Arlo Tarr

Last week's blog was about the importance of collaborating with other artists to help push your ideas to another level.

This week, I want to talk about an approach to songwriting that came on up Rick Beato's Youtube channel while he was interviewing Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool.

In the interview with Rick Beato, Maynard said that his lyrical approach was to get the demos from his bandmates and then listen to the demos in the car, or his winery, for a couple of weeks to figure out what he was going to add. Then he would lay down improv of wordless vocals and really focus on how the rhythm of the vocal should be. Then listen to that to see what the key line is for the song. Then he would try and focus on writing good melodies that compliment the song and that comes from listening to lots of great vocalists to have a foundation to pull from. Maynard said that he had listened to a lot of music over the years so that he had a deep well of melodies to pull from. You use the influences but the goal is for it to have your own unique signature sound. 

This got me thinking about how I've been putting my songs together. I have a 20 minute drive to and from work every day. I get a melody or riff in my head on my way to work and on my way home. Then I hum the idea into the voice memo in my phone once I reach my destination. Then when my days off come, I scroll through these memos to find one I like to start my next song. Then I go up to my studio and hammer it all out over several days. When I feel like I'm finished then I mix the song.

From the Maynard interview, I realized I'm missing a huge opportunity to make my songs better. Why am I not tracking the song to about 50-60% completed and then listening to it in the car for a week or 2 or more? I don't know what it is about driving around in the car but I get WAY more ideas doing that than I do sitting at the computer tracking. That's why I always go into the studio with a voice memo that I like otherwise I'd probably sit there tweaking guitar sounds for 6 hours and get nothing done.

So last week I started tracking a new song called "Voice in the Fog". I had the idea for the song and I tracked some guitars, the bass and drums. Then I listened to it in the car for a couple days. Then the vocal melody came. So I tracked an improv vocal melody. Then back to the car for a couple more days. Then the rhythm of the vocals started to get better. I tracked the vocal improv again and back to the car. Then after a couple more days the vocal melody and rhythm was getting really good. So I wrote lyrics and tracked the vocals again. The vocals were getting really good now. They felt powerful! Then I decided to give my ears a break from the song and listen to something else. I put on a song from one of my favorite bands and started listening to the construction of the song. The song started out with guitars and no drums, Then the vocal came in and then the drums/bass came in at the first chorus. It made the song build and get heavier. They did some other things in this song until it was really cranking at the end. When I got to work I wrote down 5 of the things that I had heard in the song construction of that song that I wanted to try in my song. I went into my studio and started cutting/rearranging my song based on those ideas. Now my song was really cranking!

So I really feel like I took another step forward in my songwriting process the last couple weeks after watching the Maynard interview. I had been going up into my studio and hammering things out. Now I want to change my approach. Do some tracking. Do some listening. Do some more tracking. Do some more listening. Take a break from the song. Dig into some influences. Gather some ideas. Do some more tracking. Do some listening. Do some more tracking. I don't want this method to go on and on but I feel like I need to put more effort into trying to make my songs better.

Leave me some comments on ways you're trying to make your songs better in the comment section below.

I hope you get some time in your studio today!

-Arlo