WRITING THE SONG - Part 1

WRITING A SONG IS, IN MANY WAYS, LIKE BAKING A cake. Almost anyone can do it. On the surface it appears to be merely a matter of selecting the proper ingredients and putting them together according to some prescribed recipe. Songwriting however is not quite as simple as all that. Just as two people can use the same materials, follow the same formula and yet obtain different results, so also in the songwriting field, the same melodic and lyric ideas may be combined to produce either a palatable hit, or a tasteless concoction.

The fact is, that while writing a song is comparatively simple, writing a good song is an accomplishment that only a few can master. Each year thousands of songs are copyrighted and thousands more are written but never sent to the copyright office. Of this wealth of creative material, only an amazingly small percentage is ever published, and an even smaller percentage ever becomes hits.

There are several good reasons for this. In the first place, the market can absorb only a limited number of songs at a time. Since it takes several weeks of steady plugging by name orchestras and top-flight singers to put these songs across, and since the number of these plugs is limited, the publisher wisely restricts his publishing operations to the number of songs that he can comfortably handle.

There is also the matter of expense. A publisher must invest quite a bit of money on a song before he can tell whether or not he has placed his bet on the right horse. Naturally, he is cautious and, as a general rule, prefers to back those songwriters who have proven that they can produce successful numbers.

The orchestra leader or radio singer has only a limited time "on the air" and must pack into his broadcast those numbers that he knows will be well received. They too, are not interested in taking any risks on a new songwriter unless his work shows exceptional promise.

This is not intended to discourage anyone from writing songs. Every professional songwriter was, at one time, a rank amateur and had the same obstacles to overcome. The point is that the new songwriter should realize that the road ahead is a tough one and is to be traversed with a good deal of fortitude and patience. He is confronted with the problem of not only writing a song that in subject matter, construction and treatment will stand the stiff competition with professional numbers, but he must be able to overcome the natural reluctance of publishers to accept "new" material.

To meet this competition successfully, the new songwriter must have some natural talent in devising lyric or melodic ideas, he must be able to develop these ideas into a technically perfect song, he must be willing to seek, accept and apply honest criticism, and he must have sufficient stamina and self confidence to take rejections in his stride and to keep on producing songs.

This seems to demand a lot from the songwriter, but, on analysis, it is no more than is required in any other creative field. Obviously, some natural talent is requisite. A technically perfect, properly constructed song that has a dull, uninspired melody or lyric is just as un-sale-able as one that is badly written and poorly constructed. While proper technique is necessary to give full expression to talent, and to develop an idea into commercial form, no amount of dressing up will help a tune that lacks spontaneity and life, nor a lyric that is trite and uninteresting.