This is a link to my site with new psted pictures of the Hubble Telescope, Amazing stuff. Check them out if your into it.
http://darrenhayhurst.com/2009/09/thank-you-hubble-telescope/
Friday, October 2, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
ChickenFoot
So what happens to Rock Gods as they get older and their bands break up? They form new ones that seriously kick ass. Chickenfoot is a mix of 3 awesome bands. Joe Satriani, Van Halen and Red Hot Chillie Pepper. Chad Smith, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani seemed initially to be formed by jamming. Later they pulled in Joe Satriani "as you do" and then played a few songs at one of Sammy Hagars gigs. They got such a response they just had to take it to the next level.
Check out this awesome video. Serious Rock...... http://darrenhayhurst.com/2009/08/chickenfoot-gotta-love-it/
Check out this awesome video. Serious Rock...... http://darrenhayhurst.com/2009/08/chickenfoot-gotta-love-it/
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Designing a life purpose
One of the most asked questions I get is "How do I write so much so oftern?" This is such an easy question to answer. It doesnt have anything to music education, although that can help. Its more about my mental state and the way I think about what I do. I have been living my life for many years now with a very distinct purpose. "To Create and help others Create". It was a break through that came about pretty quickly. I just finished writing a blog about how and why I did this and wanted to let you know about it. Take a look and let me know what you think. I find it amazing the difference between living my life without a purpose and living my life with a purpose. The Power of Focusing on a Purpose.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Slash on Songwriting and playing live
Here is a cool interview with Slash from Guns N Roses, SnakePitt and Velvet Revolver.
He talks about how he writes and the importance of playing live as oftern as possible.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Cheers
Darren
http://darrenhayhurst.com/2009/08/slash-on-songwriting-and-the-importance-of-playing-live/
He talks about how he writes and the importance of playing live as oftern as possible.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Cheers
Darren
http://darrenhayhurst.com/2009/08/slash-on-songwriting-and-the-importance-of-playing-live/
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
How to write a song understanding Line Length.
Every line you write will have some length to it. An obvious statement but very true. Take the time to look at your line length and feel how it affects what you are saying. Motion of your lines gives the emotion of your song.
Long flowing lines gives long motion and a flowing feel. You have time to create different feels with your line length. You can make them flow dance around smoothly and make your lines long and flowing.
Long lines feel relaxed and conversational.
Not only can you add a lot more content with long lines but you can create romantic, flowing feel to your song. Take the time to experiment with this technique. Grow your lines longer and longer to see just how far you can take that feeling of flow and movement.
Short lines feel Preston and Tight. You can add a hash purposeful stop like feel to your song with short lines. Rather than having a long flow they now have a short hard straight to the point feel about them. This is a great technique to use when you want to make your point and stop the flow quickly. Play around with this idea when you want to say something that will stick in the mind of the listener. Try running lots of short lines with hard endings to create a staccato effect to your song. Try taking this technique to the limits, this could be done by maybe writing “one word” lines. Im sure you have heard of songs that use this technique. One word lines are the shortest you can get and they are very hard and straight to the point. Obviously you are going to have to be careful which words you use as they have to encapsulate everything you are trying to say.
When two lines have the same length they feel stable. This is a great way of creating balance in your song. Keep your word count/syllables the same in each line. The important thing here is to make the feel the same. Don’t get too bogged down with counting words but it’s a great place to start. Just make sure the feel of each line is the same. When you do this you create a very stable, safe feeling song. The meaning feels believable and the listener builds trust in what’s being said. Look out for songs that use this technique and see if you have that same feeling. This is great if you want to give the character in you song credibility and trust. When two lines are unequal in length the have an offset motion and feel unbalanced. There are so many ways you can use this technique. Spend some time thinking about this and try different approaches to you song. Write a song using a good character and a not so good character. Give even lines to the one you are making good and uneven lines to the one you are making not so good. These are tips you can use to just add a little more weight to what you are doing with your song. Spend more time listening to music and see where others use this and work out why others are using these techniques in their songs. The best way I do this is get a copy of the lyrics and with different colour pens highlight which are the good and not so good characters and see which type of line lengths they give to them. Remember the Number of lines and the length of lines help to create stability or instability in your song so use it where you want it. Regardless if you parody them against each other or use them to reinforce what it is your saying, use them how YOU want them and take control of the forces they provide.
Let me know what you think of these tips and feel free to leave a comment if it helps you.
Cheers Darren
How to write a song understanding Structure
Every song you write will have a structure of some kind. This may sound obvious but its important to understand and be able to work with in it. Regardless of how you write a song you are forming a structure, and understanding the structure you are creating is important because you create movement, and the movement creates emotion.
Writing a structure with an odd number of lines makes the song feel odd, unresolved, or unstable. The first line sets the motion. The second resolves that line. The third sets the motion moving again, so if you stop there you leave the listener with a sense that they are waiting for something else to come. There is a strong relationship between emotion and structure. Depending on the structure you use depends on the emotion you create in your song.Writing a song structure with an even number of lines makes the song feel balanced, even, stable. This is because with each line you write and set the song in motion, to balance it out you write another line. It seems simple but it really is so important to be aware of the emotion you create whilst you write.A three line chorus has that “give me more!” feel. It makes the listener feel like there is more to come so it has that unfinished feel about it. This is a great way to be able to draw the listener in, and make them want to hear the following verse or chorus, but understand you are causing a feeling of frustration and an unsettled feeling. It is pretty well documented that Mozart’s wife use to do a similar kind of thing to get him out of bed. She would go to the piano whilst he was sleeping in and play the first 7 notes of a major scale purposely leaving off the last one. This would frustrate him so much he would get up and play the last note to finish the scale.
A four line chorus fells like “all done!” resolved. You write your first line then resolve it with a second, you write the third line and resolve it with the fourth. This is movement that you create whilst you are moving through your sections of a song. It either has to be an odd or an even set of lines so take note and use them to your advantage. Try this in your writing and match it with your lyrics, if your lyrics of your song are about the feeling of disconnect, reinforce it with your odd lined structure and see how much more strength your song has. Try to then mix it up. Purposely add an uneven structure to positive lyrics and see that they just don’t feel believable. Maybe your character is trying to apologies and you don’t want them to be forgiven use this structure to give the sense that they aren’t meaning it or sincere. This is a great way to make it feel like your not trusting the character in your song or that they are kidding them self. And of course if you want to make your character more believable to do opposite and set positive, reinforced lyrics to an even, positive structure. The Motion you create with you structure helps create the emotion in your song so use this as one of your tools to add weight to your meaning. You can use many tools other than the words you sing to give meaning. This is the first of 3 ways to convey extra emotion with your song. Once you have practiced this one come back and click HERE for the next one. How to write a song understanding Line Length
Writing a structure with an odd number of lines makes the song feel odd, unresolved, or unstable. The first line sets the motion. The second resolves that line. The third sets the motion moving again, so if you stop there you leave the listener with a sense that they are waiting for something else to come. There is a strong relationship between emotion and structure. Depending on the structure you use depends on the emotion you create in your song.Writing a song structure with an even number of lines makes the song feel balanced, even, stable. This is because with each line you write and set the song in motion, to balance it out you write another line. It seems simple but it really is so important to be aware of the emotion you create whilst you write.A three line chorus has that “give me more!” feel. It makes the listener feel like there is more to come so it has that unfinished feel about it. This is a great way to be able to draw the listener in, and make them want to hear the following verse or chorus, but understand you are causing a feeling of frustration and an unsettled feeling. It is pretty well documented that Mozart’s wife use to do a similar kind of thing to get him out of bed. She would go to the piano whilst he was sleeping in and play the first 7 notes of a major scale purposely leaving off the last one. This would frustrate him so much he would get up and play the last note to finish the scale.
A four line chorus fells like “all done!” resolved. You write your first line then resolve it with a second, you write the third line and resolve it with the fourth. This is movement that you create whilst you are moving through your sections of a song. It either has to be an odd or an even set of lines so take note and use them to your advantage. Try this in your writing and match it with your lyrics, if your lyrics of your song are about the feeling of disconnect, reinforce it with your odd lined structure and see how much more strength your song has. Try to then mix it up. Purposely add an uneven structure to positive lyrics and see that they just don’t feel believable. Maybe your character is trying to apologies and you don’t want them to be forgiven use this structure to give the sense that they aren’t meaning it or sincere. This is a great way to make it feel like your not trusting the character in your song or that they are kidding them self. And of course if you want to make your character more believable to do opposite and set positive, reinforced lyrics to an even, positive structure. The Motion you create with you structure helps create the emotion in your song so use this as one of your tools to add weight to your meaning. You can use many tools other than the words you sing to give meaning. This is the first of 3 ways to convey extra emotion with your song. Once you have practiced this one come back and click HERE for the next one. How to write a song understanding Line Length
Sunday, July 19, 2009
10 Steps to Write a Great Song
I just returned from an AWESOME! songwriting session with a friend. I had forgotten how great it is to work with other Songwriters and Musicians. Here is exactly how we did it.....
1. Form an idea of a story in your mind and chat back and forth with each other. Don't set limits just make up a story.
2. Plan three sections. A start, a middle and an end. (not chorus or verse just the story)
3. Get it clear in your head and write it down. This is where the songwriting part starts.
The main advantage you have now is a heap of great material. You have clear ideas about when it takes place, who the people are in the song, and what things happen to them. You can also at this point actually see if its a good story/song.
4. Now you can turn on your songwriting skills and start to play around with wording. We wrote most of the lyrics without any idea of how the music would go.
5. Block out sections and get a feel of rhythm, Im talking about the rhythm of the words not the music. Think about lines, 3 lines, 4 lines. Then fill them in thinking about flow and rhyme.
At this point you can get clever and make little surprises happen, maybe it was about someone else. You can play with the listener take them down a path and then introduce the real meaning towards the end. You can use word plays. All of this things you can put in here. Play with it and enjoy it.
6. Once you have a good draft of your lyrics start to think about Melody and chords. This is the part when we picked up our guitars and just started Jammin out progressions. Pick a key and start running over progressions. Run some of the lines and get a feel of the words natural rhythm and feels. It was the rhythm of the words that gave the idea of the hook.
7. When you have something that clicks with your ear, record it down and capture it.
8. At this stage we Stopped, Why now? Because we had a strong structure of lyrics. We had a firm idea of the story, and we had solid, recorded, progressions and grooves.
This was the perfect time to take a break and come back at it with a fresh new ear to judge if what we had was really as good as it felt in the groove we were in.
Its really important to give yourself time to breath and re-work your songs. I find the more I work on something at once the hard it is to let go of a section or a riff or a line that, although it may be good, it just doesnt work in the song. The longer I work on it the hard it is to see it, I think becuase it feels personal. Its like "No way im letting go of that line it took me hours to come up with it" or " I practiced that guitar riff for hours before I could play it!!! its stayin in" its not that its not a great line but just not here. Best to use it to make another great song where it fits perfectly.
9. After an hour, a day, a week, it doesnt really matter. Come back together and listen back to what you have. Re-read your lyrics. Dont try and capture what you had before, rather try and create something new. That was the last phase when you were creating, now you are re-writing.
Put on a different hat. Be a Producer, not a song writer. Think about the elements you have now and how they best server the song. Consider this as someone elses material that you have the honour of producing. Thing about sounds, instuments, flow, texture, colours in the music itself. Feel the song as a whole, not as lots of lines fitting together.
10. Once you have the song in your head then simply assemble it.
The biggest issue that faces most songwritiers is staying on the one track. Its Hard... Its sometimes impossible. So dont. Make it your plan to break it into phases. Play all the parts that go to making a song. Be the Writer and the colaberator and the Producer but as you do this make sure you take time and come back to each phase fresh.
Songs arnt writen they are Re-writen. Dont ever try and write the perfect song, always try to write the song for what it is. If its perfect thats great and you will make squillions but if its not its great practice, write alot all the time. Write with anyone who is willing to write with you.
It is a craft that takes a life time so enjoy the journey of each and every song.
Let me know how this helps you. Try it and leave me some comments of ways you create.
Cheers Darren
1. Form an idea of a story in your mind and chat back and forth with each other. Don't set limits just make up a story.
2. Plan three sections. A start, a middle and an end. (not chorus or verse just the story)
3. Get it clear in your head and write it down. This is where the songwriting part starts.
The main advantage you have now is a heap of great material. You have clear ideas about when it takes place, who the people are in the song, and what things happen to them. You can also at this point actually see if its a good story/song.
4. Now you can turn on your songwriting skills and start to play around with wording. We wrote most of the lyrics without any idea of how the music would go.
5. Block out sections and get a feel of rhythm, Im talking about the rhythm of the words not the music. Think about lines, 3 lines, 4 lines. Then fill them in thinking about flow and rhyme.
At this point you can get clever and make little surprises happen, maybe it was about someone else. You can play with the listener take them down a path and then introduce the real meaning towards the end. You can use word plays. All of this things you can put in here. Play with it and enjoy it.
6. Once you have a good draft of your lyrics start to think about Melody and chords. This is the part when we picked up our guitars and just started Jammin out progressions. Pick a key and start running over progressions. Run some of the lines and get a feel of the words natural rhythm and feels. It was the rhythm of the words that gave the idea of the hook.
7. When you have something that clicks with your ear, record it down and capture it.
8. At this stage we Stopped, Why now? Because we had a strong structure of lyrics. We had a firm idea of the story, and we had solid, recorded, progressions and grooves.
This was the perfect time to take a break and come back at it with a fresh new ear to judge if what we had was really as good as it felt in the groove we were in.
Its really important to give yourself time to breath and re-work your songs. I find the more I work on something at once the hard it is to let go of a section or a riff or a line that, although it may be good, it just doesnt work in the song. The longer I work on it the hard it is to see it, I think becuase it feels personal. Its like "No way im letting go of that line it took me hours to come up with it" or " I practiced that guitar riff for hours before I could play it!!! its stayin in" its not that its not a great line but just not here. Best to use it to make another great song where it fits perfectly.
9. After an hour, a day, a week, it doesnt really matter. Come back together and listen back to what you have. Re-read your lyrics. Dont try and capture what you had before, rather try and create something new. That was the last phase when you were creating, now you are re-writing.
Put on a different hat. Be a Producer, not a song writer. Think about the elements you have now and how they best server the song. Consider this as someone elses material that you have the honour of producing. Thing about sounds, instuments, flow, texture, colours in the music itself. Feel the song as a whole, not as lots of lines fitting together.
10. Once you have the song in your head then simply assemble it.
The biggest issue that faces most songwritiers is staying on the one track. Its Hard... Its sometimes impossible. So dont. Make it your plan to break it into phases. Play all the parts that go to making a song. Be the Writer and the colaberator and the Producer but as you do this make sure you take time and come back to each phase fresh.
Songs arnt writen they are Re-writen. Dont ever try and write the perfect song, always try to write the song for what it is. If its perfect thats great and you will make squillions but if its not its great practice, write alot all the time. Write with anyone who is willing to write with you.
It is a craft that takes a life time so enjoy the journey of each and every song.
Let me know how this helps you. Try it and leave me some comments of ways you create.
Cheers Darren
The Creative Mind with Songwriting
What does it mean to Create? I find enormous fulfilment in being able to create new and interesting ideas. I feel the difference so definitively between my Creative side and the Analytical side of my thought process. There are not many things I love to do than write music.How it works for me.I like to write in alot of different ways using different techniques. Depending how I use them gives different results. My favorite at the moment is to try to totally complete the piece in my head, before I pick up a tool, instrument or computer. I find it easier to write orchestrated pieces like this, but of late I have been writing more contemporary band style, Rock songs using this method. I start with the drums and basiclly set the rhythm. Next I layer sounds over the top in my mind. I don't like to assign instruments yet, I try and feel the melody and how it winds through chords and the emotion it creates. This is the important part for me because its still in maluble form, I can take parts and imagine what they would sound like in different orders. Once it builds to the point where I can feel the flow and groove I start to break the parts up and assign instruments to them.Finally by the time I get to this point I normally pick up my guitar and start to work out what I have in my head.I find the more I complete in my mind, the quicker it is to write. I find I get better symmetry and a better balance with the music.This is not something I have always been able to do. This is somewhere that I have grown to.Take the time to invest these skill in yourself. Find sometime each day to practise holding these in your mind. Dont think theory, think like you dream. Open your mind and alow ideas to flow freely in and out. Practise is so important here like anywhere.Let me know your ideas here. please leave me a comment with your experiences and let me know if you find this works for you.Feel free to ask any questions you like and I will be happy to help.CheersDarrenI love the Creative process, it's a great mental exercise.
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