” and then repeating the pattern at the end of each 4 counts.

BUT -- on my RIGHT side, the water took longer between “count 3” and the heavy repeat on Count 1.

The Music of the Water was in 5/4 time as it hit the rock barrier at a different angle.

I charted out what I heard in the sand, and later created a spreadsheet to study my observation. After talking with a couple of mathematicians, I learned that the word for this combination of two different series is “Combinatoric”.

This and over 375 other songs with music sheets available free for private use at http://dianadeeosbornesongs.com/Songs-2008-2012.php

No registration needed. Much joy to you in growing your music!

Monday, October 27, 2014

End Songwriting Jams with Jams ... by DianaDee Osborne

When your ideas are blocked, invite some music friends.

Using a voice recorder if away from a music recording studio:
Take turns playing "anything". Easiest if you pick a MINOR key...
Out of 12 notes, all but 11 will fit
(the 12th being the flatted third that would turn it into a major key) -
AND other notes like 7th chords can add a blues or jazz or grunge rock feel!

Two basic EASY methods:
1. One person plays for about 3 minutes. Then the others play their instruments
to do fills. SURE- some things won't work!
But OH, the creativity that can come out of the pieces that do!
And it's so much fun to laugh at how HORRIBLE some experiments are!

2. Each person takes turn being the lead, with the others playing fills --
In Jazz Jams, the person who will lead often quickly pats their head :)

LATER:
Feed the recorded music into your computer program and edit pieces you really like,
building new pieces around them.

Much joy to you in growing your music!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

JOY of Pseudo Rhymes in Songs ... by DianaDee Osborne

We learned it around 3rd grade:
   Make your poem rhyme, above all.
We kept remembering it after high school:
   When writing songs, make the lyrics rhyme, above all.

EXCITING NEWS! You don't have to make true rhymes in songs!
No more struggles to rhyme the next song line with
               "The / orange flow- er / bulb _ _ / ....
Pseudo rhymes work fine in songs especially...
     the music helps to obscure the lack of perfect rhyme.

So in the above example, your 3/4 time song can continue,
               "The / orange flow- er / bulb _ had /
   the wrong la- / bel, __ so
   in the spring    / it bloomed hot
   pink." __ __ / __ __ __    :)
obviously a humor song!

Much joy to you in growing your music!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Easy Way to Make Your Own Song Melody Loops

Here's an EASY WAY TO WRITE A SONG by
MAKING YOUR OWN SONG MELODY LOOPS

This hint is for those who use a home studio...

1. Sit at your keyboard or whatever instrument you use to record music
into your computer. Bring up your program and in a new file, create a track.

2. Hit Record and "Just Play" -- With a metronome / click track, to keep in time.

3. Make all the notes "quantized" -- see my GARAGEBand HINTS blog for instructions... to make each quarter note exactly equal 1 count, not 1-1/8th!
             Click here for blog instructions:         HOME STUDIO HINTS

4. Divide into sets measures, in places where you change to a new chord or pattern.
Be sure that "Snap to Grid" is on (see blog if needed),
and that you divide measures in front of Count 1 for each measure.

5. For each section of chords or patterns:   Make a new track for each
division (Step 4) by creating a DUPLICATE TRACK.

6. Move each section onto its own individual track. I like to label the tracks, such as
F# minor riff   for one section, A major riff     for another...

7. "Play dominoes" -- In a NEW TRACK, start randomly
copying pieces, sometimes duplicating them so melodies repeat.
Delete what you don't like, add more that you do.
Then, after you have a basic music track of what you like:

8. Add any fills in between pieces -- whatever you like...
Flute or violin, bass... Just have fun! It's called PLAY music!
=============

HINTS FOR ABOVE STEPS, to go directly to my blog:

"Why won't that STUPID Track Split Right???" -- CLICK HERE :}

"ENHANCE TIMING HINT 1" -- CLICK HERE :}
"ENHANCE TIMING HINT 2" -- CLICK HERE :}

Much joy to you in growing your music!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Sometimes Smush Song Syllables

Sometimes you need to spread out syllables
in your song lyrics so that you can enunciate well at the tempo.
But sometimes you need to smush syllables together.

Long time spaces between syllables -- especially in slow song --

might give the song listener a few moments to reach a

wrong guess about what the next word will be....

and like in conversations, we do often "fill in the blank" and

ANTICIPATE (Guess) what the next song WORD might be --

with the extra clue that it probably rhymes! -- then we should

be sure to make those syllables closer together in time.

Since it's hard to explain the very important concept, here's an example

for a rather slow 4/4 time prayer song to God

(Psalm 119 LLW 33 He - on my website DianaDeeOsborneSongs.com ):

Each syllable is a quarter note for a steady pace:

In - cline my heart to Your Word. __

I'd be self- ish with- out You. __

As the singer slowly shares the message of the last line,
the listener has time to "fill in the blanks" with some phrase like
I'd be self- ish with the LORD (rhymes with line 1).

Obviously that concept does not match what's in the Bible.
Easy quick fix: Sing the words "selfish" and "without"
as 1/8th notes instead of steady quarter notes:

In - cline my heart to Your Word. __

I'd be (self- ish) __ (with- out) __ You. __

That also gives an energy to the slow song... and
a dramatic pause that emphasizes each key word.

Much joy to you in calculating strategies into the lyrics for your music!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Busy Songs To Avoid... by DianaDee Osborne

How do you get all of your message into one song?
It's a big temptation to try to do.

After all, your goal is probably more than money as a songwriter.
You're an intelligent person with lots of ideas.
NO one thinks exactly as you. So .... how do you
share all your ideas in your own unique song?

Probably, you can't. But hey, this is good news!
          It just means you get to write a 2nd (or etc.) song!

Hint... not from an "expert" but from a fellow musician with some experience. There are over 300 full samples that you can hear at no cost at my website (click on link below).
EXAMPLES   at   DianaDeeOsborneSongs.com      (link)
       All are copyrighted, but you may use privately    (see ABOUT US tab for details):

Specific Song Example, copyright 2014 by DianaDee Osborne; all rights reserved
LO AND BEHOLD BLESSINGS Click here for lyrics

I began this gospel style fusion rock song planning to use the following pattern:
   Verse 1:      This Morning I woke up, Put my feet.... [what happened]
   Verse 2:      This Afternoon, I .... [what happened]

   Verse 3:      This Evening, I .....    [what happened]

But what I found was that many things fit into morning activities that could have been perceived as blessings -- too many to fit into a single verse.
And two verses per time period? No, a 6-verse song can annoy listeners...
          especially if each time period was followed by a chorus!

So, to avoid being too "busy", I limited this song to only
"THIS MORNING" for each verse.
Afternoon and Evening must wait 'til another day, another song:)
I suggest that you too may want to avoid   "BUSY" songs,
       to better share the HEART OF YOUR MESSAGE
                            to your future song listeners.

Much joy to you in designing art patterns into your song lyrics!
--------------

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Easy Way to BLOG Draft Song Lyrics

Hello! The following songs are listed on my blog
   DianaDee Osborne Song Stories
that is linked to my main website:
    http://dianadeeosbornesongs.com/Home.php
BUT these do not yet have completed music.

For SONGWRITERS -- This is a very efficient way to
(1) Publish AND thus copyright protect (because publication date is included) drafts before you have completed the music; and
(2) Keep a Record of what songs you still are working on!
It's easy to lose track when you are always getting ideas for new songs!
May you find much joy in knowing this:
  NOTHING is impossible
when you humbly ask God to help you.  Philippians 4:13, "I can do ALL things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me."

And I'll add that   EPHESIANS 3:20-21   is a KEY PROMISE FROM GOD in my Life:
God "is able to do FAR MORE THAN WE ASK OR THINK"
(for HIS glory, verse 21). I assuredly never would have dreamed even 5 years ago that God would honor me with developing...
I think the 2 studios have now recorded close to 350 songs that I wrote and prepared initial music tracks for -- with COMPLETED, partially mastered song recordings now.
I quit counting... No need. It's God's Working.

BLOG DRAFTS LIST Example:
As always, all information on this blog is copyrighted.
Example also shows update to existing list when a song's lyrics are recorded:
This entry is copyright 2014 by DianaDee Osborne, all rights reserved.

CLICK ON LINKS to go directly to song lyrics:

Psalm 114 Saving God's People (song lyrics) , by DianaDee Osborne 1-16-2014

Gonna Be One Of Those Days (song lyrics), by DianaDee Osborne 1-15-2014

Evil Always Is Evil (song lyrics), by DianaDee Osborne 1-14-2014

Church Pew Prayer (song lyrics), by DianaDee Osborne 1-11-2014

When Persecution Slams Churches (song lyrics), by DianaDee Osborne 1-10-2014

Get Even With Satan Song, by DianaDee Osborne1-9-2014 MUSIC COMPLETED

Comfort In Your Problems (song lyrics), by DianaDee Osborne 1-8-2014

Psalm 98 Joyful Singing, by DianaDee Osborne 1-6-2014

Psalm 101 Guarding Hearts (song lyrics), by DianaDee Osborne 1-2-2014

Psalm 100 Shouting Joyfully (song lyrics), by DianaDee Osborne 1-1-2014

EARLIER LYRICS drafts-- MUSIC STILL BEING WORKED:

Half Staff Flag Nation, by DianaDee Osborne 10-25-2013