Song Writing for Intermediate Part 1
In the first song writing exercise, we looked at the different parts of a song and then you picked a song and figured out the format. In the second exercise, you took music that was already created and then wrote your own lyrics to that music. In this exercise, you will be writing your own song.
There are two main ways to write a song.
1) Some people create lyrics first and then apply chords and music to their lyrics.
2) Some people create chords first and then after listening to their chords, come up with lyrics that they feel match the chords. (The Parody Project you just completed is similar to this method where you had pre-existing music and you applied your own lyrics over the music.)
Both ways are fine and work well. If you are not sure, pick one method and try it out. This is all experimental anyway and the more you do it, the better you will get at it.
For this project, you must come up with "original" music for your song and lyrics. I use the word "original" because there is a theory in music that NOTHING we listen to today is original. Everything is borrowed from something, somewhere. The video below explains what I mean. The video has swearing in the beginning. If you are offended by swearing, DO NOT LISTEN to the beginning of the video and start at :54.
There are two main ways to write a song.
1) Some people create lyrics first and then apply chords and music to their lyrics.
2) Some people create chords first and then after listening to their chords, come up with lyrics that they feel match the chords. (The Parody Project you just completed is similar to this method where you had pre-existing music and you applied your own lyrics over the music.)
Both ways are fine and work well. If you are not sure, pick one method and try it out. This is all experimental anyway and the more you do it, the better you will get at it.
For this project, you must come up with "original" music for your song and lyrics. I use the word "original" because there is a theory in music that NOTHING we listen to today is original. Everything is borrowed from something, somewhere. The video below explains what I mean. The video has swearing in the beginning. If you are offended by swearing, DO NOT LISTEN to the beginning of the video and start at :54.
Notice how many songs use the same chords! It is ok for you to use the same chords too!! Don't quote me on this, but I think the chord progression they are using is I-V-vi-IV. Another popular chord progression to use is I-vi-IV-V which you can see is a slight variation on the progression used in the video.
You can go to the charts that we learned earlier this year to find your own chord progression, or you can just copy one of the progressions I just gave you. It doesn't matter to me.
Some of you may not know how to play an instrument that plays chords in which case it would be hard to write lyrics to a chord progression you cannot hear. We will use technology to help us! The following apps and websites are good places to start creating and listening to chord progressions.
Jam Studio
http://www.jamstudio.com/Studio/indexStudio.htm
This does NOT work on the iPad but if you have access to a computer, this is a great site. You can just type a chord progression and the computer will play it back for you.
Garage Band
Mr. Lawi or someone in class can help you create a chord progression in Garage Band and you can use that to help you with your song.
Since the chord progression seems easy to create and use, many of you may have a hard time finding lyrics to write. Here are a few tips....
1) Write about something you know. Most of the best songs come from artists who breakup with their bf/gf because the pain and grief that they are feeling is easy to talk about. Gwen Stefani was dating one of the instrumentalists in the group No Doubt and when they broke up, she came up with this hit song....
You can go to the charts that we learned earlier this year to find your own chord progression, or you can just copy one of the progressions I just gave you. It doesn't matter to me.
Some of you may not know how to play an instrument that plays chords in which case it would be hard to write lyrics to a chord progression you cannot hear. We will use technology to help us! The following apps and websites are good places to start creating and listening to chord progressions.
Jam Studio
http://www.jamstudio.com/Studio/indexStudio.htm
This does NOT work on the iPad but if you have access to a computer, this is a great site. You can just type a chord progression and the computer will play it back for you.
Garage Band
Mr. Lawi or someone in class can help you create a chord progression in Garage Band and you can use that to help you with your song.
Since the chord progression seems easy to create and use, many of you may have a hard time finding lyrics to write. Here are a few tips....
1) Write about something you know. Most of the best songs come from artists who breakup with their bf/gf because the pain and grief that they are feeling is easy to talk about. Gwen Stefani was dating one of the instrumentalists in the group No Doubt and when they broke up, she came up with this hit song....
2) Tell a story. Think of a short story describing and event that you did/experienced recently. This can be a true story or something made up. This is one of my favorite videos that tells a story.... (Warning, this video has cartoon violence and blood.)
There are other ways to get lyrics such as "borrow" them from other sources (poetry/ books) but I am going to recommend you keep to one of the first two methods.
The Assignment....
The assignment is to create a song on your own. Here are the steps....
1) Either create lyrics or find a chord progression that your like.
2) Whatever you didn't do in in step 2, do it here and match your chords and lyrics together.
3) Map our your music so that it follows a musical song form. Remember what you did in the first assignment. Please label the parts to your song. IF you have an intro, please tell me how long it is. IF you have a bridge, again, tell me how many measures it is. Remember that specific parts of a song normally require measures that are divisible by 4. You are looking to have introductions, verses, and choruses that have 8 or 16 measures. You may go against the rules, but be aware that it might make your music have a strange feel to it.
4) Create a page for your song in your portfolio. This page should contain the following:
1) Either create lyrics or find a chord progression that your like.
2) Whatever you didn't do in in step 2, do it here and match your chords and lyrics together.
3) Map our your music so that it follows a musical song form. Remember what you did in the first assignment. Please label the parts to your song. IF you have an intro, please tell me how long it is. IF you have a bridge, again, tell me how many measures it is. Remember that specific parts of a song normally require measures that are divisible by 4. You are looking to have introductions, verses, and choruses that have 8 or 16 measures. You may go against the rules, but be aware that it might make your music have a strange feel to it.
4) Create a page for your song in your portfolio. This page should contain the following:
- Title of your song
- Lyrics with chords above (like a lead sheet) (Example)
- Parts of the song labelled such as Introduction, Verse (1&2), Chorus, Bridge, etc.
- Demo recording of your song at the end of your lyrics. This does not have to be a video. If you are not confident about your playing ability, get some friends to help you on this. This should include one verse and chorus with some type of chord instrument in the background. Your singing does not have to be good. It only needs to be there so I know how your song goes.
(IGNORE THIS!!! SEMESTER 1 Students DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!) Song Writing for Intermediate Part 2
With friends OR on your own, take a song that was created in part 1 and finish it. The song must have A A B A form where the B section is something different. This could be a contrasting chord progression, and instrumental section, or something different. By the end of this project, you and/or your group should have a completed song.
This this project you will be either taking a song that you created and making a music video for it OR creating a new song of your choice. The two different ways to write songs are through chord progressions and/or through lyrics/melody. Each method will be described below...
Song Writing Through Chord Progressions
Step 1: Pick a key and find a chord progression that you like.
Step 2: Create a melody with lyrics that match your chord progression. Remember to use chord tones in your melody.
Step 3: Add lyrics to your melody.
Song Writing Through Lyrics/Melody
Step 1: Find/Create lyrics. This could be through poetry or other writing that you have done.
Step 2: Add chords to your melody. Make sure the notes in your melody match your chords.
If you need more advice, read the following articles....
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsmW4GYrydY
This this project you will be either taking a song that you created and making a music video for it OR creating a new song of your choice. The two different ways to write songs are through chord progressions and/or through lyrics/melody. Each method will be described below...
Song Writing Through Chord Progressions
Step 1: Pick a key and find a chord progression that you like.
Step 2: Create a melody with lyrics that match your chord progression. Remember to use chord tones in your melody.
Step 3: Add lyrics to your melody.
Song Writing Through Lyrics/Melody
Step 1: Find/Create lyrics. This could be through poetry or other writing that you have done.
Step 2: Add chords to your melody. Make sure the notes in your melody match your chords.
If you need more advice, read the following articles....
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsmW4GYrydY