How to write songs
Resources for young songwriters, teachers and music leaders from young people and workshop leaders on the Songwriter 2012 Project. (click on the links to open/download a word file)
Beginners' Instruction Videos
Workshop Leader Ben Smith shows us 'How to write a song with just one chord in just 20 minutes'.
Advice From the Songwriter 2012 Ambassadors (click here for more information)
'Keep at it!'
'Collaborate with as many people as possible. Listen to as much variety/quantity of music'
'Go to a peaceful isolated place and focus.'
'Take regular breaks, get inspiration from other bands, look at lyrics, listen to songs, practise improvising. Get your teacher to help you practise improvisation and the techniques behind it.'
'Write about things that people can relate to and have fun with it.'
'Write you songs about anything, don’t follow the crowd, because its what makes you different that gets you noticed.'
'Have confidence in themselves, and ask others for advice.'
'It takes a lot of time I think to write songs, it’s a really riveting talent to be able to write material that touches people and moves them in a way so don’t rush them, the more time you take nurturing your songs the better they will be, they’re a personal aspect that you’re sharing with the world. Authors don’t rush stories, so why rush ours?'
Free Software
How to find and use Free Software to help you write, record and upload your songs
(Compiled by Tim Hallas, Leader in Music Technology, Hertfordshire Music Service)
Some of the software below will let you create sequences and backing tracks from within the Internet Browser. You can the download them as mp3s to record your rap or singing over with Audacity.
Online sequencer with loops - www.soundation.com/
Online backing track creator - www.jamstudio.com
Online remix tool - www.looplabs.com
Online virtual studio and pedal board - www.audiotool.com
(Lots of dubstep style effects and samples)
www.aviary.com/online/music-creator
Ardour is a free DAW for Mac, http://ardour.org/ -
Temper Midi sequencer http://www.angryredplanet.com/temper/
Audacity, Audio Sequencer http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
An introduction to Audacity
Using Audacity freeware to help you record and prepare your songs for uploading
Getting Started with Songwriting
A simple guide to writing songs for beginners and improvers
Lots of ideas for subject matter and ways of working
Writing songs in instrumental lessons
Advice from and for instrumental tutors on how to support song-writing in instrumental lessons.
Ideas for song-writing in classroom lessons
Musical Heroes/Favourite Songs
Pupils Review Our Favourite songs, suggest their own and write why they like them
Leaving comments on the Songwriter Website
Pupils sign in to the songwriter website to review and leave comments on songs
Pupil create lyrics in groups based on cut-up Newspaper headlines
Using Rap at KS2
Pupils construct a rap over a backing track
Audio Mash-up
Pupils construct a song from sampled speech and a backing track
How we’ve written songs on Songwriter workshops
‘Make it on my own’ (click to hear the track)
We began running informal music projects in Spring 2003, and a song-writing workshop was one of the first we developed.
For this 5 hour session at the Cheshunt music centre the core workshop leaders were joined by two trainees, and the 16 participants were the GCSE cohort from nearby Sheredes school.
The young people formed themselves into groups, the ‘Make it” group consisted of a Singer/Sax player, a beginner keyboard player and a grade 3 flute player.
After establishing some common musical interests that could incorporate all these sounds… (Motown soul) we worked with the keyboard player to teach him primary triads in C (C, F and G), and encouraged him to change them with syncopation, to develop a rhythmic harmony foundation for the track. Substitution of alternative (relative minor) bass notes and use of inversion enabled the completion of a 4 chord pattern that required only one small right hand movement.
The singer then started improvising call and response vocal lines, with support from the workshop leader. The momentum from the verse, through the pre chorus into the chorus was developed just from the vocal line, with the backing remaining constant, with the exception of a pause inserted to tee-up the chorus.
We built a ‘middle 8’ by encouraging the keyboard player to apply the syncopated chord changes to a descending pattern, and also decided to use this for the introduction.
The flute player worked out her own simple riff that she played in double time in the middle 8 and introduction.
For the final live performance to the rest of the group the workshop leader played the piano, the trainee the drums, and the James Jameson bass line was provided by a workshop leader who’d worked with the other groups.
‘Messing with my Heart’ (click to hear the track)
‘Messing with My heart’ was written with the band Dr Rock, 6th formers from Freman College Rockschool (Buntingford) in 2005 over 3, 1 hour sessions.
The group had mostly been doing cover versions of favourite bands and some suggested by the workshop leaders (The Zutons, The Soft Boys).
We encouraged the group to jam on a groove featuring the primary triads from D major (D, G and A). The workshop leaders pointed out that the progression was immediately more interesting if the progression began on chord IV (G), rather than the home chord.
The chorus essentially used the same chord riff in a simplified form. One of the more able guitarists was encouraged to work out riffs to play over the verse and chorus.
The workshop leader supported with piano to allow the other guitarist/singer to begin improvising vocal lines without playing.The workshop leader picked-up and sang back the fragment that became the chorus melody to encourage the singer to develop it, and he quickly came up with the lyric ‘messing with my heart’ as part of this.
In the second session the singer brought in more lyrics the band had wrote together. Subsequent examination revealed they may not have been ideal for commercial release and the workshop leader helped the singer develop a radio friendly version from the original framework. We created a middle 8 variation, and used the lyric/melody over this, building tension to release into the final double chorus.
The track was a key part of the band’s performance at the Club 85 in Hitchin, and we also produced it further and recorded it with overdubs at the Youth Connexions studio in Alma road in St Albans. Ideally we’d have kept the stems for a REMIX!
'Wonderful Music' (click to hear the track)
The Music Service's Mix Team had the support of an admin assistant for several years.
When she moved on to a new post we decided to capture our thoughts on her departure via recorded interviews with staff, and by capturing her answering the office phone by staging a phone enquiry.
The mp3s were then arranged over a borrowed backing track to form a developing song structure to create the impression that the admin assistant was improvising a James Brown style funk track.