Remember Tim Allen in the hit television series Home Improvement? He was always doing something crazy like beefing up drills, sanders, and buzzsaws with over-sized motors that he always lost control of.
That was the fun of it.
He would get some hair-brained idea about how much better a tool would be if it just had a BIGGER motor. The results were always hilarious, but disastrous.
Although his hopped-up tools made for great television, does “beefing up” our songs make them better? Tim, like many of us songwriters, constantly fell into the bigger-better-louder-faster mindset, but here are three new power tools for songwriting that could help you avoid blowing up your next song.
Power Tool#1 – Stick to One Idea. Probably the worst thing a songwriter can do is cram too many ideas into one song. The fear of “not saying enough” leads the writer to try to explain too much and introduce different concepts into the song, but there’s just not room in one song for more than one idea. The way to avoid this is to make sure that if you start with a metaphor, stick with it throughout your song. Don’t begin with a first line about “rain” and end up throwing in “battle” or “darkness.” Stick with one idea throughout and make sure that every line, phrase, and syllable point to it. This one power tool for songwriting, if used skillfully, will set your songwriting apart immediately.
Power Tool #2 – Make the Chorus Singable. The very word “chorus” means “many people singing together.” This doesn’t mean that you have to write for choirs, though that’s good. What it means for us as songwriters is that many people will want to sing our song, whether they’re together in one place or not. We want them singing our songs in the car, at home, on a walk, or anywhere they happen to be.
If our choruses are too complex, too rangy, too obscure, or anything but singable, fewer people will sing them. The easiest way to plug in and power up this power tool for songwriting is to imagine many people together singing your song – can they do it easily? Is it memorable and in a range they can easily reach? Is it clear, concise, and relatable? If you make your chorus singable, more people will actually sing it and love you for it.
Power Tool #3 – Use as Few Words as Possible. I remember when I was just starting out as a writer. I used a LOT of words, even in one song. Now, I love words. Words are wonderful. Words are powerful. Words make me happy. But using too many of them in ONE song is death. Death by words. Too many words in a song makes the song feel bulky, cluttered, overweight.
Kind of like your Grandma’s house that’s filled with way too many knick-knacks (sorry, Grandma), a song with too many words is suffocating and distracting. This power tool for songwriting is called an economy of words. If you can say something in less words, please do. If you can boil down massive theological concepts into single lines (think In Christ Alone here), then you’re a masterful songwriter.
The best songwriters capture universal feelings and grand theological insights in tiny words and phrases. Think back to In Christ Alone (Townend/Getty) and think about how much power and economy of words is in the one line, “Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.” Learn how to use an economy of words like that and your songs will be much more powerful.
Simple to understand, important to master.
Great tools to remember, thank you.