Songwriting Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Mark JW Graham: Singing Lessons Nottingham

April 28, 2016July 6, 2025

Beyonce Songwriters – Over 60 on Lemonade?

I came across this Wall Street Journal video article today on Beyonce and her Songwriters. In summary, Beyonce has come under fire for using over 60 songwriters to help her write her latest album ‘Lemonade’.

But how have things evolved over the last few decades? Why do we react so strongly to this idea of so many songwriters being involved in an artist’s work?

Here’s the video. I’ll give you my thoughts after the jump.

My initial thoughts:

1) What on earth happened to the art of writing a song for the sake of writing a song? (CON)

2) Looks like this is the evolution of art (PRO)

In relation to that first thought, songwriting and collaboration as teams of songwriters is nothing new. The Beatles were hardcore collaborators in this way, spending thousands of hours writing together. Whether you like them or not, this skilled and honed approach to songwriting as a team penned some of the greatest hits of the last 100 years. Working as a team does not diminish the value of a well-written song. So that’s not the issue here.

The Beatles also wrote songs to make money. They may have loved the songs, but they weren’t sitting down in their bedroom just to write a great song (like we all imagine good songwriters seem to do, or at least that’s what my mind’s eye conjures up). Whether you agree with this attitude or not is also irrelevant, because a great song is a great song, intent is irrelevant. The final product will stand or fall on it’s own merits, not on the intent with which it was written. So that’s not the issue with Beyonce’s album here either.

You’ll note I’m practically tearing down my own ‘con’ in relation to this. I find that hard. My emotional reaction is “what the hell?!”, but my intellectual reaction very quickly tempers that to “actually, I think my emotions may be off this time”.

Where our thoughts differ from reality…

We WANT to believe that songwriting is purely expressive. We want to believe that songwriters just want to move people with their music. And I think (just my opinion) that the best songwriters put that desire first, and (combined with skill and craft) that results in timeless songs… but I think it’d be naive and ignorant to suggest that all great songs in the last 50-60 years were not written with at least the hope of the song being written becoming a huge hit and allowing them to make enough money to (ideally) make more such songs. Money is a great enabler in this regard, it’s when it becomes an end in itself that we start to take issue with art becoming a product, rather than a form of expression.

The Evolution of Music

In business, if you want to hate on something, you surely don’t hate the player, you hate the game. The game of business and making money is what can compromise people’s own integrity for the sake of money, fame or other such accolades. The music becomes a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.

Everything evolves in response to pressures around it. The writing of songs is no different.

And today, when a hit can make you millions one day and be out of the charts the next, and you’re competing against increasing teams of songwriters from other artists fighting for their spot in the charts, is it any wonder why you would want to do EVERYTHING you can to secure your spot? Is it any different to companies prepping their company’s image and books for scrutiny before going public on the stock market? Is it any different to seeking the best team for a business to succeed? I’m not sure it is.

Sure, the artist, singer and musician in me says “yes, it’s totally different”… and I think in some ways it is. But in reality the music BUSINESS has more in common with that picture than people might like to realise.

Don’t like that picture?
I’m not sure I do either. But I have to respect that’s what we as consumers have enabled (we vote with our wallets after all), and that’s the beast we live with now. If you don’t like that, then start to look out for grass-roots songwriters. The ones who work a normal job and sing for pleasure in the evening. The ones that do it for the LOVE of the music and nothing else. Go and support their local show, buy their CD, and encourage them with feedback to help them make better music.

Not all great singers need to be in HMV or on a billboard, but the industry can’t show you these guys/girls. So go out and find them for yourself. You never know, you might find that next songwriter that blows your socks off.

February 16, 2016December 10, 2025

The Power of Singing With Simplicity

I want to talk to you today about singing with simplicity.

I was chatting with another vocal coach this week about what fires them up, musically and vocally speaking. This coach (female) is massively into RnB, soul, etc. THAT’S their bag. People should be going to them, not necessarily to polish their technique on a foundational level, but because this coach gets most fired up about styling the voice in the way that they & their students want.

This is awesome. I love this. It shows an understanding of who they are, and (most importantly) WHY they do what they do.

And it got me thinking, at least from a style point of view, why do I do what I do? Musically and vocally.

Well, once about a time, I was a bassist and guitarist, and I was heavily into jazz, some of it fairly advanced. I got stuck into virtuoso musicians and, in trying to cop what they were doing, I went out and learned how to do some pretty darn complicated things. I loved it… or at least, I think I loved it… truth be told, I can’t really remember whether I ACTUALLY loved the sounds I was making – i.e. I was making sounds that I genuinely thought sounded good – or whether I loved the feeling of doing something complicated – i.e. I was making sounds that I thought sounded impressive.

And it’s that question that’s driven me over the last few years. Am I doing something because it SOUNDS good, or because I think it’s impressive? Singing with simplicity forces you to confront that question head on.

Don’t get me wrong, the two are not mutually exclusive… but it’s an interesting question isn’t it?

And when you drill down into it, there’s also a fundamental difference in what each says about you. Choosing to do something because it sounds good is about delivering OTHERS a great sound, but doing something because it’s impressive says more about your need to impress others – again, not that either are necessarily mutually exclusive or that impressing others is a bad thing, but these are definitely some powerful thought experiments for musicians to play with, and these are the outcomes I’ve reached over the years

So where does that leave me with my voice and my kind of music?

Well, the realisation that simplicity and quality go hand in hand has been huge – singing with simplicity is the crystallisation of this. It’s made me realise there is real power in simplicity. Immense power, in fact. Just singing the melody (like my blog article ‘The importance of singing the damn melody’) and committing 100% to delivering it beautifully is HUGE. It can raise the hairs on the back of people’s necks without ever breaking a sweat, and without having to do insane vocal acrobatics.

In short, I’m a big believer that if your technique is solid (and I mean REALLY solid), utilisation of range, riffs, power, etc, they all get recruited pretty naturally as a way to support the quality of your voice. I’m not even saying “sound good first, style second”, I’d go so far as to say “sound good first, and you will FIND your style through that”… in essence, style becomes a natural by-product and outworking of great technique.

This is not to say that other teachers who start with style are necessarily wrong (though there are definitely coaches out there who ONLY know how to style, and not to train a voice), nor that style should never be looked at directly/explicitly… rather, that the above thought experiments and my own personality have led me to the working conclusion that simplicity is incredibly powerful, and that this musically trumps complexity every time.

February 11, 2016July 6, 2025

The Importance of Singing the Damn Melody

I’ve had a number of lessons in the last few weeks that needed us to take the time to stop and visit the original melody of the song.

This is completely normal, whether in lessons or outside of lessons. Whether you are an experienced singer or brand-spanking-new to singing, it’s 100% part of the process to have to break down the melody and get it right.

Now some of you will be thinking “well, DUH Mark – of course I know that”… well, just hold on a tick, because I would almost put money on you not doing this to the fullest extent… and robbing your voice of quality in the process.

Trust me, this is a goodie. Keep reading.

The reason I bring this topic up is because in certain lessons, the student was not truly singing the full melody, but they were convincing themselves the melody they were singing was fine, when the reality was anything but.

In some cases, the singer was rushing to get to styling the song. In other cases, the singer had been singing a prep’d song for so long, they thought they had it nailed and had stopped thinking about the melody… and what they were singing had drifted from the actual melody. And in some cases, the singer had just plain-old not learned the melody to the passage they wanted to sing well enough, but had convinced themselves they had.

Why do I bring this up?

In a webinar series I attended with jazz singer Monique Thomas-Ottaviani, Monique talked about the importance of learning jazz standards from the original sheet music. Why? Because there was no definitive version of jazz standards… if you went to listen to a recorded version from a particular artists before learning it from the sheet music, you would not be getting the true melody that was originally written. Every singer imparts their own style, no matter how little they style the song.

Jazz singing has a lot of room for improvisation. Monique will happily tell you this. BUT! One of the biggest things she mentioned was that unless you “sing the damn melody”, unless you RESPECT the original melody, you have NO RIGHT to solo/improvise with your voice. That’s right. Unless you respect the melody, you haven’t earned that right.

When you take this to it’s logical (and correct!) extreme, you need REAL discipline to learn the melody and express it to it’s fullest before you start deviating and styling.

There is real power in singing a simple melody.

This idea of respecting the original melody is something I see a lot in contemporary musicians generally nowadays (not just in singers). Guitarists want to constantly solo without learning chord progressions. Drummers want to play in advanced time signatures without learning how to play ahead or behind the groove in perfect time. Bass players want to slap all their bass lines without ever learning to hold down a simple groove.

And – thanks to X-factor, The Voice, and various top-level solo vocalists – singers want to style the heck out of their songs, before they ever really learned to sing the melody well in the first place.

But when you REALLY learn the melody. When you really commit to singing that melody, and you’re not just hitting the right note in the right place, but sustaining that note with tonal clarity like a great wind instrumentalist would… man, that’s something else entirely.

THE TAKE-HOME MESSAGE

Instead of spending all that time on styling, finding inordinately complex riffs, manipulating the words to enact some Adele-esque style, putting the song in an impossible key, etc, try spending THAT amount of time milking the original melody to eek out every ounce of quality. Sustaining notes, adding vibrato, understanding the power of space when introduced into a melody, experimenting with varying dynamic levels… and these things take ordinary melodies and turn them into something extraordinary.

That level of discipline, that level of serving the song, that level of “non-ego” in working on a song often negates the need for excessive style. All those things that people strive to do, e.g. riffing, extreme range, etc, suddenly become insignificant when you hear someone “sing the damn melody”.

And this does require real discipline. It requires not giving in to ego, or getting distracted by shiny things, and really committing to singing the damn melody. Trust me, when you hear a great singer start to sing, and they do this, you’ll understand why all the other stuff is no substitute for the real thing.

March 2, 2015July 6, 2025

John Mayer – Berklee Clinic

Spectacular clinic by John Mayer on ‘making it’, and how to bring all your skills together to make a marketable whole – very helpful and worthwhile watching for anyone looking to develop their own voice, whether technically, artistically, or both.

Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUwPB6bHpF8

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXSLTdcH22k

Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTzJxfPI9Jg

Part 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNu0M2A2KMk

Part 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYLyXmAiIb0

Part 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiC03q_gMG0

Part 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVMmX2yPkk

Part 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxEZkcnadAw

Part 9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqKwwWK_6Pg

October 30, 2014December 7, 2025

Brett Domino How to Write a Hit Pop Song

Those of you who are in for lessons regularly know about my love for a songwriting guru called Ralph Murphy, but I’m also a big fan of Brett Domino and his hilarious satire on hit songwriting.

While this is not quite the same sort of intellectual level of that sort of songwriting advice, this video by Brett on ‘How to Write a Hit Pop Song’ is VERY funny.. and remarkably catchy… maybe it says something about the pop industry?

Check it out and enjoy!

Brett Domino How to Write a Hit Pop Song

February 11, 2014July 6, 2025

A complete artist at work – Ryan Adams Lucky Now

Quick one this time!

I was working with one of my favourite students (Mike) on some guitar-y songs, and how to meld singing and guitar playing together, and we got talking about songwriters who do this really well.

John Mayer is a great one, Chris Cornell is pretty cool too, and there many others too numerous to mention, but today I wanted to highlight Ryan Adams.

Ryan Adams

Way back in the early 00s, I remember my Mum buying a copy of ‘Easy Tiger’, one of Ryan Adams’ earlier albums… and I didn’t ‘get it’ then. I Was more interested in heavy rock and intense guitar solos (rah!) at least at that time.

But now the songwriter scene is MASSIVE. EVERYONE and their Mum is a ‘singer-songwriter’… how many of your friends have ‘singer-songwriter’ on their Twitter account?

I’m not knocking it! It’s just what’s trendy right now.

A seminal singer-songwriter

Yet, despite it being a big thing now, Ryan Adams is (IMO) the earliest example of a true singer-songwriter. Someone who wrote lots of songs (good to great songs) and performed them… and he’s still going. To me, even though I didn’t appreciate him at the time, he is one of the earliest ‘seeds’ of the singer-songwriter ‘movement’ (if you can call it that). Someone who knew what he wanted to produce, didn’t say no, didn’t give up, and kept doing what he wanted. Now loads of others are doing that it’s not quite the pioneering genre it once was (every episode of Scrubs and House ended up having a singer-songwriter song playing it out… now every mobile and energy company advert has a singer-songwriter in the background), but cast your ear back 12-13 years, and you’ll find Ryan Adams doing it all from scratch even then.

As an artist, I think Ryan Adams is the real deal. Someone who knows what he wants, and spends time developing and crafting it.

See for yourself…

Just watch this fab video of his song ‘Lucky Now’. It’s not got the most incredible vocals in the world, it’s not ear-shredding guitar, but it hangs together as a complete piece… and he sells the piece. To me, this is the sign of a complete artist, and beginning singer-songwriters could do far worse than to learn from Ryan Adams and take a leaf out of his book.

Remember to watch this version…

Ryan Adams Lucky Now

January 9, 2014July 6, 2025

Meet Mark’s Students:

John Jeacock & Merrick’s Tusk

In 2013, I got the chance to work (and continue working with!) some fantastic vocalists (like John Jeacock, who you’ll meet about below!). I’ve had the chance to help fix some issues for them, and often help them capitalise on some great things they are already doing. So I thought it would be fun to ‘meet’ some of these guys… so this week, it’s time for something a little different.

Let me introduce you to one of the fantastic singers I’ve been working with over the last year. Continue reading “Meet Mark’s Students:

John Jeacock & Merrick’s Tusk”

June 30, 2013December 7, 2025

Riffing Lesson: Natalie Weiss does Tori Kelly’s Pretty Young Thing

Riffing is something many people think is harder than it actually is. Let me illustrate…

So here is a video of the amazing American artist Tori Kelly. There is just incredible control and artistry in this riffing powerhouse video by Tori.

Check out her stuff – really fresh and inspiring!

There is a KILLER vocal run she does at 2m22s – it’s tough! That said, the riffing is not as difficult as it might seem once you’ve broken it down, provided it’s in a manageable range. Here’s a link to a great singer Natalie Weiss Breaking Down This Riff – she was even teaching at a training conference I went to back in August 2013!

There are a great many things we all think are very difficult, but actually, EVERYTHING is difficult… until we’ve done it so many times that it becomes easy. Not only that, but sometimes it just takes a different perspective and simpler approach to make even the most seemingly-complex issue become pretty straightforward to solve.

With that in mind, if you want to start learning to riff, and learn the riff she pulls off at 2m22s, then check out this awesome video from Natalie Weiss from ‘Breaking Down The Riffs’

See? It might sound crazy but if you take it slow and break it down, it’s actually not as insurmountable as it first seemed.

So do me (and you!) a favour – ask yourself – what was the last thing you decided you COULDN’T do vocally? Is it too fast? Too high? Too low? Once you break it down, you may start to see in-roads to help you tackle the issue you’re struggling with. Honestly, all you need to start moving towards doing the very thing you’re scared of is adopting a different perspective and utilising the right tools.