Songwriting - finishing your songs - a blog series

[Arpangel]

And because we're all always in a hurry to get to the fun stuff we just assume that's the case rather than actually checking.

True again.

[Drew Stephenson]

Part 9 - Define 'finished', a summary so far.

Welcome to either the half-way point of this blog, or the end of the blog, depending on your perspective...

This series is titled 'rough to release' because for me, the release is the end* of the process. It's the point beyond which there are no more re-writes, re-arrangements or just general tweakery. In releasing it to the public it is committed to the record.

But not all of you will work to this definition of 'finished'. For some it is enough to have a set of lyrics written down, a structure established, and a chord progression or tune notated.

And if that's you then you might be pleased to know that your work here is all but done. After this blog we'll be moving onto the 'release' part of the series. So before we take that step, let's have a quick refresher on what we've covered so far.

In part one we set the scene but didn't really broach any finishing techniques, so let's go straight onto...

Part Two - Space and Permission. This was our first concept to play around with. Making sure that you have an appropriate space to work in (whatever that space is) and giving yourself permission to dedicate time to your work / craft / hobby so that you can actually finish things.

Part Three - Spark and Spice. If 'spark' is the idea behind the song, 'spice' is the original element that you are bringing to make it interesting. We looked at the common, all-garden love song and how various artists have applied their own spice to make something special.

Part Four - More Spark and Spice. In this instalment we moved on from the love song to look at other ways of adding some spark, including the idea of the song that doesn't make sense.

Part Five - Beyond Verse and Chorus. Here we delved into song structure, how to move beyond the simplest structures but also to ask whether we need to. We looked at a few classic and modern songs who don't follow the most common structures.

Part Six - Story Arcs. What are you trying to say? What story do you have to tell? How are you going break it up to make it interesting and unpredictable? We also started to investigate tension and release in your songs.

Part Seven - Tension and Release. Building on the previous instalments we talked about different ways to add interest and excitement to your song; subverting structures, lyrical bait-and-switches, in media res, and leaving tales untold. We also touched on the power of contrast and the risk of writing to formula.

Part Eight - Co-writing. Last week's blog was all about how to effectively share the load with writing partners and, more pertinently to this blog, how to learn from them to help you finish your songs.

Along the way we also took a brief detour into ways to tackle writer's block.

In the next few updates we're going to look at:

- the basics of recording and how to make the best of what you've got,

- how to build on that initial recording and the difference between adding and overloading a song,

- 'production' and establishing a vision,

- mixing whilst writing and the separation of duties,

- getting other people involved,

- loudness, 'mastering' and distribution,

- finally we'll do a bit of a 'problem solving' wash up at the end.

So if all of that is of neither use nor ornament, thank you for reading and hopefully you've found something worthwhile in everything we've covered so far.

If that teaser does sound useful, or you're just a glutton for punishment, then stay tuned for next week's update.

As usual, links and the previous instalments are available here: https://roughtorelease.blogspot.com/202 ... o-far.html

* Well, generally it's the end. Occasionally something does get a bit of re-release but only in exceptional circumstances.

[Drew Stephenson]

It's been a day.
Today's update will follow tomorrow.

[Drew Stephenson]

Note to SOS readers: the second half of this blog series is aimed at a much wider audience than this site. As a result there will be quite a bit of content that falls into the 'teaching your granny to suck eggs' category, particularly in the next couple of instalments. Feel free to file these under 'treatments for insomnia'.

Part 10 - Recording basics - The Hierarchy

Welcome back. Last time we summarised the various tools and tricks we'd covered so far and largely wrapped up the initial 'writing' side of the 'rough to release' process. And if all you require is a finished set of lyrics, a chord structure, and / or a melody line scribbled on a stave then your work may be done.

But my memory doesn't work like and I don't read music, so firstly, I require a recording of the complete piece so that there's a permanent record. Pun very much intended.

Secondly, during the writing process I will often get ideas for how I want the final piece to sound; and that's rarely as simple as a single guitar and vocal part. My songs tend to be musically very simple and I rely on production and arrangement to keep the interest going. Blame it on my lack of music theory...

So I need to be able record my parts, add elements to them, remove other bits and generally screw around with things.

And for that I will need some 'stuff'.

"It's not about what you don't have..."

I'm pretty certain that Meursault weren't talking about recording equipment when they sang that line in What You Don't Have but it applies nonetheless.

Before grabbing our credit cards and hurling ourselves at the 'studio' section of our favourite online shopping page it's important to actually think about what you need. The path of recording temptation is long and beset by many false prophets and fake bargains.

The first question therefore, is "what do you want to do?" Because that determines how far down the rabbit hole of Gear Acquisition Syndrome you may need to tread.

In the next entry we'll look at a few junctions in that burrow (to extend the metaphor a bit too far) to give some sensible stepping off points but first I shall share with you some secret hidden knowledge that can only be found in the secret hidden realms of... absolutely everywhere on the internet.

Are you ready? Here you go then:

It's not about the gear.

Honestly, truly, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die it really is not.

When it comes to recording there is a sort of hierarchy of importance and, with some variations around the finer details, it goes like this:

1 - Material - fundamentally is it a good song / piece of music.

2 - Performance - is it played and sung with passion and meaning.

3 - Room acoustic - is the recording taking place in an environment that suits the music or is otherwise acoustically benign.

4 - Microphone position - where you put the microphone will make a huge difference to how your recording sounds. Moreso than...

5 - Microphone choice - fifth on the list we have our first decision about a piece of gear.

6 - Pre-amps / hardware / outboard / converters / other bits of esoterica - all that other gear comes way down here.

At this point you may be raising an eyebrow somewhat cynically and thinking, "If that's really the case, why do expensive studios full of expensive gear exist? And why do people still pay for them?"

And to answer that I would look mostly at points 3 and 4 above.

When you hire a proper studio one of the key things you are getting is a professionally designed acoustic space. Or spaces. One (or more) areas that have been designed for recording and a separate space that has been designed for mixing. The acoustic of that recording space is key. Put a good player, playing good music, in a good space and you're most of the way there. "Most" because the next thing on the list, microphone positioning, is another key part of what you're paying for - and that's the expertise of the recording engineer. Knowing where in the room to put certain kinds of instruments, then knowing where to put the microphones to highlight or minimise certain characteristics, knowing how different instruments will interact in that space and how players will need to position themselves to do their own interaction, knowing how to make sure that the technical side of things never gets in the way of the music...

All these are skills the recording engineer has that you are paying for* in a professional studio (along with knowing how to use those fancy hardware boxes of course).

If you get all of these bits right, then, and only then, is it worth worrying about expensive microphones and all the other goodie boxes and bits and pieces.

Because without getting the basics right no-one will care what microphone was used or which compressor it went through.

Intent

So does this mean there's no point in trying to do anything yourself and you have to spend the rest of your lifetime's disposable income on a trip to Abbey Road?

Of course not. It all depends on what you intend to do with your music.

If your final release plan is you and your instrument performing your piece, unadorned, on youtube, then you probably have everything you need. It fits in your pocket, is a genuine technological marvel of the 21st century and you may even be reading this on it. It is, of course, your smart phone.

Abbey Road (or equivalents) are one end of the spectrum, your smart phone is the other. In the next instalment we'll take a look at a few intermediate jumping off points that may either be everything you need, or suitable stops along the way to greater complexity and recording capability.

Your Room

But before we get to gear choices, let's step back up to item 3 and think about your recording space.

Actually, let's back up one more step and look at your composition, because depending on your music you might not actually be recording any 'sounds'. If you compose exclusively using virtual instruments (VSTi's) in your computer then you only need to worry about the monitoring side of things (we'll come to that in the future). In which case, lucky you, off you go, have fun!

But if you do need to record any acoustic instruments or vocals, then you're going to have to think about the room in which you do it. Unless you're very lucky your music room might well end up being the smallest room in the house, often with nearly-square dimensions, and often with minimal soft furnishing in order to fit your gear in.

This is not an ideal situation.

We're not going to get into the details of studio design here because, a) it's not really relevant to this blog, and b) it's a whole book's worth of content. But I am going to share a couple of relevant points here because they may help head off any rabbit-hole diving and help you get on with finishing your songs.

Point the first: when talking about studios, two terms are often confused: sound-proofing and sound-treatment. Sound-proofing is about stopping sound travelling between the studio and the outside, and vice versa. It is difficult, expensive and I do not recommend attempting it without a professional. Sound-treatment, on the other hand, is about controlling the sound in the room, and is relatively cheap and simple to make a big difference.

So the second point is that it is absolutely worth making an effort with your sound-treatment before hitting record.

And we'll look at that as the first thing in the next chapter.

* There are other things of course: a professional studio will have access to instruments and noise making devices that you don't have at home, they will have a genuinely sound-proofed room so you don't need to worry about disturbing the neighbours (or being disturbed by them), they probably have access to session musicians and your recording or mixing engineer will probably also have some production skills as well (if your budget doesn't stretch to a producer). In short, there are plenty of reasons why proper studios still exist, but plenty of reasons why there are fewer of them than there used to be.

As usual you can find links and the rest of the series here: https://roughtorelease.blogspot.com/202 ... archy.html

[OneWorld]

This is a very informative body of work you’re compiling Drew and is much appreciated.

On the subject of finishing a song, I am currently reading a book about Mozart and his music, and in the chapter I read last night it spoke if the reams of jottings and notebooks of music he started but never went onto to finish, but but nevertheless Mozart didn’t bin the ideas but casually tossed them aside, with the intention of revisiting the work, some of which, according to the book, ‘Mozart’ Nicolas Kenton, he did revisit, sometimes years later. If Mozart had been around today am sure he would have been inclined to read your series.

[Drew Stephenson]

If Mozart had been around today am sure he would have been inclined to read your series.

Chuckling to himself throughout.

(Thank you.)

[Arpangel]

If Mozart had been around today am sure he would have been inclined to read your series.

Chuckling to himself throughout.

(Thank you.)

He wouldn’t have time to read SOS, he’d be too busy judging on The X Factor.

[tea for two]

Nina Simone said after the Civil Rights movement ended she had no purpose to sing for no purpose to compose songs for.

I feel it is so very necessary to have something to write for that lights a torch for us.
Life's struggles hopes dreams broken dreams, commentary on slice of modern life, poverty, social wrongs, events, sorrows, hurts, bringing humour mirth to others to uplift others, to make others dance, be goofy, chill out.
Even that most common theme luuurve we are writing with someone in mind how this someone makes us feel, or how we imagine luuurve might be, unrequited even.

I feel when we do these then it might be easier to finish songs.

[Drew Stephenson]

Absolutely, if you have nothing to say then you're just making noises for the fun of it.
Which is fine, but don't expect that to resonate with a lot of people.

If you know what you're trying to say, what story you're telling, then you'll also be able to decide when and if it's finished.

[Drew Stephenson]

Note to SOS readers: again, this is teaching egg-sucking to elderly relatives for many here, in which case just read on.
Or pull it to pieces as you see fit.

Part 11 - Recording basics - Making the most of what you've got

Last time we started talking about recording, the hierarchy, and intent. We left it with a promise to talk one of the easiest ways to get your recordings sounding better-than-average: sound-treatment of your room.

Now some people might be nodding along at this point, but not really believing. I mean, it's just the room right? It's not what's making the noise, and it's not what's capturing the noise, so how much difference could it make?

Well, fortunately I have some pertinent examples:

Untreated, unfurnished room: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pJnGeDsly6M

Same room, treated, singing into the 'live' end: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t2iIhiyjm6A

Same room, treated, singing into the 'dead' end: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7c4hKBWk6Ac

So we're starting with this because it will apply to all of the subsequent options and it's cheap and easy.

Sound treatment is about controlling how sound bounces around your room, and we need it because in most domestic rooms the way that sound bounces around is not pleasant. Things sound 'boxy' and have weird resonances.

So here's some simple things you can do about it:

Soft furnishings help. Thick curtains and deep carpet will absorb higher frequencies and things like sofas and beds can help deal with problematic lower frequencies.

If you're recording in a bedroom, open the wardrobe doors and use all the hanging clothes as a natural broadband absorber.

Room modes, where sound wavelengths correlate to multiples of the room's dimensions and create large troughs and peaks, are typically strongest at the centre and corners of the room; so don't try and record there. Asymmetrical rooms can be a good choice for recording.

But possibly the most effective thing you can do is lob a couple of heavy winter duvets (artificial fibres) over a couple of microphone stands with the boom arms set in a T-shape. Then position these in a V-shape behind you / the performer. This will massively reduce any room reflections reaching the front of the microphone and give you a much cleaner sound.

This assumes you're using a cardiod pattern microphone. If you're using an omni-directional or figure-8 pattern mic then stick another duvet behind the microphone.

It looks silly but is really, really effective and will instantly raise the standard of your recorded sound, making it much easier to apply overdubs, virtual instruments and artificial reverbs and effects.

And that's what we're focusing on here, giving you a platform that you can build on to finish your song.

One final aside before we talk about a few bits of kit: we will not be talking about the art and science of recording. That's far too large a subject and not really relevant to this blog, so if you are interested in this I recommend Mike Senior's book Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. Plus a subscription to Sound On Sound magazine as well...

"...it's the little you're given and how far you can run with it."

Right, let's talk about what you'll need to make your recordings and build your compositions.

First you need to capture the sound.

The simplest option is the one I mentioned previously, your smartphone.

Modern mobile phones will shoot excellent quality video and will generally do a pretty good job on the audio side as well. They often have stereo microphones and are optimised for audio in the mid-range - where most of the interesting elements of your music will generally be.

Set up your duvets, open your wardrobe doors and hit record. Experiment with the distance between your source and your phone to get the best combination of direct sound (the sound coming directly from the source), reflected sound (the sound reflected around the room and coming back) and realistic sound (as you get closer to the source you start hearing less of the complete sound of the instrument and more of the specific area that you're homing in on).

The next step up the recording ladder is probably the handheld recorder. These come in various degrees of size and complexity but are generally based around a pair of onboard microphones and a hard-drive. They'll generally have better microphones than your phone, will record in an uncompressed file format, and allow you more control over things like recording levels.

Think about how you'll position the device too, most of them have a thread on the bottom to attach to a camera tripod so think about adding one of them to the budget as well. Here's Josh Turner and Myles Pinder showing how a good performance and arrangement can be captured on a handheld recorder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t21Pb1P4_8s

Some of them will also have the facility to accept external microphones and work as a basic Audio Interface.

What, you might be asking, is an Audio Interface? Well, at it's most basic, an audio interface converts an incoming analogue audio signal to a digital one that can be processed by your computer and, vice versa, takes a digital audio file generated in the computer and converts it to an analogue one that can be played back. Most computers and laptops will have an audio interface built in via the sound card, typically this will provide a simple headphone output and basic microphone input. Functional but not particularly high quality.

So the next step up is to buy a dedicated unit that will handle all of this to a higher standard and will typically include a few other features to help the home recordist. These generally connect to your computer via USB and shift all of the audio in and out processing to the external unit. They'll typically have one or two proper microphone pre-amps (to allow you to use proper external mics), a decent headphone amplifier, and will often come bundled with some recording software.

You will, however, also need a microphone or two to plug into your interface.

Choosing a microphone and an interface is far, far too big a can of worms to open here so, as well as Mike Senior's book referenced above, here are a couple of useful links from Sound On Sound.

Microphones: https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advi ... icrophones

Audio interfaces: https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advi ... -interface

I will also add a couple of bits of advice from my own experience:

1) Always consider getting an interface with more channels than you need to allow for future expansion. Certainly something that will allow you to capture two microphones and / or a stereo signal at once.

2) Microphones are pretty mature technology now. Whilst there is some innovation going on with various modelling devices (where one mic pretends to be a different one), in general the best practice is pretty established. This is advantageous in two ways: 1) if you spend a lot of money on a microphone it will likely last you for ages (if not forever) and will probably always be a useful bit of kit, and 2) you can get good microphones for very reasonable prices. It is a win-win situation.

If you choose to go down this route remember to budget for microphone stands, pop shields and cables. You don't have to push the boat out, the basic stuff will do the job but if you're expecting to do a lot of live work with lots of rigging and de-rigging it can be worth investing in some more solidly made stuff.

But I've had my cheap stuff for ages and it's all still doing fine.

Beyond stereo

If you do start to branch out, or you want to record a more complex instrument (like a drumkit), or you want to get into spatial audio, then you're going to need a multichannel interface with multiple microphone pre-amps. This is another worm-can waiting to be opened so all I'll say here is to refer you to my comment above about estimating the number of channels you need then doubling it, and also to say that many multichannel interfaces are expandable, so you could buy an 8-channel unit now and then expand it to 16 or 24 channels in the future.

But from a 'finishing your songs' perspective I think this is really only relevant for recording either multiple players at the same time or a drumkit.

DAWs

Once you have captured your sound you're going to need some way of processing the files, even if it's as simple as just recording another track on top of it. You could go 'old school' and buy a four-track cassette recorder but I really, really wouldn't recommend it. Please, just don't do this.

Instead you'll need a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). This is a bit of software that allows you to record, edit, over-dub, tweak, stretch, distort, polish and generally manipulate your recorded sound.

There are plenty of options here and they largely fall into two paradigms. There are the loop and sample-based DAWs like Ableton Live, that tend to have a preference for live performance and electronic music, and then there are the linear recorder type DAWs (Cubase, ProTools, Logic, Reaper) that are essentially more like a computer-based tape-recorder.

Quite a few of these DAWs come in multiple price points: basic free versions, low-cost middle versions with a few more features, and some really-quite-pricey full-fat versions. Others have a one-off flat fee for all you can eat, some are completely free. Most of them will do everything the others will do but in slightly different ways. Fortunately most of them also offer a trial period so you can have a play and see what works for you. If you've bought an interface then you might well find that it comes bundled with a version of one of them so that's a good place to start.

A few of them are platform-specific. If you've got a Mac then you'll probably have GarageBand already, if you like that but need more features then Logic is the next, ahem, logical step and is very reasonably priced for what you get. If you're on PC then Cakewalk by Bandlab is still available for free but is end of life.

Here's a few more pointers on choosing a DAW https://www.soundonsound.com/people/pick-a-daw , but the key thing is, make a choice and learn how to use it. Don't get bogged down in trying to see if one is better than another.

Monitoring

Once you've recorded your music you'll obviously want some way to listen back to it, that is to 'monitor' it. The cheapest and easiest way to do this effectively is with a pair of headphones.

Headphones, like microphones, are pretty mature technology in general. This means that you can get some really quite nice ones at reasonable prices. In an ideal world you would want two pairs: closed-back for when you're recording (so that no sound leaks from the headphones to the microphone) and open-backed for mixing as they'll give you a more spacious and natural sound.

Personally I'd start with a decent set of closed-back headphones as you can do both jobs on those and they're always useful things to have around in the future.

Headphones are not comfortable for everyone though (they cause my tinnitus to flare up after any kind of slightly extended use for example), and some things (like panning and reverb levels) can be more difficult to judge on headphones. So it can be very useful to have some speakers to listen on as well. Studio speakers are called monitors (not to be confused with the computer screen monitors) and are, guess what, another can of worms.

The other thing to remember about monitoring on speakers is that your room becomes part of the equation again. So if you're considering investing in monitor speakers, consider also investing in acoustic treatment for your room (this will be slightly different to your recording acoustic treatment sadly) or accept that you'll be doing the detail work on your headphones and using the monitors for cross checking. That's fine too.

Wrapping up

Gosh that's been a lot to cover, so let's recap:

You need a method of capturing your sound, you need a tool to manipulate the sound when you've caught it, and you need something to listen to it with.

That might be as simple as your smartphone, running Garageband, with your earpods.

It might be as complex as a multi-channel interface, many microphones, a fully-featured DAW and a set of studio monitors in an acoustically treated room.

Or anywhere in between.

So let's go back to intent. We're trying to finish our songs and get them recorded and produced. What's the minimum you need to do that? What, realistically, might you add to that minimum to allow you to work in comfort and give you a bit of future proofing? I'd start there and see how you get on.

Oh yes, one more thing, there is a great deal of snake oil and nonsense around recording gear. You have to use X for this, only Y can do that, professionals all use Z etc. etc. etc. Ignore it. You could give a real professional a couple of Shure SM57s, a Zoom H4n and a pair of half-decent headphones and they'll give you a professional quality recording. You can give an amateur full access to Abbey Road and it won't sound as good. It's not about the gear. (But it does help to use the right tool for the job.)

Don't take my word for it, just read the opening paragraphs of this SOS Inside Track article about Charlie Handsome: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ost-malone

As usual, you can find the rest of the blog and links that work (I can never get them properly sorted on here) here: https://roughtorelease.blogspot.com/

[amanise]

Just a thought on the choosing your first DAW bit from my ACID Pro experience. There's a bit of care needed in your first choice around support from the big plug in producers. As you know, none of the big guys test any of their software or hardware products for ACID Pro. Something happened somewhere - and they all dumped it. After all - you can't test for everything.

However, if your careful first choice of DAW was ACID Pro - because it was so friendly and easy to get going with - you're going to be reluctant to change it and start again. Part of this is just tough noogies, and we all have to adapt to change to stay relevant. But, these days, it's easy to take a look down the tracks at what the big software producers are testing for - so you don't adopt a product that makes every plug in module purchase a bit of a roll of the dice. Check what the big guys are testing for and major on those for choices.

[Drew Stephenson]

Good additional point sir. I shall add it as a comment on the blog site.
Thank you.

[amanise]

Good additional point sir. I shall add it as a comment on the blog site.
Thank you.

You're welcome - careful not to diss ACID Pro though - it's just one of those things and a good real world example of horizon scanning for future proofing. Also known as crystal ball gazing

[Drew Stephenson]

It's a good point. It's why so many serious photographers just stick to Canon and Nikon, you're not just buying a product, you're buying into an ecosystem.

[James Perrett]

I think the issue with Acid and choosing DAW software is that things change and move on. 20 years ago Acid was an interesting alternative and more mainstream than it is these days while Reaper didn't exist. Ableton Live has probably taken the place of Acid nowadays for people who want that style of music creation.

Big players like Cubase and Protools still exist but there are other newcomers who have become established like Studio One and Bitwig.

[Drew Stephenson]

"Last bumped by James Perrett on Sat Nov 02, 2024 4:47 pm."

Bit weird? Is this a side effect of the outages we've been having?

[IAA]

Drew, this series is great. Thoughtful and challenging (in a good way). It’s wide ranging but never loses it’s direction so well done. What I appreciate most is it’s clearly written by someone who has been there. I remember reading through the writers block piece and you describe staring at a ceiling rose by way of focussing on details, and I recognized in that sentence a man who like me as been in that room!

I also agree with, “Pick up a different instrument, even if it's one you can barely play. Where does this take you in terms of harmony and rhythm? How does it feel to struggle and wrestle with something?” I’ve pushed my guitar playing over the last year or so and it’s really pushed my compositions. Starting with riff ideas on guitar then taking those ideas to piano, very inspiring.

I’d be interested in your take on once you’ve had the idea, recorded it what next. I’ve just put my first release on Bandcamp under a band alter ego, ( ) with no publicity at all, deliberately,since just doing that kinda was the end point. But for my “proper” first release what options? I know you did some live streams and such, but for those of us who struggle with all the social media stuff what to do? Anyway congratulations on some great material.

[Drew Stephenson]

Hi IAA, thanks for the encouragement, glad someone is finding them interesting.
I will be coming to distribution strategies in due course, probably 2 or 3 chapters away, but as you'll be aware from my current success, or lack thereof, we're increasingly straying from my areas of expertise.

[IAA]

straying from my areas of expertise.

Nonsense!
Success is not to be mistaken with popularity!

Ian

[Drew Stephenson]

Ha! I'll bank that for future use.

[Arpangel]

straying from my areas of expertise.

Nonsense!
Success is not to be mistaken with popularity!

Ian

Thats true, millions pick their noses, but that's not to say it’s a good thing.

[Drew Stephenson]

Now this is the kind of comparison that I expect!

[tea for two]

Even when writing sensitive subtle songs being Bold in our sensitivity in our subtlety, having Courage to be sensitive subtle.

[Drew Stephenson]

I think if you're genuinely writing something that is personally meaningful (rather than writing to order or to formula) then there is a degree of courage required, because you're putting yourself on display. If you want to make a human connection to someone it requires exposing your own humanity.
I reckon.

[Arpangel]

If you want to make a human connection to someone it requires exposing your own humanity.
I reckon.

Struth, how true is that.
If you’re predominantly an instrumental composer you're not so exposed, all you can hope for is that the listener will vaguely get what it's about, and they’ll probably read into what they want anyway, it's worse if you’re a singer, you’re actually up there telling the listener what's going on in your life.