Bennett, J. (2012) You got a friend? Co-write a song!.
Total
Guitar, 230, pp. 36. ISSN 1355-5049
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Songwriting
You Got a Friend?
Co-write a song!
Illustration: Andy Watt
You and
your cowriter might
be strongminded
creative
people, but
the song is
bigger than
either of
you
36
There
are very few jobs
where you promise to
give away half your wages before you
get to work, but this is what happens
when two or more people decide to
write a song together. And they do
it with good reason: did you know
that almost half the number of charttopping hits in the USA since 1955 were
written by more than one person? But if
collaboration is clearly an effective way
of writing a song, how is it done? How
do two brains work together to produce
something truly great?
The first step in co-writing is obviously
to find a partner. As with any other musical
activity, we learn faster if the other person has
more experience than ourselves, and finding
strong co-writers isnt always difficult. A lot of
successful writers are quite happy to work with
new and up-and-coming talent. If youre an
experienced songwriter yourself youll probably
already know that the fresh ears that a new
collaborator brings can take your tried and
tested methods in exciting new directions.
So youre in the room together, probably with
a couple of guitars, and your eyes meet. Theres
an uncomfortable pause and no-one quite
knows what to say or play. Breaking the ice can
be difficult, so one way to avoid a long, slow
thaw is to bring some pre-prepared ideas to the
Joe
Bennett
Joe bennett is
the director of the UK
Songwriting Festival
and teaches on the
Masters degree in
Songwriting at Bath
Spa University. Joe
was Total Guitars
Music Editor when
the magazine was
launched in 1994.
session. These can be anything a few chords,
a fragment of melody, a riff, an interesting lyric
phrase, a news story or even a photograph.
They may not end up in the finished song, but
they will always function as a springboard to
other ideas. If both writers do their prep in this
way, youll be able to start work immediately.
Not every creative idea will be right for the
song. And youll both need to negotiate either
to defend your own ideas or to suggest changes
to those provided by the other. The temptation
is always to fight for your own material. After
all, you thought it was good enough to suggest,
so its all too easy to become defensive if your
co-writer isnt impressed. The best way over
this hurdle is to work additively rather than
subtractively. If the co-writer comes up with a
riff that doesnt sound quite right, its better to
come up with an alternative than to just reject
it. By keeping this positive spirit, ideas will keep
coming thick and fast, and the partnership can
simply select the best as they fly by.
But even if the room is constantly filled with
musical ideas, youll often have to pause to
check you agree on the game plan. Writing a
song forces decision-making; the partnership
needs to agree on subject matter, title, form
and structure, rhyme scheme, and of course the
melody, chords and lyric. Here, the watchword
is humility. You and your co-writer might be
strong-minded creative people, but the song
is bigger than either of you. If you really care
about it youll both know when to back down in
the face of a great idea.
Of course, the two-guitars-locked-room
method is only one way of collaborating. Some
artists write using full band rehearsal room
sessions (U2); others dont even need to meet
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin). In recent years
many songwriters have begun to collaborate
using the internet we can now share live lyric
documents, audio files or even complete studio
sessions online.
Whatever method you use, the flow of
creativity wont be constant; there will be times
when it just isnt working, and everybody feels
like the songs running out of steam. Here,
as with solo songwriting, it can help to try a
different approach. Introduce a new idea, such
as a drum loop, crazy tuning, tempo change or
capo. Going back a few steps can help to break
the logjam. Even overturning big early-days
decisions such as the title, concept or song
form can sometimes speed you towards the
completion of the song. If youre really stuck,
taking a quick break can sometimes help the
collective subconscious to find the answer to
the puzzle, so if all else fails make some tea.
Co-writing gets easier with practice, and if
youre new to it you may end up collaborating
with several different people before finding a
partnership that works for you. Then if your
song turns out great you wont resent halving
that wage-packet. A bird in the hand is better
than having a hand in a turkey.
august 2012
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6/20/12 3:58 PM
