Howdy, folks!
This is a miniature version of the songwriting workshops I've been conducting for the past decade or so as an extension of our work at SDML Academy of Guitar. While each workshop is unique (due to the participants, their skill levels, knowledge levels, and interests), the foundation is the same as what I'll be using here (except here, for brevity, there will be no discussion of items like form, prosody, stylistic tendencies, timbrel concerns, texture, dynamics, interplay, time changes or key changes, theme & variations, and the like).
To wit: Our framework will be to explore....
1) Rhythm
2) Melody
3) Chord progressions & Harmonization
4) Lyrics & Literary Devices
Let's jump right in!
1) Rhythm
Rhythm & melody are, traditionally, the foundational elements of music composition. Knowing the difference between 4/4 and 3/4 (or between 3/4 and 6/8, or between 7/4 and 7/8, or between simple & compound time, or how to navigate odd time, and more) is crucial to being able to more easily manipulate rhythmic devices. In the video below, I play "House of the Rising Sun" in both 3/4 and then in 6/8 (and do so metrically).....and then I play a simple blues riff as a straight rhythm and then again as a shuffled rhythm.
See the video HERE.
2) Melody
While I'm a big believer in allowing melody to emerge as a result of just playing, there are ways to construct melody or alter existing melodies. In the video below, I start with a simple 3 note melody, build up harmonies, and then draw a new line through the harmonic material to construct a much more dynamic melody. (Whether that is "better" or not is purely a subjective thing - but the exercise is to give you a method of manipulating the melodic element to a greater degree).
See the video HERE.
3) Chord progressions & Harmonization
Most folks getting into writing either have an intuitive sense of harmonic motion or are explicitly familiar with common chord progressions. We certainly dive into those in the live workshop, but I thought Id give some examples of re-harmonizing and more just to give you some ideas. There isn't space or time in this medium to discuss exactly how I do what I'm doing in the video, but hopefully you'll get enough from it to explore the concept(s).
See the video HERE.
4) Lyrics & Literary Devices
Oddly, most songwriting workshops I've conducted in the past have tilted heavily (based on participant demands) to either music-centric or lyric-centric. That is, either they are very comfortable with lyrics and want to know how to build music around them, or they feel like they have the music game down pretty well but have no idea how to write a lyric.
So here's your simple exercise.
Stop reading now, and go write 4 lines of anything.
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OK, we're back!
A question: Does your verse rhyme? If so, why?
Seriously ponder that last question. It isn't wrong, mind you, but it demands an answer (again, if you want to command a degree of agility at manipulating words).
An exercise:
Re-write whatever you just wrote (yes, it can still rhyme) using alliteration. It doesn't have to be funny or a tongue-twister (the old "Peter Piper picked a peck pf pickled peppers" helps us remember what alliteration is, but gives many of us the false notion that it must be either funny or hard to say or both).
Examples of alliteration in hit songs include:
In "Me & Bobby McGee", Kris Kristofferson writes the famous line "....Somewhere near Salinas, I let her slip away...."
"Let it Be" (The Beatles) has the classic line "....Whisper words of wisdom..."
The Bob Dylan classic "Don't Think Twice" stretches the idea across 3 lines (best if you say the lines aloud): "....I'm a-thinking and a-wondering, walking down the road / I once loved a woman, a child I am told / I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul...."One-shot tips: http://www.paypal.me/skinnydevilmusic
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