Solfeggio Lessons & Songwriting (part one)

Written by: Lynne T. Conte/Talent Manager

Adrienn Antal “AdryA”

One would ask who “AdryA” is. The true answer is circled by a beautiful story after her birth in Budapest, Hungary by Lajos Antal and Éva (Dévényi) Antal. It was then that Adrienn Antal “AdryA” would develop a “voice of an angel” delivering sound messages across the land worldwide. During her early age, Adrienn was noticed of her special musical talents. She was gifted with excellent ears, a sense for music, and a clean beautiful voice known as a “voice of an angel”. “AdryA” shares her ideas and advice on songwriting.

What is the definition of songwriter? A songwriter can be someone who’s a composer of words or someone who writes lyrics to songs; a songwriter also writes musical compositions (melody & tunes) to songs. A singer-songwriter is a talent who writes, composes their own songs, lyrics, melodies, sings and performs their songs.

Adrienn’s classical music talents grew and she learned piano & took Solfeggio (music theory) lessons in elementary school. Solfeggio is a vocal exercise in solfa syllables used instead of text to note the tones of the scale (solmization). To understand and learn about Solfeggio lessons, for vocalists, solmization is a system in which syllables, such as, solfa syllables (one of the names for notes) are used to designate the notes of a hexachord. A hexachord is a sequence of six tones with a semitone in the middle and the other tones being whole, the hexachord was used in medieval music. As we know, all music sounds have names because you can’t work with music elements without naming them. The base of music literacy is having the ability to connect names to music pitches, to read music, hear music in your mind by looking at a music score and reproduce it by singing or playing the composition. For one to acquire this skill, the soft way to Mozart piano learning method is by using Solfeggio (singing melodies by using names of music notes). Notes such as, Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti designed for singing, accepted worldwide for music notation for the last 900 years. Solfeggio lessons develop skills in musicians/vocalists by connecting a pitch of a note with its name and tying their ears together with the voice and brain. Solfeggio lessons will not neglect the fact that music perception involves vocal apparatus along with the auditory senses whenever hearing or playing a melody, Solfeggio lessons help singers sing along with the melodies inside their minds. After elementary school, “AdryA” began singing regularly creating complex songs with help of her synthesizer establishing light classical music.

Advice: “AdryA” states, “Always save your ideas, even if you have only two minutes left till you leave…Record them on a tape or on a HDD, don’t care about the quality for the first time. Or write a score…You never know which idea can be the road to a hit song”

Not only is Adrienn Antal gifted with musical talents, she loves to share her thoughts of how she composes her songs. Here are a few advices written by Adrienn Antal to share with all her readers and all who Love “AdryA”

Adrienn Antal says, “Writing a good song is a challenge. There are many different ways to do it, depending on the certain artist(s). After a long journey of experiences and skills, everyone will find the right method to use in the future.”

Adrienn also explains that to create, it’s an essential that your dare to make experiments, love adventure and love to explore becomes an existence. Once again, Adrienn Antal, “AdryA” is a songstress from Budapest, Hungary and has been an entertainer with music her musical talents since childhood. Adrienn enjoys sharing her experiences and advice with others so they can develop impulse, strength, encouragement and help.

Adrienn’s first part of songwriting advice:

1. “The seed, in Adrienn’s opinion, the real seed of a song is the inspiration: that’s where everything comes from, the deepest essence…The key to the gate of creating, Inspiration is something magical and mysterious that I can’t really describe, but if I tried, I would say it’s a kind of impulse that wants to be manifested by us. Inspiration always strikes us like a bolt from the blue, without counting on it, so never want it to come, it doesn’t work that way!”

2. “The idea, every song starts with an idea, which can be a short melody you suddenly hear inside, some words that will be a part of the future lyrics, a fine sequence of chords, a whole verse or refrain…Let me mention some possibilities that can be useful to find that special idea:

· You don’t necessary need an instrument in front of you. It may be enough just to croon or sing in the bathroom…But if you feel you have sung something really catchy, try to repeat it and then save it so you can work it out later!

· If you don’t have the opportunity to sing or croon, you can find out some melodies on the brain…For example, the idea of my best song came while I was sitting on a boring lesson and didn’t have the energy to listen to the lecturer LOL. Once I heard a great refrain in my mind, played by a whole band. I managed to memorize it (at least something really similar to the original theme) and recorded the idea as soon as I got home.

· It’s always an advantage if you can play an instrument. Improvisation is one of the best ways to collect ideas. If you are a singer also, it’s worth to sing along with some accompaniment. Never start to improvise on the purpose you want to write a song! Relax and abandon yourself to the music!

Like an embryo, develops into a baby, the idea becomes a complete song after going through a long and complex process. You don’t worry if your rehearsals are not successful; never give up! Sometimes it takes a lot of time and trials to get the right idea.”

3. “Working Out, maybe this is the most difficult session. It matters a lot how you complete the idea you already have. For example, it’s not enough if a song starts in a catchy way; you must pay attention to the continuation and think with the mind of a listener (if you write songs for the audience and not just for yourself…). If you haven’t written the lyrics and don’t know exactly what the topic will be but your idea has a special atmosphere, it’s pretty enough! Just follow your feelings and let the inner voice drive you! Words can come later - I think the instrumental version of a song may be a staff for writing lyrics.”

So here we have it, part one, advice about songwriting by Adrienn Antal “AdryA” all the way from Budapest, Hungary, leaving you with one more thoughts about lyrics:

4. “Lyrics, I have heard about many different ways to write lyrics. Just like songwriting, it depends on the artist how to do it. For me it’s always music that comes first, I like to feel the atmosphere of the song and hear the musical background because it inspires me. I let the vibes overrun my body and soul, start playing the music and sing along with it. I try to improvise with words…it’s the same process I do with melodies when I find out the main idea, but now I do it with words…If I have the first sentence or verse it is much easier to fill in the remaining gap.”

In my next article writing about Adrienn Antal’s “AdryA” advice about songwriting, I will write a little history on Solfeggio lessons.