Songwriting | 06

Lyrics with Ben | Three Prong Writing

This lesson is a little different. It's a conversation with my friend and bandmate, Ben Carson. This is hopefully the first of many conversations. Let me know if you'd like me to continue this conversation and get more specific about each of these lyric writing prongs. Next time we'll be able to capture better audio as well - something didn't work right this time!

Ben and I wrote all the songs for our band, Hot Bodies in Motion. I wrote mostly music - bringing sketches of verse and chorus and sometimes more - and Ben wrote the lyrics (and massaged, changed, or rewrote my melodies to fit his voice.)

This video is hopefully the first of many videos about writing lyrics. Even if you are not interested in writing lyrics, this still might be useful if you'd like to be a good bandmate in the future. Also, this discussion might help you start thinking about how to start building writing habits around music as well.

Songwriting LessonsScott JohnsonSeptember 27, 2021

Songwriting Challenge | 05

“Ten Turds” II | Arranging Parts

In this video I develop one of my "turds" from the previous "Songwriting Challenge | Ten Turds."

Essentially, if you like one of your "turds," it must not be a turd! It may actually be a nice song seed thing! But now what?

In fact, if you chose one to work on, you should probably stop calling it a turd. It is now a "song seed," though I didn't mention that in the video. Remember, calling it a "turd" in the first place was just a sneaky way to not put too much pressure on yourself to "write something amazing."

This lesson is about developing a (somewhat) organized system to get your "song seed" to a place where you can start taking it a little more seriously.

We're not finishing the song yet, we're developing it. Seeing what it needs. Seeing what it wants to say.

You could think of this as a mystical thing where you get to know the song and figure out what it wants to say, but you could also see it as a practical way to quickly shape the song into an organized arrangement without thinking too much about how many millions of options there are in the world. How many millions of things you COULD write about. Narrowing in and organizing is the idea here. Don't overwhelm yourself with the possibilities. Keep it simple. In this video I help you

a) understand the meter of your B.S. lyrics and learn how to use that to your advantage

b) use the meter to tinker with writing new lyrics to replace your B.S. lyrics

c) write some cohesive starter lyrics to get a sense of the content of your song before committing to the "real" lyrics

d) arrange your basic Verse-Chorus sections into VCVC, then into IVCVCBC or whatever arrangement makes sense to you, based on how the song feels so far

e) how to approach writing a bridge with either a "lean in" bridge or a "somewhere new" bridge

I hope you enjoy this exercise!

Songwriting LessonsScott JohnsonApril 19, 2021Songwriting Challenge | 05

Songwriting | 04

Scott's Songwriting Process

One of my main goals for this Patreon is to promote creativity. You've probably heard me say this a hundred times in various contexts throughout my videos: writing music is one of the best ways to learn and understand music theory.

This is a vulnerable look at me in a recording software songwriting session - not polished, not perfect, just tinkering, practicing, working things out. The goal is to show you this process so you have questions and curiosity about writing this way!

The point of this video is to:

a) drum up interest (and hopefully inspiration) for writing music with recording software

b) invite more music writing questions from my patrons

c) give you a sense of what you can do with all the things you're learning here and most importantly,

d) to be vulnerable with you and put my cards on the table

Songwriting LessonsScott JohnsonApril 12, 2021Songwriting | 04

Songwriting Challenge | 03

Ten 'Turds'

In this lesson I'm walking you through the process. The process. This is a great way to get into writing music: practice writing a bunch of crappy ideas as quickly as possible. The more you write, the more you see your patterns, your go-to's, and your habits. The more you write this way the more you get to be surprised by a cool idea that pops up. The more you write this way the more you confront all those "I'm not good enough feelings" and learn how to just move onto the next thing.

This writing method is called the "ten turds" method because so many of my songwriting students have been so afraid to start writing music because they think, "what if I write something bad." I'm here to tell you, most of the music that you'll ever write - and that I'll ever write! - that your favorite artist writes - won't live up to your standards. And thats ok. Because when you get into writing and focus on just doing the work, you get better at writing and you learn how to lean into the good stuff. This technique is designed to get you out of your own head and just practice writing stuff no matter how good or bad you think you are at writing.

Songwriting LessonsScott JohnsonMarch 15, 2021Songwriting | 03