How To Write Songs — 6 Songs That Taught Us How To Write Songs

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One of the best ways to learn how to write great songs is to learn from great songs and songwriters. Here, we take 6 songs that each taught us a crucial principle or technique about writing great songs.

Drawing from a range of inspirations from Radiohead, Tom Waits, to Gillian Welch and John Mayer, Benny and I talk about the specific musical or lyrical technique that we learned from these 6 great songs.

Of course, these 6 songs are just a beginning! We picked these for this video because they showcase a range of different principles and techniques: we talk here about chromaticism in chord progressions, about borrowing chords outside the key, about balancing types of language in your verses, about narrative and non-conventional song forms, about verse development and great chorus writing, and how a great intro can set your song apart.

More will come out of this series, as we explore how to listen to music so that you can extract ideas, and put them to practice in your own songwriting.

CONTENT:

00:00 - Intro
01:06 - #1 Even When I'm Sleeping, by Leonardo's Bride
07:17 - #2 Karma Police, by Radiohead
14:56 - #3 Why Georgia, by John Mayer
19:55 - #4 Big Joe and Phantom 309, by Tom Waits
30:02 - #5 One More Dollar Gillian Welch
38:29 - #6 Romeo and Juliet, by Dire Straits

VIDEO NOTES:

Book - 'Popular Lyric Writing,' by Andrea Stolpe
Book - 'Steal Like an Artist,' by Austin Kleon
Song - 'All Too Well,' by Taylor Swift
Book - 'The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms'
Book - 'The Devil's Dictionary,' by Ambrose Bierce

SOME MORE FROM ME:

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ABOUT ME:

I'm Keppie. I'm a professional songwriter, and songwriting teacher. I've been teaching song and lyric writing for over 10 years now for some of the best contemporary music colleges in the world—Berklee Online, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music's Open Academy, as well as for the Australian College of the Arts. At other times, I've taught for the Australian Institute of Music, as well as the LA School of Songwriting.

My goal is to help people write better songs! My experience in the classroom, with thousands of students at this point (many going on to find careers and success in music), is that your songwriting, like all things, can get better with meaningful, deliberate practice. My intention is to share the skills, knowledge, information, and ideas that I've gathered with anyone who wants to improve their songwriting.

ABOUT BENNY:

Aside from being a killer lapslide players, Benny is a core member of one of Australia's best and most bearded country-bluegrass-rock bands, The Green Mohair Suits. Benny writes songs, as well as instrumental music for advertising, games, audio and visual media. He has taught song and lyric writing in Australia for the JMC Academy, and the Australian Institute of Music.

The Green Mohair Suits: https://greenmohairsuits.bandcamp.com...
Ben Romalis: http://www.silamor.com/music

MUSIC IN THIS VIDEO:

'Even When I'm Sleeping,' by Dean Manning © Mushroom Music
'Karma Police,' by Radiohead (Philip James Selway, Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood, Edward John O'Brien, Thomas Edward Yorke, Colin Charles Greenwood) © Warner/chappell Music Ltd
'Why Georgia,' by John Mayer © Sony/atv Tunes Llc, Goodium Music, Specific Harm Music
'Big Joe and Phantom 309,' by Tom Waits © Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B.v., Fort Knox Music Inc., Trio Music Company, Trio Music Co., Inc., Lark Music Inc, Fort Knox Music, Inc.
'One More Dollar,' by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings © Universal Music Publishing Group, Wixen Music Publishing
'Romeo and Juliet,' by Mark Knopfler © Universal Music Publishing Group

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#songwriting
#howtowriteasong
#johnmayer
#direstraits
#leonardosbride
#radiohead
#tomwaits
#gillianwelch