Rewriting Song Titles For Practice And Inspiration
December 22, 2007
0 CommentsHere’s an exercise I love to do when I need inspiration for song titles. If nothing’s coming naturally, this trick can really get the creative juices flowing. Even if I end up using nothing that I come up with, I find that within a day or two, one of my ideas will trigger something completely different, usable, and inspiring.
The idea is simple. Rewrite song titles.
Song titles are great starting points. Song titles are often the hook. Once you’ve got a great hook, just about any competent or interesting verse will complete the song. So starting with a song title or hook gets you about 80 percent of the way there.
I have many sources that I go to, various iTunes top 10 lists, Billboard charts, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and many others. Even if you come up empty, it’s great practice and gives you insight into the songwriting of whomever you choose to emulate.
Take the following example, “I Will Dare” by The Replacements. If I begin by keeping the same syllables but looking for opposite meaning I get something like “You Won’t Dare”—keeping close to the original—or “You Won’t Risk.” Both of those titles give me ideas to develop into complete songs.
“After Midnight” by Eric Clapton becomes “Before Noon.” Beginning with “I Love Rock ‘N Roll,” first charted by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, you could change it to the shocked and rhetorical question, “You Hate Rock and Roll?!” Or keep the content similar but change the style of music to “I Love Dance Punk.” “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard could become “Big Bad Brady.” I found that name using a baby name finder.
There’s no rules to this game. But you can set up some guidelines or directions to get you started. With “Long Tall Sally,” I tried to keep the song’s original alliteration. With “After Midnight,” I looked for the opposite meaning—even though after midnight and before noon refer to the same 12 hours. 
I often like to keep the same syllables since most great titles come with a built-in infectious rhythm. Internal rhymes, alliteration, content, any literary device can be kept, manipulated, or left behind.
I like to do little exercises like this whenever I’m running out of ideas or I’ve got a little down time. They grease your creative gears and give you plenty of material to work with. And they’re pretty easy to invent. Have fun and let me know what you come up with!
If you want to be notified the next time I post something, sign up for email alerts or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
Loading ...How To Use TextMate As NetNewsWire’s External Blog Editor
October 8, 2007
0 Comments
I used to be an Ecto user but I have since seen the light and call TextMate my be-all-end-all blogging tool. The only thing I missed was being able to use Ecto as my external blog editor while reading feeds in NetNewsWire. Not anymore!
Thanks to the Circle Six Blog for the superior coding kung fu.
In TextMate, show the bundle editor and create two new commands:
Name: Determine Script Location
Save: Nothing
Command(s):
#!/usr/bin/env ruby -rjcode -Ku
%x{ osascript "#{ENV['TM_BUNDLE_SUPPORT']}/lib/blogselection.scpt” }
Input: None
Output: Insert as Text
Activation: Key Equivalent: ⌃⌥⌘5
Scope Selector: text.html
Name: Insert Quote from NetNewsWire
Save: Nothing
Command(s):
#!/usr/bin/env ruby -rjcode -Ku
print %{Place the file "blogselection.scpt" in #{ENV['TM_BUNDLE_SUPPORT']}/lib/ }
Input: None
Output: Show as HTML
Activation: Key Equivalent: ⌃⌥⌘5
Scope Selector: text.html
Now create and save the following Applescript. Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
Execute the first command to determine the script location. That’s all for the setup.
Now, whenever you find something in NetNewsWire that you want to quote, tab over to TextMate, open a new blog post (HTML), and run the command (⌃⌥⌘5).
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 15
September 4, 2007
0 CommentsThis will be the last dominant 7 pentatonic scale pattern in this series. This pattern begins in the “outside key” and moves to the tonic key for two notes before switching back. The second part of the pattern begins in the tonic key, switches to the “outside key” for two notes, and then returns to the tonic.
If you can keep the key signatures straight as you play this, then you’re definitely ready to move on to something more challenging.
And hopefully, if you’ve been following this series, you can imagine phrases that aren’t confined to the tonic key.
That was the purpose of this series on playing outside. To stretch your ear and technique beyond conventional tonality. I hope you’ve enjoyed the exercise.
Download the full pattern:
Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 15
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading ...Having Trouble Ripping a DVD on a Mac?
August 20, 2007
1 Comment
I watched 300 yesterday. I can’t remember if it was good or not because I spent the whole time staring at their abs. Guys are so obsessed with other guys bodies and don’t even know it (and will never admit it). Seriously though, ahem, even though I don’t want to admit that I’m obsessed, I will admit that I want those abs. Maybe I’ll give the 300 workout a try after I’ve finished my current program.
The blood and gore was vivid and the fighting was intense. I would need to watch this again and again. So I tried to rip it but couldn’t. Then I figured out how.
First, you have to open Disk Utility, select the DVD in the sidebar and choose New Image from the toolbar. For Image Format, choose DVD/CD Master and no encryption. Once it’s saved to your hard drive, convert it to the desired format with Handbrake. I don’t know how to burn it back to a DVD since I always convert for iPod TV or iPhone. But I know there’s a way.
Now I need to try this out on Casino Royale. There’s another movie that spends a disproportionate amount of time focusing on the body of Daniel Craig than of Eva Green.
I watch television because you don’t know what it will do if you leave it in the room alone.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...
I’m a Facebook fanatic. I joined immediately after they opened to the public. In the beginning, there wasn’t much to talk about. None of my friends had joined and there really wasn’t that much I could do there. But since then, the buzz has caught my friends’ attention and Facebook’s extendibility has grown consistently, giving me a lot to play with.
Since I’ve been catching myself updating both Facebook and Twitter separately, I figured I should revisit my workflow and see if I can tweak my current level of automation.
It wasn’t difficult. I just added a couple lines of code to iQuickTwitter and now I can update Twitter, Facebook, iChat, and Skype with a single command. If you dig it, be my friend and let me know.
Graham English @ Facebook
Graham English @ Twitter
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
If all you want is to update Facebook with Quicksilver, try this:
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.
If you try to please everyone, somebody is not going to like it.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...