Hi, I'm Andrea Stolpe.
I'm going to talk about how to use imagery in our songwriting.
Imagery is when we engage the listener in the song
through the use of pictures, showing the listener,
instead of just telling them all about the song idea or the concept.
A lot of songwriting uses imagery.
In some songs, it's more obvious than in other songs.
Country music, for example.
It's often very easy to see the imagery at work,
because the listener is engaged in the scene.
We know where, and when, and to whom the song is happening.
But in other types of music, it's harder to see the imagery.
So I'm going to talk about how we can use
more imagery in whatever style of songs we write,
whether it's rock, or pop, or jazz, reggae--
and see how imagery creates a stronger experience for the listener,
engages them, and makes the song altogether more memorable.
So let's define first what imagery is and when we use it
in daily life, because song lyrics really
should be an expression of our own feelings, our own thoughts,
and with realistic language, language that we use every day.
So when we use imagery in our songs, let's think
about how we use imagery in everyday life so we can apply the same idea.
A good story needs small detail.
A small moment is when we engage the listener with a specific point in time
and the situation that's going on in that time.
In order to do that, I like to think about a song,
or at least the first verse of the song, like a conversation with the listener.
If you think about a conversation that you might have with a good friend--
not just an acquaintance where you say, hey, how's it going?
They say, I'm fine.
A little stressed lately, but you know, it's OK.
That's a surface interaction.
That's not really engaging communication between two people.
What I'm talking about is, in a conversation where we are opening up,
we are likely to begin with an introductory sentence or statement,
like, gosh, I'm really having a hard time lately.
That's telling.
I'm summarizing how I'm feeling, not yet getting into the detail.
And then the friend might say, really?
What's going on?
That's the invitation to get deeper.
And here's where sensory language starts.
In my mind, I'm going to think of that specific experience that
illustrates what I just said, how things are really difficult
or I'm stressed out.
So I'm going to go into that experience, the small moment, and describe it.
My father died recently.
Since that moment, I remember just being in my kitchen and the feeling
of that cold tile on my floor.
And I was staring at the neon glow of my phone.
And the hot tears were streaming down my cheek.
And my mom could barely talk and her voice was wavering.
And you know, I just-- the world feels different now.
I just don't know how to be.
OK, so in what I just told you, I began with--
the big thought was my father passed away.
But then I took the listener into the small moment
where I received the phone call.
The listener was perhaps able to be with me in that moment.
And then you might have felt at the end of that,
I drew out again to talk about my own feelings.
"I don't know how to be."
And so when we write with small moments in mind,
it's often this feeling of starting on the surface to summarize,
and then digging down deep to grab the meat of the situation,
and then surfacing again to summarize.
And through that experience the listener is able to truly engage with us
and feel the weight of the song.
And to write a believable situation, to truly engage the listener's emotions
to the extent and the depth of the emotion of the situation,
I have to be vulnerable.
I have to show instead of tell in the lyric.