4 simple steps to writing a song | Ralph Covert | TEDxNaperville

[Music] all righty so you guys are here for the songwriting session right you're gonna write a song together your songwriters right awesome cool well the most important thing that we need to know is has anybody here ever heard two songs back-to-back and liked one song more than the other song anybody raise your hand by show of hands okay that is proof to me do you guys have the one tool you need to be a songwriter that's what I call your songwriter compass it's a little voice in your head your heart that says one of a couple things it says either yeah I like that or it says yeah not so much okay and that is the only tool you need to be a songwriter guys ready okay cool now when you're writing a song there's kind of three major steps I think we can agree on there's starting a song finishing a song and everything in the middle okay let's look at that thing in the middle first okay now when you're writing a song you're repeating if you take it down to its most granular level you're repeating one simple action again and again and again what is that anybody chords close but what do you do with those chords okay for our melody words what else what do you do with what do you make with those things you have in order to new to decide to use it what do you make a choice exactly so you make choices all you're doing the entire time you're writing the song is you're making choices do I like that note where like that word do are like that chord or like that piece going there and what do you use to make that choice your songwriter compass so each stage of the way you either say I like that or I don't know if you don't like it what do you do doesn't mean it's a bad song doesn't mean you're a bad songwriter it means that you know there's a better choice there to make a different choice so when a song is done that's the middle right it's just that same process over and over making choices till you find a song you like different choices you're like a song is done when you get to the end and you play the song from beginning to end and what happens you like it the whole way through what does what does maybe mean anybody know cuz you don't want to maybe song you want a yes okay so we've got the middle we've got the end the beginning of the song brings me to hold another idea of language there's a whole broken language of creativity that's talked to us it's one of the reasons why we think we can't create there's a full set of false assumptions to come down from history that kind of cloud our minds when it comes to being creative some of the language will get following your muse being inspired let's break those down for a second what are the muses right there are these Greek demigods who the Greeks bleed have all the ideas they left half way up Mount Olympus they would dig into their little vat pick out an idea throw it down fly down and an idea would come to you well even even the very language of that it's very passive right the idea comes to you it comes from the outside I think the word to inspire seem pretty cool right be inspired but again the etymology of inspire is filled with the spirit the gods are giving you the idea now I've got nothing nothing against the gods giving us ideas but I'd like a lot more control than that so what I came up with and another thing called what I call the jumping off point you just make a choice try anything a word a chord a lyric anything and you're gonna do one of two things with it you're either gonna like it in which case you keep it and go on down the line or you don't like it in which case make another choice so jumping off point the middle part finishing it those are the big steps we're gonna use that process so you guys can make your song we write a song together now I have I break the song itself down into four major components poor kind of facets care like baskets of choices if you will a couple of my familiar to I think music makes sense lyrics or words right then I also add two more rhythm which include structure in that and emotional center so music words rhythm emotional Center and all of them are controlled by your songwriter compass this is I like those choices okay let's start with emotional center because that's probably the one that's least intuitive okay now what is an emotional said have you ever heard a song that made you feel something anybody so the song made me feel sad or made you feel happy or you're in a really bad breakup and the one song really spoke to you okay that's that songs emotional center and as a songwriter you have control over creating that and one of the false assumptions that a lot of songwriters get wrong too is they think that you have to be in that emotional place in order to write about that emotional place and sometimes you are and that's great but sometimes you're not who was maybe in the last week who was angry if they angry some point how about scared sad okay let's think of emotional centers kind of like filters so let's say happy is is yellow okay if I'm happy right now and I'm writing a song about being happy so there's the feeling I'm having there's the feeling the song is about so the yellow plus the yellow is gonna make a songs really happy right and if I'm just feeling sad feeling really blue and down I'm writing a sad song the sadness I'm feeling is really gonna be amplified by the sadness and the songs it's gonna be just full bang where's your eggs now bored of them what am i feeling sad and I'm writing a song about being happy you see how there would be like a the sadness I'm feeling is gonna give me a whole different perspective on that on that happiness that I'm writing about there's gonna be a yearning there's gonna be a you know reaching out for that so that's emotional center I'll give you an idea look okay so let's say you're a song someone wrote a song was so psychotic and so angry and so full of intensity that a mass murderer and his followers knew absolutely knew without a shadow of a doubt the song was written about them you'd have to be pretty psychotic to write that song right well when Paul McCartney wrote the song helter skelter he was not particularly psychotic he was actually very excited he's heard the WHO song I can see for miles he said that song really rocks I can write a song that's that intense and so he wrote the song helter skelter when Charles Manson and his followers heard the song they're like hey right it's the Beatles made a song about us the emotional center was what connected them okay listen to the next piece rhythm one of the false assumptions about rhythm is that you got rhythm or you don't well wouldn't be great if we all had like a drum machine inside us or like a beat box inside to give us the rhythm would that be awesome what we do right it's called a heart you've got a drum machine inside you that's beating beating beating and your breath is rhythm your body is a symphony of rhythm you can't look look at me moving I'm walking everything I'm doing is based on rhythm and movement you are a walking drawn machine okay language language is built on rhythm right I mean like every sentence has rhythm gotta tip tat Donna Donna every sentence has a rhythm da da da da da da everything you say everything you do is built on rhythm and you're saying come on but we're talk about songs here well songs are based on dancing and movement right there mostly twos threes and fours hip oh I checked earlier mom who here can count before thank goodness you never know okay let's talk count to 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 klappa 3o every sentence has rhythm every sentence has a rhythm ok see how we're already there ok now and you think well but but come on what about real songwriters well the Bee Gees we're travelling in their tour bus tour bus went over one of those metal bridges you know they have they look the little ridges right the wheels of the tour bus were making a grinding noise on the bridge you've done that right the BG started tapping the rhythm on the on the chair seat and their tour bus and they started singing along with a bridge and made up a song Jeff talked in spreading no lies Jeff taught the rhythm is everywhere ok it's everywhere now the next piece music one of the false assumptions about music is that you need to be you're not trained in it right like I don't know how to write I don't know music Ralph you're a musician you know that stuff well there's some grain of truth in that but it's it's a broken truth ok let's talk about polo who here has ever seen a polo match ok who here has ever watched 10 hours of polo in their life ok I guess I'm glad I didn't do that everybody can play polo Ted speak that would be not quite so easy ok how about music though who is listening to a song before how about 10 hours of songs how about 10,000 hours of songs well I'll give you a clue if you listen to two songs a day you'd be at a hundred thousand hours of songs by this point in your life well maybe not you although I've been checked your iPhone maybe okay your songwriter compass your music brain is incredibly sophisticated you have listened to so much music I mean you can tell with your favorite group what songs you like it what songs you don't like you know the difference between Metallica and Mozart you can tell the difference between Bach and Beethoven you tell the difference with the Beatles and a song by John Lennon when he wasn't in the Beatles your brains are so Sundra dove thousands of hours and that's all there guiding your songwriter compass so all you need to do is make those choices and you know let me give you some some simple tools that we can use we'll use the guitar but we use the white keys okay I'm just using it onto the white keys the doremi scale I want to teach you a really great trick most musicians don't know this okay this is secret information you guys signed the confidentiality agreement right oh rather than put this online oh darn it oh well it's out there now okay here's a great fact you know what a scale is like don't read me if I so let you do so okay right that's a note scale every note scale has a corresponding chord scale just take every other note of the other of the note scale you get the court so this nut note scale of the corresponding chord scale would be [Music] okay every note of the note scale is harmonically pleasing with every chord of the chord scale and there's only seven notes this is not complicated people there's only seven notes only seven chords in the scale and they all sound good with all of them hard to go wrong okay so somebody give me a number between one two seven six and A four where the six will be the the the note one two three four five six and four was the chord which be the fourth chord another one three and no one five so the three note against the five day [Applause] [Music] those are the two things you guys gave me what's your song where two compass saying it's kind of okay right hey we're coming up with a song already okay now we haven't gotten to words yet the words are important we know words have rhythm let's start putting the pieces together here in that melody right were you starting to feel some emotional Center is there a heat just in those couple random notes right we're already said I knew it again and just feel the if it hasn't get some emotional center in it right I don't know why but that's the way the human brain one things that happens with music the human brain finds meaning in it okay finds meaning it finds the rhythm in it and it puts them together now what are the things you guys did during the days they had a box out there and people made random phrases this is all from you guys okay so I'm gonna just throw some of these things out here and if you guys hear one you really like everybody shout yeah cabbages and roses grow together okay maximum impact occurs in three seconds hot dogs are awesome okay we've got a songwriter Cup is there let's see so we got that melody thing and what kind of I'm going with the beat you guys gave it up hot dogs are breeding to the line here let's see um we need one about the same line white wine gives me headaches well do you like it or no okay I mean we could change it it's your song okay [Music] white wine gives me I'm liking it so far all right now we gotta start now one of things about melodies is melodies can go I mean it's already no words I mean right whose use language this week okay who's written an email and thought about what words they're gonna use okay so you use your songwriter compass already words you guys have down words you guys got you don't need to be a poet right we use language all the time and language has rhythm it has rhyme these things we can use okay so white wine gives me headaches hot dogs are awesome melodies tend to do one of four things they go straight they go down they go up and they zigzag do you guys have a preference good so here's what I'm thinking here I'm driving at we've got a great verse coming here right we need the big sing-along chorus right because this is our hit song we're gonna write together so we need a big wait for the melody one go up down zigzag thoughts up okay so where do we have a the chorus melody is going to be one that goes up give me a couple numbers let's randomly you're have to randomly David Bowie and Brian Eno and they made Bowie's low album did the same thing actually they did the melodies and chords randomly like this so it can't happen but you don't have to but we're to use it so give me some numbers for two and what 52 I love you when I teach songwriting one of the things that I make my songwriting students pledge I'm gonna do it every is outside this is not my per speech for me do it every what brings one hand my Roth corporate songwriting pledge is any time you discover a rule of songwriting or something that somebody tells you as a rule of songwriting or something that your intuition tells you ought to be a rule of songwriting you promise me that you will break it okay that's why I love you awesome so we're never a rising line we had some twos and some threes so the two chord we did and the three note [Music] like that everyone wears zig zaggy like that was really first to the second one second okay so we need some words for a chorus let's see what we have here who's your daddy and I I really missed the Dewey Decimal System got a winner okay so we'll do the repetition is important in songwriters when I do the who's your daddy who's your daddy and then we'll do the I really miss the Dewey Decimal System okay so be like you guys like that Zig zaggy won right who's your daddy who's your daddy the too high for you yells lower down who's your daddy miss Badou all of this done sing with me who's your daddy I really miss that sister okay so we've got our versus hot dogs the hot dogs my guys are awesome white wine gives me headaches one thing before we go in free before before we sing our song perform our big hit together I was just thinking so a lot of stuff we've been talking about here like the rhythm of the words and in the rhyming in the emotional center and in kind of the content that where does all that come from how did all that develop you guys have any ideas where to go why do we have that what do we use that yeah but I mean farther back why why do we the words have rhythm and why do we use rhyming how do those develop well what do you think about that I'm gonna pull my my iPhone out here and I can turn on the recording no but cuz I want to record our song and guess what iPhones have not been around forever but for iPhones they were recording studios before recording studios there was pen and paper before pen and paper there was what storytelling and what well how do we keep that storytelling oral and how did we remember things with oral tradition with rhythm and rhyming an emotional Center and understanding the content as it went together that's what I'm saying is you are not just able to be a song writer you can't help but being a songwriter you have hundreds of thousands of years of evolution the thing that made us human first the thing that allowed us to gather information put it together make sense of the world and pass it on are the exact tools that we use for songwriting rhythm and words and rhyming and that that content you not only can't avoid being songwriters you it's the essence of what makes you human it's hardwired into you and that awesome so here look good we got hot dogs are awesome white wine gives me headaches who's your daddy who's your daddy I really miss the Dewey Decimal System because this is our a big hit can we get people onstage people out on your feet come on we're gonna sing along to big sing along here come on up up up on your feet come on Frenchmen peggy's people to join me on stage come on come on come on there we go this would be a big sing along yeah it's your hit song we don't want your hit song to fail anything and dancing and come on yeah come on oh yeah put the band together okay so [Music] white wine is the headache dogs are awesome white white gave me a headache who's your daddy your daddy I really miss the Dewey Decimal System course again who's your [Applause] I really miss the Dewey Decimal System versus hot dog white wine give me head we go daddy I really miss you who's your daddy who's your daddy I really miss the Dewey Decimal System who's your daddy who's your daddy I really miss the Dewey Decimal System let's go down the 3d camera here your daddy your daddy we missed our my queen who's your daddy who's your daddy I really miss the Dewey Decimal System I'm gonna stage John I'm gonna stick maybe not who's your daddy who's your daddy I really miss the Dewey Decimal System put her together for the band putting gather yourselves we have a hit record thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 1,125,458

Rating: 4.8891463 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Entertainment, Music (performance), Music (topic)

Id: u0K_xcSqhxQ

Length: 24min 36sec (1476 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/MUSICmw]

Thanks for posting. Very thought provoking. I definitely share his philosophy that we are all intrinsically musical. A "musical compass" and "emotional center" are fantastic images. Having written hundreds of songs/pieces, I feel that my best ideas always come from "within and without." I'm not sure that Ralph would agree with that but I sure would love to chat with him about it :)