Secrets Of Songwriting - Word Painting
Secrets of Songwriting
Word Painting is a powerful crayon in a songwriter’s crayon box. To paint words means using music to paint a picture of the lyrics.
Listen from 1:11 through 1:18
- The guitar slide after Elton Sing’s “I’m a Rocket Man…” evokes an image of a Rocket powering up its engines for flight.
- The guitar strum adds impact to the lyrics by accentuating its strum at the same moment that Elton Sing’s the word "Rocket" - "I'm a Rocket man..."
Rocket Man is his second most streamed song on Spotify with 121 million streams.
Listen from 0:45 through 0:55
Garth Brooks uses Word Painting when he sings the word "low."
“I’ve got friend in low places…”
- As he sings the word "low" he matches it with a low note in the melody. This act reinforces the concept of being in a low place in life, as the lowest note in the melody is heard when the word "low" is sung.
Friend’s In Low Places is one of his biggest hits, gaining him 10 million views on Youtube and likely an equally high number of karaoke performances throughout the years since its release.
Listen from 0:27 through 0:40
- The Avett Brother’s sing the words “My heart like a kick-drum…” and the dummer immediately responds with repeated thumping beats from the kick drum.
Kick Drum Heart is one of the Avett Brother's most beloved tunes and a crowd favorite during their live performances.
https://open.spotify.com/track/4AKqoVmdiDdfvrkW9n9QxX
Listen from 0:35 through 1:00
As the singer sings the words “…Turn me on”
- For the first time in the song we hear a new instrument, the organ, immediately coloring the word "on". The organ emphasizes this word and becomes the musical sound associated with the emotional message of being turned on. This sound and this feeling are now anchored together, thus we associate the organ with the emotional experience of being turned on. Then the organ goes away before the following verse starts, not to be heard again until the next time the singer sings the words “…Turn me on”
https://open.spotify.com/track/6nEkxYIEnrbYH7h1hJ8Xn6
Listen from 0:00 through 0:12
Listen again from 2:05 through 2:20
- The guitar strums each time the Beatles sing “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”
- It is especially noticeable at the end of the song, at 2:06-2:08 when the guitar strums three times underneath the Beatles holding the note “Glad.” Since we have heard the guitar strum along with the lyrics throughout the song, we can imagine the guitar singing “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” even though the words themselves are not being sung!
Listen from 0:00 through 0:38
This final example is the most subtle and hypnotic of each of the examples presented today.
Consider the lyrics “Everybody’s talkin’ at me, but I don’t hear a word they say, only the echoes of my mind.”
Notice the guitar and bass move through a variety of chords, yet the violins sustain only one note throughout the entire verse, inciting a feeling of a world moving around you, passing by as you maintain your inward focus of attention, blissfully lost in thought, peacefully watching the world pass by-but never engaging with it.
In this brilliant example the guitars and bass represent the people talkin’ at him as he passes them by, while the violins represent his inward focus of attention on his own thoughts, the “echoes of my mind.”
The juxtaposition of these sounds with these lyrics is what creates the fascinating hypnotic friction that gives this song its identity.
Everybody’s Talkin’ is his biggest hit. It is so successful, in fact, that his Greatest Hits album is named Everybody’s Talkin’ – The Very Best of Harry Nilsson.
That Harry Nilsson track is so good, love the analysis. It's next level sonic storytelling that's for sure!
@ftk Harry Nilsson is the king of song storytelling. I keep going through each of his albums in awe of how well the music matches the stories. I love when he plays multiple characters and has conversations with himself. "The Point" is a great fun, too.
good
Thank you, @gorafarid!
@originalworks