Random Musings

I always enjoy being tasked to write a song.

It gives me a purpose to write, a fixed deadline to finish it by, and guidelines to work with.

And it also sets me standards to work towards.

(NB: By the way, the rest of the post is just my personal ramblings on the entire thought process that I went through whilst writing my latest song. I’m jotting them all down here just for personal reference, and also to articulate all my thoughts out. You may not get everything that I’m saying here.)

Firstly, I have to say that I belong to the type of songwriter that thinks through every single little thing when writing a song, as compared to a songwriter who is able to write by feel.

I literally think, and am conscious, about every single aspect, and hence I’m jotting down my entire thought process:

Two weeks ago I was tasked to write a Parent’s Day song for our children’s choir to sing, to be presented on Mother’s Day (which is traditionally deemed as “Parent’s Day” in our church).

As Mother’s Day is just around the corner, I was actually asked to finish the song within one week (to allow for ample weeks to practise), but I kinda dragged it to two weeks.

I usually need more than one week to really complete a song. (More on that later.)

The brief was as such: Write a Parent’s Day song for the children to sing, incorporating all the thoughts and feelings of a child singing to his or her parents. It should be fresh and original, and lively enough for the children to enjoy singing it. Best if there are little parts so that it doesn’t get too boring by being unison throughout. It would be nice if the intro were slow, then the tempo picks up as we enter into the starting verse. Make it a really good one.

And after the tragically sub-par Parent’s Day song that I wrote last year, I was under pressure to produce a really good one this year.

Phase 1: The Big Picture

To be honest, of all the possible occasions in the calendar, I feel that Parent’s Day is the hardest to write a song for.

Honest!

There’s only so many ways one can say “thank you” to one’s parents, without starting to sound cliched or cheesy.

It’s my biggest nightmare, but a great challenge at the same time.

I feel it’s really hard. I was scratching my head for a few days.

I thought long and hard about the general “feel” of the song. What is the mood? What is the tempo? What would be unique about this song?

I thought about possible hooks. I thought about possible lyric lines to include such that the song wasn’t cheesy or too childish.

Yes, it’s a children’s song, but that doesn’t mean it should be overly childish. I feel that the challenge to writing a song for children’s choir is to have to write something that:

1. Sounds very catchy (hooks are especially important in children’s songs)
2. Isn’t too kiddish, but yet isn’t too cheem as well (it really has to be a fine balance)
3. Doesn’t have too much lyrics to remember (cos they’ll have a hard time memorising all of them)
4. Doesn’t have lyrics which are too cheem to understand (cos it’s no point singing something one doesn’t understand)

I had lots of decisions at the “big picture” level to make, which would ultimately affect the outcome of the entire song.

Apart from a strong melody, I felt rhythms (i.e. syncopation) would play a very important part in the song too, as it keeps the children interested and excited about the song.

Phase 2: General Structure and Hook

I had to determine the structure of the song.

Because this is a Parent’s Day song (i.e. more relaxed and less serious in nature), I wanted its structure to resemble a typical pop song structure. And not only that, I decided to go the whole nine yards and do Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, and Bridge as well.

Now I’m horrible at writing verses, much less pre-chorus and bridges! I never liked writing such stuff.

But I decided to just go ahead with the plan.

First and foremost, I had to come up with the hook. And it had to be in the chorus.

I was certain of that much.

I felt that the song should originate from the chorus (i.e. the chorus has to be written out first), and I needed to be able to convince myself that the chorus was the strongest part of the entire song.

I wanted to write a chorus that would be the “hook” of the entire song, cos if the main chorus hook is not there, I can forget about the rest of the song.

So after dabbling at the piano one night, I finally got something which I thought was a pretty workable chorus hook.

So I kept that in my mind, and I slept on that idea.

I played the chorus over and over in my mind the next few days on my way to work, and as per my usual practice, I looked at it from every angle and tried to find ways to improve on it.

(See, that’s why I say that I need more than one week to complete my songs. Sometimes I take days just to let an idea germinate.)

Phase 3: Hook Confirmed, Flesh Out Rest of Song

So after a few days of back and forth (i.e. work at the piano, then spend some time away from the piano to critique what I’ve written, then back to the piano again)…I finally settled on the chorus.

One can never be sure about a song until it’s been presented to others, but I trusted my gut feel and said “OK, this will be the chorus”.

I finally ironed out every single lyric in the chorus and made sure everything in the chorus was satisfactory, before I decided to start writing the rest of the song.

Now to me, the verse is kind of an afterthought. I feel the verse comes easy once the chorus is confirmed, cos I feel that the verse needn’t be as strong as the chorus.

So I played through the chorus a few times, then tried to “hear” sounds in my head that prompted me where to go with the verse. So it was quite easy.

You just feed off the momentum of the chorus and then the verse will appear for you.

I managed to get the verse and pre-chorus out in 1 day. And a few days later, the bridge was confirmed also.

For the verse, it was quite straightforward, just 4 lines of lyrics. (Only one verse for the whole song.) I didn’t want anything more than 1 verse cos it would be too much to remember.

For the pre-chorus, I wanted to enter the pre-chorus with the typical minor chord (VIm chord to be exact), which I did. And the pre-chorus had to set itself up perfectly for the grand entry of the chorus, which I felt it did also.

For the bridge, I had to think a little. The bridge’s purpose was to extend the song by giving a good reason to go through the chorus one last time. And I also wanted the bridge to go into a different key, which I managed to do.

Of course, during the construction of the verse, pre-chorus and bridge, I always spent an equal amount of time thinking up the lyrics. I always feel that lyrics and music should be developed concurrently.

I don’t really like either one to get too far ahead of the other.

The lyrics were kept short and simple, so that the children can remember and sing them easily. I tried to use repetition as far as I could.

Phase 4: Tidy Up and Submission

All this while, I was totally uncertain if the song would work.

I think that is something a songwriter always faces – you’ll never know if the song works until you show it to people.

So anyway, I spent yet a few more days digesting the entire song and studying it from all angles to make sure it was perfect, from my point of view.

So I finally first presented it to the choir conductor, and then subsequently last Sunday we taught it to the kids.

My gut feeling is that the song was quite well-received, so I’m really thankful for that.

From now it’s just one more practice this Sunday, then the following week it would be the presentation already.

That’s one reason why I love songwriting – it’s really challenging, especially when you’re working under a deadline (with expectations), and you face LOTS of uncertainty…but when you finally complete the song and it seems well-received, ALL the effort is well worth it.