THREE CHORD TRAPS
Most
songwriters I know, including myself, occasionally experience being in a
writing pattern where everything sounds very similar, or is written in a style
that seems stale. It is a very annoying
and frustrating place to be. What to do
about it?
One
of the main culprits which causes this is often the instrument the writer uses
to write with. I call it the “Three
Chord Trap”. It is especially common
with new writers and those who are new to playing an instrument. Writers with years of experience sometimes
fall into it, too. An old maxim in
country music is that all you need is “three chords and the truth” to write a
good song. While there is a lot to
support this idea, sometimes those three chords lead us down a path that results
in very stale feeling or sounding songs.
There
are many successful writers who write only lyrics and rely on someone else to
add melody and arrangement. But there
are far more who write with a guitar, keyboard or other instruments. Most of these folks write melodies to go with
their lyrics and are the most susceptible to the Three Chord Trap.
A
very successful songwriter friend of mine started his career without any
ability to play an instrument. His
technique is to write a lyric and then sing and record every possible melody
for it he could think of. He would then
pick the best, and work with a musician/arranger to fine tune it. He wrote a number of songs this way that became
huge worldwide pop hits for a female artist.
I sometimes use this technique to help pull myself out of a rut (still
waiting on that worldwide hit, though…).
A
big culprit in writer’s rut is the instrument we write with. It is very easy to fall into a comfortable pattern
of chords on guitar or piano, and fit lyrics into that pattern. This often causes each song to have a similar
sound. Another way to get out of this,
in addition to occasionally not using an instrument, is to try writing with a
different instrument if you can. My main
instrument is standard six string guitar, but I sometimes write with a bass
guitar, a resonator slide guitar, a mandolin, banjo, or a ukulele. I’ve even written with a steel guitar, and a
cigar box guitar. Invariably, the change
of instrument will lead me to a different musical idea for a song.
One
last tool to get past a rut is to write in a different genre than you are used
to. If you write country songs, try
writing blues. If you write pop songs,
try writing country. You get the idea.
All
these ideas are ways to force yourself out of your comfort zone and allow you
to jump start your creativity. There are
many others, indeed there are whole books which address techniques for
improving creativity. A last piece of
advice, if you want to improve as a writer, is to write. Write a lot. Analyze and learn from your work, and don’t be
afraid to step over those ruts.
