WRITING
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* ... *
BAL * LADS		How to write a song
that tells a story.

by John Archer

Home - Songs - Writers - Records - Books - Folkies - Mangamahu - Methods

Songwriter's Toolbox - Writer's Multi-Tool

I Know That Tune - Keep On Strumming - It Just Popped into My Head

I Had This Dream - Local Colour - Lights, Camera, Action - Here Comes The Chorus

Introduction

Singing or reciting ballads is an old form of story-telling.

I grew up singing ballads like Walzing Matilda, The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night, Davy Crocket, and Taumarunui. Later, the ballads of Eric Bogle inspired me to write my own.

Pop music also gives the name 'ballad' to any slow sentimental song, like Paul McCartney's 'Yesterday'. But I can only tell you about the methods I have used to make my Mangamahu ballads.

Method 1. "I Know That Tune"

Start with a known song
"Oh the yellow rose of Texas..."

Vary the words
"We were cutting scrub on contract..."

Does a story develop?
"...when we found a nest of bees"

Now change the tempo and the melody...
...to match the the new emotions the new story evokes.

Some NZ folk examples
Davy Lowston
The Gumboot Song
My Old Man's An All Black

Weddings, farewells, protest meetings.
This method is often used for songs on leaflets that everyone can sing at public gatherings.

Method 2. "Lets Strum Along A Bit"

Experiment with basic chord sequences like these; 
D      A7    D
D      G     A     D
C      F     G7    C
C      Am    F     G7
Then try chord sequence like these; 
Am     G     Am    E7    Am
Am     Dm    E     Am
D      C     G     D
G      C     A7    D7   G
Em     D     C     B7
Or even sequences like these 
E      A     D     C     E
C      G     Am    Em    F    G7   C 
G     G7     C     G     A7   D7   G
Try experimenting with chord sequences you get from friends or songbooks.

Vary your guitar strumming (or keyboard rhythms)
to express different feelings;
-angry -sad -relaxed -excited -surprised.
-waltz time 1-2-3 1-2-3

Pick your way to a tune
What images are evoked by the emotion of the tune?
What words go with the images? Write them down.
Pick out the key phrase. See method 3!

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Method 3. "It Popped Into My Head"

Start with a key phrase...
...that pops into your head,
...or strikes you when somebody says it,
...and is connected with something you feel strongly about.

It may be a line of melody or words, or both.
Grab a tape recorder (or your computer mike)
and save this rough fragment immediately.

Build on this phrase.
Images related to the phrase
Similar phrases
Rhyming words
A tune that fits the phrase
Ask yourself questions.
Who is saying this phrase?
...Why? ...Where? ...To whom?
What is the reply?
How did they get into this situation?
Consequences
Keep going over the song: with repeated singing, natural phrases will come...

What rhymes with the key phrase?
Do these rhyming phrases trigger more images?

Construct verses.
Most usual is 4 lines, with the 2nd line rhyming with the last.
Arrange the verses into sequence.

Cobble together more verses to make a story.
The initial fill-in verses may be Yuk! but they give your imagination a framework.
Sing them over and over until, days (months?) later, better words come to you.

Keep going over the song.
Evolve the tune by chanting the verses.
Are any of those chord sequences in Lesson 1 suitable?
Rewrite the cobbled phrases; with repeated singing, natural phrases will come.

Do some editing.
Throw out unnecessary verses.
A journalist friend sub-edited my songs...
...and a feminist, and my dad, and various others, spotted any errors or false sentiment.
Add a chorus.
...or a refrain, or instrumental break.
Or turn the verse with that initial key phrase into a chorus.
The chorus gives the audience time to absorb the storyline...
...and lets them release all the emotions you have aroused in their souls.

Method 4. "I Had This Dream..."

Write the dream as a fragment of a story.
Put it into verse.
Add an introduction.
Go over what you have.
Relax... What might happen next?
Add to the story.
Let your imagination work on the images.
See the last verse of Sugra The Juggler

Strum your guitar while you develop the story.
Let the feelings of the dream come back to you.
Your body movements, fingers, hands, voice, will get into harmony with those feelings.

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Method 5. "Local Colour"

The methods given above help you to stimulate your unconscious mind. These method can help you with any sort of song, (or short story, or painting, -or with guided psychotherapy.)
But here is how to write a song specific to your own unique culture.

Research.
Observe the people you live with.
Encourage them to talk, and listen to their stories.
Consider what experiences in the past of your communal group are unique.
Go through an old photo album with an elderly person.
Listen for any specific turn of phrase. "Five for a bob," "Cher, Bro,"
Jot the phrases down.

Sketches
Combine some of the phrases. Do you have the beginnings of a song?
You are starting to assemble a "jigsaw puzzle": what other matching pieces can you find?
You may start off a dozen of these sketchy outlines; some will be too sentimental, some too complicated, some arouse no feelings in you.
Hum/sing/play any scraps of tune that seem to suit the scraps of song. Tape-record your evolving efforts.
Work on any one of the outlines as in Method 3. Or leave them all for a while.

Development
Go back over your sketchy outlines and/or tape-recorded scraps, a week, a year, five years later, whenever you have matured enough emotionally/spiritually/musically.
Work on the one that grips you most. (The real focussed, concentrated effort sort of work)
Do you have any futher jig-saw pieces you can add? (from futher experience, or from books on local history, discussion with survivors/descendants/co-workers...)
Add specific details, but not a critical analysis.
Use fragments of your own experiences where possible. The song may be a composite fiction of rearranged details and still portray truth.

Refinement
...as in the latter stages of the earlier methods.

Testing
Sing it to others involved in the experience that your song recreates.
Be sensitive to their response to the song.

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Method 6. "Lights, Camera, Action!"

Today you are going to be a film director.

Start with a story;
-from personal experience, your imagination, an old joker's yarn...

Do you FEEL STRONGLY about it?
What really grips you about it?

Can you picture the main action
-of the story?

Now pretend you are making a short film of it!
-simplicity -cut out the side stories -lay bare the main action.
-divide the action up into 4 to 10 camera shots...
-opening image -panning shot -close-up -dialogue -action -climax.

And if you want to produce something as gripping as one of the old Childe ballads..

Start by getting straight into the action.
Grip the audience with the certainty that something is going to happen.
See the start of Minnie Dean.
She dressed in black and she carried a hat
in a hat box when early to the station she came.

Leap quickly from scene to scene...
Cut out the intermediate parts of the journey.
...then linger on the scene.
Describe two or three details so vividly that the audience feel they can really see everything.
But on her way back, she'd always wear the hat
Invercargill to Winton, on the 5 o'clock train.
Use direct speech
No need to identify the speakers,
the audience can see them on the screen of their mind's eye.
"You'd better be good or Minnie Dean's gonna get you."

Repeat the scenes (verses) containing the main action
...but with a significant change in meaning.
Compare the refrains of Gin & Raspberry
"...we'll all sell our soul / For a taste of the Gin and Raspberry
is changed to "...to hell with the Gin and Raspberry.
And in Minnie Dean...
She dressed in black and she carried a hat
in a hat box when early to the courthouse she came
Keep the language spare and laconic.
Avoid the contrived imagery of literary poets.
Avoid sentimentality.
Don't describe feelings,
-make the audience experience the feelings.
The repeated tune in each verse reinforces these feelings.

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Method 7. "Here Comes The Chorus"

West Australian songwriter Bernard Carney has pointed out how frequently the song structures of verse, chorus, verse, chorus or verse, bridge, verse, or both together, have been used.

And so he has written the following song as a guide... 

I have a line of verse and it's just a simple line
And I wonder if the next one will be the one to rhyme
And now I'm building power, getting higher on the way
The chorus is approaching and it's what I want to say

    Here comes the chorus its the title of the song
    It's catchy, it's the hook and it's coming at you strong
    It sums up all the verses and the themes that they contain
    It's the chorus and I'm singing it again

So I've fallen down to verse two and the energy drops back
Everything's gone peaceful so I try another tack
I add a few more images and the voice begins to rise 
You're starting to be drawn in and then to your surprise

    Here comes the chorus in a regular refrain
     Here comes the chorus it's imprinted on your brain
    I may go down a little but I'll get big again
    It's the chorus and I'm singing it again

And maybe now I'll place a little bridge into the song
Something with a different tune that doesn't last too long

But leads me...

    Back to the chorus the message now is plain
    If they don't go out and buy this, you know they'll go insane
    So you sing one last chorus the finale will ascend...
    It's the chorus now I'm finished. It's the end!
                              (Copyright Bernard Carney November 1994)

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