Effective Songwriting and production techniques used in my song “Rise or Fall”
Abstract
During the Spring 2023 term, I was awarded a $700 research grant which I used to have my song “Rise or Fall” professionally recorded by a producer in California. I worked with my advisor Dr. Nolan Stolz throughout the process of planning and long distance collaborating with the producer. My song won the 2023 annual songwriting competition here at USC upstate, and therefore it made the perfect candidate to be professionally recorded. This process, which is still ongoing, has been a great learning experience for me and has taught me more about the process involved in professional music production, and I aim to what I have learned throughout that process in my presentation.
As much as I would like to consider myself a naturally amazing songwriter, this composition’s success was largely in part due to utilizing a series of techniques discussed in songwriter Jack Perricone’s textbook “Great Songwriting Techniques”. His techniques involve using tried and true methods for crafting a song that achieves greater listenability while still being impactful. Some of his techniques, which I will mention in more detail, include applying the concept of prosody to maximize the natural feeling of a song’s lyrics, manipulating the harmonic box and vocal tessitura to increase the momentum within certain sections of the song, and developing an understanding popular song forms.
During the production process, I was introduced to several recording techniques that allowed me to collaborate with a professional who lived on the other side of the country. The process, which I will outline in greater detail, involved providing the producer with a rough acoustic sketch of my song as well as sample tracks that we would try to emulate in the final mix. Once he had a copy of my acoustic draft and we had discussed our goal for what the final mix would sound like, we worked through several iterations of prototype tracks one instrument at a time discussing what worked and what didn’t work. As the track prototypes evolved into finished stems, we were able to inch towards a final product. The song is still a work in progress, however, I will provide details on as much of the as I can.
Keywords
Music production, Music recording, songwriting
Effective Songwriting and production techniques used in my song “Rise or Fall”
CASB 104
During the Spring 2023 term, I was awarded a $700 research grant which I used to have my song “Rise or Fall” professionally recorded by a producer in California. I worked with my advisor Dr. Nolan Stolz throughout the process of planning and long distance collaborating with the producer. My song won the 2023 annual songwriting competition here at USC upstate, and therefore it made the perfect candidate to be professionally recorded. This process, which is still ongoing, has been a great learning experience for me and has taught me more about the process involved in professional music production, and I aim to what I have learned throughout that process in my presentation.
As much as I would like to consider myself a naturally amazing songwriter, this composition’s success was largely in part due to utilizing a series of techniques discussed in songwriter Jack Perricone’s textbook “Great Songwriting Techniques”. His techniques involve using tried and true methods for crafting a song that achieves greater listenability while still being impactful. Some of his techniques, which I will mention in more detail, include applying the concept of prosody to maximize the natural feeling of a song’s lyrics, manipulating the harmonic box and vocal tessitura to increase the momentum within certain sections of the song, and developing an understanding popular song forms.
During the production process, I was introduced to several recording techniques that allowed me to collaborate with a professional who lived on the other side of the country. The process, which I will outline in greater detail, involved providing the producer with a rough acoustic sketch of my song as well as sample tracks that we would try to emulate in the final mix. Once he had a copy of my acoustic draft and we had discussed our goal for what the final mix would sound like, we worked through several iterations of prototype tracks one instrument at a time discussing what worked and what didn’t work. As the track prototypes evolved into finished stems, we were able to inch towards a final product. The song is still a work in progress, however, I will provide details on as much of the as I can.