Songwriting: Music Creation In a Popular Idiom by Brian Zeller - - PDF document

Songwriting: Music Creation In a Popular Idiom

by Brian Zeller bzeller@rhcsd.org NYSSMA Winter Conference Rochester, NY December 5, 2015

• Form
• Encourage students to use common forms
• 1st form – Preamble (followed by AABA, usually)
• 2nd form – VCVC…IC
• 3rd form – VCVCBC
• 4th form – VLCVLCBC (lift=prechorus, 2-6 lines)
• 5th form – AABA
• 6th form – CVC(musical interlude)BC – Rondo form (ABACA)
• Harmony
• Common chord progressions are useful to beginning, intermediate, and advanced

songwriters.

• Beginning songwriters can use common chord progressions to provide harmonic

structure

• Intermediate songwriters can substitute other chords into common chord

progressions, experiment with new sounds

• Advanced writers still make use of common chord progressions, but should be

encouraged to make more modifications

• Progressions
• I-V-vi-IV and its variants

 Different starting point  Different order

• Other Progressions

 Rhythm changes (I-vi-ii-V)  Blues  I-VI-III-bVII (minor)  Descending fifth sequence (vi-ii-V-I…)  Pachelbel progression (I-V-vi-iii…)  Descending/ascending bass (I-V6-vi-I6/4-IV-I6-ii-I)  Minor descending tetrachord (vi-V-IV-III)

• Harmonic Variation Strategies
• Modal mixture/Relative or parallel major/minor

• Alternate bass notes
• Passing chords – diatonic planing, diminished chords, etc.
• Hybrid progressions
• Modulation
• Melody
• Melodic and instrumental hooks are essential to a song
• Crafting a Strong Melody
• Repetition, repetition, repetition
• Should be singable

 Emphasize steps or small skips over leaps  Keep within reasonable vocal range  Notes in melody should compliment harmonic choices

• Interaction of melody of lyrics

 The melody and lyrics need to work together  As lyrics get busier, melody gets simpler  Melody should reinforce strong and weak syllables of lyric  Be aware of rhythmic and melodic accents

• Working with student songwriters
• Creative Process
• Varies from writer to writer. Encourage students to experiment to find their

method.

• Melody/lyrics: which comes first?
• Save every idea – don’t trust memory
• Great songwriters are great editors
• Social Concerns
• Reluctance to share - Creating and sharing anything can make a student feel

vulnerable.  Share with teacher individually or in small groups – minimizes social risks for students  Ask students to provide positive feedback about each others’ pieces  Over time, work to create an environment of trust and openness in songwriting groups.

• Personal topics - Some students find songwriting to be an outlet for expressing

feelings and emotions difficult to express any other way. These autobiographical songs can be especially difficult to share with others.

• Encourage students to create a character and write from the voice
• f that character.
• Song can draw on personal experiences and emotions but with

detachment, and thus protection

• I also try to exercise restraint in asking students where they got

the idea for a song.

• Musical Concerns
• Rhyme scheme

 Student presents song with incoherent rhyme scheme

• Ask students to analyze lyrics of 3-5 of their favorite songs, circling

and linking rhyming words, then specify rhyme scheme (e.g. ABAB)

• Strongly encourage students to maintain rhyme scheme for all

similar sections in song (i.e. all verses)

• Encourage use of rhyming dictionary and thesaurus (many are

free, available online)

• Melody

 Student presents song with rambling, run-on, or otherwise or unmemorable melody  Lack of repetition

• What is student’s favorite part of melody?
• Can this become the basis of a new, more unified melodic idea?

 No Hook

• Prioritize writing a memorable hook.
• Identify most memorable part of melody in several favorite songs.

What makes it memorable?

• Have students write hooks and sing them for each other. Can they

remember each others’ hooks after a few minutes?

• Harmony

 Student presents a song with harmonic issues

• Melody does not match chords
• Point out problem areas, propose specific solutions with

less experienced writers

• Chord progression eccentricities
• Unusual chord progressions, if they work, are okay
• Such progressions make writing more difficult
• Encourage less-experienced writers to use standard chord

progressions, perhaps with simple modifications

• Building on songwriting
• All musical building blocks of songwriting – form, harmony, melody, et al.
• Arranging
• Recording and production
• Notation
• Composition
• Suggested resources
• Murphy, Ralph J. Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting. Nashville: Murphy Music

Consulting, 2011.

• Jordan, Barbara L. Songwriters Playground: Innovative Exercises in Creative
• Songwriting. Booksurge Publishing, 2008.
• Pattison, Pat. Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting.

Cincinatti: Writers Digest Books, 2009.

• Pattison, Pat. Songwriting Without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding

Your Voice. Cincinatti: Writers Digest Books, 2011.