Songwriter

Songwriting (English " song writing" ) is the activity or the authorship of vocal compositions in pop or rock music. The composer in question creates this form, harmony, melody, rhythm of these works. He may also writes the text or leaves this a copywriter.

Accruals

A composer who writes the lyrics itself is not usually referred to as a songwriter or songwriters (such as Elton John ). For a lyricist who does not at the same time composed the melody, the term is, however, uncommon (eg, Bernie Taupin ). The designation songwriter is not widespread. It is actually only used for text in German border authors and here primarily for persons of singer-songwriters. Composers purely instrumental pieces are not designated as a songwriter.

Fields of activity of songwriter and singer-songwriter overlap - the singer-songwriter represents a music and form of presentation in the tradition of, for example, Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell or the German songwriter. Many singer- songwriters write songs for other artists.

Song elements

The songwriting has its own methods, their technical terms also come from English and mostly - isolated or combined - are used in compositions: Lick, Reef, Break, Fill, stop and hook. They should serve to increase the recognition value of the listener in order to increase the success.

A songwriter divides the song into parts - basic ingredients - on the verse ( also verse ) Bridge, (also prechorus ) and chorus (also Chorus) called. In addition, there are special - optional - Parts such as the C -Partenkirchen also Middle 8 (not eight ) or intermediate part called ( sometimes referred to as a bridge ) that describe a harmonic or rhythmic new part in the existing song. Finally, there is the break part, which is a rhythmic, short phrasing and the intro or the outro of a song. However, a clear, universally understood terminology does not exist. What term is used for which part of the song, is dependent inter alia on different traditions and the music style used.

Production

The songwriter has, in contrast to classical composers often to orchestrate a much smaller cast, because pop music is often interpreted by no more than five or six musicians. Among the cast are mostly harmony instruments such as the electric guitar, the keyboard and the bass guitar, rhythm instruments such as the drums and other percussion instruments. Almost always synthesizers are used today, which are, however, usually are digital.

The composition under copyright law: is the melody. When hook is defined as the sung title bar (not the - possibly different - song titles, usually this fall but together). The hook or hook usually carries the musical conciseness and lyrically, the main message of the song and produces the recognition value: it is usually a chorus line or the keyword of the refrain: "Above the Clouds ," "Love Me Tender ", " Wind of Change", " Frau'n regier'n the World," "Greek wine " - or sometimes the Coupletzeile: " In the Ghetto ", " Aber bitte mit Sahne ".

The so-called " hook" but may also consist of an instrumental phrase ( famous example is the intro of Smoke on the Water) - or embossed in modern electronic music genres due to noise or sound effects. Core of a Hook is the recognition value.

Until the late 1970s into songs and hits were recorded in the form of notes. Nowadays songwriter increasingly produce their idea on the computer with synthetic instruments prior to the performers play for a demo recording can. Notes can be found mainly still in songbooks (eg with guitar tablature for replay ).