Song Time Durations….

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Jacki!!

We always start off going “with the creative flow” when writing a song but it’s happened more than once that at the end of the writing process we drop a verse or shorten a solo in order to “tighten up the song”.

We prefer the idea of keeping our original songs “short and sweet” (with a few exceptions where we needed more time to really let the song speak and unfold) rather than dragging them out too much by adding yet another chorus at the end. “Close To You” for example used to have an extra verse and so did “That’s Life”.

If we can get a story or idea across in less words we usually go for that option. 🙂 On average we try to aim for around 2-3 minutes but that’s only a rough guide.

When we record covers it’s usually the original version that determines the song length. We occasionally change the tempo or arrangement a little bit but the song length isn’t a big concern for us most of the time. Whatever happens happens and especially those early Beatles songs are usually so damn short anyway… they leave you wanting more 😉

It’s an interesting question though and fun to analyse our own creative choices when being prompted with a message like yours! Thanks a lot 🙂

Big hugs from all of us!

[Jacki Hopper]

Hi Mona… Thankyou kindly for your thought provoking and detailed reply…. I ‘m both fascinated and been educated by and have an even more appreciation for yet again what the whole songwriting and conjuring up  entails and the rest of the entire creative process …. I’ ve learned loads here…. I’m glad I had asked the Q…..

Big Hugs Back At You All too…

PS… Many a sighting of yellow and red Tulips out n about here… Our Tulip Festival has now begun…. Your inspiration is Groovifying in everything … ?

[Howard]

Oh dear! You know, Mona, you’ve now got me wanting to hear the longer version of those two songs, “Close To You” and “That’s Life”!

[Jung Roe]

Great question Jacki, and loved your insightful response Mona.  If a story or idea can be expressed in less words the better, and preference to keep a song short and sweet makes a lot of sense.  We see most of the Beatles music and a lot of great songs from that time rarely exceeding 4 minutes.  The same concept apply in professional speeches and presentations where short and sweet is much more effective in getting a point across than a long drawn out one.  Kind of like watering down a good soup too much and it just becomes bland and loses its impact.   I wonder as music progressed through the 70s and beyond, getting longer and longer, how many potentially great songs fizzled out because they were too long.