SONGWRITING 1Week 3

LEARNING OUTCOMES• By the end of today’s session, students will be able to:

1. Define and identify the point of view in a song

2. Use boxes as a tool to develop their ideas

3. Identify and define questions the song asks, and how to answer them

4. Understand and identify the form of the song

MIKE ELIZONDO SEMINAR• Mike Elizondo is best known for his work

with Eminem, co-writing number 1 hit The Real Slim Shady, along with much of the rest of The Marshall Mathers LP.

• His co-writing credits range far and wide, from hip hop greats Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg, to Twenty One Pilots, Maroon 5, Tegan & Sarah, Regina Spektor, and two of New Zealand’s favourite songbirds, Gin Wigmore, and Kimbra.

• Worked with Dr Dre for 11 years

• Producer, songwriter, bass player

• Jayde, Mark and Sam - what did you learn?

THE SONGWRITING PROCESS

• Eventually all songwriters begin to ask themselves questions about their songs:

• What am I going to say?

• What is this idea?

• Almost anything can be the centrepiece of the song

• Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer

• What is the idea behind the song?

POINT OF VIEW

• Every song that you write needs to answer 3 questions

1. Who is talking?

2. To whom?

3. Why?

• Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer

• Who is talking?

• To whom?

• And why?

EXAMPLE

• Two people saying goodbye at an airport

• What is the relationship of the singer to the audience?

• Storyteller - objective “He loved her so much, but she did not return his love.”

• Participatory storyteller - the audience knows something about the singer. “I loved her so much, but she did not return my love.”

• The singer has intimacy with the second person (you), without using personal pronouns (I). “You loved her so much, but she did not return your love”

• The singer (I) is talking to a second person (you): “I loved you so much, but you did not return my love”

POINT OF VIEW: CAMERA ANGLES

Most Intimate (Close-up: Feelings)

Most Objective (Long Range: Facts)

Direct Address

Second Person Narrative

First Person NarrativeThird Person Narrative

Most Intimate (Close-up: Feelings)

Most Objective (Long Range: Facts)

Direct Address

Second Person Narrative

First Person NarrativeThird Person Narrative

EXAMPLE

• Two people saying goodbye at an airport

• One doesn’t want the other to go, but they both know it’s for the best

• Write a line expressing this sentiment

• Third Person Narrative:

• First Person Narrative

• Second Person Narrative

• Direct Address

• Which feels more appropriate for the song?

CS - FIONA APPLE ‘HOT KNIFE’If I'm butter, if I'm butter

If I'm butter, then he's a hot knife

He makes my heart a cinema scope

He's showing the dancing bird of paradise

He excites me

Must be like a genesis of rhythm

I get feisty

Whenever I'm with him

BOXES

• One of your jobs as a songwriter is to keep your listener interested all the way through your song

• Each repetition of the main idea (why) in either the chorus or the refrain should gain weight as it progresses through the song

Are you really happy?I’d just like to know

D’ja cheat?I’d just like to know

All I wanted was honesty

I’d just like to know

DEVELOPMENT

• Moving forward in time (past, present, future)

• Different perspectives (you, I/me, we)

• Etc

The Airport Song

QUESTIONS THE SONG ASKS• Who

• What

• When

• Where

• Why

• How

Who, what, when,

where, why, how

Who, what, when, where, why, how

Who, what, when, where, why, how

The Airport Song

FORM

• The boxes are separate from song form

• Song sections have different jobs

• Verse: Give us the fundamental story, give basic information

• Chorus: Repeated section - central idea of the song

• Chorus literally means - people singing together - so people need to sing your chorus

• https://youtu.be/C-9VyI25otk

• Bridge - moves to a different level of reality.

• Pre-chorus (bridge that goes from verse to chorus).