[MUSIC PLAYING] I know there are a lot of people
talking about songwriting. And how many have been
to seminars or read books and you're starting to hear the
same things over and over again when it comes to songwriting
tools and strategies? So we got the hook. We got the say what
you really want to say. We got the song structures,
the typical song forms. There's words that keep coming
up, themes that keep coming up. My interest in hopefully meeting
where your inspiration is calling for you to attend
something like this, is to try to understand what your personal
struggle is with your songwriting. And that could be, why do you seem
to be writing the same songs over and over again? Why do you have trouble
tying up a chorus? Why do you feel like your songs are
four minutes and 20 seconds long and you can't get them shorter? Why do you feel like you don't
really have anything to say, or that lyrically the feedback you
keep getting over and over again is that people are
like, yeah, that's nice? Or they have trouble distinguishing
one song from another. They don't really know
what you're trying to say. Musically, why do you keep
writing around the same tempo, the same grooves? Do you feel limited instrumentally
with what you're doing? So what I'd love for you
to do is to think about-- I'm going to give you time
in this workshop to do so-- but think about what are your
own unique issues that you're dealing with right now, that if you
were able to overcome that one or two things, you would noticeably be
writing more memorable songs, or songs that leave an impact, rather
than just another of your songs. So my method for doing that
was to very confidently, let's say arrogantly,
try to title this thing, "Five Tools of Songwriting
that Change Everything." There's a lot of tools of
songwriting that change everything. And I'm going to tell
you five that I think are the primary places
I look in my own songs, when I have this feeling
that there might be an issue, or when I'm trying to
analyze other songs for what makes them truly effective. Within each of these five
things, there will be subtopics, and I will tell you what those are. But I've tried to narrow it down to
something that's reasonable, too, because I don't know about
you, but when I write a song, I'm trying to manage so
many different parts. It's overwhelming. I think the idea is that
we're here at this Expo to be inspired and find
a way to connect what we feel is quality, creative
expression to the people who need it. And we feel their lives are
going to be enriched with it. And so that assumes,
I think, that you know what is enriching about your songs. What do you feel is a strength
about what you do now? And when I say songs, I'm
coming at it from a perspective of take away the production, take away
the hot track, and put it over there. What have you got that's melody,
rhythm, harmony, and lyric? So I'd like to think
for a moment, what do you do that you feel is a strength with
one or more of those four elements? If you had trouble
identifying a strength, you might think back to what kinds
of feedback you get from people-- not your mom. But musicians, people who are
able to verbalize in musical terms like you are, what might
be shining through. And think about your personality too. How is your personality reflected in
the songwriting that you put out there? Now, I'd like to look at
the other side of that coin and think about, what's a weakness? Where do you tend to lack
when it comes to either maybe your process gets difficult,
maybe it's a particular part of the song that you're writing that
becomes challenging, maybe it's a lack of contrast,
maybe you feel limited harmonically. Maybe you've said everything
by the end of the first course and you have nowhere to go. Think about what's lacking from
your songs or your process. There's a lot to say when
you ask what's my weakness. And I think that certainly
that's a wonderful thing to be able to say and identify. You know what? If I could really look at my
songs and trust my instinct, here's what's not shining. And I think if you look
at all of our songs, each song is going to carry strengths. It's going to carry
things that it emphasizes, stuff that is really working for,
things that it's capitalizing on. And if you can look at your own
songs and your songwriting style and recognize that it's not for
everybody, but it is for some people, and identify why that is,
that is some serious power. And one thing I wanted to do, then,
is go through these five tools and see if you can connect that strength
that you have to one of the five, or several of them that I'll be touching
on, and also that weakness, too, one of these. So you can identify where
you might need to focus. I think the thing that I just
mentioned was trusting your instinct. I think so many times,
as a songwriter, I am putting myself in a position of
someone else telling me, is it good? Do you like it? Can you use it? You know? And it really, I think, works against
me at times, because it means, OK, you tell me what's wrong with my song. But you have a sense. And I think part of the value
in, again, taking these courses, you're in an environment where
you become empowered with the tool so that you can self-correct. You can analyze. And you have a feeling in you. If you've been doing this for any
length of time, you have a feeling. You need to give that
voice some space to speak. So let's start from the top. We all know that repetition
is important if we want people to be able to sing our song. We can't just have a melody,
in terms of repetition in melody, that has no sense of
meter, no sense of repetitive rhythm, and no sense of repeating pitches. There's note pattern. There's nothing to remember. And so there's also nothing
to identify this song by. So what I'm going to
assert in these five tools is that there are tendencies
that can inform us as to what level of commercial
viability you already go for or that you appreciate, and how you
might want to use that information to craft your own songs. My four-year-old, I believe that
I fill our house with good music. At least this is my alternate reality. But he goes around singing-- [SINGING] I just want to shake, shake, shake,
shake, shake, shake, du-nuh-du-da. And it's like-- [SIGHS] Now, I appreciate the repetition
of commercially viable music. And I strive to involve
repetition in my own music. I have nothing against Taylor
Swift, nothing against the songs that use repetition to that extent. And I think a broader
idea, though, is to say how am I going to use
that idea of repetition as a template for what I love, not as
this is what I have to do or should do, but how can I use that
information to boldly go forth into the music I want to create? And I think I listed some song examples
on the handout that you can look to, to recall what we've talked
about in this session. I would encourage you to grab songs
from the music you love and look for each of these characteristics. So commercially viable music,
in other words, memorable songs, in and of themselves, the songs that are
truly memorable, have a melodic motif. A motif is that small common denominator
that just repeats, repeats, repeats, repeats, throughout the song. And it's a rhythmic
and a series of pitch. Those two elements
that create the melody. If you can't identify what
that is in your own song, then you have an issue
with memorability. If I can't sing your melody,
then maybe we have an issue, at least in understanding
what is the melody trying to assert, what's it trying to be. So one thing that I noticed, I was
examining this common complaint, I guess-- aw ah, commercial music
these days, it's so repetitive and meh. And I was thinking, well, let
me take some of the iconic songs that I know and love and see about that. How does the repetition hold up? And it is that what kind of creates
this disdain for this top 40 stuff. And so I thought, OK, "Stand by Me." Love that song. I mean, who doesn't like that song? Really. I've never heard anyone say, God,
I hate that song, Stand By Me. [LAUGHTER] And lean on me. Apparently, we have to
write a hit song with me the end of the title with three words. Beatles, "Get Back." It's a fun song. I like that. Tom Petty, "Free Falling." I always hear that one. And countless more. But that melodic motif
is so identifiable. So the first thing you might
look for in your songs, do you have a melodic motif? Is it repeated several times in
the first section of the song? And each section will have
its own melodic motif. Many times what songwriters will
do-- and I've done this as well-- is you'll write a very long melody. And then you'll vary it a
little bit the next line. And then by the third line
you're onto a new melody. And it's like, well,
that's not repetition. Again, that's not the tendency
of easily memorable songs. The tendency is a short melody, like [SINGING] Hello. You know what song I'm singing, right? All I said was one word and two notes. But these other songs-- [SINGING] Some times in our lives-- You know, how simple is that. Dun, dun, dun. It was a very straight melody. It goes up, and then it goes down. And the word is just some, time. Like how often have you
written a melody where it's that short, where it's
just one word, isolated. And I think the key to walk
away with here is rest space. Do you give your listener rest space? Try writing a melody like
that, just for the sake of it, and you know, you'll educate
yourself, too, huh, that's funny. I do that longer thing. That's OK too. But then, own it. That's what I do. I do the longer phrase thing. And that's part of what makes me me. But then, get real. How easily is it going to
be for us to remember it? Maybe for you. You've got a live-- you're an artist. You're not trying to get other
people to sing your songs and be able to sing them. You actually sing very well and
you captivate your audience because of many strengths that you have. So I'm not saying that your
melodies have to be short. They have to repeat. And they have to follow
that simple structure. Not at all. But it's something to look
at to try to establish what do you do that's truly your own. And then examine how that holds up. So the next thing-- that's
number one, melodic motif. The next thing is contrast. When you have a clearly
defined melodic motif that you are repeating,
what that means is it's easier to write the chorus
section that contrasts with that. Have you ever had that trouble? You get to the chorus and you have the
sense that you wanted to be something. There's something great
that it can be, but you've tried a number of different
things and it just doesn't seem to be
complementing the verse, doing something different enough. You might look to that. Did I clearly distinguish
a melody in the verse so that I can do something
different in the next section? Again, if you look at
highly commercial music, there is huge contrast
between the sections, which comes from a clearly
distinguished motif to begin with. So we'll often find that we can create
contrast through three different ways-- so melody, harmony, lyric,
certainly rhythm is a part of this, but I put down five melody. There's five basic melodic
ways to create contrast. The phrase length, so the
length of your melodic motif. Do you sing all the way through that
first line and it's two measures long? Or is it one measure long? Or is it two beats out
of a four beat measure? So we'll often hear commercial music
go from a two measured long phrases in the verse to a little pre-chorus
where it has dun, dun, dun, dun, short, lots of rest space, very short
phrases, so that then you can go back and create contrast again
in the course with long melodic phrases again. Again, that's the tendency
of highly commercial music. Note length, big one. [SINGING] I'm standing on a
bridge, I'm waiting in the dark-- Short notes. And then, in the chorus, dun,
dun duh, duh, duh, long notes. So again, highly commercial
music has huge contrast. That's a very, very easy one to
deal with and just recognize. One day a activity that you could
give yourself as a songwriter is just say I'm going to try to
write extreme contrast. The greater the contrast, sometimes the
more memorable the sections will be, the more refreshed we will feel. So you could say I'm going
to write a short note verse down here in pitch, and a
long note chorus up here in pitch. And you just use two very typical
and effective contrasting elements to do that pitch I just talked about. Again, a highly commercial
way of doing things would be lower pitch in the verse,
higher pitch in the chorus-- a tendency, certainly not something
that you have to adhere to. Position, this is a really big one. And it's so, so subtle. Get back. [SINGING] Jo-Jo was a man
who thought he was a loner-- So where did I start that? Jo-Jo. It's on the downbeat. Highly commercial songs change
where the melodic phrase begins at the beginning of each song section. Notice how the chorus is two,
three, get back, get back. So you will find this over and over and
over again in highly commercial music. There will be a change in
where the phrase starts. Now, if you layer these
techniques, if you not only start your melodic motif in a
different beat of the measure. And generally, if you don't speak
theory, which is fine for a songwriter, generalize it. Say, well, I'm feeling
this very on that-- it starts when I start playing. And I'm feeling this other one
is like, I sing and then I play. So it was before the measure starts. Or it seems like I always
play and then I sing, which is another tendency you might
notice that with you, you tend to go back to your typical ways of writing. And so you play. And then you sing. And if you notice every
section is like this, man it's hard to work against
that and write what you feel is a very catchy, hooky, or
commanding our attention once again, chorus, because you're making choices
without thinking that are slowly shutting doors of opportunity. So when you can keep
those ideas in mind, then you have more control
over that idea of contrast. And then, the last
thing I said was shape. And if we look at the shape of songs
here, as far as the melody goes, we'll often be able to generalize
those two in "Lean On Me." "Lean On Me?" [SINGING] sometimes in our lives, we
all have pain, we all have sorrow. It's, doo-doo-doo,
doo-doo-doo, duh-duh-datah. So if you take out some staff paper, or
just whatever way you want to do this, map out your melody. I like to do it in
terms of making lines. The shorter the line,
the shorter the note. And then it just shows the shape. It really doesn't matter what
exact pitches you're singing. I think, as far as a melody
goes, map out the shape, when you get to the contrasting
section, if you notice you've got-- [SINGING] Lean on me,
when you're not strong. If it's all the same,
then we have a problem. I think there's a reason it's-- [SINGING] lean on me,
when you're not strong-- It's a different shape. It's an octave up, too, which helps
create contrast through pitch. More on contrast-- harmony, certainly
we don't want to dwell on melody the entire time,
particularly if you tend to have a talent in harmony
and groove, and that's where you solve your
problems as far as songs go. Many times I find that as
songwriters we're constantly like, what chord can I go to? It's all about I don't
know enough chords. Give me chords, chords. And if I think about some
of my favorite songs, it's not as if they're just loaded
with the more complex the chords, the more I like the song. No. So it's simplicity, repetition. Once again, just like
melodic motif, you have to establish what it is before
you can contrast with what it is. And so be aware of things like
using too many different chords in a single section. There is beauty in simplicity. Songwriters who know more chords than
I know, an artist, Stevie Wonder, John Mayer. I mean they're commercial, and
memorable, and what I believe, very beautiful songs often rely
on very simple chord structures, maybe until we get to a bridge where
you can break it out and really take us somewhere else. But again, you have to
establish what it is. So what does that mean? Talking not just
abstractly, but maybe that means that you look at your
own songs and you realize, again, you're involving a lot of
different chords in a single section. So if you think about that, well,
how do I contrast with that? If I've already kind of provided
this movement in the verse, it's hard to contrast. What if you challenged yourself to
write a one-chord groove in the verse and that's all you could do? Boy, there would be a lot of
places to go for your next section. What if it was a two-chord groove? Another thing, though, to think about
is how frequently do you change chords? And often, as songwriters, again if
we're holding our guitar in our hand or playing piano or something, we're
relying on what comes naturally. So those are our tendencies. And if our tendency is to
change chords every measure, you can imagine you're probably
playing about the same tempo as you typically do. That's going to close off
doors of opportunity again. It's going to prompt you
to sing at the same rate. And then all of your songs begin
to have those same elements. So look at how you might be able to
access the idea of chord frequency. How about changing chords
two times per measure and see what that does to create
a new groove for yourself? So I think chord
frequency is interesting. Also with contrasts, then, if you change
chords twice a measure in your verse, I mean, man, if you do
that for the whole song, then that's going to be one
frantic chord heavy tune. Maybe. Then, in the pre-chorus,
you change once per measure. And then you go back in the
chorus to your initial feel. Look for how you're using contrast. And again, hold that up to songs
you love and how they use chords. And honestly, if
transcribing a song in terms of what chords are they using,
if that very idea prevents you from ever sitting down
and doing it, don't worry about what chords are being played. Map out how frequently
the chords change. Get yourself some staff
favor and make a little mark. Every beginning of the
measure where a chord changes. And then you begin to see that
structure, how that's playing out. Contrast as far as lyric,
there are wonderful tools to designing the content of
our lyric and making sure that we get contrast in that way, too. So the chorus delivers the main message. So we often have more big thought,
feeling, telling, summarizing language there, which contrasts with verses,
where we tend to say here's the detail. Here's what really happened. Here's a small moment that proves
that that big thought that I'm saying is true and real. So there's contrast in the
way that we deal with lyric. The third idea, repetition. Again, when and how much? Have you ever taken a song that
you really love by another artist and mapped out how
often the title phrase or where the title phrase occurs? Or if there is repetition
within the language? For example, how do
you complete phrases? Does line one complete the phrase with
line two, and that's a full sentence. Noticing things like that. Consistencies in the language. Always starting with the verb
and finishing the thought can be a wonderful way to make
your lyric easier to take in. a should always read your lyric out loud
and make sure that it's understandable. I'm not saying that it
should read like a story. Certainly not all lyric does that. But if we're asking our
listener to be a detective and finish it off and add the
pronouns and add the prepositions and conjunctions, it's
very, very hard to do that while we're experiencing
all the information musically that's coming at us. Don't ask your listener
to fill in the blanks. Say what you mean. Harmony and groove, number four. I talked about tempo and how
sitting down with your instrument you might predispose yourself to
starting with those same tempos which results in the same groove and the
same frequency with which you're changing chords. And those unconscious decisions are
resulting in a style that's wonderful, that's you. But if that's all you're doing as
an artist, that gets frustrating. One exercise we have in a course
called "Writing From the Title" is we choose a title, and
then, throughout the week, songwriters will set that
title at different tempos. And at first, that sounds-- I don't know if that's
particularly interesting or not. But by the end of the week, man,
some huge realizations come out. Some of them are certainly
that, wow, I just assumed the title needed
to be at a particular tempo and the song developed from there. But when we try it at slower
temples or vastly faster tempos, we start to think about
things that that title can mean that we never thought before. So that can be a really cool technique. But that's one thing
that I mean by tempo. Instrumental groove-- if you
always choose the same groove. I recently went in and got real
about my own lack of vocabulary when it came to guitar. And so I went on a mad search to try
to find out what can I do about that. I think just facing those
issues is overwhelming. There's so much to do as a songwriter,
that it's hard to know what to farm out and what to do yourself. But I think, as a writer, that was a
major area where I was not inspired. I had to figure out what to do. Chord frequency, we talked about that. And there's some song examples there. Lyric, when it comes to lyric,
many times sensory lyric writing, having the ability to write
with a sensory element, so taste, touch, sight,
sound, smell, and movement is some serious power as a writer. Many times we will say,
well, I'm not trying to write country music,
you know, because we often use that kind of language in country. It's all over the place, though. Pop, hip hop, huge in hip hop. It's presented a little
differently, but it's all there. And when you have the capacity to
write with highly sensory language, you know, then, when you're going to say
something more generalized or thought feeling, it's actually good language
and it really belongs there. [MUSIC PLAYING]
