Write your melody first

A mate of mine Nathan said he got some advice of a songwriter friend of his that you should write the melody for your song first, before you lay down the chords. It's good advice. The reason, I think, is so that your melody is allowed the creative space to develop and become more adventurous without being unconsciously restricted by the confines of a simple chord structure.

This kinda stuck with me because it articulated the problem I could never quite put my finger on, with the songs of many acoustic guitar-wielding singer-songwriters. And mine too I suspect. Often their chord structures are simple (which is fine of course) but then their melodies are also simple; just a sung version of the chords. It just makes for flat; predictable music. I'm not saying following this method necessarily solves the problem, but it might help shakes things up a bit.

Two guitars that sound the same

Normally it seems to make sense for two electric guitars to occupy different parts in the sonic range of a song. For example, one with more of a bassy sound might play sustained chords low down, while the other more trebly guitar might play repeated two-note arpeggios higher up.

But Cruiser by Red house painters ignores all this. It has two guitars sitting at exactly the same trebly level. At times it seems like both guitars are playing two simple parts of a whole, more complex, guitar part. But this structure is only hinted at as the separate parts change and evolve in syncopation and embellishment, at times overlapping and coming together but then moving further away from each other.

The result is a shimmery, off-kilter sound that not even a skillful guitarist could emulate.

Writing less

For ages I had Wordless chorus from My morning jacket in my head. This is a song that really takes the voice as an instrument seriously and allows it to do its own thing a bit and chart a melody separate from the underlying, simple chord structure and the lyrics themselves. Often when I'm writing songs I'll write way too much -- and also the stuff I write has too much of a literal note for word arrangement. I should write less and allow the voice to do more. Let it stretch out some words and part of words and clip others.