Songwriting: The Fine Line Between Creativity and Obscurity

in #music6 years ago

One thing that can be difficult to master when writing music is towing the line between creativity and obscurity. Many songwriters will consciously steer clear of using common chord combos, such as the standard pop format (I - V vi - IV), the blues standards (I - IV - V), etc. in an effort to be "creative and different".

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Queen, 1976 (Source)

While I support the effort to be unique and try to practice this myself, it can be a slippery slope leading to obscurity and inaccessibility in songs. True, if your songs consist of only bubblegum-esque pop chords, your music may get samey and stale. But there is a reason these sets of chords work, and create catchy songs. Reaching too far outside the box in an attempt to be unique and break the rules (damn hipsters and their noise/indie music) can end up not even sounding like music to many, and has less potential to capture peoples attention and keep it. As listeners, a balance of what we know and what we don't is the key to our ears and hearts.

It's also important to remember that there are many different standards to look to for inspiration that we often forget about. Jazz, Bossa Nova, and Classical music are great places to go to find new chords and chord progressions to play with, that have creativity + coherence. Take a standard, and move the chords around! Mix and match genres, if you're feeling frisky! Just try to ask yourself all the while: Would I listen to this? Would my friends? Cousins? Grandparents?

There's a lot more to be said on this subject, but I'm headed off to work soon so I'm just going to leave this here as introductory thoughts on the matter. I'll follow up soon with more evolved commentary and some examples of different chord and song structure techniques. What do you think? Do you write music inside the box, outside the box, or somewhere in between? Leave a comment!

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To be honest, I just try to do stuff that I think sounds cool, and I don't really consider accessibility. I'm aware that the kind of thing I do doesn't have mass appeal anyway, and I'm okay with that. By the same token though, I won't throw out an idea just because it's "too normal" or anything, and I'm not afraid to use variations of common progressions. As you say, there's a reason these things became common. :)

I also definitely agree that Classical etc. make great places to look for inspiration.

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