During this series of How Not To Write a Song. I have tried to breakdown and show you my process. The process changes on every song. I sure haven't tried to make songwriting look easy. Yeah, I've probably make it look hard. (Because it is!) Everything is always hard until we master it.
I have been watching Last Dance. It is the television sports series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan makes playing basketball look easy. He glides to the basket, with his tongue hanging out and slams the basketball through the net. Looks easy. How many leg exercises did he do to get the strength in his legs to do this? How many dunks has he done? How many has he missed and clanged off the back of the rim? It took him a lot of work to get this good at basketball. Yes, it does help to have natural ability. I for one could never jump high enough to dunk a basketball. But, I sure do wish I could. That is why i played on 8 foot goals so I could experience how it feels. It felt great.
At this point in my process I have written the song Sing. It is basically done but let me continue to show you what happens next. I have played the song at two NSAI monthly meetings. I have received feedback and made a few easy changes from suggestion. I am now ready for the next level of evaluations. I sent Sing to NSAI for a professional evaluation.
At Nashville Songwriting Association International (NSAI) you get to choose your evaluator. Kinda like getting to choose the teacher you like in school. I have tried many different evaluators and I have a favorite one. He or she give me feedback and let's me know what they think. Here is some of the feedback on my song Sing.
They have five different categories that they use in the evaluation and closing comments. Form/structure, Title/hook, Lyric, Overall theme/idea, Melody/Meter, and Closing comments. Form- You have the basic structure- ( good on this one) Title- It's a good simple hook used in a memorable way. ( OK) Lyric- A cool concept. It seems you are setting the scene. She's getting out of the car and you heard she's leaving him and now you are trying to get her attention. It's not quite setting the story. Try to simplify the story. Maybe she's just the girl next door who is outside her house in the front yard and you are trying to get her attention. You can get the rumor thing in the second verse. You have options. (Might need to think about changing?) Idea- Good idea. With some tweaking this could work for the country market. Melody/Meter- Good simple country melody and feel. (Good on this.)
Closing comments is where you get the most bang for the buck. Comment- This can be cool. It needs some revising. You do need a good singer in order for it to come across. Get it tight. Keep up the good work.
Basically a few suggestions on the lyrics and get a better singer. I kinda like the lyrics the way they are written. I am going to proceed and see if I get any more negative comments on the lyric. If I do then I will probably need to change them. On to the next step.