How to write a good rock song - Part 3

The "wake up session" 

This is the last section of three in which I give you some advices about writing a good rock song. In the first two sections, I showed two options of composing a song in a processing and successful way. In this post, I'm going to present the last and the most efficient way to write a good song. I call it the "wake up session".

First of all, this way is something that happens by occasion. You can't train this. Here is why:

The "wake up session" means simply that a story or melody pops right away into your head. The result is a clear sound picture in mind. I happened to have one of these when I was dreaming.  I dreamed about a melody then woke up and just wrote these lyrics and/or melody down. You see this happens suddenly and you can't plan it.  It can happen anytime.  However, if that happens, be ready and write it immediately down. In sum, this option of song writing gives you right away a complete structure with content of a song. But what makes this option the best way of writing a good rock song?

Like I have already pointed out, a clear sound picture is the key to a good rock song. Sure, also the arrangement of the instruments needs to be done great. But that is why the sound picture draws you the structure of the whole song including lyrics, melody, the story or message, and the arrangement of it. Our song "You and Me" happened like that. I woke up and just remembered the dream I had about the last crusade and that Christianity's values of altruism is to care and love what you've got in your life. Nowadays we are still fighting each other for such values. Besides this story, I dreamed about this melody which sounded like a middle aged aria. By the way, that's why at the last chorus of this song I try to sing like an opera singer to put in some dramatic effect. At the moment I wrote down the melody and lyrics, I imagined right away the arrangement of the song with the heavy guitars at the end. 

Though it's not the issue about discussing whether "You and Me" is a good rock song or not, but this option of writing a song is the easiest and most successful way. And still it happens by occasion. So keep your mind sharp and creative for such chances, and don't drink too much because you don’t want to miss out on these dreams. I know of what I'm talking about ;)

I hope you enjoyed these sections about writing a good rock song and you may use a couple of advices for your songwriting. But remember, songwriting should besides all technics and strategies still be a thing that comes from your heart!

The next post takes place in August. Till then, take care and stay tuned for more information.

Enjoy Seasplash!

https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=By7si7lr33lrw3qmtbb77553e6e&tid=song-T5nm3nvgbidua2avz2bl4roudai&hl=de

How to write a good rock song - Part 2

"Write the lyrics first"

Today I talk about the second option of how to write a song. This option is called "write the lyrics first".

Writing lyrics is like I've already discussed in the chapter a month ago one of the most difficult things in music. In my opinion, lyrics should always content a message. Besides this content, the matching of the lyrics to the melody is as difficult to achieve as the content's message itself. Therefore, it is sometimes easier writing lyrics after the melody, sometimes writing lyrics first creats the melody by itself. What does that mean?

Take our song Your Valentin for example. Here, I wrote the lyrics before the melody came alive. While writing the lyrics, the content drawed the picture of the melody construct. Again, it's about the sound picture. Telling a story or creating a message gives you an idea of this picture. While writing those lines, you maybe already feel the whole song with its melody. If that happens, a good composed song is for certain. Sadly, the hardest part about this way is still the writing. The way you write effects the whole song.

So I advise you, if you weren't a phantastic story writer, don't pressure yourself to write lyrics first. That doesn't mean that if you have a clear picture about the content of the lyrics in mind, you should't try to write lyrics first.

Sometimes, you write lyrics and aren't able yet to creat the melody. Years later you recall the written lyrics and then it happens. The melody comes and so on. Or even better, you jam a melody and your back up lyrics match perfectly to it. Keep trying writing lyrics. The more you write the better you get!

In conclusion about option to write a song, I recomend to keep writing lyrics that way but never push and pressure yourself it to happen. Let it decide to faith, maybe you succed, maybe you don't. And still, having a big back up of good written lyrics can be very useful for future song writing. 

In the last section, I talk about the last option I call "the wake up session".

In the mean time, stay tuned and take care.

Enjoy Seasplash!

How to write a good rock song - Part 1

"Let the jam get you to your song"

Writing a song happens per occasion or planed. However, there are three different ways to create a song. First, you jam a song. Second, write lyrics first, then compose a melody. The third option is what I call the wake up session.

Today I present you the strategy of jaming. This means simply just to jam the hell out of everything you've got. Sometimes your drummer has a heavy fast beat to which you're playing along with your guitar. Or the other way round, you play some nice riffs which lead you to the melody. The drummer then just needs to find the right beat. While jaming stuff happens and developes itself, even to a nice melody. Our song See the Rain came alive using this strategy.

The nice thing about jaming is that you can creat really fast a nice melody and a song picture. Let's take a deeper look on this song picture. Analyzing the jam and define what it means and what kind of song you want it to build up to should be the first thing to do after jaming. After that you may go further and start coloring the picture with choosing the structure and instrumental composition. Choosing the right instruments isn't easy. Sometimes you tend to play the song with a hard driven guitar, but in time you don't like it anymore so hard and try a smoother accoustic guitar. This is a process that developes over time.

Still, having done this step, the hardest part in this strategy is writing the lyrics. Like I've already described the post before, writing the lyrics to a jam is in my opinion really hard. Sometimes, I tried and tried to find the right words or the meaning of the lyrics but didn't get where I wanted it to be.

You might have been laughing about my description above about the picture of the song. But writing the lyrics is easier while immagining the song's picture. So the match between the mood of the song and the lyrics is essential and even more garanteed.

At the point where the lyrics are written and the melody stands, you need to make adjustments for the match of the song. After this step, it's a cakewalk to finish the song.

But the most important advice I may give to you about this strategy is that you should always take a step back if you don't succed for the next step and try differently.

To me, this strategy is the most difficult in writing a song, though it has its advantages.

In the next section, I will show you the strategy of having the lyrics first. Until then, take care and stay tuned.

Enjoy Seasplash!

Album Seasplash

How to write a good rock song

Within the next three month, I will give you a little expertise of what makes a song in total good and give you some tactics to write a good song. To the occasion of our record release, I make some examples with a couple of our songs from the record.

In this section I want to talk about the criterias which make a song to me actually good. To state clear, I always take the perspective of a musician and not a customer.

To me a good song is a song I can hear all the time and never get sick of hearing it over years. Of course there aren't a lot of songs like that. But quite a few exists. For example one of my alltime favorite songs are ”I'll be there for you” (Bon Jovi), ”Nothing else matters” (Metallica) or ”Can't help fallin' in love with you” (Elvis Presley). But what makes these songs to me so perfect.

First, they share all a lyrical message. Sure these mentioned songs are all love songs. But their content of the message is something I understand, I feel what is intended to say and know the feeling. That means a good song needs to get you lyrical.

Second, the kind of how the song is structured. Of course basics are always intro - vers - chorus - vers - chorus - solo - chorus. But sometimes it is cool and a freshly diversification to structure a song differently though the majority of songs you'll write will have the basic structure. So the structure in these three songs are different than the usual. ”I'll be there for you” for example has got three different vers structures, ”Can't help fallin' in love with you” is totally different than the basic structure. ”Nothing else matters” differs at the end with the solo part and the outro. In sum, a variety of structures in song composition makes a song compared to the majority unique and interesting.

Third, the melody is to me the core of a good song. A melody should be easy to listen at, be recognized anytime and immediately, and have the potential to want you to sing along with it. Well, compositing a beautiful melody is not too difficult because mostly it's about for to six chords which are arranged just differently for each part of the song. Take our Song ”Red Roses” for example. The chords for the verses are C - Am- F - G. Instead the chorus takes the same chords but just arranged else (C - G - Am - F). So the melody is actually simple. The important factor though is how you arrange the instrumental part around that simple melody. Take a clean or accoustic guitar for vers, add drive for the chorus. As a singer, the most important instrument is the vocal. To close the circle to the lyrical aspect, a good rock song depends on how a singer matches its voice to the lyrics and of course the melody.

This matching ist the fourth aspect. Out of a song, you should be touched of what the words ment to the singer. The instrumental part and the melody supply this feeling. So it's the part of ”I'll be there for you” where Jon and Richie start to sing: Baby you know my hands are dirty. That part gives me always creeps.

Sure, everyone has its personal view of a perfect song. But the aspects of these good or even perfect songs are those I tried to point out.

On the way to create a good rock song, in the following sections I will show you some tricks and give some advices to get you to write a good rock song.

To be prepared, check out our record on

Seasplash-The King of Death

Cheers to you and stay tuned

Enjoy Seasplash!

Record Seasplash online available - Story behind the scene

A few of you know that Seasplash is working on its fourth record. When the first record, named Seasplash, was released in phyisical form, the guys tried to distribute it by themselfs. Besides the fancore who bought the record, not much was yet achieved. Still the band kept moving on writing new stuff and some other records were done, but again not professional distributed. Therefore, Seasplash has created a new social network to inform and to reach people from all over the world.Though, this announcement is not really new but its the first commercial step that Seasplash makes. Be a part of it!

That's why we announce the first release of Seasplash's record called Seasplash on iTunes, Amazon and many more.

Check it out and enjoy Seasplash!

Stay tuned for upcoming posts.

Online Record Release on March 25th 2016

Dear Seasplash-Fan

We finally managed the release of our first record. Though we had a lot of handling with the property and rights. We are really sorry for that. But the day comes. On Friday March 25th 2016 you are able to buy our first record online. The record is saled on more than 250 online stores. If you don't find it somehow, please contact us directly and we will give one's eyetheeth to make you a satisfied fan. 

Thank you for your loyality!

Stay tuned for more posts. 

Enjoy Seasplash.