“A critic can call any poem 'doggerel.' That is no more than a slur. 'Doggerel' or 'maudlin' or 'sappy' or 'sentimental' is in the ear of the listener. By the by, 'sentimental' is okay as it is defined as 'marked or governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism.' It is 'sentimentality' that is to be avoided, like the fiddleback spider, being as it is 'the quality or state of being sentimental to excess or in affectation.' Again we are faced with a judgement call and must keep a sharp eye on our outpourings to insure they are not overly gooey. The intellectual elite probably believe that most of the lyrics songwriters create are 'doggerel' of one kind or another--that is to say 'trivial"......the young songwriter has now been warned about the implacable nature of the enemy. Under a rather large umbrella, preferred twentieth-century taste in art of all kinds has been characterized by a kind of detachment, or sangfroid. It is simply not chic to be carried away in one's emotional reaction to a subject. All serious communication or complaint must be carefully wrapped in a protective coating of irony and/or satire.” CriticismCriticsSongwritingSentimentalitySongwriterSentimentDoggerelHipsterism Book:Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting Source: Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting
“Even if chords are simple, they should rub. They should have dissonances in them. I've always used a lot of alternate bass lines, suspensions, widely spaced voicings. Dfferent textures to get very warm chords. Sometimes you're setting up strange chords by placing a chord in front of it that's going to set it off like a diamond in a gold band. It's not just finding interesting chords, it's how you sequence them, like stringing together pearls on a string. ... Interesting chords will compel interesting melodies. It's very hard to write a boring melody to an interesting chord sequence.” IfsShouldWritingSometimesHardTogetherUsedLinesSimpleInterestingFrontsStrangeBandFindingsGoldShould HaveBoringWarmSettingSettingsStringsMelodySongwritingDiamondPearlsSequenceChordsBassTextureSuspensionDissonance Author:Jimmy Webb
“Songwriting is Hell on Earth. If it isn't, then you're doing it wrong.” IfsWritingEarthHellSongwritingHell On Earth Author:Jimmy Webb
“We are really in a rut with the three-minute song. You know where it's going to go. If you're trying to get your message across sometimes it's wise to say, Why don't we stop here and have a moment of silence, then go in a completely different direction?” IfsKnowsTryingDifferentSometimesMomentsSongThreeSilenceWiseMinutesMessagesSongwritingDifferent DirectionsRutsMoment Of Silence Author:Jimmy Webb
