He's Got the Song
Today one of my writing students showed me his composition. He had some good ideas, but his sentences were terribly clumsy. I told him both points.
He told me he wants to be a songwriter, and he showed some of that work to a friend in the industry, and the friend said he has lots of potential but the work is clumsy.
So what should he do?
Bwah. Do I look qualified to advise someone about writing songs, which is basically poetry set to music?
Sure I am. Its words, isn't it? So I told him to read Dr. Suess. He started to smile, oh how silly, but I told him I mean it. Look at it - the rhyme and rhythm are perfect. Look at some of the rhyming children's books in the library today, they're terrible. I don't read them to my kids becasue it teaches bad grammar.
I told him the best way to learn good grammar is to absorb it by reading, and he should read bios of musicians since that's what interests him.
Then I pointed out that a song has no room for extra words, and he gave me this blank look. I sketched out four lines on paper, and then two more sets of four lines, and told him, here's your song. Four to six lines per verse, four or five verses, and maybe eight to ten syllables per line, call it eight words. If you have extra words, its like training wheels on a bike - to do well, you have to take them off.
Then I showed him, on his paper, where he had extra phrases that didn't add anything to the ideas.
He was nodding and nodding, but I don't know if he's going to put any actual work into it.
I hope he does. It's his dream, and he has the ideas. All he needs is to polish his tools...
He told me he wants to be a songwriter, and he showed some of that work to a friend in the industry, and the friend said he has lots of potential but the work is clumsy.
So what should he do?
Bwah. Do I look qualified to advise someone about writing songs, which is basically poetry set to music?
Sure I am. Its words, isn't it? So I told him to read Dr. Suess. He started to smile, oh how silly, but I told him I mean it. Look at it - the rhyme and rhythm are perfect. Look at some of the rhyming children's books in the library today, they're terrible. I don't read them to my kids becasue it teaches bad grammar.
I told him the best way to learn good grammar is to absorb it by reading, and he should read bios of musicians since that's what interests him.
Then I pointed out that a song has no room for extra words, and he gave me this blank look. I sketched out four lines on paper, and then two more sets of four lines, and told him, here's your song. Four to six lines per verse, four or five verses, and maybe eight to ten syllables per line, call it eight words. If you have extra words, its like training wheels on a bike - to do well, you have to take them off.
Then I showed him, on his paper, where he had extra phrases that didn't add anything to the ideas.
He was nodding and nodding, but I don't know if he's going to put any actual work into it.
I hope he does. It's his dream, and he has the ideas. All he needs is to polish his tools...