SONGWRITING

Here you’ll find notes from songwriting club.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE SONG WRITING CLUB TERM 1

You’ll be able to enter lyrics in Rockquest and Bandquest competitions.

And also in NZ Ukulele Uke-Can-do-It , Singout4justice and HookLineandSingalong.

 

We’ll be able to play some completed songs on the school radio!

 

 

Tips for lyric writing

• save everything – eg. notebook, also record your melodies
• analyse why you like lyrics and other songs
• keep real

Structure ideas

• Title
• intro
• verse
• pre-chorus
• chorus
• hook
• bridge
• instrumental
• accapella
• riff
• coda/outro

Other elements to think of

• texture (lots of instruments, or just one or two)
• contrast
• mood

Rhyming

• sometimes reverse line order

Listing (same starter or ending for each line)
eg.
I live…
I live….
I live….
I live….

Some notes from Charlotte Yates’ videos

POPULAR STRUCTURE

• Title What the song is about, Short, Attracts attention, Links to chorus, simple language
• Verse1 has details, sets scene (who, when, where, why..), lower than chorus (contrasts), “killer first line”
• Chorus essence of song, catchy, memorable
• Verse 2 shifts story on
• Chorus
• Chorus

Some useful song writing web sites:

Click here for some great video songwriting resources as well as info about the Hook Line Sing-long competition.

http://www.patpattison.com/lyrictips/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/guide/song.shtml

https://ask.audio/articles/8-tips-for-writing-pop-songs 8 Tips for writing pop songs

SONG WRITING CLUB 2014-2015

Session 1

• Song structure
• Defining elements of songs
• Watch short videos
• Title activity

Session 2

• Re-cap session 1
• sharing
• Listing technique
• Write own listing verse

Session 3

• Rhyming patterns
• Look at rhyming patterns in known songs
• Reverse rhyming trick

Session 4

• Inspiration ideas and topics
• Colour/emotion/texture/season verse activity
• Bring favourite song sentence with reason
• Share Songwriter HD app

Session 5

• Share favourite sentence
• Share any of own writing
• Try putting some to music
• Writing a song which describes but doesn’t say the topic

GraphicOrganizerLotusDiagram Download this to write on to help brainstorm related ideas or related rhyming words.