Writing the Sad Song

Hey, not all songs can be positive. For years, folks have said that singing the blues can help you get over a depressed part of your life. Unfortunately, if you get too sad, and folks use your song as background music while they kill themselves, you can end up in legal trouble. Here are a few things you can do to make that special sad song more special, without going too far.

MAKE THE MUSIC SOUND SAD

There are loads of sounds in the musical vocabulary that can evoke a sad feeling. Slow tempo, minor keys, and notes that stay low or drop to low notes all help to make your songs sound sad. Some instruments, like cellos, bassoons and other lower but not too low instruments also help keep the music sounding more grounded. If you don't have access to those, just use patches on your keyboard or computer for lower instruments, or try playing those patches with your left hand, not your right. Having your vocalist sing in a plaintive voice also helps, but sounding like you are trying not to cry, or just sounding really tired can get the emotion across, too. Have fun and experiment with different sounds, but just try not to make it too peppy unless you are going for a humor element and lose your sad sound.

MAKE YOUR LYRICS SOUND SAD

Certain words have sad sounds, too. Try to stay away from songs with too many "Ts" or other crisp-sounding consonants--they tend to shorten up and liven up your lyrics. Lots of long vowels help to slow down your music, too. You can add some sobbing-type rhythms to your lyrics, if you like, but that might be too much. Try to find a good topic with a universal appeal, if you can--death of a close person or pet, a major event that touched many, a relationship that dissolved or an ongoing human problem. Make sure you do your research on a topic if you aren't familiar with it, so you get the facts straight, and don't have someone correct you later. Most of all, though, look at your resource material or go to About.com and look at their wonderful article on lyrical clichés so you don't utilize some overused phrase that will make folks ignore what you are saying.

PUT YOUR AUDIENCE THERE

Try to come up with some fresh, unusual way to describe what you want your audience to feel with what you are saying. If this happened to you, was there some certain event that brought you to tears? Chances are, that same happening, well described, would have the same reaction in others--describe it in detail down to the smells, sounds, tastes, what it looked like, it's texture and so forth. I still get teary thinking about that last glorious sunset while petting my horse that last time we were together before my family moved, and we had to leave my pet behind--find and describe what that was like for you in your music, and chances are, your audience will know exactly what you are talking about and be able to fully relate. Think of it as a movie soundtrack, and think of what music you would like to have in the background in that scene. You might even try putting other people's music there and then analyze what it is about that song that would make it fit, then write something in your own idiom that matches that same set of criteria. If you do well, folks should be able to see that scene when they hear your song, just like folks remember certain scenes from a movie whenever they hear a certain pop tune that ended up on the soundtrack.

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