Annotations

Composition Annotation

Sammy Morgan

I wanted to create a popular song. I decided that I wanted a slow verse that builds up into an upbeat cheerful chorus. To achieve this I listened to artists such as John Mayer, Eric Clapton and other blues artists. 

Firstly I chose my verse chords. At first I chose some random chords from the key of G. I did this to use as a starting point for my song. I chose G//// C//// E//// D////. I wanted these chords to be played in a down down up up down up strumming pattern. I found it easiest to start with a guitar as I can play the guitar so get a better feel for the song. I then wrote my lyrics and decided I wanted them to be about misunderstanding and being judged. I started with writing my verse lyrics as I only had verse chords. I had no problems with those lyrics but they didn’t seem to fit very well with my chords so I went back and changed the chords to something that went well with my lyrics and expressed what was being said in my lyrics. I changed the chords to C, Cadd9, A minor and Asus4. These chords together made the perfect effect I wanted for the verse.

Next I chose my chorus chords. Again I chose some more chords from the key of G. I also chose these as a starting point for my chorus and something I can change later. The chords I chose were E//// D//// C//// G////. These chords were also going to be played in a down down up up down up strumming pattern and on guitar. After I had the chords I moved o  to the lyrics. The chorus lyrics I really struggled on because I wanted the chorus to be very powerful and be the pinnacle of the song so I wanted the lyrics to be memorable, strong and bold. I thought of words that people might feel like when they are misunderstood or judged. I wanted this word to be the key part of the chorus. I thought of lots of words and finally decided on “trash”. I then fitted more lyrics around that and have stuck with them. But again I had the problem that my lyrics didn’t go very well with my chords and the chords didn’t give the effect I wanted. I started playing around with chord sequences and found one that went really well with my lyrics. I changed them to B minor, F#, A and E. I was happy with how the chorus sounded then.

I then needed a way of joining the verse to the chorus so decided to have a bridge. I made a chord sequence that joined Asus4 to Bm. I came up with C, D, G, Gadd9, C, D, G, F#. This went perfectly with my verse and chorus and added to the effect of the song. Then had to write even more lyrics for the bridge and decided on only one line of lyrics and had a riff being played through the second part of the chord sequence to built up to the chorus. That was the bridge sorted.

I now had the whole structure of the song sorted and had all the lyrics I needed. I now went on a hunt to find a singer whose voice went with the style of the song. I had a brief idea of how I wanted the singer to sing the lyrics but I wanted the singer to have some input into how they think it should be sung. First, I tried a male voice. He had quite a harsh voice, which I didn’t like. I wanted a softer voice so I went and find a female singer. The outcome was much more successful and the song sounded exactly like I wanted it to. The singer helped me a lot by telling me how she thought the song should be sung. I then decided that I only wanted one singer with no harmonies or anything added on top. Having a single female singer added to the effect of my song and now my song was now starting to come together. 

My next stage was putting the rest of the pieces together. I got a drummer to add a slow beat using the hi hat and rim shots in the verse and then when it got to the chorus I wanted it to move to the snare. I knew exactly how I wanted the drums to sound so this part was quite easy. I then realised I was missing a bass line so started writing one. I used notes from the scale of the key of my song. I played around for a while trying to come up with a bass line that I felt went well with my sing. I finally came up with one that I was happy enough with so tried it with guitar and vocals and it sounded good so kept it.

I now had all the parts to my song that I wanted so got into the recording studio. All my parts were going to be multitracked so I record it in layers, add effects to certain parts, and edit the volume or tone of each part. The first thing I recorded was the rhythm guitar part, which was done in minutes and was very easy. I then decided that the drums should be recorded next. This also was very simple and was done quite quickly. I wanted all my instrument parts to get recorded before the vocals were. Next I recorded my bass line, which took a few tries but got it done in the end. On the recording the bass was very over powering so I had to turn the volume of it down afterwards. That was all my main instrument parts recorded. I then recorded the singer of the top of it all, which also took a couple of tries but she got it in the end. I also have an instrumental section in my song and a couple of riffs that come in at the beginning of the song and before the chorus. I decided to record these last because I spent a lot of time writing them and I wanted to fit the riffs around the singing rather than fit the singing around the riffs. I didn’t want any effects added to any of my parts and didn’t want any parts synthesized either. I wanted my song to be quite basic and simple.

I am very pleased with the outcome of my song. I am also very pleased with the overall effect of my composition. It has turned out almost exactly how I wanted it. Although I struggled writing some of the lyrics I am very happy with how they sound and how they contribute to the effect of the song. I had minor issues with the recording of my composition. There are some small mistakes in the instrument parts but they are not very noticeable. I think my song is very successful and I am very pleased with it.