Your Songwriting Ingredients, Part Three of Four

Welcome to Part Three of Your Songwriting Ingredients. In the last two posts, we discussed the role that you play in songwriting as well as how important it is to truly listen to music. Today I am going to talk about what it means to serve the song, why it matters, and how to do it.

First off, what does it mean to “serve the song?” If you asked many different musicians what their definition of the phrase was, you would basically get the same answer from all of them (the good ones at least!). What “serving the song” means is that while you are writing a song, you view the end result of how the song sounds as more an important than your personal preferences.

Confused? Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you are the bassist in your band, The Blazin’ Buffaloes (or any other ridiculous name). You and your band mates are at a practice, working on a new song. In this song, there is a bridge that sounds best if you only play the root notes of the chords. Of course, being the fantastic bassist that you are, you know that you are capable of playing much more than just the root notes of the chords. So what do you do? Well, if you are serving the song, you play what sounds best for the song, regardless of what you would rather play. So instead of playing a giant run in the middle of the bridge that would sound awful, you play the root notes.

Ringo Starr is a perfect example of a musician who always served the song. While Ringo could play a drum solo like nobody’s business, he always played what fit the song instead. There are many Beatles songs where Ringo does not solo or anything, but his simple playing makes the song sound much better than if he had soloed the entire time.

Alright, I think you understand the concept of serving the song. But why would you want to? It’s simple:

If you are always serving yourself, your band will suck.

Let me repeat that.

If you are always serving yourself, your band will suck.

Which band will sell more records and have more fans, the band that plays songs together, or the band that has four members soloing the entire time?

No one wants to hear a bunch of egotistic musicians solo the entire time. It sounds like crap. I promise.

So what do people want to hear?

Songs!

People want to hear songs with a beginning, middle, and end. People want to hear songs that are simple and catchy. People do not want to hear how fast you can shred the Mixolydian scale for 20 minutes straight. It sounds like crap. Do you want people to enjoy your music or not?

Ok, I think you understand why serving the song is so damn important. Fortunately, how to serve the song is very simple.

The key to serving your songs is to always ask: “Am I doing this to make the song sound better, or for my own ego?”

There. That’s not too complex, is it?

Thanks for reading. Come back soon for Part Four of our Songwriting Series.