Song Trails in the Cassowary Coast Part 2: Making A Song

Hoping to hear from all the songtrailers out there continuing their song-writing journeys!

This article has been published in the Critical Mass Blog.

Please leave comments on that blog, as well as here.   I am sure Queensland Music Festival and Tutors want to know what you thought of the workshops if you were there.

Written by: June Perkins      Date: 29 July 2011

To make a song – guitar, keyboard, people, words – Courtesy June Perkins

I can’t believe I had never heard of Song Trails before this year.  Vanessa Bromley who runs our local Tully music shop and Evolve told me it was coming through Cassowary Coast and asked if I wanted to be put on an ‘expressions of interest’ list.

It wasn’t definite the trail would be heading our way so she was drumming up interest.  I said, ‘Sure why not? Count me in!’ Then later I heard from our Cassowary Arts Officer, Kath Barnett- all systems go!

I have written poetry since I was eight and completed four years in classical guitar training over twenty years ago.  Since that time I have never neglected my guitar although I have  played mostly popular and folk tunes to amuse the kids and myself.

The poetry has been going well and I have published a few pieces and co-edited an anthology for the Licuala Writers of the Cassowary Coast called  Under One Sky, but it is only recently that I began to write songs.  The main catalysts for my song writing efforts were shifting from city to small country town living, as well as wanting to add music to our group’s public prose and poetry readings.

Cassowary Coast, our home since 2006, is super wet and a complex place when you dig under its surface.   Now, we have had the dubious experience of being through two severe cyclones and living in their aftermath.  We’re in a fertile place for experience that inspires words and music- as well as being great for growing sugar cane and bananas.

The concept of Song Trails intrigued me when I found out more about it – just how were forty people with four talented song writers, going to create songs in four hours? When we arrived and found out that we only had one hour and thirty minutes of the time for the song creation, and production I was mildly terrified.  Can you really co-write a song in such a short amount of time with people you might not even know?

As I explained in Muso Intros the workshop artists first introduced themselves and ran an informal panel to put us at ease before we got down to song making.  We were then asked to immediately put into practice some of the principles they had shared with us.  We moved into our song- writing groups: two groups of twenty, with two artists to lead us.  I found myself in Peter Farnan and Leah Flannagan’s group.

Peter and Leah say ‘go with the flow’ – courtesy June Perkins

Our first exercise was two minutes of automatic writing on the key word ‘Ahead.’  We were asked to put down anything that came into our head.   We were ‘free-writing.’

Participants Freewriting – Courtesy June Perkins

Then people volunteered to read their productions – and words flowed from our pages to our mouths, to the group, to butcher paper and white board.  Farnan asked us to read slowly and stopped us at phrases or key words that sprung out at him.  We ended up with a group set of phrases and key words to work with.

Song in progress, courtesy June Perkins.

He noticed in our words – time shifting, a sense of loss, references to bed and associations with beds like mattresses  (perhaps because it rhymed with ahead) and interesting phrases like:

‘Everytime I think of flowers I wanna make fires’

This ended up being our chorus.

We were asked what key, ‘major or minor?’  We went for minor.  Farnan began to play chords on the keyboard and turned to Flannagan every now and then for her input, ‘what do you think here?’   Flannagan hummed a melody as he played more chord combinations.

As our chorus solidified people wanting a song compass asked, ‘Are you going to tell us basic song structure?’

Farnan urged everyone to go with the flow, explaining that ‘this song is organic and its structure will emerge in the process of doing.’   We went with the flow.

Our group song ended up with: a chorus, two verses, a bridge, a guitar solo and a gospel feel, through this surprising process.

As we added in the ideas from the group, and explored the snippets we had ‘automatically written’ we stripped away unnecessary words, and repetition, to make the lines scan better for the song and seem more mysterious.  As we did this new phrases came into being and made their way into our song.

At one stage our song was heading for Bob Dylan territory and then gothic, Black Sabbath day style – gravestones were in danger of appearing, perhaps the influence of some of the musical tastes in our group, but another element wanted some light – something positive and less bleak (although Farnan felt the words did not have to be read as bleak). Flannagan encouraged our efforts to balance the song, and so a mattress to protect (from one of our automatic writers) began to appear in the lyrics. Song writing can be a real ying and yang gig I’ve since concluded.

We sang the chorus with Farnan accompanying us on keyboard (he is a brilliant pianist), as we thought about whether the lines flowed into each other well enough.  Finally the discussion lead to verses that seemed to work.  The skeleton of our song came into a fully fleshed being.

Our song seemed to speak to me personally of the anger of being in a cyclone, and then recovering to win the day.  Maybe our automatic writing had unearthed something we needed to speak about, but we had not set out with a specific idea to do this.

I am not sure what it said to others so I hope they will respond to this blog.

Later we got together with the other group facilitated by Rebecca Barnard and Robert Forster, and shared our song, and they revealed theirs – a heart-warming  and cheery song with food at its centre from “Mama’s Kitchen,”  which I think will be shared on the live stream as well.

Robert and Rebecca sharing their group’s song – courtesy June Perkins

Our group formed a spontaneous Cassowary Recovery choir to sing to the other song writers.   We were inspired and maybe even healed  by the process of composing and belting out a gospel rhythm song expressing so much of what we have been through on the Cassowary Coast.

We closed the whole Song Trails evening with a brief sharing of our own songs.  I wish we had more time as there was so much talent in the room from our local area; it would have been good to  get to know them as individuals and maybe hear more of  our panel’s thoughts on our local song-writing efforts, but there just wasn’t time. Our guest artists were apologetic about this and gave us a few sentences or sang along enthusiastically.

Local Band – sharing their work – courtesy June Perkins (more at my flickr space)

Still the group unity in creating and the joy in performing that new work is really what Song Trails seems to be about; we can follow each other up.

Song Trails has inspired me to seek out talented musicians and singers to collaborate with and to keep working on my song writing skills.  You can follow my continuing song writing efforts and progression if you like on Gumbootspearlz youtube.

Why not share your comments about being in a song trails workshop?

Especially those of Hugenden; I heard your song last night at the Song Trails concert in Innisfail and cannot get it out of my head!  Neither can anyone in my family.  It is so beautiful and to think you got that all from the word “chill”, sends chills down my spine.

I’d love to hear from other Song Trailers on the critical mass or my Unity’s Garden Site.  It feels like we are one big family now.

**

You can visit catch June at Aftermath’s ABC’s Open Project.   She  has a song “Rain is All there is” for you to comment on if you want to help her in her song writing journey.  For more photos of the workshop visit Gumbootspearlz flickr.

Song Trails in the Cassowary Coast Part 1: Muso Intros

 I am rapt to be guest blogging for Critical Mass.  How fantastic to be part of this project capturing the Queensland Music Festival, as it happens with keen music and cultural appreciators, participants and reviewers from around Queensland.  Thanks  to the very talented Fiona Crawford for coordinating this project. 

This article is being stored here for my records, but please go make your comments at the Critical Mass site, or repeat any comments  over there as that is where all the discussion is taking place.  Check out the other great blogs on the festival and support your blogging team.

Published on Critical Mass  Written by: June Perkins      Date: 29 July 2011

Peter Farnan warming up before the session begins and having an informal chat (Photo courtesy June Perkins)

Song Trails brought together a group of around 40 people from Innisfail, Tully, and Mission Beach. Many were still in recovery mode from the cyclone but keen to develop their song writing skills.

The workshop was in three sections and went for four hours. I am going to devote two posts to it as we not only learnt tips of songwriting, but went through the amazing process of group creating a song. This proved to be very theraputic for some of us.

I hope at the end of these two posts, you will be excited and understand the process that made it possible for a two groups, lead by our presenters, to create two songs in four hours to contribute to the Sunday broadcast of Song Trails.

Participants in Song Trails in the Cassowary Coast (Photo courtesy June Perkins)

Imagine you could listen to skilled songwriters informally explaining their craft by bantering with each other and expanding on each others’ thoughts. Would you go listen to pick up their secret songwriting tips?

Well that is just what 40 excited community members of the Cassowary Coast did on a Wednesday night. We were a diverse bunch, including men, women, youth, mid- lifers, parents, those already in a band, musicians, local Mission Beach performers, those who’d never written a song before, writers without music, and experienced singer songwriters.

We had access for one evening only to seasoned and inspirational Australian songwriters Peter Farnan, Rebecca Barnard, Robert Forster, and (one very new but no less awesome on the Australian music scene) Leah Flannagan to guide us through the process of songwriting.

Farnan, of Boom Crash Opera (a pop rock band formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1985), began the evening by sharing his own biography. It demonstrated both his longevity and flexibility in the music industry. He currently does musical theatre—not necessarily just writing songs, but also creating soundscapes for the stage.

He teaches songwriting regularly; something he took up after a shoulder injury prevented him from playing his guitar. (It’s a reminder that musicians like sportspeople can sustain injuries that prevent the practice of their craft.)

Farnan performed a song, the title of which he said was going to be obvious because the phrase was repeated often enough. And it was: ‘I am sorry’. He confided that he had never performed this one live, but only on his album. Some of the lines were very clever, such as I am sorry for ‘bad acting’ and ‘coughing with kissing’, and the song had a cool texturing building to a crescendo of sorries and with a surprise ending, which I won’t spoil for you but instead encourage you to listen to the song.

Farnan explained this was a ‘list song’. He then rattled of a list of list songs, including I am the very model of Modern Major General from Pirates of Penzance and My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music. He pointed out that list songs have an obvious coherence to them.

Rebecca Barnard speaks and Peter Farnan listens and adds stuff (and vice versa) (Photo courtesy June Perkins)

Rebecca Barnard, previously of Rebecca’s Empire, a Triple J Band of the 1990s, grew up in a musical family. Her dad was a jazz musician, so she was always encouraged with her music, although her mum briefly advised her to look at other options.

She  spoke to us about songs born from sorrow and how although she has had many happy moments in life, often the saddest moments, like the break-up with her partner, are what encourage the birth of a song. Some of the panel nodded their heads in affirmation as she said this.

Barnard spoke a little about the ‘pram in the hallway being the killer of creativity’. That is: the challenge of balancing motherhood with creativity. Barnard works a solo artist now and has released the album Fortitude. She played a love song for us that touched upon this theme.

She explained the usual instrumentation of the music as she was going along, ‘there’s normally a clarinet here’. She highlighted that the repetitive phrase of her song ‘You are loved’ as the basis of its structure. Both Farnan and Barnard showed how a song’s words breathe with musical phrasing and breaks—something that was to be later employed by Farnan in one of the group compositions.

Barnard’s advice for song writers was to not be bottled up and to have a ‘whoosh of creativity’, while Farnan said he liked songs which have a ‘commitment to mood’. This was what he found attractive in Barnard’s work. Barnard explained that repetition she used to fear, but she had come to accept with age and experience this was quite okay in songs.

Robert Forster speaks while Leah Flannagan listens to his wisdoms (Photo courtesy June Perkins)

Robert Forster, by contrast, grew up in a sporty family. He was attracted to the guitar at 16 when all of his friends took it up and so he followed suit. He initially loved playing Cat Steven’s songs. He noticed that there were many guitar players who were better musicians than he was, and felt that to have a career he would need to add something to his skills. He became part of the Go-Betweens (Australian band formed in 1978 influenced by Punk) and wrote songs so as to stand out from the crowd.

Forster played a ‘water themed’ song for us. Surfing Magazines had a strong catchy bass riff in between words and a wordless, cruisy chorus (which we all sang along with). It is based on the fantasy of surfing life epitomised by surfing magazines. Forster explained how the compositions of this song began with the musical riffs, chord structure, and no words. He was in Germany at the time. He kept looking for lyrical inspiration. He wondered what would fit the music, but had no luck so he stopped three times to gain relief in his song writing efforts from glancing through a surfing magazine and then epiphany. He knew the song was there all the time right under his nose: it was the surfing magazine.

Forster was keen to tell us how songs often are a truth or detail from everyday life that become stranger than fiction when they are inserted into a song. Farnan expanded on this idea and said that many of the best songs paid attention to ‘details’ that bought the song to life. He said many of his students in songwriting classes bring a description of the song they want to write, which then needs these details filled in.

Leah Flanagan sharing the September Song (Photo courtesy June Perkins)

Leah Flannagan developed her musical skills through busking and doing lots of covers. She moved between lots of musical styles, and was able to work out what she enjoyed by doing this.  She is involved in a group of Indigenous performers called Black Armband:

The mission of The Black Arm Band is to perform, promote and celebrate contemporary Australian Indigenous music to the highest possible professional standard as a symbol of resilience and hope in the spirit and action of reconciliation.

(From Black Armband website)

Flannagan grew up in Darwin and shared that her songwriting has a strong sense of her home and surroundings in it. The song she shared with us, by contrast to Forster’s, was written quite rapidly, and only took an hour. But Flannagan explained that is something that can happen with a song sometimes it can just come into being quickly.

Flannagan started the song’s composition playing her guitar, but then switched to her ukulele and then it just happened. For Flannagan, writing from what you know is a great place to begin songwriting. She demonstrated this in her upbeat ukulele song describing the Darwin sunset and the observing the ‘softened silouettes’. It has such a relaxed feel, which is embodied in the choice of instrument and her upbeat strumming of it.

Flannagan’s happy song caused discussion and praise from among our panel of songwriters. They felt happy songs are difficult to write. Farnan commented that Leah showed how much we can learn by singing covers, as we are deconstructing songwriting styles as we cover other people’s work. The challenge, however, is to develop our own writing style and structures as she has managed to do.

Barnard then added that with set chord structures within music often songs can sound similar to other songs when there was no intention for them to. This can be a challenge within the form but it shouldn’t stop anyone from writing songs. And with that our first session came to a close.

Participants mulling over sound advice from the song writers (Photo courtesy June Perkins)

If you see yourself here or in the flick sets and want a copy of the pic, contact June Perkins.

Top 10 Tips for Songwriters from Song Trails:

1. Start from what you know.
2. Get it all down: ‘whoosh’.
3. Inspiration can be sitting right under your nose, and it can also come from sorrow and nostalgia.
4. You can structure a song around a list about something, like reasons you are sorry.
5. You can begin with the music and go looking for the words that match the mood of the music you are playing. You can also match the instrument to a song to create mood.
6. Real life can seem stranger than fiction when you put it into a song, but songs can also be invented and not something biographical.
7. Deconstructing other songs by covering them as a singer can help you understand songwriting.
8. It’s important to develop your own style.
9. It is fun to experiment with different styles and genres (jazz, pop, folk, country) until you find one or more combined that become your own style.
10. Pay attention to ‘details’ in songs.

I thoroughly recommend the Song Trails workshop to anyone contemplating it in future. Will be back soon for the next blog to explain how we made the group song. Wow, that was so exciting!

To view pictures of the Song Trails workshop, visit Song Trails. 

You can visit June’s blog Unity’s Garden or catch her at Aftermath’s ABC’s Open Project. This blog will also be stored  at Unity’s Garden as a record of her growing guest blogging gigs.