What good is a song if no one wants to hear it? Have you ever heard of the story about the tree falling in the wilderness? If no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? Technically, no. A sound requires a sender and a recipient. Without a system of give and take, everything is just random occurrences. The tree falling generates various pitches of wave patterns mechanically moving the air, but these wave patterns aren't "perceived" as sound unless someone hears them. Perception is the key. The first true goal of a songwriter is to write a song that first they like, and refine it to the point that the story they are telling is relatable to the persons that will listen to it. The song you just wrote wasn't a random occurrence; it was an expression of feelings and emotions that had to come out in a way that you could share it with others. This is the "system" of songwriting that requires both a songwriter and a song listener. The first thing that hits a listener is the "relatability" of a song, either lyrically or musically. What is relatability? It is the ability to narrate or tell a story that can be understood by others due to their similar experiences. By accurately describing your story, you bring a natural association between you and the listener. You establish a connection between you and them. It is an interactive and reciprocal relationship. You give your listener the story and they then react in response to your story by either listening more or buying your record. As you can see, this is a favorable relationship because everyone benefits from mutual understanding. In reality, you need to define your audience and appeal to what motivates them. However, not everyone will like what you write and how you write about it. But that might not stop them from humming a catchy phrase.

A sure-fire approach to songwriting emphasizes catchy musical and lyrical phrases. During the course of your listeners' day they encounter many duties and distractions. Did I do the job right? I have to pick up the food at the market. Is the boss watching? Wow, that person looks great! In order for you to invoke the participation of the listener you MUST provide a repetitious phrase that is easy for the listener to memorize. There are many thoughts bouncing around in their heads at any given moment. In order for you to get through, you have to provide a simple musical melody and witty lyrical expression that they will remember. According to the rule of advertising, it takes 7 times for a listener to hear something before they can recognize it. If you can get to that point, you have gotten inside their heads. Their natural response will be to hum the melody or even sing the lyric. If the phrases are catchy enough, you have just gotten someone to listen to your story that might not have normally heard it because you "hooked" them with a catchy phrase. This is where the term "hook" comes from in a song. It is a refrain of the main thought within a catchy musical and lyrical phrase that grabs the listener to want to hear more. After this occurs, a mood descends on the listener. A happy or sad mood, or several levels in between.

Once a listener enters into a "mood", a temporary state of mind or feeling, they have reacted to your song. Moods are resultant of traveling the normal course of life. It is an emotional reaction to occurrences in your environment. If a song makes you feel happy, then you go about approaching life in a happy state. Conversely, if a song makes you feel sad, then you react by internalizing the emotions being generating. Either way, a reaction has occurred. In physics a reaction is "an equal and opposite force exerted by a body against a force acting upon it." Accepting this, your job as a successful songwriter is to generate an emotional response in the listener that gets them out of their comfort zone. A listener will express this by crying, laughing, humming, singing, telling their friends about your song, or simply buying your song. Also, listeners will associate times, people, and places with various songs they have heard over the course of their lives. These associations can re-create the original moods a listener experienced when they first made the associations.

In order for a song to make a significant impression on the listener it must grow on them. This simply means that the more one listens, the more they want to hear your song. John Lennon and Paul McCartney had this down with the early Beatles songs. They were short and sweet. Mostly under 3 minutes in length. Just about the time you "got into" the song, it was over. This left you wanting for more. You kept listening to the radio in order to hear the song again and again. Longer songs are great for complex stories (e.g. American Pie), but generally it is good to "hook" your listener with short, sweet, simple melodies that are catchy. Easy to understand words make it that much easier to engage your audience. By combining these two integral elements effectively, your listener will be more apt to want to listen over and over again.

After many listenings to your song, does the listener give you credibility as a songwriter? Are they anxious to hear more of your songs? Do they still feel it is a good song after "song burnout" has occurred? Do they still sing along in the car or the shower when they hear the song? Have they bought your album or any new songs you have written? All of these things occur when you successfully initiate a response in your listener. The most convenient way to tell is if the listener buys your song. If they love your song and don't put their money where their singing/humming is, then you haven't initiated the response in the listener that truly counts. A songwriter is not a professional songwriter unless they write songs and sell them. It's OK to write songs for your own pleasure. But are you really sharing them? Isn't that what you wrote them for when you composed them? The final stage of a successful professional songwriter is to get the listener to buy your songs. Anything less than that is amateur status. Amateur status is OK, if that is all you want. But is that enough? There is nothing better for a songwriter than to be driving down the road and hear your song on the radio. It is a confirmation of the original thought you had when you wrote the song. It is positive feedback. And it brings you money. And what is so bad about that? Money will keep you alive long enough to write your next big hit. Then the whole process starts again. And remember one important point. It is the SONG that is important, NOT the songwriter's ego. Every song a songwriter writes might not be the greatest and everyone might or might not like it. An effective attitude to employ is that in composing the song you write for what makes the song the best it can be. Whatever your reasons for writing songs do one thing and do it right. Keep writing! Always remember, a songwriter writes songs. They don't talk about writing them, they just do it!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Dean A. Banks is a Recording Engineer/Producer and Songwriter for Banksnet MultiMedia*
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