As I was playing around with this whole idea of the harmonic functions of

language, I got in touch with a couple of ethnomusicologists who have been working

in the field. and approached them about this concept of

do we really establish atonic do we go subdominant motion away from tonic

dominant motion toward tonic both subdominant and dominant being unstable

the tonic sort of being the fact the tonic being honesty the tonic being

statement. And I just let them know, you know, some

of this stuff that I had been thinking about and one of the folks, a guy by the

name of Joseph Jordania, who's written two books, one called Who Asked the First

Question. And his latest book called Why Do People

Sing? And he contacted me and said that he

though that the idea was was a valid one and that he wanted me to continue to

explore it. he said, he hadn't really seen anything

about it. and so I continue to explore it.

But in the meantime, I've been taking a look at his books, particularly his book,

Why Do People Sing? And I think that it's I think that it's

worth talking about. When we were in our infancy as hominids,

we were living in Africa, we were living in the trees and we were living in the

trees because on the ground was a very dangerous place, on the ground there were

lions. And so there we were and the higher we

could climb, the safer we would be so being light was a good thing.

At some point we discovered according to Joseph Jordania, that we had this thing

here, and not only did we have this thing here that could make noise, but we could

and learned to make noise together. We made noise together so that rather

than just you know random calls from tree to tree and so on we could actually

concert our voices. We can sound them together and it sounded

loud, it sounded maybe a bit scary and so tentatively, we came down out of the

trees onto the very dangerous ground. And as a group, learned, over the

millenium we learned to make noise together, we learned, according to Joseph

to stand on our hind legs to make us appear bigger, we learned to stomp on the

primitive drums and earth and we learned to bang rocks together while making noise

and stomping, and even throw rocks. Why did we do this?

Well, according to him, when the lion made its kill, killed the antelope, we as

a group. Appeared to be this big thing, making all

this noise, and throwing sticks and rocks, and stomping, and particularly

yelling, yelling. and approach the lion, and we learned to

drive the lion off its kill. And once the lion started leaving its

kill and we had that protein then we started to gain weight, we started to

grow. Banging the rocks together by the way,

some of them broke. Had very sharp edges, learned to gut the

antelope with that, the formation of tools, so that we spent, according to

"Why Do People Sing?," basically the first two and a half million years of our

existence as hominids as scavengers. Driving the lion off its kill.

And according to him the bone records of the hominids and the lions across Africa

match perfectly. So that we really did follow the lion and

the lion was our hunter, our designated killer and I think thats an incredibly

interesting therory and what what seems so interesting and compelling about it is

that when we make noise together, when we sing together part of our brain lights up

that has to do with survival. Not with pleasure, not with all of that

stuff, with survival, that is, singing together, like sex, like breastfeeding,

like breathing, like flight or fight, all of those instincts that light up the

primitive brain stem. The survival portion of our brain are lit

up when we sing together so that singing together is actually an essential

survival marker. It's something that is linked to survival

and according to Joseph Jordania nobody spoke a word, but we did learn that

singing with tones, yelling with tones when we sang together, if we, if, if, our

tones were all stable it didn't sound as loud as when we use dissonance.

And he calls that the birth of polyphony so that we were singing together long

before the first word was spoken. Consequently, when we sing together

something happens, it's the same thing that happens when we have sex, it's the

same thing that happens when we breastfeed.

There is a reward system, called oxytocin, that creates a strong bond that

that gives us pleasure, that rewards us for this act of singing together.

So that singing is fundamental, it is hard wired into our DNA.

When you write a song, remember that one of the things that your song is capable

of doing is engaging the tribe. Is engaging the tribe to drive the lion

off its kill and feed us all so that in terms of questions like, simple,

singable, memorable chorus? Complex, intellectual, how smart I am,

chorus? Invite your audience in, let them sing

with you, let them bond with you, let them be your tribe.

So there it is. Now we only have six weeks, and boy,

songwriting is really a lifetime, of fun, a lifetime of exploration, a lifetime of

growth. so, where do you go next?

Well, you know Berkeleymusic.com has a fabulous online school.

I've written five courses for it tools and strategies, writing lyrics to music,

writing from a title, writing poetry. I've been teaching poetry at Berkeley for

my entier time here and finally, creative writing finding your voice which is based

on my newest book Songwriting Without Boundaries.

So, those courses are there and available.

Now, we couldn't do everything in this course and what got the shortest amount

of attention was harmony. We've got nothing really in harmony.

And what a world that is. Berkley, Berkley music has wonderful

songwriting course in, in harmony by Jimmy Kachulis.

his melody course also really wonderful. Andrea Stolpe has songwriting course

here. There's just all sorts of songwriting

stuff to take a look at if you're interested.

the courses are limited in the number of people that can take them which would be

an unusual experience for you, I'm sure. and they're all instructor driven so you

get feedback from the instructor on either a daily basis or at least a weekly

basis for the 12 week course that a that, that you a that you do.

So you know, I strongly encourage you to at least take a look and see what what

Berkley music has to offer. they are such a crack team.

I have four books out. you've seen seen them referred to in

suggested readings as we, as we go. of course, I encourage you to take a look

at those if you haven't already. but for the most for the most part, I

would simply like to say, thank you. Thank you so much for staying the course.

Thank you so much for being interested enough in your growth to understand that

information, rather than stifling your creativity, actually enhances your

creativity that Knowing stuff is something that helps you to locate where

you need to go, where you might want to look in this vast woods of options.

To find due north, to find the place to go for that idea is most likely to live.

So that information, combined with inspiration, combined with intuition, is

unstoppable. And I hope that if nothing else, that

that has become clear that is exercises that you have been doing have been

stimulating. Have pulled back the bow.

Have held you back to some degree, but now when you release the string that

you're straight and true to your target or as straight and true as anybody can be

in the arts. So thank you so much for coming.

thank you so much for your attention and write write fearlessly, write prosity.

Make sure that Aristotle is alive and well in your hearts, that everything you

do strives toward that wonderful goal of unity.

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