5 Songwriting Tools That Change Everything | ASCAP | Songwriting | Tips & Tricks

Very helpful!

Gold

Beautiful teaching. I used to be the kind of person that would say, "why would I want to know how to make popular music", now it seems so useful. It's like learning scales backwards and forwards so you can break out of them.. but in order to break out of them you have to learn them first right?

Please Thank Pat Patterson - I took a workshop from him in LA in 93 and am still using his "tools"...Let the meaning of the verse - "bleed over the chorus" so the meaning of the chorus changes with each verse...Thanks Pat.

When I gave the recording engineer my charts so he would know the arrangements - He asked, "Where'/s the sonic arrangements?" Huh? Every 8 or 16 bars the sonics need to change - (contrast)...so I postponed the recording session a month - worked out bar by bar the sonics - they were primarily dynamics changes. Thank you for the pointers - I always start the vocal line on the 2...becasue when I start on the one - it just seems boring....I just wrote a bass line that starts on the 2 - Wow it magically pulls you forward into a deeper groove...

Im not the only one then,?? Ummm

After Folklore and Evermore, do you regret dissing Taylor now? ☺️

One thing about writing is transparency. Some people want to see you in the writing

She's also on Tik Tok! I love how she articulates things. She's so knowledgable about the songwriting process. Thanks for sharing!!

Such a lucid lecture--so many useful points. Very competent instruction by this teacher. Thank you!

great job explaining, i really liked it ! thanks :)

"Rhythm", "melody", "harmony" and "lyric" is still too mechanical. You can't bring something to life by first dissecting parts.

Approaching songwriting like you would approach some mechanical process--right off the bat--is the wrong way. The wrong way, that is, if you're trying to write music that communicates something meaningful. Step-based songwriting is (by definition) mechanical. Getting something beautiful out of a mechanical process isn't practical at all. If you are a fluent musician, then you understand musical vocabulary like you understand these words. It's not difficult at all for a fluent musician to write something meaningful.

A good example from real life is learning language. Kids are the most effective learners of language, because they internalize it by listening for years and then attempting to use language and failing. Once they get it, they're fluent for life. Adults learning Spanish approach the process much more mechanically--verb conjugations, etc. It's not the right way. I learned Spanish far more effectively just listening and then trying while in Guatemala. Years of school-style learning did virtually nothing for my ability to communicate in Spanish.

So approaching music creation by first dissecting music (or by using music theory) will not give you what you desire.

In learning to write music (as in learning to speak Spanish) the analytical approach yields terrible results.

A lack of fluency is likely at the root of most songwriting issues. At the heart of it, writing music is like writing language. If all you can do is parrot language, then you aren't communicating. Intention is at the root of fluency. Being able to intend the musical vocabulary opens you up to communicating using music. You won't have to "quote" anyone; you'll communicate what you're feeling and there won't be ambiguity. Whatever you make of that is probably worth far more than any bulleted list of steps for songwriting.

If you're looking for "impact," nothing is more impactful than real emotions. Communicating those emotions is what musical fluency gives you.

Another good video

For me it’s just remembering the melodies and the harmonies and the chords and the riffs that I come up with and then putting it all together. So essentially it’s just memory

amazing vid

🔥🔥🇿🇦i love this video,it lays a lot of great examples

Andrea is wonderful! Intelligent, knowledgeable, passionate about her craft and extremely inspiring and helpful.
Thanks!

How do i transition smoothly between a verse and chorus if i mostly use very complex progressions, but also very simple instrument choices. Like almost always just a piano and me singing. But i get stuck on the transition all the time

She mentions frequently that she is talking about “highly commercial” songwriting, not all songwriting. Seems this is primarily good for when you follow your instincts and originality, but get stuck somewhere, and then this could help you get unstuck.

all i see is skeletons singing against emotions= singing bones.

I think great songs are channeled using right-side brain activity rather than written with left-side brain involved. Music is feeling, emotion. Tap into the right brain to create, use the left side to market and sell. Good luck.

I find my most comfortable writing cones when I can make the words seem like they are a part of the beat if you know what I mean

So many great tips! I loved "don't ask your listener to fill in the blanks, say what you mean." Also to create rest space, a chance for the listener to take in the lyrics. Love that.

ty

Wonder how many hit songs she’s had? Probably loads.

Good things to think about. Good examples.

Remember when The Beatles went to Berklee and took a course in songwriting?

I just put down on my bedside instrument( guitar in my case) or record the melodies I wake up to in the morning and during the day combine lyrics , if lyrics are creatively forthcoming.

This did not feel like a thirty minute lecture, probably because the presenter had enough to say in a meaningful enough way that it never felt like she was dragging it on. I don't have the money to go through schooling, but there were excellent songwriting exercises that I'll be trying out here. :)

😭🤌🏻🖕🏻

Blah blah blah this is what’s wrong where are all this technical crap

My weakness is not knowing how to express myself
Putting it into words

Ah, but do you have any advice for someone who doesn't write music or play an instrument, but has melodic ideas and even complete songs in his head trapped,as it were? Can you help?

This is definitely a video I recommend to the artist that I manage. Often times especially early in their journey they struggle with the structure of expressing themselves

She's pretty

Miranda

The secret is knowing what to do with a song once you have written it.
I have about 200 songs gathering dust,maybe more. I lost the last 10 years of work during a smart card fiasco. I never pick up my guitar cause I know I will write a song …most times I don’t have a recorder running so I just lose the song. After setting up my gear to record LOL I am too tired to play even.

Here I am again, two and a half years later...helping me out once again...Andrea is pure Gold....

Very informative 💯

Wow...so you need a Berklee degree to write good songs. I'm sure Robert Plant, John Lennon, and many had the degree....🤣🤣🤣

Good advice:
Go and check out some of Andrea's music, and then - and only then - if it moved you, come back and take her advice. If it didn't, then don't take her advice. It is impossible to really be taught anything by somebody who cannot evoke a visceral reaction in you, good or bad. An indifferent reaction is simply not strong enough of a motivation to pay attention to somebody trying to shape or alter your artistic approach.