Marc Cohn: Music and Conversation

Welcome to Marc Cohn: Conversations with the Community.

In this blog Marc personally answers questions and responds to comments from community members from around the world, so if you have something you want to ask Marc or a comment you'd like to make, we'd love to hear from you. In addition, if you have plans to catch Marc LIVE during his upcoming "Music and Conversation" Tour, we'd also like to invite you to submit a question for a chance to have it answered by Marc, during his show.

Please note that due to the large volume of questions and comments that Marc receives, he may not be able to respond to everyone but we will certainly do our very best to get to as many as we can, so please check back often to see if your "conversation" has been published.

Thank you for reading; we hope you enjoy.

From Barb: The Songwriting Process

First of all thanks for this opportunity.

Marc:

During the songwriting process, which comes first the lyric or the melody or does it depend on the song?

Your music catalog is great, please keep adding to it!

Thanks!
Barb S.

Hi Barb-

Thanks for the kind words. The great songwriter Sammy Kahn ("Teach Me Tonight," "High Hopes") had a great answer for the question you asked about what comes first... the music or the lyrics. Sammy's answer?
 
The check!!! Ah...those were the days.

For me, more often than not, one seems to spark the other in a sort of back and forth race to the finish. If i have a fragment of a lyric i like, i will try to find a chord sequence that works with it right away. At that point, the meter of the words along with the beginning of a chord progression helps dictate a rough melody line. The reverse is also true. If i have a chord pattern i like, i'll immediately start trying to find words that fit the tone of what i'm playing. For the most part, in order to stay on the case as it were, i need to have some clues about both the music and the lyric simultaneously.
 
One or the other alone usually isn't enough to keep me on the trail.

I have on occasion finished an entire lyric without having any idea what the music will be. "Giving Up The Ghost" from Join The Parade was written as a poem first i guess. A few weeks later i wrote the music, decided i didn't think it was quite right somehow, and gave the lyric to my friend John Leventhal, who wrote the music that ended up on the record. I have an interesting demo of the original music that i wrote for the lyric...maybe i'll post it here one day so you can compare the two.

Like they say, talking about music is like dancing about architecture, but i hope that came close to answering your question.

i have about 20 pages filled with lyrics/ideas for this tune.
 
Because there was already an inherent rhythm to the words, i just kept writing without needing to get to an instrument right away. I may have had a working melody in mind while i was writing, but the lyric was finished without locking in any musical ideas. 

 

From Graham: Singing Advice

Hi,

Marc just wondering how you keep your voice in such great shape. Being an amateur singer sometimes I struggle if I've got more than a few gigs in a week; one night might sound great, the other can sometimes be a struggle. Just wondering if you use any products to help.

Anyways, keep rockin' and hope to see ya in England one day.
 
Your loyal fan
Graham
Tewkesbury
England

 

Graham-

Thanks for your question. Taking care of the voice is a tricky business, but here are a few suggestions.

1) I know that good engineers and good monitors aren't always on hand, but whenever possible, try and make sure you hear yourself well on stage. When you can't hear your voice properly, you'll have a tendency to push too hard (over-sing), and that's where a lot of problems start. I did roughly 100 shows promoting the last record and having my own monitors was the smartest thing i ever invested in as far as my voice was concerned.

2) Get a good cool air humidifier that can run overnight while you're sleeping. Dry air is terrible for the voice.

3) Try not to talk too much the day of a show. Talking (especially on the phone) is as taxing on the cords as singing.

4) Vocalzone is a soothing lozenge i use almost every night.

5) When all else fails, I recommend four to five sips of Brandy before you're about to sing. It does absolutely nothing for the voice, but you tend to worry a helluva lot less about it!

Hope this helps Graham.