I miss music.

I'm so excited to be done with school and sitting in an apartment with recording capabilities and a husband that always gets this giddy grin on his face when i say anything about playing music and looks at me like my two-year-nephew when he's about to do something he knows he shouldn't but wants your attention for it anyway: "should we get guitarmeggedon back together? should we do it?"

weird. i had to twist both of tim's arms to get him to play with me in fargo. but apparently he also needs an outlet.

so i'm thinking about writing music again. which means i need to listen to a lot more music. and our good friend paul left cincinnati today for nashville and has officially become comfortable with the title of "composer." so for him, and myself, here are my five rules of for writing pop music.

1. lyrics: stop using"I" and use "you." when people listen, it's like you're singing from their point of view. i remember listening to the pixies and realizing that the reason all my songs sounded like a angry teenage girl was because i was an angry teenage girl. in guitarmeggedon, i started writing about everyone else except me, and that worked pretty well.


2. form: expand the a/b/a/b/c/b pop song formula. fiona apple. always does this. and it is so great. can't embed this video, but it's one of those few pop songs that might become a jazz standard.

3. hook: combing the rhythm of lyrics and the movement of a melody will create a good pop hook. musical theatre lives off this rule.


4. dynamics: Loud soft loud soft. rock band rule. but it extremely effective. (ignore the star wars images. this was best recording i could find)


5. rhythm: the last one...is more of an opinion than a rule: anyone can write a sad slow song. the most difficult songs to write are the ones that make people get out of their chairs. there are so many songs that exemplify this, but i'll choose just one for you. it's not too fast, but it makes you want to MOVE. to the BEAT.


and one more rule from Dr. Gwiazda. he stood in front of our third year theory class and tempted us.
"do you want to know the secret to writing all good songs? you'll be able to use it over and over. it's the secret that will make you millions of dollars."

yes! we all cried inside our tiny heads.

"take something. play it. then change it. then change it a little more. then change it a little more."

at the time, i was all WTF. But now i get it. Back to the piano!