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May 21, 2009
The Challenges of Songwriting- part 3
Janis Ian calls this particular challenge “invisibility.”
When we play songs for each other at our NSAI meetings, the songwriter in the spotlight will hand out lyric sheets to the group members before playing his or her song. Then we all follow along with the lyric sheet as we listen.
In a normal setting, the audience does not have lyric sheets. They will hear every line once, and they have to understand it immediately, before they are forced to deal with the next line. If they have to stop and figure out what the first line meant, they will most likely miss the next several lines, and then give up, and wait dejectedly for the song to be over.
You can’t stop after each line and explain to your audience what it means. You can’t put a long pause in after each line so that your audience can ponder your meaning. (Well, maybe you could, but it would sure make for one strange song!) Sure, you can “set the song up” by talking about it before your perform it, but most audiences quickly grow impatient with this, since they want to hear you sing, not talk.
Posted by leonolguin at May 21, 2009 07:38 AM