There’s a songwriter lurking somewhere inside you, peeking around corners, wondering if it’s safe to come out. Now it is. This course is an invitation to let your inner songwriter step into the sunlight. All it takes is a simple “yes” and you’ll be climbing that windy hill, marveling at the view. If you haven’t written any or many songs, this course will show you an efficient, effective process for tailoring songs to express your ideas and emotions. If you have, you’ll look at your process differently, taking control of aspects of the process you may have not noticed. The course will start by examining the tools available to you, all revolving around the essential concept of prosody. You’ll learn to use your tools to enhance your message—to work compositionally at the same time you’re developing your ideas. You’ll be working both lyrically and musically, though musically it’s not necessary that you either read music or play an instrument. If you play, great, and you’ll be encouraged to play and record your musical responses to the assignments. If you don’t play, the course offers you a number of musical loops to work with. All you’ll have to do is sing your melodies over the loops. Assignments will ask you to post something for peer review—sometimes lyric lines or sections, sometimes melodies, sometimes both. None of it has to be polished. The course is about writing, not performing. Most important, you’ll have a lot of fun.
Six Best Friends
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来自 Berklee College of Music 的课程
Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics
274 个评分
从本节课中
The Journey of the Song
By the end of this lesson, you will see how to develop your song idea so it creates an interesting journey from start to finish. You’ll understand your options developing the point of view of your song and will be introduced to the songwriter’s six best friends.
与讲师见面
Pat PattisonProfessor
[MUSIC]
Now it's not always the case that when you have an idea that you're
developing through the boxes, that it's going to stay that way.
This is all just so tentative.
So that once you're inside the box,
now you can start just exploring.
So you're exploring, you look happy,
what's up, are you as happy as you look?
You can explore that and
you can go anywhere you want to, into the woods, whatever.
And you know that, ultimately, you're not going to get lost, because you know where
you're going, because now you're working inside the boxes.
And so when I'm inside the box, I said what's up?
Generally speaking, what I will try to do is I'll call up my six best friends.
My six best friends are who,
what, when, where, why, and how.
Who, what, when, where, why, how.
Those are my six best friends.
And I'm particularly close to who, when, and where.
I'd recommend that you chat with them but of course what?
What are you talking about?
Is pretty important too.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about being betrayed and
lack of honesty in a relationship, that's what's happening.
See now we get into this first box.
And I call it my friend, when.
I say, hi, when, listen, I've got this idea.
I run into her and say, hey, you look really happy.
When, when, does this happen, when?
And when says, well,
when might be spring time.
It's spring time, everything is in blossom.
The birds are singing.
Flowers are coming up.
There's this soft gentle breeze blowing and there she is, in spring time.
Everything is in bloom and yet, inside, you are withering away.
So there's this ironic distance between the external world and
the internal world of loneliness and sadness that you are suffering.
I was like, [SOUND] when, that's so beautiful, thank you.
When says, don't hang up yet.
There's another possibility,
there's summer time, heat, growth, sex.
Tangled sheets, I hadn't thought about how much I missed her physically.
Thank you so much for the summer time.
That place of real growth.
Thank you.
When says, but there's also, it could happen in the fall.
When everything is slowing down and
the leaves are falling, much as your own emotions are.
And then rather than there being ironic distance between the external world and
your internal world, now there's consonance.
And the external world becomes a metaphor for
what's going on inside, or it could be winter time.
When you're covering up and you're feeling like you
need to protect yourself as you have been ever since she left you.
You say, when, you're so helpful, you're such a good friend.
When says, but there's other things.
It could be morning.
What if you meet her in the morning?
You say, why would I be meeting her in the morning?
Am I stalking her at Starbucks where I know she goes?
Or how early am I waking up with her in the morning?
Was this the last night that we spent together?
Was this our goodbye night, the I can't make you love me if you don't night?
What if it's 3:00 AM?
Then it could be a phone call, I hadn't thought of that.
It could be a phone call,
I could be leaving a voice message wondering,
or if it's afternoon or evening.
So those kinds of times, so when is it?
And this whole thing of when is now going to give you kind of a background and
you can draw from it emotionally.
It could be a special occasion, when?
Her wedding?
And so now you're walking down the reception line and
maybe now you're not even going to be saying this aloud.
Now you're going to be with an internal monologue of some kind.
So that the minute that you introduce when into this conversation,
there's all sorts of obvious places you can go that are going to
create some kind of an ambiance, some kind of a background in your song.
Thank you, when.
Hi, where.
Where is this happening?
Well, it could be at our special table at Dunkin' Donuts or
at Starbucks where I'm sitting and she walks in and
I've been sitting there for weeks.
So there's a where.
It could be just walking down the street.
Which side of the street is she on and who is she with?
And suddenly, the minute that you introduce where, things start coming and
some other possibilities.
And again, you've got some kind of setting for the song.
So that when and where can be very, very helpful friends.
Of course, we already know about why.
So that your six best friends.
If you run through those, who's talking to whom?
That's all the who.
What do you have to say?
Why are you saying it?
Why do you want to tell her this?
When is it?
Where is it?
And how does it all come together?
Your six best friends are your six best friends.
Feel free to call them anytime, no problem.
You're welcome.
