Here are some thoughts on how to write your own Shanty.
- Take into account that it will be transmitted orally, so keep it simple.
- We love a 50% chorus 50% verse song. Call and response works even more easily.
- Remember that while the verse is important to you, most people don’t hear the verses you sing, so make the chorus singable.
- Consider “pirating” an existing shanty tune and changing the verse.
- Subject matter always helps – sing about the sea, sing about shanties, sing about pirates or sailors.
- Remember it’s not set in stone – i.e. it may take a few airings in public to take off the rough edges, the hard to sing bits and the bits no one can pronounce. It’s a living object, and you made it!
- Send me the lyrics and I’ll put them with the others!!
This is advice based on my experience with the Randy Shanty Clubs (Redfern, Surry Hills, Camperdown, Newtown, Chippendale…). Talk to me if you need more.
In my experience once you know what you want to write about, and with the assistance of a rhyming dictionary, you’re off to the races. But I’m a trained improviser, so I also think making a song is something you can just do when you want to, and it may be ephemera or it may endure!
