Songwriting Introduction to Songwriting

Hello and welcome to educator.com. My name is Elliott and I am your songwriting teacher.0000

This course is introduction to songwriting. This is our first lessons.0006

So, I am just going to give you quite an overview in regards to all the amazing things that we are going to study here.0011

So, what the course is going to be about.0016

There is 3 main components to a song. You have the melody, the lyrics and the harmony.0019

And also a 4th component that we are going to be looking at is rhythm.0025

And really what you can do with all those components melody, lyrics, harmony and rhythm.0029

And change them, edit them, add to them. That is really the combination of all.0036

That is what is going to keep your listener, your audience very interested.0041

And most importantly to be able to sing that song back after they have heard it.0045

That is when you know that it is a really good song.0048

So, what to expect in this course? Oh, it is going to be hard and painful.0051

No, purposely I want you to really enjoy this process.0056

So, the lessons that I am going to give you are all timed for a very short amount of time.0060

Most of them you are going to find out are just going to be 5 minutes long.0066

I do not want you going through one of these exercises and trying for 6 hours.0070

And just frustrated never wanting to study songwriting again. No.0075

The purpose of why such a short amount of time for these lessons is.0080

I want you to practice figuring out what it is that you want to say.0084

And really tapping into creatively what it is that you want to say in a very quick fashion, 5-10 minutes.0089

So, there are some golden guidelines that I want to discuss in regards to songwriting.0096

Number 1. Do not judge. Be judgment free.0102

And why do I say that? you know there is going to be a time.0107

Once you have written a song to go back, look at it all and edit it.0113

Figure out what works. What is really cool that it just does not work within the context of this song.0118

That is when we edit but as you are developing what it is creatively that you want to say.0122

Allow yourself to write down and think of everything that you want to think of.0129

You will later learn the process of editing your lyrics.0133

But for the purposes of these exercises I want you have fun and I want you to just feel very free.0138

And open and write down whatever it is that comes up in that head of yours.0144

OK, so number 2. Have fun, please enjoy these exercises.0147

There is probably a few other courses that are going to be more stressful than this one.0152

I really want you to enjoy each lesson and exercise.0157

Number 3. Onor the workspace. This is one that I probably did not think I was going to come up with.0162

But I want you to have a nice quiet place to write your ideas and your melodies and your lyrics.0167

If you are constantly surrounded by a lot of noise and such.0174

I do not think that you are going to be able to concentrate.0177

And I do not know how comfortable you are going to be tapping into creatively what it is that you really want to say.0179

So, this is equally as important as number 1 and number 2.0185

So, let me give you an example of one of the exercises that we are going to do.0188

To figure out lyrically what you want to say one of the best exercises I can teach you is called an object write.0194

All you do for 5 minutes is write down as much as you can on a particular subject.0201

In this example I did an object write and I am going to make you do one too on the word ocean.0207

You do not have to feel pressure to come up with a paragraph with sentences and punctuation.0214

Or lyrics that they are all going to rhyme. No, no, no.0219

This is just to give you an idea for 5 minutes about what it is that you want to say about this subject.0222

If someone approaches you and says you know we really need a song about an ocean for upcoming movie.0229

I would tell you take 5 minutes and do an object write on the word ocean.0236

This is out of the list that I came up with and whatever on this list speaks to you and kind of get your interest.0239

That is what you want to think about working with.0247

I know for me I love the idea of children splashing in the waves.0249

That kind of stands on its own just as one line of children splashing in the waves.0253

I could see that working in a song somewhere.0258

Ships passing. That is really cool.0263

Sand castles and then I take these ideas.0266

And then I will teach you another set of exercises and how to develop them into.0270

I could just from one object write develop an entire verse from 5 minutes of work. Pretty good, ih?!0273

Alright, so that is an example of what we are going to study lyrically.0282

And then here is an example of how we are going to develop our melodies.0286

If we look at here is a melody example. It is a pretty standard just 4 quarter notes of music CD, ED.0289

And then with just one measure of music just 4 notes I am going to teach you.0297

And take you through a variety of exercises of how you can take that one idea and develop it over and over again.0302

So, we are going to look at examples of if you take the same 4 quarter notes and just move it up one step.0308

Now it is DEFE or what if you use the same rhythm for quarter notes.0313

And you just have the notes go up ascending like this.0320

So, then you have CDEF. Let us listen to that and see how it is.0324

OK, so that is our example and here is up one step.0338

Here is the same rhythm with ascending notes.0343

So, there you have it. All it is in one simple measure of an idea for melody.0350

And you can really take that and just run with it and create aversive melody pretty easily.0354

So, I just wanted to give you an introduction to some of the things that we are going to study here.0360

An intro to songwriting, and I cannot wait to take you through a variety of more exercises.0364

And really help you build what it is that you as a songwriter want to say.0368

So, thank you for tuning into educator.com.0373

My name is Elliott, your songwriting teacher, and I will see you soon.0375