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Topic: How To Write A Funny Song
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Started by: kturet
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d My ears are ringin' . . .
We have occasional housefilks in the Seattle area. Drop me a note and I'll give you the Secret Information (which you can find on a cleverly disguised website, its clever disguise being its absolute lack of any kind of disguise whatever).
--- Sick Puppy
MMA member, BorisBadenov is from the Seattle area and part of the local filk community, which also happens to be planning its first filk con on the last weekend in January (www.conflikt.org).
--- comedyrocket
I live in Everett, just north of Seattle. Anyone in the MMA up by me? I'd love to bounce songs off someone who is also a comedy song writer.
Eric
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d Thanks. What I was implying is that I'd be open to collaborating on something. Drop me a line if/when you're interested and we'll see if we can make it work. spaff at spaff dot com.
xoxox
Spaff
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d You are truly a lyric wizard and had defiantly written some very funny and witty songs!
--- Spaff.com
Hi. My name is Spaff. Lyrics R Us.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d Hi. My name is Spaff. Lyrics R Us.
xoxox
Spaff
--- Sick Puppy
I'm in the same position. Lyrics used to be easy for me and I could crank out songs at a pace that would make Tom Smith's head spin. Now I really have to work hard to get lyrics out... although I'm usually quick to make a smart comeback or tell a funny story in response to something that is said. Perhaps it's just because I've become too much of a perfectionist in my old age.
--- spookster
The lyric are always difficult for me. I have written most of our song but often wished we had a lyrist to work with or someone to write lyric for us.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d MMA member, BorisBadenov is from the Seattle area and part of the local filk community, which also happens to be planning its first filk con on the last weekend in January (www.conflikt.org).
--- comedyrocket
I live in Everett, just north of Seattle. Anyone in the MMA up by me? I'd love to bounce songs off someone who is also a comedy song writer.
Eric
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d I'm in the same position. Lyrics used to be easy for me and I could crank out songs at a pace that would make Tom Smith's head spin. Now I really have to work hard to get lyrics out... although I'm usually quick to make a smart comeback or tell a funny story in response to something that is said. Perhaps it's just because I've become too much of a perfectionist in my old age.
--- spookster
The lyric are always difficult for me. I have written most of our song but often wished we had a lyrist to work with or someone to write lyric for us.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d The lyric are always difficult for me. I have written most of our song but often wished we had a lyrist to work with or someone to write lyric for us.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d E,
Have you ever bounced with folks in other places? I have co-written via exchange of mp3's and telephone.
Being together in person is of course optimal, but hasn't always been mandatory for my creative process.
I think I am probably too twisted for you to actually want to co-write with, but if you just want someone to give constructive feedback, I'd be pleased to serve as another set of ears for you.
--- comedyrocket
I live in Everett, just north of Seattle. Anyone in the MMA up by me? I'd love to bounce songs off someone who is also a comedy song writer.
Eric
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d I live in Everett, just north of Seattle. Anyone in the MMA up by me? I'd love to bounce songs off someone who is also a comedy song writer.
Eric
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d Hmmmm. Let me throw out some names.
Vixy and Tony (Michelle Dockery/Tony Fabris) are Seattlites. They won the Pegasus for Best Song Of Home ("Emerald Green"). Tony is a fellow Microsoftie but he works waaaay on the other side of campus so it's not lkely I'd ever see him there.
If you saw a bald Canadian woman with a banjo or banjola (banjo neck/mandola body), that's Brooke Lunderville. She might or might not have been there with her filking partner John Caspell (a/k/a Dr. Filk).
I'm not sure who'all else made it up from here, but we're usually pretty well represented. Brooke and Vixy are both involved with Conflikt and would have been talking it up. I've got my membership and am looking forward to three days of pure filk goodness.
As for when you'll hear me on TMMS . . . when you least expect it, expect it! Mwahahahaha. Part of the problem is that I only have a little electret mike to work with (the kind you can buy for $5 at places like Best Buy) and it's tethered to my big Linux box which has six cooling fans and sounds like a 747 in full flight. Even without the fan noise it doesn't do very well at recording both my voice and my banjo. Someday I'll get something worked out.
--- Sick Puppy
I can think funny, but it only gets me in trouble and makes the wife mad.
Filk circles are a great place to try out new material, but you have to ask for honest feedback.
I had a chance to talk with some of your fellow Seattle area filkers (I forget the names) last week at OVFF (Ohio Valley Filk Fest). They tell me you're getting your own filk con early in the new year. Sadly, I can't get to that one, but I'm making plans to be there for your second year.
So when are we going to hear you on the Mad Music Show?
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d Yeah, like that new Britney Spears song Gimme More. The hook looped in my head all day.
And of course, Monty Python's Spam sketch and song.
--- Sick Puppy
Very good advice..... Those are points I've been following for as long as I've been writing. You did, however, leave out one very important point:
The Hook:
One or more lines that repeat often in the song, usually, but not always, in the chorus. It makes people remember the song and want to come back for more.
As I write this, I'm listening to the song contest songs.... Right now, "I'm gonna be an emo kid for halloween". You know who it is cause he knows how to write a hook.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d Usually when I write a song, I take a page from the Joel Hodgson playbook. I don't ask "who will get this?" I say "the right people will get this" ;)
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d It's the water.
-Tim
--- BorisBadenov
Seattle/Vancouver
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d I can think funny, but it only gets me in trouble and makes the wife mad.
Filk circles are a great place to try out new material, but you have to ask for honest feedback.
I had a chance to talk with some of your fellow Seattle area filkers (I forget the names) last week at OVFF (Ohio Valley Filk Fest). They tell me you're getting your own filk con early in the new year. Sadly, I can't get to that one, but I'm making plans to be there for your second year.
So when are we going to hear you on the Mad Music Show?
--- BorisBadenov
It helps to think funny, whatever that may mean.
It might also help to hang out with other funny musicians who can critique your work and be a sounding board for the stuff you do. I have recently started hanging around with a bunch of musicians from the science fiction and fantasy community around Seattle/Vancouver ("filkers"). It used to be that I could write pretty good lyrics, but I couldn't do a melody on a bet. Lately I've come up with the words and melodies to about a half dozen songs. It's kinda cool and a little bit strange.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d It helps to think funny, whatever that may mean.
It might also help to hang out with other funny musicians who can critique your work and be a sounding board for the stuff you do. I have recently started hanging around with a bunch of musicians from the science fiction and fantasy community around Seattle/Vancouver ("filkers"). It used to be that I could write pretty good lyrics, but I couldn't do a melody on a bet. Lately I've come up with the words and melodies to about a half dozen songs. It's kinda cool and a little bit strange.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d Hey, you make it sound easy! If only...
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d Very good advice..... Those are points I've been following for as long as I've been writing. You did, however, leave out one very important point:
The Hook:
One or more lines that repeat often in the song, usually, but not always, in the chorus. It makes people remember the song and want to come back for more.
As I write this, I'm listening to the song contest songs.... Right now, "I'm gonna be an emo kid for halloween". You know who it is cause he knows how to write a hook.
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fjrigjwwe9r2threads:MessageText fiogf49gjkf0d How To Write A Funny Song
I contend that nobody knows nothin' about nothin', which is why we're in such a mess. I'm just sayin'.
But George Smyth over at the The One Minute How-To finds experts everywhere, and lines 'em up all week long to explain, in 60 seconds, how you can do what they say they know how to do.
Normally, I don't like to give away any secrets. But at George's request, and because there's no way he was going to feature my profane melodies on his mellow music podcast, Eclectic Mix, I agreed to speak to the folks about my favorite subject, How To Write A Funny Song (Show 193):
First thing: What makes you laugh?
Watching other people fail? Celebrities getting torn to shreds in the media? Or that funny thing your kid said before she spit up?
You decide what's funny. When inspiration strikes, don't wait! Write it down.
Pick a subject: love, work, fear of death, bodily functions. These themes are familiar to other people, and you're just like other people. Only funnier. Ask, "What if? What if I still had hair? I bet people would like me."
Collect your notes. Think deeply about your subject.
Then write. Just let it flow. Free your mind. Don't censor yourself.
Write the way you talk. People speak in melodic rhythm.
Break your topic down into three or four points and make each one a verse. Boil it down to one point and make that the chorus.
Build to a conclusion. Sum it up:
"My wife drives me crazy/But doggone it, I love her!"
Hum while you write and a melody will come to you.
Or borrow a melody. Lots of people do it. I make my own, but that's just me. I'm a craftsman. You do what you want.
Try your song out on people. If they don't like it, they're just jealous.
kenturetzky.com
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