Serving the Song First

[Ernest Buckley]

For years, every song I wrote was in G major or E minor. The key not only accommodated my voice but I knew most of the chords on the guitar. Over the years, I`ve written in other keys but when I play a guitar, I naturally navigate around G.

 

This past week I`ve been working on a tune I wrote 11 years ago, in the key of E minor. Its the first song I wrote for my new album coming out later this year but its the one song I was never really happy with from a production standpoint. I performed the song multiple times live where it went over well. People even commented that they liked the "new song".

 

Over the last 8 years or so I`ve attempted to record this song with my band and alone but I was never quite satisfied.

 

The arrangement, the tempo, the instrumentation all remained the same, etc... but I was never quite satisfied with the performance. So I went back to basics. I grabbed the acoustic and just started to sing the song and it occurred to me that my voice was having difficulty hitting the high G in the chorus. I have high Gs in other tunes but for this particular song, my voice just didn`t want to go there comfortably and it felt thin. The thought of "lowering the key" occurred to me time and time again but I never gave it serious thought because my ego didn`t want to give in to the idea that I could`t hit the note.

 

But then it occurred to me, I can hit the note but the song just doesn`t feel right in this key. "Serve the song first', I told myself....

 

So I tuned the guitar a whole step down and suddenly the melody was strong and the entire song took on a different weight. Yes, the song was a whole step lower but there was also a heaviness to the instrumentation that worked better for the tune. Even the guitar strings took on a different character that I captured while recording. The song came alive again and I`m really stoked about this turn in events.

 

I knew the song was good but I also knew something wasn`t working. I was so caught up in my own habits that I lost sight of serving the song first.

 

Moral of the story... if you wrote a good tune but its not "clicking" yet, reconsider changing the key, the arrangement, the tempo, etc...