A great reminder that song writing is so much more than feel or waiting for inspiration. It requires exercise and discipline, just like sports, a daily flexing of creative muscles to find new improvements and exploration. I find that it is often painfully hard, just like straining to lift weights, but amazing when you break through to new areas.
How? I think I may have written songs without chords too but as a composer, I always feel the adjacent colors of the song even so. It messes me up big time when something is digitally transposed. In my head, I hear the original tones and anything other than that makes the entire song different and maybe wrong?
35 years and this may be the BEST and most helpful advice on writing song LYRICS, I’ve ever encountered. The breakthrough comes when you can take the outcome of these exercises and blend it with motif and melody.
1) Object writing 10 minut freewriting by sences. Start with object. Focus on senses. 2) No rhyme - fx Jermy (Pearl Jam), use storytelling. Use senses. The story are in focus. 3) Write a 2 chords song or 1 chord or no chords. Use contrast and melody. 4) Write an AABA song form (no chorus). At repeated line. A centerpeace. Refrainline. I'm gonna find another you (John Mayer), Angeles (Elliot Smith) 5) Upgrade your verbs.
The most useful practice is analyzing songs by an artist whom you admire, spending a whole month just scouring their discography and just reading their lyrics and trying to find what made you like them in the first place, then another month listening to the music, and another month doing both and seeing why they get along so well.. because liking a songwriter is a rarity, you may love hundreds of songs but you can’t love more than 4-5 artists at most, so there’s something for you to there and because you felt it you should be able to find it and, rightly, use it.
One of my favorite writers is Norman Blake. He wrote two songs that really grabbed me. One is called Ginsing Sullivan, about a fellow he'd known as a kid who harvested and sold the herb ginsing. He was getting old and didn't want to live in Georgia any longer. He was lamenting that he would probably never return to his home state of Mississippi. The other song is about a fellow who was perhaps a decade or two older than the teller that influenced him and made a lasting, deep impression on him for life. It presumably took place during the Depression era. It was the recalling of a relative that came to live with his family. It was called Uncle. These and most of Mr. Blake's songs all tell a story that can paint a very distinct picture in one's mind. Also, there is Gordon Lightfoot and the late John Prine, to name a couple more. I have tried to emulate this style of telling a story in song.
One observation I gave a bandmate of mine once that improved his melody writing 100% overnight was this: Contrast in duration, pitch, and parts. Long tones followed by short tones, Lower pitched notes concluding in high notes or vise versa, and whatever way you do that for the verse do the oppposite for the chorus. Also contrast dynamics, soft to loud, etc. Simple example would be Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Low soft verse lines alternating phrases quick to long duration notes, build in pre-chorus to high pitched loud long tones for chorus. A single phrase melody can resolve in pitch and a change in duration at the same time. So you do it within each phrase as well, not just from verse to chorus.
I’ve been writing songs since I was in high school when I was just learning to play. I’ve always had the melodies in my head. So far every example you have given I have written songs like that not knowing that this was an approach or a craft or a technique… I just ended up with songs just like you’re explaining. Cool video, thanks feeling good about everything!!!!
This video is a masterclass on how to speak vaguely with as much filler as possible. After 12 Minutes they managed to speak on ground level "tips" without actually expanding on them.
Idk. If you've read "Writing Better Lyrics", their explanations of the topics were all pretty good. You have to remember that describing the songwriting process is not at all akin to something straightforward like how to sharpen a knife or put together a chair. There's a million different ways to do it and at the end of the day you just have to trust yourself from the intuition you've built from writing prior songs. Even if you've never wrote a song, you just gotta keep "sculpting" until you have something somewhat considered complete. I remember reading "How to Write One Song" (also mentioned here) and by the end of it, I still didn't feel like he achieved a thorough walkthrough or anything. And I'm not sure that walkthrough even exists. If you happen to have come across content that has achieved this please let me know. But then again you probably wouldn't be here if that were the case. Just remember, songs are simply musical sections strung together. And music is rhythm, melody, and harmony. Lay down a rhythm and a progression, hum a melody over it, and repeat for each section. It's not always going to sound great but it's always more important that you're creating as opposed to thinking about how to create. Intuition + happy accidents.
I have always relied upon the “Stream of consciousness” approach. I choose a word or a phrase and generate ideas from that. These five strategies are very interesting and I will delve into this and study them. Thank You very much for your ideas and experiences.
Repetition of the key words is very useful. Call and response words and phrases drive the song's concepts and intention home. Creating a rhythmic hook supported by percussion is powerful. The use of drums to accent key words and hooks is a great songwriting tool.
Great info. I’m also one of Pat Pattison’s former Berklee students. For lyric writing, he’s the man! I recently turned one of my students on to that Jeff Tweedy book too. Very cool. Always good to be reminded of the many techniques available to us to create more powerful songs. Thanks so much. Looking forward to hearing more from you guys.
I've written AABA form a few times, and it's always an interesting experience because for some reason my mind always thinks the B still has to feel like a hook or a chorus, even though it won't repeat. So I end up writing a song that focuses strongly on building up to the single "B" section and moving on from it once it's done. Come to think of it, I have worked on most of these things in the process of learning to be a better and more consistent songwriter. The idea of strong and weak verbs in particular -- and where to use each kind -- is something I've become very familiar with. And I *would* very much make the argument that there *is* a place for weak verbs in songwriting. One example would be if you want a whole verse that emphasizes one action but you want to have other actions that set it up. So in that case, only using strong verbs for that central action, and deliberately choosing weaker ways to describe the rest, will make that central action stand out and feel bigger.
@@iamdanielmusic17 I do my own vocals, thanks. Saves money if not always time :) And I manage to contort my voice into these strange animalistic forms that I doubt many other vocalists would want to do, even if they managed to figure out how :D Ultimately, I've got the best idea of how the things I write want to be performed, and I'm lucky and practiced enough to have the ability to make it happen.
@Jefferson Keane When I go that far I kinda lose track and just write by what feels like it should come next :) On a more electronic/experimental side, Skinny Puppy does a great job with progressive structures like that.
Thinking of the B section as a bridge can help. Bridges in classic AABA songs provide a contrast to the A section, but also lead back there. In other words they are almost built backwards from the last A to the second A. The bridge in I've got rhythm is a classic example: D7 / G7 / C7 / F7. In other words a back-cycle of secondary dominants that lead back to Bb major. It's all about where you are heading...
I have relied on emotion and inspiration. I try to write in a poetic form, I count syllables and I strive to make things rhyme. Trying to say what I want to say and say it within the boundaries I have set can make me say things I didn't realize I wanted to say. I have written music around lyrics that were not in a simple poetic form and didn't rhyme. They were not my lyrics but a found collaborator. My late daughter wrote them in a journal, and I composed music for them. I have found that reading often inspires me. A book, a story, a poem or just one line can trigger something and inspire a song.
A trick i would apply to myself and only unsuccessfully with others, the usual result being distractive from the goal of production would be to play a song in 5 different styles. Demonstrates our reliance on cliché and expands understanding of varieties of cultural expression we often ignore. Great show, thanks.
I'm so glad I found this channel! Powerful teaching, it's like gold to someone like me who has a deep desire to write songs. Thank you so much! I took notes on this particular video. I can't wait to try it out.
Discovered a great exercise recently where you begin with choosing 5 words that pack the most emotional weight you can think of. Then, you write 4 separate pieces that each contain all 5 of those words in different ways. It tends to get better with each time and you can easily come up with some powerful "magic".
One thing I used to do was when I learned a new theoretical idea, I’d try to write a song. For example learning that a Dominant 7th naturally pulls to a major 7th 1/2 a step below the chord. So Bb7 resolves nicely to Amaj7. Then exploring grooves, chord progressions or melodies that work over that has inspired some ideas.
One thing I thought about with she slithered into the room would also help identify what this person is as a object to help write a better story about your subject so the verb upgrade might help you come up with a better subject to write about. Just a thought. Could help with writers block...
I wrote a punk song inspired by a radio show on classical music. There were two ideas I got from the show; the first was about how Schumann wrote a piece based on the letters in the name of a woman he met - GEDA. The second was about inversions - playing the same thing backwards or upside-down. So I wrote a song called Egg where the main riff went EGG and it had a part where everything was backwards.
The song 'I'd rather go blind', Christine Perfect surprisingly is just a 2 chord song.. It's got such a beautiful, full, bluesy feel, so, it can be done!
Discovering AABA/ABBA was an eye opener for me. Until I went further and started to explore folk songs and blues, which have similarly/identically structured verses lined up with no chorus whatsoever. Gives you a New level of challenge and a New level of experience with lyrics
I tried so hard to rhyme, but eventually I just said screw it and tried get to the point lol. The message and story is much more interesting than rhymes, and it also opens up more creative possibilities. Thank you for the video I learned a lot!
Thx for all the tips! Wow-such a blast from the past. All the Pat Pattinson tips-def remember the object writing exercise is his class, and writing in AABA.
#5 - Upgrading verbs has transformed my lyrical writing. My goal is to convey action memorably, whilst giving the listener room to fill in the rest. “She scratches a letter…into her wall, made of stone” from Why Go by Pearl Jam has always stuck with me. Bonus: The way it is phrased builds the intensity of the image. “She scratches a letter”- 🤔 “into her wall”- 😳 “Made of stone”-🤯😢
Finally, a songwriting channel that gives great advice without being boring! So many of these people who make videos about writing songs convince me that they're probably incapable of writing a good song because they can't even make an interesting video. It reminds me of a quote; "writing about music is like dancing about architecture" -anon.
Does anyone know if she went to Berklee??? I jest, awesome video, really helpful and I'm going to try some of these right away and keep working on it going forward.
The most useful exercise I found prior to many in this video was to take all songs that are about a period of time (eg the story of a romance that was so right and then turned wrong) and distill them to a single moment in time (eg the moment you knew it was over). The "love story" song is nice, but that "it's over" moment is powerful. I'd already learned about the 2-chord song, and have used that with surprising success.
This was great. I've done a few of these exercises before and now I have some new ones to try. Thanks 😁 Writing a response to a song was a fun thing I did not too long ago. Also limiting your words was a cool practice for me since I tend to talk a lot I thought it would be interesting to have the music do more of the talking than me.
My new favorite channel! I suspect i will not be over this soon and i will hear my wife say "How many times are you gonna watch that video"? You are both excellent teachers. Bless you richly for sharing your craft, i will do the same from it. ADDI
Jeremy is a masterpiece in every way! The lyrics are just the icing on the cake and yes, it's very impressive how you don't even realize they don't rhyme because you're sucked into the story and mood right away!
What a delightfully useful video. This is my introduction to your channel and wow, what a treasure. I needed to hear this today and look forward to employing these exercises in my music and writing in general. Thanks for these exercises.
2nd or 3rd time i watched this.. still informative.. i took one of ur songwriting classes, awesome stuff that really explained a bunch of stuff! I find revisiting these vids opens up gaggles of ideas! Thx for it all… and im gonna keep watching and learning! Thx again! ….oh, stable vs unstable line lengths would b a great topic!
One chord songs are a tradition in Mississippi Hill Country Blues… artists like R.L. Burnside, Fred McDowell, and even some Howlin Wolf and John Lee Hooker songs stay on the Tonic chord for the entire song. Bo Diddley, too. If the song has enough drive to it, it can be quite hypnotic. Most of those songs don’t use rhymes either, so there’s 2 of 5.
Best 2 Chord song I can think of is Horse With No Name by America. Great lyrics and melody, then of course the chorus and 'after chorus' the LA, la part... good stuff
I'm really enjoying this video and it's very timely for me at the moment, but just pausing the video to say another example of a song without any rhymes is Richard Dawson - Jogging. Like Jeremy it is dependent on an emotional connection with the story, which is sometimes easier to write when you're not trying to rhyme certain words. It also jolts you out of the mind's desire to predict what's coming, which helps the story flow more naturally.
I typically play riffs then write the melody BUT now Im thinking write 2 chord songs get the melodies super good and hooky then riff. Subbed cause you 2 just blew my mind. In a good way!
Thanks for the term "time poor" at the end of the video. It was a concept in my head for years and now I get the exact name for it. In my case I'm "time rich".
thanks, very interesting. I have only mostly co. written a handful of songs. However I have continuously been immersed in he Folk Music Scene since the late 1960s Folk music is not all about Dylan. In fact it rarely is. We have traditional songs, but also within our culture, we have a very large number of very gifted song writers. I'm not terribly conversant with pop, rock or middle of the road music. However what I do notice, is that our songs are often very different from commercial songs. Our songwriters, often write songs about things. not self indulgent me, me , I, I , love songs. Many of our writers convey powerful stories and messages. Folk Music has always been the first persons history of a time or country. I don't see a lot of that in the music I hear over the radio, etc.
I’m just gonna slither into these comments to say I really appreciate this video! Very helpful! I appreciate how you cited sources and literature in the video as well!
Great video. I can come up with a melody pretty easily, but struggle with lyrics somewhat. Thankfully my song writing partner is pretty handy at lyric writing.
Wow wow wow I love this channel so happy I just found it. I am someone who has played in bands my whole life and written many songs, but am now trying to write completely on my own and all of these little insights are so helpful and welcome. Thank you.
Thanks Brendan, very kind of you and glad you're enjoying the channel! Please let us know if there are specific topics you'd like us to cover and we'll put them on our production schedule. Cheers
@@htws thnaks so much for the reply. I would say the number one roadblock I always hit is when writing a song, and having a killer section/riff/chord progression, knowing where to go from there. I am predominately a guitar player and sometimes I'll just fish around the neck. Sometimes I'll stare at the circle of fifths and try and let it point me in a good direction but I am so often like "Ok so this prog ends on Bb and I want the next section to lift, or drop, or get sad or get heavy." and that's where the fishing expedition starts. If you have any tips or advice on letting a part or section lead you to the next I think a lot of people would find it really useful. Keep going, you've already made a grrat channel.
Hi, loving the content. As much as you teach and throw ideas out there i cant but help doing whatever comes to mind and feeling. Whatever sounds good feels good. Theory and learning is great. Have come to learn that instinct and intuition has ruled my writing. Look forward to your next video.
Thanks, Jeremy! If there's every videos, tutorials, or topics you'd like to see (or see more of), please let me know here: facebook.com/keppiecoutts/posts/5788800087813751
Songs just come as a compilation of feelings and or ideas and sometimes it takes me years (8years) or 1 24 hour period. Think axl rose on November Rain and the scribblings on a pizza box at 4 in the morning that was sweet child of mine.
"I think if you've had to use an adverb, it means that the verb wasn't the right verb." Yes, brilliant! (Now if only we could get journalists to pin that on their laptops!) Great video, thanks -
Writing a song about a character in a story! I write songs and stories and was blocked with both so I tried it and it's one of my favorite songs of mine!
Song writing comes from the heart. If it comes easy for you, then you have talent. No education is needed, its like breathing, it comes natural. If you know about international songs you'll understand that songwriting has one " rule " , let it bring life to the listener.
I kind of accidentally recently wrote a song with either no chords or a single chord. This was mainly because I just created a beat and bass-line groove centered on the root chord. It did help to force me to use the melody to drive the song. I did go back after the vocal melody was written and added chords, which worked out well to add some more impact, but had I written the chords first, I'm not sure the melody would have been as strong.
6. Look at songs you like and copy their form. 7. Write about a personal experience - this is relatable and authentic. 8. Solo over the bridge and chorus not the verse. 9. Let the music reflect the emotion in the song. 10. Make up your own rules.
Good advises, yesterday I was listening for the same purposes the structure of a famous french singer Jean Louis Murat song "qu'entends tu de moi que je n'entends pas", its simple structure is a good example of a song architecture I wish I could master .
Thanks for these! 1. “Object writing”: very unclear. You mentioned what it is not, but I feel you should have given one example. Pencil, so what, what “senses” there with pencil?? Then you make allusion that it can branch into personal memories. So is it senses or memories/associations? Most of the things that move me have ZERO “senses” (the magnitude of someone’s gesture, the elegance of someone’s attitude, the selflessness of a stranger…
Thank you for the tips. I plan on trying the "write without rhyme" and "AABA" exercise. [See I made a public declaration, and now I have to keep my promise or loose face. ;)] Background: I'm creating lyrics without a particular melody in mind. I want my lyrics to be inetersting (varied) but I don't want my lyrics to be hell on earth to be sung. Question: Do you have advice on designing the length of a phrase/line? There appears to be so many ways of grouping strong and weak beats. Are there rules of thumb? What patterns are common? Are there patterns typically used for verse versus chorus? What does ending a line on a strong versus a weak beat do for the emotional message? Can I replace a line of 5 (odd) strong beats with 3 or 7 (odd) strong beats? What are possible problems of doing this? Any help on designing the number of "beats" per line would be greatly appreciated.
Great video from some fellow Aussies! Can't wait to try this out for some new songs I have underway. Although I get the feeling this might make me cringe at some of my previous lyrics. Haha. Ah well. Can only look and move forward to get better. Subscribed. 😁👍
@@htws Got a song I'm trying to write { completely } . Once finished , how do I successfully get a celebrity singer to record the song for me on social media ? ♑️✍️🇦🇺🇳🇴
Great suggestions. Another might be to try writing a song outside of your comfortable genre(s). If you have never written a Country song (for example), try one! I did this by imagining that a Country artist had asked me to write a song for him or her.
That beautiful song on Elton's Tumbleweed Connection album with 2 chords, E-9 A sus. " Love is what we're for, do you know what I mean". I forget the title but it's the best 2 chords song there is.
there are some classic songs in AABA form with the refrain line at the end of each A section - 'Still Crazy After All These Years' by Paul Simon - 'Cry Me A River' - Julie London... and then a great modern example is 'Nothing' by Bruno Major
A great reminder that song writing is so much more than feel or waiting for inspiration. It requires exercise and discipline, just like sports, a daily flexing of creative muscles to find new improvements and exploration. I find that it is often painfully hard, just like straining to lift weights, but amazing when you break through to new areas.
Thank you
I find songwriting very easy. I could be at work and boom!! the song just hits me
Stop trying to make it sound like ur doing an actual job. Ur not and thats why its different
I highly recommend Stephen Pressfield's incredible book "The War of Art" - it delves into that aspect very well.
Yes! Feel the feeling and write write write. It may feel forced at first but you have to start somewhere. The zone will come eventually.
"If you have to use an adverb, you're not using the right verb." I love that!
I like the "no chord" song idea. I've written lots of songs without chords. I even stepped it up a notch and wrote them without lyrics too.
How? I think I may have written songs without chords too but as a composer, I always feel the adjacent colors of the song even so. It messes me up big time when something is digitally transposed. In my head, I hear the original tones and anything other than that makes the entire song different and maybe wrong?
What songs are you writing then? Jazz-Whistle? 😅✌
a song with no chords, no lyrics, no melody😩
@@t.augustusromer5503 it's easy, I just don't pick up my instrument and don't write at all
LOL hahaha Mike. I wish. I'd be more free
35 years and this may be the BEST and most helpful advice on writing song LYRICS, I’ve ever encountered. The breakthrough comes when you can take the outcome of these exercises and blend it with motif and melody.
1) Object writing 10 minut freewriting by sences. Start with object. Focus on senses.
2) No rhyme - fx Jermy (Pearl Jam), use storytelling. Use senses. The story are in focus.
3) Write a 2 chords song or 1 chord or no chords. Use contrast and melody.
4) Write an AABA song form (no chorus). At repeated line. A centerpeace. Refrainline. I'm gonna find another you (John Mayer), Angeles (Elliot Smith)
5) Upgrade your verbs.
Thanks
Thanks I was just about to do the same thing!! saved me time.😁
They look at each other so lovingly 😍
@@TheMightyKingzuru and they both have a ring😶🌫
The most useful practice is analyzing songs by an artist whom you admire, spending a whole month just scouring their discography and just reading their lyrics and trying to find what made you like them in the first place, then another month listening to the music, and another month doing both and seeing why they get along so well.. because liking a songwriter is a rarity, you may love hundreds of songs but you can’t love more than 4-5 artists at most, so there’s something for you to there and because you felt it you should be able to find it and, rightly, use it.
“You can’t love more than 4-5 artists at most.”
With all due respect..
LOL
Yeah, the one red flag in that comment lol
One of my favorite writers is Norman Blake. He wrote two songs that really grabbed me. One is called Ginsing Sullivan, about a fellow he'd known as a kid who harvested and sold the herb ginsing. He was getting old and didn't want to live in Georgia any longer. He was lamenting that he would probably never return to his home state of Mississippi. The other song is about a fellow who was perhaps a decade or two older than the teller that influenced him and made a lasting, deep impression on him for life. It presumably took place during the Depression era. It was the recalling of a relative that came to live with his family. It was called Uncle. These and most of Mr. Blake's songs all tell a story that can paint a very distinct picture in one's mind. Also, there is Gordon Lightfoot and the late John Prine, to name a couple more. I have tried to emulate this style of telling a story in song.
Great info!!!!’ For myself at least. ..
Jason Isbell, Tom Waits, Wilco, Charles Bukowski, Lightning Hopkins are on my list. Namaste 🙏
If you spend all your time listening to how one artist does it your just gonna end up being a copy of said artist.
One observation I gave a bandmate of mine once that improved his melody writing 100% overnight was this: Contrast in duration, pitch, and parts. Long tones followed by short tones, Lower pitched notes concluding in high notes or vise versa, and whatever way you do that for the verse do the oppposite for the chorus. Also contrast dynamics, soft to loud, etc.
Simple example would be Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Low soft verse lines alternating phrases quick to long duration notes, build in pre-chorus to high pitched loud long tones for chorus. A single phrase melody can resolve in pitch and a change in duration at the same time. So you do it within each phrase as well, not just from verse to chorus.
I play guitar but you are right, this is trade secrets..
I've just learned an amazing thing for songwriting
I’ve been writing songs since I was in high school when I was just learning to play. I’ve always had the melodies in my head. So far every example you have given I have written songs like that not knowing that this was an approach or a craft or a technique… I just ended up with songs just like you’re explaining. Cool video, thanks feeling good about everything!!!!
This video is a masterclass on how to speak vaguely with as much filler as possible. After 12 Minutes they managed to speak on ground level "tips" without actually expanding on them.
Idk. If you've read "Writing Better Lyrics", their explanations of the topics were all pretty good. You have to remember that describing the songwriting process is not at all akin to something straightforward like how to sharpen a knife or put together a chair. There's a million different ways to do it and at the end of the day you just have to trust yourself from the intuition you've built from writing prior songs. Even if you've never wrote a song, you just gotta keep "sculpting" until you have something somewhat considered complete.
I remember reading "How to Write One Song" (also mentioned here) and by the end of it, I still didn't feel like he achieved a thorough walkthrough or anything. And I'm not sure that walkthrough even exists. If you happen to have come across content that has achieved this please let me know. But then again you probably wouldn't be here if that were the case.
Just remember, songs are simply musical sections strung together. And music is rhythm, melody, and harmony. Lay down a rhythm and a progression, hum a melody over it, and repeat for each section. It's not always going to sound great but it's always more important that you're creating as opposed to thinking about how to create. Intuition + happy accidents.
I have always relied upon the “Stream of consciousness” approach. I choose a word or a phrase and generate ideas from that.
These five strategies are very interesting and I will delve into this and study them. Thank You very much for your ideas and experiences.
One song writing drill I love I the 7 mins drill
You pick a topic then write as song about that topic for 7 mins
Yea, delve, delve
Pelve
Shelve
Elve
@@karimbrown2029
Yea, drill drill
Pill
Kill
Pill
Repetition of the key words is very useful. Call and response words and phrases drive the song's concepts and intention home. Creating a rhythmic hook supported by percussion is powerful. The use of drums to accent key words and hooks is a great songwriting tool.
Great info. I’m also one of Pat Pattison’s former Berklee students. For lyric writing, he’s the man! I recently turned one of my students on to that Jeff Tweedy book too. Very cool. Always good to be reminded of the many techniques available to us to create more powerful songs. Thanks so much. Looking forward to hearing more from you guys.
I've written AABA form a few times, and it's always an interesting experience because for some reason my mind always thinks the B still has to feel like a hook or a chorus, even though it won't repeat. So I end up writing a song that focuses strongly on building up to the single "B" section and moving on from it once it's done.
Come to think of it, I have worked on most of these things in the process of learning to be a better and more consistent songwriter. The idea of strong and weak verbs in particular -- and where to use each kind -- is something I've become very familiar with.
And I *would* very much make the argument that there *is* a place for weak verbs in songwriting. One example would be if you want a whole verse that emphasizes one action but you want to have other actions that set it up. So in that case, only using strong verbs for that central action, and deliberately choosing weaker ways to describe the rest, will make that central action stand out and feel bigger.
If you need a singer-songwriter or rapper for your beats check out this link: th-cam.com/video/IQddWvv9dmc/w-d-xo.html
@@iamdanielmusic17 I do my own vocals, thanks. Saves money if not always time :)
And I manage to contort my voice into these strange animalistic forms that I doubt many other vocalists would want to do, even if they managed to figure out how :D
Ultimately, I've got the best idea of how the things I write want to be performed, and I'm lucky and practiced enough to have the ability to make it happen.
@@SplotchTheCatThing ok
@Jefferson Keane When I go that far I kinda lose track and just write by what feels like it should come next :)
On a more electronic/experimental side, Skinny Puppy does a great job with progressive structures like that.
Thinking of the B section as a bridge can help. Bridges in classic AABA songs provide a contrast to the A section, but also lead back there. In other words they are almost built backwards from the last A to the second A. The bridge in I've got rhythm is a classic example: D7 / G7 / C7 / F7. In other words a back-cycle of secondary dominants that lead back to Bb major. It's all about where you are heading...
I love how these two people listen to each other :)
I have relied on emotion and inspiration. I try to write in a poetic form, I count syllables and I strive to make things rhyme. Trying to say what I want to say and say it within the boundaries I have set can make me say things I didn't realize I wanted to say. I have written music around lyrics that were not in a simple poetic form and didn't rhyme. They were not my lyrics but a found collaborator. My late daughter wrote them in a journal, and I composed music for them.
I have found that reading often inspires me. A book, a story, a poem or just one line can trigger something and inspire a song.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine your pain. Was she a song writer too?
A trick i would apply to myself and only unsuccessfully with others, the usual result being distractive
from the goal of production would be to play a song in 5 different styles. Demonstrates our reliance
on cliché and expands understanding of varieties of cultural expression we often ignore. Great show, thanks.
I'm so glad I found this channel! Powerful teaching, it's like gold to someone like me who has a deep desire to write songs. Thank you so much! I took notes on this particular video. I can't wait to try it out.
Discovered a great exercise recently where you begin with choosing 5 words that pack the most emotional weight you can think of. Then, you write 4 separate pieces that each contain all 5 of those words in different ways. It tends to get better with each time and you can easily come up with some powerful "magic".
Care to elaborate a bit more? Or is there a video you could link?
thank you for this!! Also you guys look like u really love each other 🥺
Why you think so?
🤣🤣
REM did so many beautiful songs, from the abstract to sugary, throwaway pop.Michael Stipe really is a genius.
The advice on verbs is some of the best advice you can give on writing ... and it goes for ANY kind of writing.
Mind mapping is something I use all the time.
Rule #5 is the best one. (Upgrade your verbs).... That's how you make your song more powerful. Yes sir. Thank you.
One thing I used to do was when I learned a new theoretical idea, I’d try to write a song. For example learning that a Dominant 7th naturally pulls to a major 7th 1/2 a step below the chord. So Bb7 resolves nicely to Amaj7. Then exploring grooves, chord progressions or melodies that work over that has inspired some ideas.
One thing I thought about with she slithered into the room would also help identify what this person is as a object to help write a better story about your subject so the verb upgrade might help you come up with a better subject to write about. Just a thought. Could help with writers block...
I wrote a punk song inspired by a radio show on classical music. There were two ideas I got from the show; the first was about how Schumann wrote a piece based on the letters in the name of a woman he met - GEDA. The second was about inversions - playing the same thing backwards or upside-down. So I wrote a song called Egg where the main riff went EGG and it had a part where everything was backwards.
Upgrading your verbs is my strongest advice for creative writing aspiring authors.
The song 'I'd rather go blind', Christine Perfect surprisingly is just a 2 chord song.. It's got such a beautiful, full, bluesy feel, so, it can be done!
amazing exercises!!! thank you
You’re most welcome! Enjoy
Discovering AABA/ABBA was an eye opener for me. Until I went further and started to explore folk songs and blues, which have similarly/identically structured verses lined up with no chorus whatsoever. Gives you a New level of challenge and a New level of experience with lyrics
I tried so hard to rhyme, but eventually I just said screw it and tried get to the point lol. The message and story is much more interesting than rhymes, and it also opens up more creative possibilities. Thank you for the video I learned a lot!
Thx for all the tips! Wow-such a blast from the past. All the Pat Pattinson tips-def remember the object writing exercise is his class, and writing in AABA.
Finally two wondrous song writers that really know what they are talking about.
😂
Love Pat P.
I had 3 different courses with him in the late 70s
#5 - Upgrading verbs has transformed my lyrical writing. My goal is to convey action memorably, whilst giving the listener room to fill in the rest. “She scratches a letter…into her wall, made of stone” from Why Go by Pearl Jam has always stuck with me.
Bonus: The way it is phrased builds the intensity of the image. “She scratches a letter”- 🤔 “into her wall”- 😳 “Made of stone”-🤯😢
Finally, a songwriting channel that gives great advice without being boring! So many of these people who make videos about writing songs convince me that they're probably incapable of writing a good song because they can't even make an interesting video. It reminds me of a quote; "writing about music is like dancing about architecture" -anon.
10:42 great nerd out moment - loved it - subscribed
I like you guy's energy, and your videos are very helpful thank you peeps. ❤
Thank you for telling me the basic writing of a song
I like the tip about the verbs!
Does anyone know if she went to Berklee???
I jest, awesome video, really helpful and I'm going to try some of these right away and keep working on it going forward.
These are very great exercises. I also studied with Berklee, and these were great reminders of how to practice being creative.
The most useful exercise I found prior to many in this video was to take all songs that are about a period of time (eg the story of a romance that was so right and then turned wrong) and distill them to a single moment in time (eg the moment you knew it was over). The "love story" song is nice, but that "it's over" moment is powerful. I'd already learned about the 2-chord song, and have used that with surprising success.
Great information guys! This video reminded me of my time spent in composition class in College. Well done and all the best growing the channel
I wish I knew they taught these classes!
This was great. I've done a few of these exercises before and now I have some new ones to try. Thanks 😁
Writing a response to a song was a fun thing I did not too long ago. Also limiting your words was a cool practice for me since I tend to talk a lot I thought it would be interesting to have the music do more of the talking than me.
Popped up on my recommended at the right time.
Glad to hear it :)
My new favorite channel! I suspect i will not be over this soon and i will hear my wife say "How many times are you gonna watch that video"? You are both excellent teachers. Bless you richly for sharing your craft, i will do the same from it. ADDI
Fantastic. Thank you for an inspiring video and some great exercises to go on with.
All the best to you both.
Jeremy is a masterpiece in every way! The lyrics are just the icing on the cake and yes, it's very impressive how you don't even realize they don't rhyme because you're sucked into the story and mood right away!
What a delightfully useful video. This is my introduction to your channel and wow, what a treasure. I needed to hear this today and look forward to employing these exercises in my music and writing in general. Thanks for these exercises.
2nd or 3rd time i watched this.. still informative.. i took one of ur songwriting classes, awesome stuff that really explained a bunch of stuff! I find revisiting these vids opens up gaggles of ideas! Thx for it all… and im gonna keep watching and learning! Thx again!
….oh, stable vs unstable line lengths would b a great topic!
One chord songs are a tradition in Mississippi Hill Country Blues… artists like R.L. Burnside, Fred McDowell, and even some Howlin Wolf and John Lee Hooker songs stay on the Tonic chord for the entire song. Bo Diddley, too. If the song has enough drive to it, it can be quite hypnotic. Most of those songs don’t use rhymes either, so there’s 2 of 5.
Great advice to pass along! I have just started writing songs ( I’m on my 4th now ) I think these exercises will definitely help me. Thank you!
Best 2 Chord song I can think of is Horse With No Name by America. Great lyrics and melody, then of course the chorus and 'after chorus' the LA, la part... good stuff
Great one ❤ thank you for sharing 🙏
I'm really enjoying this video and it's very timely for me at the moment, but just pausing the video to say another example of a song without any rhymes is Richard Dawson - Jogging. Like Jeremy it is dependent on an emotional connection with the story, which is sometimes easier to write when you're not trying to rhyme certain words. It also jolts you out of the mind's desire to predict what's coming, which helps the story flow more naturally.
I typically play riffs then write the melody BUT now Im thinking write 2 chord songs get the melodies super good and hooky then riff. Subbed cause you 2 just blew my mind. In a good way!
Thanks for the term "time poor" at the end of the video. It was a concept in my head for years and now I get the exact name for it. In my case I'm "time rich".
thanks, very interesting. I have only mostly co. written a handful of songs. However I have continuously been immersed in he Folk Music Scene since the late 1960s Folk music is not all about Dylan. In fact it rarely is. We have traditional songs, but also within our culture, we have a very large number of very gifted song writers. I'm not terribly conversant with pop, rock or middle of the road music. However what I do notice, is that our songs are often very different from commercial songs. Our songwriters, often write songs about things. not self indulgent me, me , I, I , love songs. Many of our writers convey powerful stories and messages. Folk Music has always been the first persons history of a time or country. I don't see a lot of that in the music I hear over the radio, etc.
Thank you. I especially liked the verb upgrade exercise.
Hey! You remembered me about not to rhyme. Thx! That helped me a lot in texting. Nice tips.
I’m just gonna slither into these comments to say I really appreciate this video! Very helpful! I appreciate how you cited sources and literature in the video as well!
Great video. I would recommend Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra as a great exponent of these ideas!
Great video. I can come up with a melody pretty easily, but struggle with lyrics somewhat. Thankfully my song writing partner is pretty handy at lyric writing.
This right here is a great tips.
I’m gonna try it. I believe it would help
Namaste.🙏🏾
Wow wow wow I love this channel so happy I just found it. I am someone who has played in bands my whole life and written many songs, but am now trying to write completely on my own and all of these little insights are so helpful and welcome. Thank you.
Thanks Brendan, very kind of you and glad you're enjoying the channel! Please let us know if there are specific topics you'd like us to cover and we'll put them on our production schedule. Cheers
@@htws thnaks so much for the reply. I would say the number one roadblock I always hit is when writing a song, and having a killer section/riff/chord progression, knowing where to go from there. I am predominately a guitar player and sometimes I'll just fish around the neck. Sometimes I'll stare at the circle of fifths and try and let it point me in a good direction but I am so often like "Ok so this prog ends on Bb and I want the next section to lift, or drop, or get sad or get heavy." and that's where the fishing expedition starts. If you have any tips or advice on letting a part or section lead you to the next I think a lot of people would find it really useful. Keep going, you've already made a grrat channel.
Hi, loving the content. As much as you teach and throw ideas out there i cant but help doing whatever comes to mind and feeling. Whatever sounds good feels good. Theory and learning is great. Have come to learn that instinct and intuition has ruled my writing. Look forward to your next video.
Thanks, Jeremy! If there's every videos, tutorials, or topics you'd like to see (or see more of), please let me know here: facebook.com/keppiecoutts/posts/5788800087813751
Thank you for all your tips ❤
Songs just come as a compilation of feelings and or ideas and sometimes it takes me years (8years) or 1 24 hour period. Think axl rose on November Rain and the scribblings on a pizza box at 4 in the morning that was sweet child of mine.
this is incredible! I'm also attending berklee and this was really inspiring. thank you!!!
"I think if you've had to use an adverb, it means that the verb wasn't the right verb." Yes, brilliant! (Now if only we could get journalists to pin that on their laptops!) Great video, thanks -
I think she should’ve talked a bit more about the fact that she went to Berkley.
9:33 I am no organ donor, but I would be happy to give you my heart.
Very nice, thank you. I really appreciated the ABBA examples.
Writing a song about a character in a story! I write songs and stories and was blocked with both so I tried it and it's one of my favorite songs of mine!
Fantastic! We put out a monthly newsletter, if you're interested! howtowritesongs.org/subscribe-to-the-newsletter
Taking so many notes here. Thanks for the shared information guys
I am a lyricist , it's my hobby. I write in marathi an Indian language
This video to me a value adding one
Thanks
Thank you so much for all the help
This was a great watch. Thanks guys
Strengthening verbs-great tip
Song writing comes from the heart. If it comes easy for you, then you have talent. No education is needed, its like breathing, it comes natural. If you know about international songs you'll understand that songwriting has one " rule " , let it bring life to the listener.
I kind of accidentally recently wrote a song with either no chords or a single chord. This was mainly because I just created a beat and bass-line groove centered on the root chord. It did help to force me to use the melody to drive the song. I did go back after the vocal melody was written and added chords, which worked out well to add some more impact, but had I written the chords first, I'm not sure the melody would have been as strong.
Great point on verbs. Try to avoid the really generic verbs like “get” and “make”; there’s always a better verb you can find!
6. Look at songs you like and copy their form. 7. Write about a personal experience - this is relatable and authentic. 8. Solo over the bridge and chorus not the verse. 9. Let the music reflect the emotion in the song. 10. Make up your own rules.
Thank you for this. Happy holidays
Good advises, yesterday I was listening for the same purposes the structure of a famous french singer Jean Louis Murat song "qu'entends tu de moi que je n'entends pas", its simple structure is a good example of a song architecture I wish I could master .
I have been waiting for this to exist, my songs abd collaborations are about to get spicy. I hope that was strong enough. Haha
Thanks for these! 1. “Object writing”: very unclear. You mentioned what it is not, but I feel you should have given one example. Pencil, so what, what “senses” there with pencil?? Then you make allusion that it can branch into personal memories. So is it senses or memories/associations? Most of the things that move me have ZERO “senses” (the magnitude of someone’s gesture, the elegance of someone’s attitude, the selflessness of a stranger…
Thank you for the tips. I plan on trying the "write without rhyme" and "AABA" exercise. [See I made a public declaration, and now I have to keep my promise or loose face. ;)]
Background: I'm creating lyrics without a particular melody in mind. I want my lyrics to be inetersting (varied) but I don't want my lyrics to be hell on earth to be sung.
Question: Do you have advice on designing the length of a phrase/line? There appears to be so many ways of grouping strong and weak beats. Are there rules of thumb? What patterns are common? Are there patterns typically used for verse versus chorus? What does ending a line on a strong versus a weak beat do for the emotional message? Can I replace a line of 5 (odd) strong beats with 3 or 7 (odd) strong beats? What are possible problems of doing this? Any help on designing the number of "beats" per line would be greatly appreciated.
Great video from some fellow Aussies! Can't wait to try this out for some new songs I have underway. Although I get the feeling this might make me cringe at some of my previous lyrics. Haha. Ah well. Can only look and move forward to get better. Subscribed. 😁👍
Thanks Allen!
@@htws Got a song I'm trying to write { completely } . Once finished , how do I successfully get a celebrity singer to record the song for me on social media ? ♑️✍️🇦🇺🇳🇴
The verbs tip was definitely powerful!!
Great suggestions. Another might be to try writing a song outside of your comfortable genre(s). If you have never written a Country song (for example), try one! I did this by imagining that a Country artist had asked me to write a song for him or her.
Great suggestion!
@@htws Here was the result when I tried my hand a Country-ish tune: th-cam.com/video/hCfV09FcTHE/w-d-xo.html
Great talk and great advice. Thnx!
wonderful content, thank you.
Thanks for suggesting song❤
That beautiful song on Elton's Tumbleweed Connection album with 2 chords, E-9 A sus. " Love is what we're for, do you know what I mean". I forget the title but it's the best 2 chords song there is.
Do you have an example of AABA song with a short refrain? I’m writing something in that form, but I want to get an example from you.
there are some classic songs in AABA form with the refrain line at the end of each A section - 'Still Crazy After All These Years' by Paul Simon - 'Cry Me A River' - Julie London... and then a great modern example is 'Nothing' by Bruno Major
@@htws Thank you 😊
Thank you so much. I love this video. I appreciate this video 😁🙏🏽💝