The Secret to Writing Great Songs?

hi everybody hope you're doing marvelously well we're big bad and back for another faq friday [Music] so i hope you're all doing marvelously well this is uh there's a couple of fun questions here i love just opening these up and flying by the seat of our pants if you haven't already please subscribe down below you can hit the notification bell and you will be notified and of course you can go to producerpro.com and sign up for the email list and get a whole bunch of free goodies okay so the first question is probably going to be quite contentious but also a great topic what's the best song structure for the music industry at the moment wow i mean that is such a broad broad question but i suppose it made me think of all of the obvious kind of knee-jerk reactions which i think we should probably cover and one of those of course is chord sequences because you're saying about song structure let's go through a whole bunch of things first of all it feels like for the last 20 plus years that this is the do regular chord sequence six four one five and then of course there's the ever changing one five six four which of course is exactly the same thing just starting on the third and fourth chord and the reality is those chords are so familiar with us you could write songs in minutes that fit around [Music] literally you know i mean honestly that's we could do that all day and it's simple melodic it's catchy we know the chord sequences but yes it balls the schnizel out of you you have to be aware of these things it's very easy and it's so easy to criticize you know obvious things like that turn on the radio he's here six four one five continuously hear one five six four hear variations of that all the time it's very easy but also it is smart to be aware meaning maybe in a song composition you want to use some of that for some familiarity but then break out of it and do something more interesting the reality is that chord sequence is in some of the best written songs ever just because it's familiar doesn't make it necessarily bad but yes it does get really really boring when you turn on the radio and you hear that continuous chord sequence having said that the most used chord sequence of all time of course is one five you know it's [Music] [Music] 145 is the root of every blues song every rock song that we love and there is nothing wrong with it the reality is is that familiarity does breed content but it also creates amazing music so great question because it's allowing us to talk about a lot of things so song structure is a broad term most stuff that's on the radio always constituted three minutes and 20 seconds i've had five record deals in my career i've annr'd at a couple of labels and i will and i produced obviously a lot of records and recorded a lot of singles and the unwritten or written law is three minutes 20 or less there is always latitude to exceed that of course there is and of course my favorite song of all time well actually my two of my favorite songs of all time are bohemian rhapsody and hey jude two songs which completely defy the the pretence of a three minute twenty however again there is nothing wrong with adhering to these things if you want to push the boundaries and if your song is so unbelievably amazing and it happens to be that length who cares if it's so unbelievably amazing it happens to be three times that length of course who cares you know we can argue about call sequences and song structures all day but three minutes 20 is kind of what radio stations expect now the old idea of the you know the intro you kind of [Music] and then the song comes in has pretty much disappeared the idea with that intro was to allow the dj to introduce your song here's the new one from fred and the fredericksons and that would play over this like little intro and then in would come the song increasingly that has disappeared almost everything these days just hits you slams you over the head from the get-go because we're not in a world where everything is consumed on the radio anymore let's be honest spotify is probably far more important and powerful than radio to everybody under the age of 30. kids are increasingly growing up not listening to traditional terrestrial radio like we did growing up you have to be aware of that so the song structure can have an intro but don't be afraid to do a single edit without it there is some of the secrets in this question is don't be afraid to make edits that fit certain formats and certain expectations i work with artists and tend to do mainly organic stuff with some programming but an artist i'm currently working with we've been doing dance song remixes we've been giving people opportunity to remix it so we can have something that's more current sounding because i with a lot of artists that have a few million plays on an organic song that they produced acoustic guitar that we've done with band elements and some programming and then the next song is the same song but a remix of it at like nine million plays so you'd be amazed thinking that way is super smart so with all of these things in mind song structure still should be if it's a single get to the chorus you know you know that out the old adage which i actually heard tom petty say you know don't bore us get to the chorus it doesn't mean that yes it has to be within 30 or 45 seconds but let's be honest radio does love that but again radio isn't necessarily that important but spotify is and playlists on spotify is something i would think about definitely go to spotify find the most popular playlists and listen to what's happening because the variety is amazing my son for instance is 13 and he loves everything his currently favorite band is steely dan but he also listens to stuff that does not make sense if you were a steely dan fan he listens to all kinds of music he'll hate me talking about this my point is is like variety is where spotify playlists are at now it's amazing that you can get all of these different genres fitting together they share one thing and one thing only in common all of the songs are great it's why queen has managed to regardless of the film they were already number 75 in the world when the film came out so they this is in the world they were the number one legacy artist in the world and it's not because of their thousands of incredible amazing album tracks it's because they have another one bites the dust we are the champions you know these massive songs that people love crazy little thing called love these are hundreds of millions of plays and that's the spotify world it's the big big songs and people care less and less i'm not saying they don't entirely care about this but they can care less about genres than ever and to be honest that's good for guys and girls like us people making music because now it means you can make the music that you want it just has to be an amazing song all bets are off now it's a really good time to be making music but back to the song structure three minutes 20 is the pop format 3.3 minutes 20 or less getting to the chorus within 45 seconds is the pop format so no need for an intro anymore but if you have one you can always edit it off so verse within 45 seconds first chorus second verse comes in and then the second chorus then the bridge and then a double chorus and out that is the most standard pop structure and within that pop single structure you can do whatever the heck you like i always think of that great great quote about stanley kubrick when his art director was asked about what it was like to work with stanley kubrick on 2001 a space oddity he said it was the most frustrating experience in his life because stanley had this exact vision of what he wanted and then he challenged his art director within these exact parameters of what he wanted to do whatever he liked and what an impossible task seemingly well that's the same with the three minutes twenty the pop song within that structure do whatever you like but when they asked stanley kubrick's art director what was it like he said it was totally frustrating but the best work he ever did in his life sometimes we need those boundaries it's great to say hey bohemian rhapsody my favorite song hey jude one of my other favorite songs stairway to heaven one of my favorite and one of the greatest songs all of those songs are incredible but to be like super elitist and go i don't want to write a pop song no i want to write yeah cool we all want to write all along the watchtower we want to do that please do go and write the new the new all along along the watchtower but to think that that is the pinnacle is foolish because there's so many great songs particularly the beatles songs pre kind of 66 rubber soul is covered in two minute 20 songs and please don't tell me that there's better songs than any song written on rubber soul so it's a good thing to force yourself to write in that pop format it's a lot tougher than you think if you want to write a great song it's easy as we showed earlier to just pick up and use the six four one five structure or the one five six four the four five four five you know for a for a pre-chorus to hit the one or the six on the danby you know the two chord in the bridge all of these things are great calling cards for writing great songs but they're not a guarantee of a great song they're just things that you learn as a songwriter we could do a whole episode on songwriting and i think we shall there are tricks and little things that are interesting to learn one of my favorites is the three dominant which is a great leading chord so you can be like [Music] it's just a beautiful way to move around there's all these little tricks that you learn little ear candy moments to manipulate your ear into doing something else that's the point i think it is a challenge to work within existing pre-existing ideas i think it is if you force yourself to write that three minute twenty song to work within the certain structures that people are anticipating that emotionally we respond to it's not a bad thing it's not a bad thing at all so if you can write a great song within that three minute 20 pop idea within that get to the chorus before 45 seconds within that verse chorus first chorus bridge double chorus out because there are amazing songs that are written in that format do it try it but it's a long answer to a really great question i believe really really strongly that there is no right way or wrong way to write a song that is not my point my point is is like accessibility to your average listener and the formats that a lot of places require sets a whole new challenge in itself it's like painting the sistine chapel you know what i mean it's like it's not it's not the easiest thing to do it's like okay so michelangelo one of the greatest artists of all time has to lie on his back and paint the sistine chapel on his own and he has to do all this give yourself something that makes it tough so i don't know you know me i'm always encouraging mixing genres mixing different ideas together to make great music so working in that song structure is not necessarily a bad thing what have you done let us know have you taken a reggae infused track and made it super super pop i think of like ub40 covering you know red red wine i mean what a masterpiece what a great song it was such a huge hit i love the period i grew up in where we had two-tone and the specials and all of those incredible bands and they wrote great pop songs the cure wrote great pop songs that were really credible i challenged anybody to tell me the cure aren't one of the coolest bands that ever lived new order super cool band like they they all had something to say and they had an edge to them and yet they all wrote pop songs let's not get too caught up with like oh i don't want to write in that format that's too pop you know it ain't me babe that's a great sing-along pop song and that's bob dylan at his finest just like a woman that's a song you pick up a guitar and sing along to great pop song but it's bob dylan and it's an amazing song so it's very easy you know not that this was asked in the question but i know i get to see a lot of like people like going oh you know that's just pop well you know what so is pretty much everything the beatles wrote it was pop songs and they were amazing what about this [Music] that was a number one single for weeks in the uk and it's a pop song we don't need no education you can sing along every kid i knew at school knew every word and sing along with it it was completely genreless you could be a two-tone punk rock new wave fan a new you know new wave of british metal although we didn't call it that in england we just call it metal you could be into all of those genres and every single person loved that song completely genreless just great song pop song sing along i think it's more of a challenge i would love to see more rock bands indie bands you know write songs that could get on the radio less complaining about how the radio's so bad how about writing songs as good as the songs we're talking about now get them on the radio so great great question thank you for opening it up to a lot of debate and a lot of people having their opinions down below please let us know what are your opinions i love this subject this is very close to my heart because i work with a lot of artists that don't want to like write songs like that and i'm like what do you mean pop as in popular i still believe pink floyd zep zeppelin wrote songs that were like that i rest my case what is your take on multiple vocal takes to fake acquire 48 voices and how best to treat them depends on how many people you have obviously the larger amount of people you have the easier that's going to be but if you're telling me it's one person or two people that's the difference you know if you can get to three or four then the world's your oyster we've done a lot of gang vocals with three or four people four really starts making a difference the first thing we do when we have multiples two three or four people is stick the mic up in the room and then move around one person to stand closer to the mic two or three people behind them then do a couple of takes and then move it around so there's different levels of voices the reality is is if you can blend it and make it a little bit more random the better it will sound like more people if you can get the balance is slightly different with all the different voices that will really really help the reality is like the chorusing of many people is what gives us that choir effect if you get 100 people singing exactly in tune absolutely perfect it will sound tiny hence why it's not a great idea to tune all of your background vocals the first thing i do when i've assembled maybe you know 12 takes of four people to give you your 48 i would just vocal align or just hand move them around so the timing's really accurate but don't tune it unless you really really have a bad performance and if you've got the option of singing it again singing again because all of those people together slightly out of tune and slightly out of time within the beginning and the end of the performance or what makes it sound massive if you can get it tight by aligning it so they start and finish that's pretty much all you need to do like i said obviously if there's somebody really badly out of tune get him out of the room we've had that happen haven't we eric i don't know what you're talking about eric was out with some girls doing some backgrounds and i was like i was trying to be very diplomatic i leaned in and said you know i think we have enough male voices on this one eric read into that whatever you will needless to say eric has not done any more background vocals since that day he didn't have on his resume that he was a singer my point is is like the more people you can get in the better obviously now if you're staying with one person that's tough you're going to have to move around get away from the mic give create different spatial elements around it slap delays are good out of time delays that aren't in time with it will roughen it up a little bit again just don't tune yourself too hard if you take your voice 48 times even if you're singing different harmonies and parts and then tune it really accurately it will get very small it's the differences the differences in flexions tonality pitch and everything that make something feel big when you listen to those football chants you know like uh like the the the english football team where it's like we put an extra syllable there and we go england in guerlain we gotta go you know ingoland pretty funny you get this massive sound but there's you know wembley stadium 70 80 100 000 people all singing that at once it's gonna be absolutely massive but i guarantee probably 50 of the people singing it have zero idea of pitch you know but the the people that can sing sing loud enough and the rest of us are sort of following along vaguely but that's what makes it sound so massive my secret answer for you is is if you're on your own you're doing it just get in there do a lot of takes move around try to get different space between it don't overly tune anything unless it's unbelievably out of tune and if it is unbelievable out of tune just go and sing it again use delays use slaps you know you think of the you know you can hear the slap delay on it making it sound even bigger you know it's it's that that's it's random reflections and delays pitch change all of that stuff that's going to make it feel bigger still and if you want you know take some of those vocals and send them to a bus with some detuning going on and blend that back in random delays detuning all of that will make it feel a bit bigger it doesn't have to be completely loud and totally out of tune but just a little bit of you know minus three four five six cents you know on a bunch of different vocals blended in will give you an illusion of a lot bigger size hopefully that answered what do you do when you only have one voice and you're trying to get acquire let us know what's the best way to remove string squeaks on electric guitar tracks i turn them down but if you're saying it's a squeak on an actual middle of a performance it's tough because if the squeak is moving call to chord then just go in there and turn it down because it was like shang dang squeak scrang drag squeaks ground you've got time to remove it if you've got a squeak in the middle of a ringing note that's where it can get a little bit painful obviously dynamic eq can get in there and find that specific frequency if you can afford it the soothe 2 is a favorite of all of us you've seen every engineer and producer i've interviewed this uses soothe i know i don't get an affiliate or make any money from it oak sound but there is a reason why all of us like it you know we talked about it daryl talked about it i'm in love with it everybody we're interviewing is loving that plugin but there are other ones as well multiband compressors i'd go with a dynamic eq or the suit first if you've got an intelligent plugin that can sit there and take those specific frequencies out just get really aggressive on that and every time that you know 7k rip your head off kind of sound comes in you can pull it out you can of course draw it out on an eq that may or may not work because you might be hollowing out a sound if it's wide enough this is probably somewhere where you either draw it out between chords [Music] yeah i mean it's it's probably a little bit as i move the chord a little bit over the chord singing yeah if i'm trying to get this definitely get the low going but the high squeakers in there that's a dynamic eq ds's are great a de-essa is a single-band dynamic eq go in there put the de-esser where you can actually see you can solo the frequency most ds's have that i know the waze ones do just go in there and then find it find it just go in there and find that frequency and you can use it as a de-esser and just it will pull out if it's 7k which is horrible on the squeaks if it's 7k peaking dramatically it will just pull it out that moment ds's good one um the reason why the the other ones are dynamic eq's the intelligent ones like soothe and the others are so useful is because that frequency might be slightly different in different areas but a lot of the time it is that offending 7k is going to rip your head off a de-esser will do it but it's it's random so go in there on the dslr and see if you can find that frequency you might have two different frequencies so you could use two different ds's where it gets massive build up and don't be afraid to automate either pull it down in volume or turn the de-esser off when you don't need it go in there and automatic because sometimes it might be on this on that that little squeak that squeak that's happening the way you set it up on that chord might be perfect but then maybe on that next chord i'm playing maybe it's grabbing too much 7k but i need to have it on there so i can either mute and bypass the plugin or i could change the threshold for that chord that is where digital is our friend we can take our plugins and we can automate them to do what we need when we need it i mean is a godsend from the old days of i don't know not that long ago when you used to have to you know i used to double up channels on ssls have a vocal coming out three different channels and then have different processing on it for different reasons and then mute between it it wasn't that long ago i was sitting in a mix with mark ender on the frey album watching him with two or three channels mute and unmute phrases because he had different processing going on the ssl j okay i can't remember and on the 9000 so bear that in mind now plug in you can do it all on one channel you can automate turn off different plugins all on there change the thresholds from words to words do all kinds of fun stuff it's a great time to be making music well thank you that was a wonderful week thank you please if you've got comments about how you do the get rid of string squeaks how you do song composition whether you believe in that format not i'm saying every song has to be in that format i'm just saying you know we was asked about modern song composition so i went for a modern answer whatever you want to talk about and of course remember below is where we scour for more questions eric over there will go and take the questions and we'll use them for next week so please leave some comments and questions below thank you so much for watching you all rock have a marvelous time recording and mixing and we'll see you all again very soon adios farewell so long au revoir [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Produce Like A Pro

Views: 44,048

Keywords: Warren Huart, Produce Like A Pro, Home studio, Home recording, Recording Audio, Music Production, Record Producer, Recording Studio, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting, How to Write Songs, FAQ Friday

Id: ruWp5lCKqhc

Length: 25min 31sec (1531 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2020