Songwriting Starting Points

This is a concept I haven't seen many people talk about, but it feels like an important one.

Generally speaking, I've noticed that a lot of people tend to fall pretty hard into one of two camps, and sometimes people aren't even AWARE of the other camp!

1. Transcribing
Some people think that a musician will just "hear" a mostly complete song in their head and then sit down with a guitar to figure out how it goes. The better you are at figuring out songs by ear, the better you'll be at writing songs. There are a few well-known artists that perpetuate this idea of writing music. Mozart tended to be like this, and many other artists had experiences like this. Paul McCartney supposedly woke up with part of the melody for "Yesterday."

2. Exploring
Others think that you have to just try tinkering, exploring, adjusting, massaging until - eventually - you stumble upon something nice. Beethoven was notorious for tinkering and massaging. If you start off with something in your head, you're not really "writing music."

My goal with this video is basically to let you know these stereotypes exists and THEN to have you ask: Which camp do I relate with? Did I know about these camps?

If you've been writing for a while, it's probably helpful to think about what assumptions you've made about writing music, and THEN work to be a well rounded musician.

If you're more of a transcriber, I recommend trying to explore more often. Sit down to write without any ideas in your head. Pick a key and tinker with chord progressions, melodies or riffs - whatever! As long as you're not trying to think of something FIRST and then playing it.

If you're more of an explorer, try imagining an interesting chord progression or melody. Even picturing a concept, like "I want to try a melody with lots of space, and big jumps" is a helpful way to start hearing a melody idea in your head. Also, figuring out songs by ear (aka transcribing parts) is a valuable skill regardless of wether you'll ever be someone who hears full songs in your head.

Leave a comment sharing your experience - which camp do you find yourself in?

A Brief Tour of the Concepts Involved

Luke and I have been working on this video for YouTube for a few months and we think it's finally ready. It's intended to help people see the trajectory of leveling up your solos,

I'll be releasing it publicly sometime soon, but I wanted to drop it for my Patrons beforehand. Feel free to open the video on YouTube and leave a comment!

Here is the handy practice page: https://www.scottpauljohnson.com/5levels

For those of you who made a Patreon review video, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I will definitely use them, but it didn't work out to use them for this youtube video after all. If you'd like to make a video review of my Patreon for either website use or a future youtube video, here is the community forum post detailing what I'm looking for. Reviews like this make a huge difference to me so thank you again.

YouTube videos are tricky because I want to teach a full concept, but I would also like people to know that I have SO MUCH for them to learn over here on my Patreon. I also need a video to be constantly engaging so the algorithm likes it, otherwise no one will end up seeing it. If anyone is actually interested in the ins and outs of making YouTube videos, you can ask me on a live Q&A.

Multiple Chords

In this lesson, we're taking the rules from the previous lesson and applying them to multiple chords, paying close attention to the transfer points between chords.

Check out the PDF below to follow along and study the phrases we cover in this lesson.

The homework is in three sections, and I've attached a separate jam track for each section. Feel free to write more than 12 phrases if you want more practice!

Also, you can use this jam track from my SPJ Jam tracks channelfor homework 1 if you want to.

Post your homework (or just record your favorite phrases) to the community forum.

Playing with Others

Before we talk about where to find people to play with, we have to talk about HOW to actually play with others. This video starts by examining the dynamic between two people using the "Leader" and "Follower" concept. Then we move into the idea of playing with a group - what to expect, how to fit in, and how the leader/follower dynamics get a little more complicated.

Do you prefer one role over the other? Are you better at following or leading? Have you had a jam session or rehearsal yet? Are you someone who has never played with anyone before? Feel free to share your experience and your own tips in the comments.

Rules For Chords

In this lesson, we're tackling my three rules for melody making over chords:

1. Always start a phrase on a chord
2. If moving in skips, only skip from a chord tone to another chord tone.
3. If moving in steps, continue moving in steps until you reach another chord tone.

As usual, these are guidelines that are often broken in the "real world" but please, for the duration of this course, treat them like rules until I say otherwise!

In the next lesson, we'll be applying these concepts to multiple chords, which will REALLY open the curtain into the world of melody making.

Follow along with the PDF attached below.

HOMEWORK
Practice writing phrases over a single chord, using the "homework" section of the PDF. I've provided some jam tracks for you to practice hearing your phrases over the chord. Post your written OR recorded phrases to the community forum.

Jam Tracks are also attached!

Starting A Band/Band Models

I'm doing the editing myself for a few months here while I have Luke (my amazing video editor) work on YouTube videos a little more. I decided to have a little fun and lean into it - I hope you enjoy change of pace. Also it was like 90 degrees in my office while I was filming so enjoy my misery haha.

Anyhow, I wanted to kick off the series with an overview of the main two polar opposite band models: The Democratic Model & The Band Leader Model. I also discuss the importance of talking about money and having an agreement early on in the process to avoid resentment and frustration. This overview serves as a big-picture reminder of how the more detail-oriented lessons fit together as we move along.

The goal of the series is to both prepare new folks for playing with other people AND give seasoned bandmates some useful stuff to think about.

I'm also considering interviewing musician friends about their experience learning to play with other people, especially in specific helpful ways for those of you who haven't gotten started yet. If you'd like that, let me know.

Basic Phrases

Now that you've been listening more closely to phrases, it's time to practice writing your own! This lesson talks about skips, steps, and repeats and gives you a nice starting point for writing your own phrases. Check out the PDF, and post your homework to the community forum via post Melody Making 02 | Basic Phrases

HOMEWORK - Writing basic phrases

• Practice making phrases using the diagrams on the PDF (attached at bottom of post)

Your phrases must all follow these rules:
1. Use no more than 7 notes
2. Stay within an octave
3. Experiment with a mix of skips and steps
4. Experiment with repeating notes
5. Experiment with long and short notes
6. Share your favorite 3 phrases with the community

Overview

Welcome to Melody Making! In my opinion, this is one of the most overlooked, under-explained aspects of music education. Melody making involves all the most important ethereal stuff in music: repetition, arrangement, holistic attention - but it also requires specific and clear music theory understanding when it comes to keys, scales, and chord progressions.

By the end of this course, you'll have a better sense of how to make melodies AND how to apply these concepts to other areas of musicianship.

Recommended prerequisites:
- Music Theory for Guitar
- Music Theory Monday lessons 1, 3, 4, 5

Listening for this lesson:
"Hey, Good Lookin'" by Hank Williams •SPOTIFY• •YOUTUBE•
"Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers •SPOTIFY• •YOUTUBE•
"Two of Us" by The Beatles •SPOTIFY• •YOUTUBE•

The homework for this lesson:

Pick 5 songs
• Analyze either the verse or chorus melody
• Label the melodic phrases with A, B, C etc
• Phrases that seem the same to you should be labeled with the same letter (eg A and A or B and B)
• Make note of phrases that are NOT the same, but sound similar.

Remember, the goal of this lesson is to practice listening and writing down what you hear. You don't have to be right or wrong, just try to come up with reasons WHY you labeled phrases the way you did. This is one of those situations where you have to learn to swim by jumping in the pool.

Post your marked-up lyrics to the community forum on Melody Making 01.

Lesson 11 | Full Circle

This is it! The final CAGED Basics II lesson!

In this lesson, we start by sliding a pentatonic scale through multiple positions, talking a little about how useful this kind of thing can be for soloing. Then we move into the play-along tune. First, I play through the tune, then I walk you through the variety of shapes and finger choices for each phrase of the tune.

Download the PDF and follow along with the lesson. Use the BPM tracks below to practice the tune. Start slow and work your way up.

Play along tracks:
40BPM
50BPM
60BPM
70BPM  (good goal)
80BPM  (very nice goal)
90BPM  (wow impressive goal)
100BPM (bonus points)

Hi Everyone,

In this lesson I'm tackling an important question: should you learn to record yourself? If so, how involved should you get? Should every musician have a home studio or should every musician go to their local pro studio for recording?

I compare the cost of home recording vs the cost of pro studios, how much time it takes to learn to record at home, how to prepare for a recording studio session, and just generally what to expect depending on what path you choose.

What kind of person are you? Are you more of a DIY home studio person or would you prefer to book studio time with a professional engineer?

Lesson 10 | Pentatonic Pit Stop

We're in the home stretch with this second-to-last installment of CAGED Basics II.

In this lesson we're exploring the relationship between the D shape and E shape pentatonic scales with a Fix or Foreshadow exercise followed by a practice tune.

Download the PDF (attached below) and use these practice tracks for the tune.

Play along tracks:
75 BPM
85 BPM
95 BPM
104 BPM

Please note: you don't NEED to play the tune perfectly at 104BPM to move on. 85 or 95 BPM is an acceptable goal. It's more about getting the concept and having a clear sense of how you can use these skills in your own writing and practice.

If you'd like to post questions, eureka moments, or your performance of the practice tune, please post to the community forum.

Becoming A Musician

Hi Everyone,

Weird things start happening when you are in the process of becoming a musician. I talk about a few of them here.

1. As Mateus has noticed, learning music theory and recording software forever changes the way you listen to music. It goes from a mostly sensory experience to a more cerebral experience. With practice, you CAN listen to music without critically thinking about it (I call it "sponge mode") but yes, now you have to practice doing something that used to be easy for you.

2. Sometimes when people learn music theory, they feel like they have to have specific reasons WHY they like the music they like - AND they feel like those reasons should be theory based. I'm here to assure you that you can like music for whatever reasons you want - even if you can't put your finger on it.
ONE FUN THING is that you might start gravitating toward more diverse and specific musicians and genres. You might find yourself saying something like "wow I really like the bass line in this song, but the guitar isn't very exciting and I wouldn't write melodies like that." Then you start listening to that band just for the bass. Or you might say "I love the production (recording style) of this album, but I don't necessarily want to play guitar like that but I love the keyboard parts." Essentially, you might start liking more specific things about artists and dislike more specific things. It's kind of fun.

3. As you become more involved in your instrument, you'll feel more comfortable specializing in the things you like about music. Wether thats engineering, songwriting, soloing, fingerpicking, etc - the more you dive into your interests, the better sense you'll have about what you need to practice. This is what I was going for with my move-to-spain analogy.
Diving into your interests as soon as possible will make guitar more fun AND will help you avoid feelings of inadequacy. This is because when you don't have specific goals, you might feel like you need to at least be somewhat good at everything - thats just not true. Just focus on what you like.

HOW HAS THE LEARNING PROCESS BEEN FOR YOU?

HAVE YOU HONED IN ON SPECIFIC GOALS AS YOU'VE LEARNED MORE?

HAVE YOU TAKEN THE PLUNGE INTO THE MUSICAL AREAS YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT?

Lesson 09 | D Shape

We're getting close to the end of this series! Get comfortable with the D Shape pentatonic scale and accompanying major and relative minor chords. Watch the lesson, practice the shapes and scale, do the homework, and learn the practice tune at the end! This one is tricky because it's the first pentatonic shape that can't be played in one position. 

In this lesson I first talk about harmonizing a scale in thirds. Then I talk about bouncing from Root and 3rd to 3rd and 5th over a jam track. Then I add 5th and 7th. Then I start applying my melody making guidelines from MTM 17-19, showing how you can move through the scale in thirds to play harmonized melodic parts.

I LOVE this kind of this and I think you will too. I recommend being familiar with MTFG and MTMfirst, but I think you could learn a lot from this lesson after just a few MTFG lessson.

Oll Korrect

In this Practice Thought, I'm drawing from the funny history of the word "okay" to demonstrate some similarities between the english language and music. Hopefully this will breathe some new life into the old trope "music is a language" and give you some encouragement to explore how you speak the language of music.

It's important to remember as you move along that music isn't about right vs wrong, it's about understandable vs unintelligible. English has words that morph and change their meaning, while music has concepts that feel different to a population over time. This gives us a more solid foundation to say "if it feels good, it is good" in music.

However you feel about it, I hope this video is interesting and encouraging. If you have any eureka moments or just general thoughts, please share in the comments below!

Lesson 08 | Pentatonic Pit Stop

This is the 8th lesson in my CAGED Basics II series, where I'm systematically working through the relationship between major and minor chord shapes in the CAGED System and how the Pentatonic Scales can overlay on top of this info. In this lesson, we're diving into the relationship between the G Shape and the E shape. You'll start with an exercise to help you think about the Fix or Foreshadow situations involved in switching between these two shapes, and you'll end with a fun tune that spans the G Shape and E shape.

Please note: I played the practice track a little fast because my software required it, but you don't need to play the tune faster than 85BPM to move on to the next lesson, which will be out soon!

Check out the PDF as well!

Hot Bodies In Motion, “All Night” | Pt. 1 - Verse

I thought it might be fun to do a little songwriting analysis on something I've written with my band, Hot Bodies in Motion.

We'll discuss the general arrangement and tonality of the song, and then dig into the melody, bass line, and guitar parts. Specifically, we'll focus on how they interact with the chord progression and each other. These lessons are designed to give you some insight into my approach to songwriting, and hopefully inspire you to take part in more community challengesand writing exercises.

You can listen to the song by watching the music video here but don't share it with anyone yet! The song (and video) will officially release on January 13th.

If you want to practice ear training, see if you can figure out all the parts yourself before watching the videos!

This song started out as a loose groove/idea I came up with sometime toward the end of 2017 or beginning of 2018. I gave it to my friend and bandmate, Ben. He started writing lyrics and we finished writing the song sometime in 2019. We filmed the music video around Christmas 2021.

Let me know if you enjoy this format! I've been thinking it's time to do some more song analysis

Song Analysis - Hot Bodies in Motion's "All Night":
• Part 1: Intro/Verse
• Part 2: Chorus (coming soon)
• Part 3: Bridge/final thoughts (coming soon)

What Sucks About The CAGED System

I don't usually engage in clickbait and this video is no exception. I love the CAGED System, but there is certainly an aspect of the CAGED System that sucks. You mainly see it when you describe chords like this: G Shaped D Chord.

For some people, it's hard to think of a chord shape as anything other than a chord. So this lesson is about giving everyone a funny way to think about CAGED shapes as people names instead of the typical names for the shapes.

I hope you enjoy! If you think about CAGED Shapes differently or want to start a discussion about this lesson, feel free to leave a comment below or on the community forum.

Lesson 07 | E Shape

In this installment, we'll build the E Shape pentatonic scale from the E Shape triad and its relative minor shape, the D Minor Shape triad. You'll have a little homework (do it! It will help!) and a fun tune to play with E shape and D Minor shape chords to get used to. After this, we have one more CAGED Shape to cover! That means you'll be set up to play anywhere on the neck.

You can find the PDFs and Play-Along videos on the Patreon post.

Lesson 06 | Pentatonic Pitstop

In this lesson, we spend some time moving between the A Shape and G Shape pentatonic scales with a fingering exercise and a tune designed to make you think about your finger choices.

These exercises are designed to give you a manageable playground to practice what many beginning & intermediate guitar players would consider the most under-explained aspect of guitar playing: choosing which fingers to use and why.

I learned things like this while taking classical guitar lessons, but even then I had to infer the logic from the written fingering. This "fix or foreshadow" idea isn't an all-encompassing method, but it is a great start for designing your own ergonomic path through a melody, riff, solo, etc.

Play-Long Tracks available on Patreon Post.

E Major I-IV Progression

This video is for everyone! Whether you just arrived or you've been here a while.

I'm trying something new here. For some of you, this might be review and for others this might be an exciting new venture into creativity. The idea with this video is that everyone is welcome.

You'll see me advertising my Patreon a few times because I made this for YouTube, but I thought you all would really enjoy it as well.

The idea here is simple: Get comfortable with an E Major and A Major chord all over the fingerboard using this jam trackand the note name scratch paper attached below, or Graeme's online note name scratch paper.

There is little mention of the CAGED System or root notes or anything too specific, because the main goal of this video is to learn how to be creative and explorative with voicings all over the fingerboard.

If you wanna chat about this lesson, post a video or audio of some cool voicings you've found, or just some note name scratch paper markings of some interesting voicings you discovered, consider posting about it in the community forum.

Shame And Holistic Musicianship

The journey of musicianship is a journey into your own emotional complexities. Performing can reveal you to yourself in new ways, and that can sometimes be scary and embarrassing. Learning anything can be a powerful mirror that helps you see different parts of yourself more clearly. No one likes feeling like a fool or a newbie.

In this video I discuss the idea of shame in musicianship. Present shame is the feeling of "I need to play this perfectly" or "I need to know everything about this concept before I use it to write music" or "I need to have this technique down before I can call myself a real musician." These are all varieties of present shame.

Retroactive shame is the feeling that "wow I was so confident about that performance a few years ago, but I didn't know how melodic minor works and I did it wrong" or "I didn't realize I was playing the wrong chord in that spot" or even "wow I wasn't singing in tune when I thought I was back then." These are all examples of times when you didn't feel shame in the moment, but you do now after you've learned more.

These are complicated feelings and I'm not going to say "DON'T HAVE THESE FEELINGS" because, well, how is that a request you can possibly consider? These feelings are often uncontrollable.

What I can offer is an opportunity to consider that this shame is a small facet of the whole person and the whole musician. Every musician can look back and cringe at certain aspects of their musicianship or even feel shame or embarrassment about a current lack of skill or understanding.

But the positive feedback loop looks like this: the more you accept this feeling as a normal part of musicianship development, the less power it will have over you. The more you see it as an aspect of musicianship that shouldn't be removed, but nestled in alongside all the other variety feelings you have, the less you'll focus on it as a negative thing and the less it will take over.

Essentially, thinking "I shouldn't be having this feeling" can cause the biggest feedback loop. Acknowledge that feeling AND all the other feelings that shame is blocking - be proud of your progress, your increased finesse of your songs or your technique, your greater awareness of how to play your instrument and write music, and so on. Because musicianship is a journey, you will never stop learning as long as you keep trying and being mindful.

Lesson 05 | G Shape

In this lesson, I'm continuing to use the CAGED framework of triads to flesh out more information on the fingerboard, this time with the G Shape.

Like the previous lessons, we've got a lesson section, homework section, and practice section.

Get comfortable with these concepts, enjoy practicing the tune, and move on to the next lesson, where you'll get to practice playing a tune that slides around all three pentatonic scales we've covered so far.

The PDFs are attached below.

Post your questions, eureka moments, frustrations, practice track progress, etc related to this lesson on the community forum.

Lesson 04 | Pentatonic Pit Stop

Hi Everyone,

Instead of introducing another pentatonic shape, this lesson breaks down a variety of ways to practice moving between the two pentatonic scales we've covered so far. There are more options than I've laid out in this exercise, but I think this gives a great start for those of you looking to mesh scale shapes together in a seamless way.

And of course, you don't always HAVE to slide between shapes, but sliding makes it a little more fun and helps connect the scales in a tangible way.

You can just google the word "metronome" and you'll find a variety of options.

Post your questions, elations, frustrations etc below or on the community forum.

Navigating Options On The Fingerboard

This is a little one-off lesson I've been thinking about doing for a long time. Stringed instruments are weird, and guitar is no exception. One weird thing about stringed instruments is that many duplicate or "unison" notes can be found all over the fingerboard. In other words, you can play the exact same chord or scale or riff in multiple places. These tones are not different octaves, they are the same frequency.

I've attached two PDFs, one is a detailed, high color, printer-unfriendly recap of this lesson with a few examples. The other PDF is unison-finder scratch paper with subtle colors that are (hopefully) more printer friendly for those of you who want to print.

Here are a few questions for the community to ponder and discuss in the comments below or in the community forum: If your fingers are already comfortable, would there be any musical reason to play the same phrase or chord on different strings? Have you found that you prefer voicings on any particular set of strings, like strings 2, 3, & 4 or 4, 5, & 6? Is there a specific situation where you've used this unison note finder method to make something easier or better sounding?