Featured Songwriter: Debra Alexander
WGS: Tell us a little about yourself… How did you get started Songwriting?
DA: When I was 4 or 5 years old, I used to watch Roy Rogers and Dale Evans on TV. They’d sing and play guitar and ride horses, and I decided that was what I wanted to do. And then I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and that really did it. Those performances inspired me to be a songwriter. Also, for my 6th birthday, I saw my first movie, which was “The Sound of Music.”
WGS: What instrument(s) do you play? What instrument did you learn on?
My Mom taught me a little piano when I was very young, and then she got me a teacher when I was 8. I had 3 piano teachers over the course of my elementary and high school years, and my last teacher in High School was an Eastman graduate who prepared me for my college music auditions. I played percussion and then got recruited to play the oboe in band, and I sang in chorus. We had a great All-State chorus, and one of the highlights of my High School music experience was a singing under Robert De Cormier. In New York State, we had the NYSSMA piano music exams, and I had to play scales and arpeggios and several pieces from memory in front of a judge each spring. The stress I felt from performing in these adjudicated situations and in annual recitals propelled me towards writing my own songs. I figured if no one else had heard them before, and I forgot the words or made mistakes, no one would know! I got my first guitar when I was 14. It was a Norma from a Sears catalogue, and I watched Frederick Noad on Public Television to learn some basics. I taught myself how to play songs on the radio and got really into open tunings from listening to Joni Mitchell and having one of her song folios. I wrote my first song when I was 15.
WGS: Do you have Formal Musical Education?
I have a B.A. in Music. I went to a small liberal arts University in Springfield, Ohio that had an excellent music program, but it was geared towards sacred music. I entered as a piano major, but I switched to guitar my junior year and to voice in my senior year, because I wanted to be a singer-songwriter. I made my own program. I played with other students at the campus pub and for campus events, and also ventured into town to play open mics. I didn’t even know about Berklee at the time, but they didn’t have a songwriting program yet anyway. Though you wouldn’t call it ‘formal,’ I got a lot of hands-on music business and songwriting education when I quit my first job and moved to Nashville. I spent 5 years there doing all the things one does, but I learned more about what I didn’t want to know regarding the music business than what I did want to know about song craft and staying inspired. I did learn some song craft from weekly NSAI meetings and a workshop with Sheila Davis. When I later moved to Austin, I met Pat Pattison through the Austin Songwriters Group and that really sparked my songwriting education. THE ASG also brought in a lot of well-known teachers, like John Braheny, Josh Leo, David Cat Cohen, Jai Josefs, Molly-Ann Leikin, Pamela Oland…I learned from all of these people. I also took some classes at Austin Community College in MIDI and recording, and this led me to intern at the University of Texas Recording Studio. Years later I studied songwriting, recording, and style writing at Berklee via their online classes and their summer songwriting residency program.
WGS: What is your daily writing routine?
I do something songwriting-related every day, but I don’t write every day. I usually have 1-3 songs on the go, and I work on these in bits and pieces and then fill in the gaps with songwriting administration; things like updating my catalogue, recording “work tapes,” registering songs with SOCAN and ASCAP, making lead sheets, pitching, keeping up to date with industry news. I spend a lot of time listening to currently charting songs and researching pitch opportunities. I try to play and sing on a regular basis, but I generally spend more time working on lyrics.
WGS: How do you approach starting a song?
If I’m writing by myself, a song might start when I’m playing piano or guitar and I stumble upon some sort of riff or groove on a chord progression that catches my ear. Once I get a musical idea that evokes some sort of mood, I come up with something I want to say, and then I start writing the lyrics. If I’m writing with a co-writer, I might hand a composer a first draft of a lyric, and then we will go back and forth as the music gets written, revising both music and lyrics until the piece is finished. To write that first draft lyric, I frequently take an already-successful song lyric, and match the form and scansion line by line to come up with a completely new lyric of my own. In other co-writing situations, I am a song-finisher, and I work with my co-writer to flesh out some idea/hook that’s already in place. Sometimes I focus on developing or tweaking musical elements, but usually I’m looking at developing the lyrics.
WGS: How do you approach editing a song?
I like to get an idea of whether the song is communicating to the best of its ability. I’ll get a sense of that by performing it live or by getting a critique from trusted peers or pros—depending on the end-use intention for the song. Comments help direct my revision. Also, there is nothing like singing the lyrics over and over and getting the feel of the song in your own body to know if it’s on point. That’s the main thing: what’s the song about, and is it conveying that message in the most powerful emotional way through the marriage of the lyrics and the music? Beyond the main concerns of a good universal idea conveyed by a memorable melody within an appropriate song form, there are a myriad of small details that add up to the total effect
WGS: Do you prefer co-writing or writing solo?
I can certainly get a lot more writing done when co-writing. And there is nothing like sharing the experience of bringing a new song to life with someone you trust as a partner in that delicate task. But there is also nothing like being the sole author of a song and taking full responsibility for it.
WGS: How do you approach a co-writing situation? How do you prepare, how do you like to begin the session?
My strength is in song finishing. I do keep an idea book, but I love helping singer-songwriters who are prolific musical idea generators. They have tons of half-finished songs lying around and they need more material for performing. I want to help them write something they love so much they want to record it. So a session might begin with my co-writer playing a bunch of the ideas he or she has floating around and then deciding on one that we both get excited about. Sometimes people approach me with a specific song and ask if I want to work on it with them. So unless I’m providing a lyric for someone, I don’t prepare at all. I love that!
WGS: As a music and songwriting educator, what is the most common challenge new songwriters face?
Songwriters want to get their songs heard. Figuring out the puzzle pieces that are going to come together in order to allow the songs they write to reach the audiences they desire is a unique and organic process. It could involve a couple years of learning how to play piano or guitar from scratch, or it could mean one phone call to find the right collaborator.
WGS: What is the best thing a songwriter can do to take a song from good to great?
Not every song can be great. You can take a song that’s not communicating on a musical or a lyrical level and improve it, certainly. But a great song is an alignment of stars and planets and vision and desire and more often than not, you have to get out of its way to let it live and breathe.
WGS: How do you “fill the well” where do you find inspiration or generate new ideas for writing songs?
Every time I go out and hear music I get inspired; it can be in any genre. Hearing great songs performed live makes me want to go home and write. Playing piano and guitar can also inspire me. For piano, I love to practice chord progressions or blues scales or melodic patterns in every key, and when I make a mistake it can lead me in all sorts of directions. For guitar I love to experiment with open tunings and different placements of a short capo and a regular capo to come up with totally new sounds.
WGS: How can an emerging songwriter get the most out of working with a songwriting coach?
Songwriters would be well served to bring a work ethic that is matched by a willingness to explore their own creativity, and to recognize that the true goal of songwriting is to delight in the whole process of expression.
WGS: Do you have a song to share with us?
“Something So Sweet” (Suzie Vinnick, Debra Alexander)
WGS: Tell us a little about this song.
The first royalty check I ever got was a result of radio airplay for Suzie Vinnick’s recording of “Something So Sweet.” My friend and co-writer Kristi Magraw started a songwriter’s group where she and Suzie Vinnick and David Leask and I met up and exchanged new songs, gave feedback, did writing exercises, and broke off into different configurations to write. One night the assignment was to write from an existing chord progression, and Suzie came across one she liked in a music book Kristi had given us to spark our creativity. Suz had the idea of “something so sweet” and came up with the melody and first couple lines, “wish I could tell you goodbye / let you go when I cry” and I just fell in love with it and kept working on the lyric for months. I was teaching in New Hampshire at the time, and we sent a bunch of e-mails back and forth. Then Suzie recorded it for her “33 Stars” album. It’s still the most successful song in my catalogue.
WGS: Where can you be reached?
Songwriter and Music Industry Pro Teacher Debra Alexander guides passionate songwriters of all ages and levels to write standout songs and have fun with performances. She can be reached at www.wordmavenmusic.com.
