Becoming Yourself As An Artist
In my last article, I wrote that commercial pop had specific songwriting tendencies that give it its sound. These tendencies are things we can choose to adhere to, or not. But the fewer we use, the further outside the realm of commercial pop we find ourselves.
This is true of any genre, each carrying their own specific songwriting tendencies. When we can identify where our unique skillset intersects with the genre that values most of those skillsets, we often see our songs soaring the highest.
So how do we find out what our own natural writing strengths are? We observe our older songs, we look at our influences, and we practice some exercises to see what clues they bring.
1. Observing Our Older Songs
The bits and pieces we have already written and how we went about writing them tell us a lot about our writing style. We might crack away at a chord progression for hours, just enjoying the process of exploring various chord colors and grooves. Or we might feel our most inspired when melody is our playground, perhaps not even holding an instrument in our hands. Others may find the floodgates open widest as we’re journaling with words.
It’s natural to start songs with the element that comes with greatest ease, and let the other elements of song form as a result of it. The element we value and enjoy most, or feel most prepared to write, often defines the style in which we write.
Take a look at the elements you wrote first in past songs. Are they driven by interesting chord changes and grooves, or by melody, or by lyric? When you have to make decisions regarding what to keep and what to cut, which element do you consistently lean towards keeping? The elements we’re hesitant to cut are often those that mean the most to us, and can point to the style of music that also values those elements. For instance, folk and Americana may value lyric more than funk, whereas commercial country may value melody and lyric more than harmonic interest or innovation. It’s not important that you identify your genre, but that you identify what you enjoy most about writing, and find the unique overlap between that and the genre you believe suits your writing.
2. Look at Your Influences
We may not know where we’re going, but we certainly can see where we’ve been. We’re all a unique combination of our skillsets and our musical influences. They’ve worked together to give us our unique interest and sound. As musicians and writers, we often spend a great deal of time trying to avoid sounding like others who came before us. But their contribution to our sound is unavoidable, and something to be treasured.
For instance, the influence of Sting on my music pushes me towards interesting chord changes, wider ranges of melody, and metaphorical lyric qualities. These characteristics don’t always express well considering my instrumental style or the ‘vibe’ that others pick up when I perform, but then again, I’m not just the product of Sting but of all the artful music swarming about in my brain when I write. I’m also stuck with the vocal chords I’ve got, and so it’s up me to trust my instincts when I write. I may feel, sound and look like a mashup of all the artists I’ve loved over the years, but the longer I do what I do, the more seamlessly those influences interact to create something new rather than an odd hybrid.
3. Practice Regular Exercises
Just as instrumentalists run scales or specific areas of a song that prove difficult, we writers can practice exercises to improve our skills. These exercises can illuminate the things we love, and hate, about our writing style. Try a few of the following ideas the next time you have 15 minutes to write:
A. Lay down a chord progression that is typical for you. What do you notice about the chords you chose? Are they diatonic (within the key), or do they push the edges of the key? Do they interest you, or do you feel frustrated with their ‘ordinariness’? How many chord changes did you play? Would more or fewer make the progression more interesting to you? Is the tempo you played them at typical for you? What if you sped it up or slowed it down - would you like the progression better?
B. Now listen to your own voice. If you’re an artist, does your vocal tone, its artifact, command listeners to listen? Do you fear your voice is quite ordinary? What vocal skill is essential to convey the emotion written into your songs? Is your vocal unique to your genre, or more typical to your genre? Do you believe your voice to be a major reason why people listen to your songs? Do listeners like your songs despite your voice? Why?
C. Sing a little section of melody. What do you hear - too little repetition or not enough? Are you really prioritizing melody, or are you busier writing lyrics and thinking about what you want to say? Are you generally happier with your melodies, or your lyrics?
D. Who is the character you take on? Genres are stylized by specific characters, arising from culture. For example, commercial pop can energize through a character who is empowered, the victim who was wronged, the sassy, sexy girl, or the guy who got left by the girl he can’t forget. These are just a few of popular archetypes and are typical and expected of the genre. It can be difficult to see our lyrics in context of a genre if the character doesn’t agree with these typical archetypes. If you wrote about what you truly care about, would that agree with or stretch the genre you believe yourself to fall within?
Remember that genre only categorizes music by what is similar. It’s up to us to follow our instincts into territory that can’t be explained by genre. And take heart that until we get the recipe right, it always feels like we’re flipping between too ordinary and too strange. Keep leaning in to what sounds pleasing to you. It’s the only way to really contribute music people will enjoy and remember for a lifetime.
Stay Creative,
