How to set song lyrics to music and easily create a tune.
A non-technical guide for hands-on musicians & song writers.
Music for the Samuel Wehman songs – by Rick Townend
In this article Rick suggests some easy, non-technical ways that a musician or song writer can create a tune and set his lyrics or existing verse to it. This article was intended as a help for those wishing to perform songs from the Wehman Universal Songster.
When setting songs like those in the Samuel Wehman collection to music,
I can suggest a number of approaches which may help.
- The direct copying of a another tune that fits: Woody Guthrie, and many other song-writers, have found this worked well for them – Woody’s ‘The Reuben James’ is modeled almost exactly on the old Carter Family song ‘the Wildwood Flower’, with a repeat of the last two lines as a kind of chorus. But that hasn’t stopped the ‘Reuben James’ song from becoming another classic in its own right. So, if you sing a Wehman song to a tune you already know, you are following in a time-honoured tradition.
- Adapting another tune: A.P.Carter (of the original Carter Family) is probably the classic example of this, and in fact some of the Carters’ songs can be traced back to the Wehman collection. A.P. adapted words as well as tunes, so that the songs he ended up with for the Carters to record were often longer, shorter (the Carters had to work to a song-length of about three minutes, for a ‘78’ recording), or different in other ways from the original he had heard or read. Typical would be the addition of a chorus, perhaps with a modified tune, or simplifying a melody to fit in with the Carters’ home-spun sound – mainly using the three standard chords [see below] and with no minor harmonies.
- Letting your mind roll: I have to say that when I look at a Wehman song, almost automatically I start singing it - if not to a tune from a similar song, then to one which fits in with that great body of Victorian drawing-room ballads, as sung by the Carter Family and many, many others [Rick plays A.P.Carter in the Kent Carters – a tribute band to the original Carter Family, and has listened widely to their songs and similar recordings]. In general the atmosphere is nostalgic, home-loving, and with the feeling that, despite the hard times which surround us, there will be a happy ending, and hopefully a home-coming. Musically that means that the chord progressions are familiar, and the tune ends in a way which sets the mind and soul at rest.
Note to ‘letting your mind roll’: different people have different musical instincts and experiences, and if you find that the songs suggest to you a different feel or music from what I’ve set out, go with it! Your ideas may be the ones which catch on with audiences, so be true to your own purpose.
- Setting out to write something original: this is probably the most difficult and demanding approach, which will take you the most time – unless you are very lucky. But it may also be the most rewarding. Here are a few hints:
- The ideas you start with may not be the ones you end up thinking are best, so be prepared to discard bits of tune (or perhaps keep them in the box for a future song)
- Make a ‘brainstorm’ part of the composition process – collect together (writing down, or recording on a cassette-player etc.) as many ideas as possible, and review them later, to see which patterns emerge as your preferred direction
- Work with your instrument if you can – it will suggest ideas to you about chords and maybe also melody
- Keep singing the song as you go around the house, or work, or travelling. It will subtly change – probably for the better
- See if some melodic decorations come naturally to you – trills, slides, grittiness, spoken interjections etc.; they may or may not add something in the final reckoning, but they will help you make an atmosphere for your music
- If you do want to end up with something truly original, you are going to have to develop a good memory for all the songs and tunes you have ever heard, so that you can avoid plagiarism!
Getting a start to writing an original tune:
Something mechanical may help - for instance, pick a key-word of some sort – say wehman - write it out on a grid with the rest of the alphabet and give each letter a music value (A-G), like this:
w |
e |
y |
m |
a |
n |
b |
c |
d |
f |
g |
h |
ij |
k |
l |
o |
pq |
r |
s |
tuv |
xz |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
Now, spell out a word – perhaps part of the song you want to set - say ‘Farmhouse’:
- look up F in the top part – on the bottom line is the note C
- look up A in the top part – on the bottom line is the note E
- look up R in the top part – on the bottom line is the note D
- look up M in the top part – on the bottom line is the note D
- look up H in the top part – on the bottom line is the note E
- look up O in the top part – on the bottom line is the note B
- look up U in the top part – on the bottom line is the note F
- look up S in the top part – on the bottom line is the note E
- look up E in the top part – on the bottom line is the note B
So, you have C E D D E B F E B and let’s just add another C to end the phrase to make it ‘come home’ - C E D D E B F E B C. Play or sing that a few times, trying different rhythms; try it in waltz-time and in 4/4, fast and slow, with notes different lengths. If C is not your natural singing key, re-write the bottom row of the grid so that it reflects your voice. Now see if departing a bit from the phrase gives you something nicer – it probably will: this is just a start after all.
Some nuts and bolts of putting chords to traditional-style songs:
The ‘three-chords’ I mentioned above are a pattern deeply embedded in western music. If your song is in the key of C, the main chords are C, G and F. G is one fifth above C (counting up the normal major scale – C-D-E-F-G) and F is one fifth below (C-B-A-G-F). You can also get to those places by counting four in the opposite direction, but standard musical jargon refers to them as fifths. Similarly:
In the key of G the main chords are G, D and C
In the key of D the main chords are D, A and G
In the key of A the main chords are A, E and D
In the key of E the main chords are E, B and A
That may be all you want to know about chords. If you are curious about music and its structure you may see a pattern emerging: in fact if you go through all the possible chords, travelling a fifth interval each time, you get to this list: C-G-D-A-E-B-F#-C#-G#-D#-A#(=Bb)-F-C. You have covered all the white and black notes on the piano, and arrived back at C. This is called the cycle or circle of fifths, and there are some interesting things about it. For instance, if you take a chord – say B – and make it a ‘7th chord’ (B7) it ‘wants’ to go backwards around the cycle – to E. Make that E into E7th, and it too wants to go backwards, to A. If you play a chordal instrument – guitar, banjo, piano, autoharp, zither etc. – you can try this out and see how it works.
The point of all this is that, in the main, the Wehman songs seem to me to do best with a strong and standard harmonic structure and, if you are not confident about finding chords which match your tune, understanding or getting familiar with this bit of music theory may help you.
However, this is not to decry other approaches – for example a more modern chordal setting, with some non-standard chords and chord-changes thrown in. or an older traditional approach, singing the tune to a drone not which remains throughout the whole song, or a more Celtic or continental feel, with minor chords or set in 6/8 time, or make the song more classical-sounding, with a moving bass-line for your tune to run against.
I hope you enjoy investigating the Wehman collection as much as I have – good luck with the music.
Rick Townend
You may also be interested in other American Old Time Related items on this site:
399 Traditional Mainly old-time Songs, lyrics and chordswith PDF
Old-Time Songs With Chords, 249 old-time song lyrics with chords for guitar, banjo etc with PDF
Traditional American Old-time(Oldtimey) tunes and songs, 300+ tunes & lyrics, chords, sheet music & midis
TOP 1000 top folk and old-time songs,lyrics, chords for guitar, banjo, ukulele etc. +PDF
Wehman's Universal Songster, 6000+ old-time songs, 1884 to 1899 also with PDF & RTF
(This collection has been used as source material by many performers from the Carter family to Bob Dylan.)
Old Time Song Lyrics, 900+ songs from old-time artists
- such as Charlie Poole, Ernest Stoneman, Brad Leftwich etc, also with downloadable PDF and RTF versions.
Carter Family Songs with Chords, A fairly complete Carter family repertoire of 200+ lyrics, with chords
American Old time Music, 800 items, fiddle music, old songs etc, sheetmusic, chords
Also with guitar & mandolin tabs and downloadable midi tracks and PDF versions.
Common Session Tunes, 1600+ Guitar & Mandolin Tabs 1600+ guitar & mandolin sheet music midisIncludes many old-time tunes, also with downloadable PDF versions.
Country, Bluegrass and Southern Gospel songs, 1700+ lyrics,chords & PDF
The Play-party In Indiana, Traditional songs and games, notes, sheet music & lyrics
700 Old American Songs, folk,old popular & religious music genres, lyrics+PDF
'A full definition of old-time or 'oldtimey' music. You may also be interested in other Singing related Items on this site:
How to Sing, complete instruction book
How to Sing a Song, Voice and Body training for artistic song interpretation
Voice Training In Speech & Song, online tutorial with exercises
Training the Singing Voice, An Analysis Of The Working Concepts Contained In Recent Contributions To Vocal Pedagogy
Songwriters Lyric Helpers, Orthometry, Versification & Technicalities Of Poetry also with COMPLETE RHYMING DICTIONARY
How To Sing Bluegrass Harmony, easy tutorial by Rick Townend
Aural Culture Based on Musical Appreciation, exercises & tutorial material for sight singing
HOW TO SING PLAIN CHANT, the practical rules and methods for performance of this ancient form of Church Music
How To Write A Popular Song, A non-technical how-to-do it system for the aspiring song writer
How to set song lyrics to music and easily create a tune, A non-technical guide for hands-on musicians and song writers