Alan Ross Haynes is a composer, performer, recording artist, studio musician, and teacher with 3 completed cds, over 150 songs and more in the works. We asked Alan what the songwriting process is for him, and how a song goes from draft to finished. Alan was kind enough to share his thoughts on this mysterious process with us.

Writing A Song, Start To Finish

First, it is not a totally consistent process.

I’m not as prolific a writer as some, although I stopped counting after writing 150 or so songs.

I have to have an inspiration. I can’t just pull songs out of the air. It can come from poetry, a news story on NPR or in the newspaper, from fiction, often from a message by my minister.

Sometimes a phrase will appear in my brain and I’m on my way. Some songs have to percolate for 2 years or more. Examples of the latter would be “Let’s Eat The Poor.” I’d wanted to write a song about Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” but couldn’t find the central theme. The line “let’s feed the people people” came into my head, I re-read the essay, and it came together.

I have to have a clearly identifiable central theme in mind to write a song. I learned some valuable lessons on lyric writing from Sheila Davis’ books and from attending monthly song critiques with the Nashville Songwriters Assoc. (although I gave up on writing commercial radio songs), and from Summersongs workshops. Every phrase should relate somehow to the “hook”, the underlying statement being made. You should be able to tell everyone what the song is about in one sentence.

Once I have decided to express an idea, I decide what the mood and tone of the song should be.

Usually, a uniting of theme and musical mood are desired (prosody). I decide what kind of emotional response I am trying to generate.

This helps me to choose a structure. I lean toward the Nashville Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus structure. However, my political songs are often A-A-B-A structures, as are a few of my folk rock songs. (A-A-B-A  is 3 verses with identical structure and another with a significantly different chord sequence, sometimes modulating to a different key). I sometimes stray outside of these forms by modifying them or even going to an A-A-A-A hymn-like or traditional folk structure with a rise at the end of each verse. “Three Shadows” is an example of a modified  A-A-A structure. I don’t always color inside the lines.

How am I going to express myself uniquely… as Alexander Pope said (to paraphrase), “to say what has often been said but never so well expressed?” I use rhyming dictionaries, a thesaurus or two, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, The Metaphysical Bible, The Bible, Shakespeare, NPR, the internet, whatever sources I can find to expand my perspective. I also try to use appropriate internal rhymes and alliteration.

Now I have the words. The melody and beat, bass parts and all, have already been playing in my head.

It’s time to start messing with chord structures, to add or subtract complexity. How can I make this sound a little different, make it stand out? It’s amazing how simple changes can add so much. An F2 instead of an F or Dm7. Going to the 7 chord (e.g.,  Ab in the key of Bb) in a surprising place. Different bass notes on chords. The theme affects the desired level of complexity!

Syncopation, stops, driving rhythms, simple bass-chord patterns, all are part of what people like Paul Simon taught us.

Once I start singing the new song, I search for awkward or hurried phrases. I ask myself how hard it would be for someone else to sing it.  I try to figure out how to emphasize key phrases. I add and delete words, I re-word over and over again.

Then I listen. Does it say what I wanted it to say? Is it consistent in message? My goal is to express complex ideas in a simple, understandable way - like John Prine, called by our current Poet Laureate “The Voice of America”.  I believe that that is what Jesus did.

Then I listen to all the production and mixing problems before we go to mastering, graphics, replication, promotion, and the inevitable second-guessing process. But that’s a different essay.

I’m not sure how I get there sometimes. Some people believe that we are just conduits. I would be happy if I knew that for sure. In the meantime, I’ll just listen to that small voice inside.