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This Simple Songwriting Formula Will Make You Write Better Songs In 20 Minutes

Ethan Davis18:36 334.873 Aufrufe veröffentlicht Auf YouTube

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  1. if you learn to write songs the world will open up to you being able to write a song is like having a superpower you can make a crowd of people Swoon over
  2. your every word or you can start an entire movement with a song or you know songwriting could just be this little thing that you actually look forward to
  3. at the end of every day you know after school or after work or after you get the kids to bed so whether you want to write for fun or actually make a career
  4. out of it I'm going to show you a step-by-step method for songwriting that really works and it's so simple that anyone can do it I'm serious whether
  5. you've never written a song before or you've written a hundred songs and you're looking for some fresh motivation and insight this method will be super
  6. helpful for you in your songwriting Journey I've personally used it to write over 30 songs that each have over a million streams but more important than
  7. the numbers it gives you a clear path from the beginning formulating an idea all the way to the end having a finished fully written song you can use almost
  8. any instrument with this method whether it's a guitar or a piano or a banjo or ukulele honestly just whatever you have access to or whatever you have lying
  9. around so no excuses you can follow along and start writing music right now if you want to throughout the video I'm going to show you each step in my
  10. writing process then I'm going to demonstrate each step in real time and we're going to write a song together so you can finish this video with a fully
  11. written song I mean doesn't that sound at least like kind of exciting I know that this video would have changed my life when I was first starting out so
  12. I'm super excited for you now this video is going to be a bit on the longer side but consider this a comprehensive master class on songwriting this is the kind of
  13. information that experts are charging a bunch of money for but good news for you I'm an expert and I'm giving you the information for free so grab some water
  14. and an instrument if you play one and take a deep breath and let's get started songwriting can be broken down into four simple steps and those are
  15. concept chords Melody and lyrics that's all you need to write a song when you write a song it's super helpful to begin with a concept in mind what is the song
  16. about is it about you is it about a friend is it a story that progresses over time like the song driver's license by Olivia Rodrigo or is it more of just
  17. like a singular idea like hotline Bling by Drake if you're thinking where do I even start in terms of getting ideas well I have just the thing for you
  18. here's a super helpful way to get unlimited ideas for Concepts I have a notes folder on my phone dedicated to song ideas often times throughout the
  19. day I'll write little notes down of things that seem interesting or inspiring to me and I'll be honest a huge amount of them are pretty laughable
  20. and just straight up unusable but the important part is that I write down what's inspiring me in the moment I can judge the idea later on when I'm working
  21. on the song but strike while the iron is hot and make sure to get your ideas on paper no matter how silly they seem if you're interested or inspired just write
  22. it down it's as simple as that you you can't depend on your memory because humans are flawed and we forget things way too easily you think oh that's
  23. interesting I'll remember that the next thing you know someone calls you or you get an email and a couple hours later the idea is just completely gone forever
  24. this trick may seem like a little inconvenience the first couple times you do it but it's way easier than sitting down to write a song with no inspiration
  25. and trying to figure that part of it out in the moment create the list of inspiring things throughout the day in advance so by the time you sit down to
  26. write you have a list of options the more you do this the easier it gets and the quicker you're able to recognize a good idea and instead of a chore this
  27. becomes this exciting thing that you do throughout the day and you go oh that could be a cool idea for a song and then you write it down very low effort for a
  28. huge reward when it comes to songwriting okay so that's the concept or what the song is about let's go ahead and look through my song ideas and find a concept
  29. that we want to work with Okay so here I have my song ideas folder on my phone and usually before I start I'll just look through and see what catches my eye
  30. some ideas are just one word like this one that says delusion I wish I gave you up for Lent I mean like I said some of them are just
  31. straight up unusable but this one I'm lonely like an astronaut let's take a look at that I'm lonely like an astronaut am I more than just an
  32. afterthought to me that seems like there's some emotion behind it and I remember writing this idea down because I was thinking I'm the third child and
  33. my siblings were born two years apart and I was born four years after them so I was thinking like hmm am I an afterthought and then thinking what
  34. rhymes with afterthought astronaut astronauts are in space they're lonely and so then I just kind of landed on this little note right here
  35. and for me I'm gonna go with feeling like an afterthought as my concept so now that we have our concept the second step is Chords chords are the foundation
  36. of your song as soon as you have a concept the next step is to figure out how to communicate that idea musically how do you tell the story of your song
  37. in the language of music chords are so powerful because they can establish a certain mood let me pick up the guitar and I can show you what I'm talking
  38. about so for those of you crazy music theory people out there I'm gonna get really simple right now and you're just gonna have to deal with it some chords
  39. sound happy and some chords are sad you write a song you need to use what's called a chord progression a chord
  40. progression is just a sequence of chords played over and over different progressions create different moods for instance if I want to write something
  41. really uplifting I might do something like this [Music] some songs that use this are Thinking
  42. Out Loud by Ed Sheeran Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye I think there was a lawsuit between them as well and speechless by Dan and Shay uses
  43. those first three chords so let's say you want to go a little darker and more Melancholy I could do a chord progression like this
  44. [Music] a really oversimplification of chords is Major is happy and minor is sad
  45. you can even play chords that create feelings of romance [Music] if you learn a little music theory or
  46. even just a couple chord progressions either on guitar or piano it'll give you a ton of freedom to write a little bit goes a long way with this stuff and it
  47. doesn't take much to set the right mood you can even use the same four chords for an entire song or better yet you can even use two chords for an entire song
  48. Tennessee whiskey by Chris Stapleton is like one of the best songs ever written and it's only two chords so all that to say we have our concept now let's get
  49. some chords going I'm gonna play chords until I figure out something that I feel is communicating my concept of feeling like an afterthought or stuck in space
  50. like an astronaut so something a bit more Melancholy I'm going to record the progression into Ableton but if you don't have Ableton you can use
  51. GarageBand which is free or audacity for PC people which is also free there's a bunch of free recording software out there honestly or you can record the
  52. progression into your phone and voice notes just so that you don't forget it or you can even go the old-fashioned tried and true method of just writing it
  53. down on paper but whether you record it in or write it down it doesn't matter what matters is that you remember it later do not leave this up to chance or
  54. assume that you'll remember something later because you most likely won't just trust me on this one the reason I prefer recording it into Ableton is because I
  55. can remember the tempo of the song and the feeling and all that stuff instead of just looking at the chords written down okay so let me run through a few
  56. progressions and settle on something that I like alright so one thing worth mentioning is you want to record to a click if you can as far as production
  57. goes it's just going to make your life so much easier so if you are recording in a Daw I would play your chords until you feel what's
  58. natural and settle on a progression and then figure out the tempo of the click from there so I was fiddling around with some chords and I kind of like this
  59. progression [Music] so that Tempo is kind of like this so I could tap something like that into
  60. Ableton figure out what it is and then record my guitar into the click [Music]
  61. okay so it doesn't have to be perfect I just need to have one area that I can Loop over and over okay so now we have our little progression this is what it
  62. sounds like foreign progression is that you can Loop it all Daws have a loop function and this way
  63. we can hear our chords over and over without having to play them over and over it's super convenient and it frees up more mental real estate for you to
  64. write with so we've got our concept and now we have our chord progression before we continue it's important to mention song structure right now I'm teaching
  65. you how to cook foods I'm teaching you the recipe for efficient quality songwriting but there's also the presentation of the food there's a
  66. specific formula and a way to order the parts of a song that's designed to pull the listener through the song so they keep listening to the entire song then
  67. it's stuck in their head by the time they're done so songs are typically structured like this first pre-chorus chorus second Verse pre-chorus Chorus
  68. Bridge chorus this follows a certain story-like format that keeps people listening the whole way through I'm not going to go into the nitty-gritty
  69. details of every single section but I do want to give you an idea of the purpose of each of these sections so the verses in pre-choruses establish details and
  70. move the story along and then the chorus is kind of the main idea and the most important part of the song so for example in the song Shape Of You by Ed
  71. Sheeran one of the most successful songs of all time by the way the verses establish the setting and add details by saying the club isn't the best place to
  72. find a lever so the bar is where I go he's using the power of story to suck you in but all the details in the world are nothing without a memorable chorus
  73. I'm in love with the shape of you is the main idea of the song and it's also the most memorable Melody of the song it's the stickiest Melody meaning it gets
  74. stuck in your head and it stays there so now that you know basic song structure we want to write Melodies my best advice for Melodies is throw spaghetti at the
  75. wall and see what sticks or rather hear what sticks generally you want to sing whatever melodies come to mind and record them as you sing them so if you
  76. sing something that sticks or catches your attention you won't forget it once again back to this theme of not forgetting things this is how I write
  77. Melodies I'll just Loop the chord progression and record myself singing over the chords I'll sing whatever feels natural without worrying about words I
  78. focus more more on the way the melody makes me feel we can worry about the lyrics later but for now we just want to communicate a feeling there's a huge
  79. tendency for people to overthink things during this stage but I can guarantee the more you let go and sing whatever comes natural the closer you're gonna
  80. get to a memorable Melody a lot of times your first instinct is the best for Melodies and if you end up recording that gives you even more freedom to sing
  81. whatever you want and then once you feel like you're saying something that you like you can stop and listen back instead of thinking like what was that
  82. Melody that I just sang I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten a wonderful melody in the blink of an eye and for that reason I record everything
  83. so now I'm going to listen to my chords I'm going to sing some Melodies and I'm gonna stop once I feel like I've got something that makes my brain light up I
  84. don't have a great singing voice naturally so it's easy for me to overthink this step but you just have to sing like nobody is listening if I allow
  85. any space in my brain for insecurity all that's going to do is take away from the Purity and the quality of the art that I'm trying to create okay let's go for
  86. it check one two [Music]
  87. [Music] three
  88. you just gotta sing like nobody's listening even if it sounds kind of stupid [Music]
  89. foreign [Music] I would highly encourage you to kind of form makeup words as you're singing just
  90. gibberish there's something about the kind of babbling made-up speech that helps you come up with Melodies but I kind of like that Melody that I was just
  91. singing remember the chords like this tear it down so I like that as simple as it is it
  92. makes my brain light up and it's my favorite Melody out of everything I sing so I'm going to use it for the chorus and I know I forgot to record from the
  93. get-go so all of my Melodies were recorded but don't forget to do that just record everything that you sing trust me also really quick if you're
  94. finding any of this informative or even just entertaining I would love for you to subscribe and give me the chance to teach you more about how to make the
  95. best music that you're capable of and if you're afraid of commitment I'll settle for a cheeky little like until you're ready for something a little more
  96. serious okay at last we've made it to the fourth and final step of the songwriting process lyrics if you've done a good job establishing a strong
  97. concept and then written chords to support the mood of the concept and gone with the most sticky compelling Melodies you could come up with while singing
  98. those over your chords then lyrics should be a breeze or at least significantly easier that being said I could probably make a whole master class
  99. on lyrics alone there are so many different styles and rhyme schemes out there it's easy to get overwhelmed and lost in the sauce so my best advice for
  100. lyrics is to lower the stakes and rhyme if you can your first version of lyrics doesn't have to be your final version and you can change things at any
  101. point in the process sometimes it's helpful just to get something down on paper and then improve it over time but it's hard to get anywhere without a
  102. starting point so just come up with some lyrics that match and go along with your Melody and also go with the concept of your song don't overthink it so what I'm
  103. going to do is play my chords and my melody over and over and try to craft some lyrics that are in line with my concept of feeling like an afterthought
  104. Pro tip the notes app is great for writing lyrics down thank you I just don't trust it I've got to have a check looking and feeling good
  105. oh that's the other light there this could take a while and you don't need to rush it but you also don't want to overthink and not get anywhere
  106. because you're trying to write the perfect lyrics so now that I've got a working chorus I'm going to go through and write a verse and a pre-chorus to
  107. establish some details and just finish the rest of the song now you can go ahead and pause the video right now and finish the rest of your song too or you
  108. can wait and listen to mine first so I can give you a few more pointers before you go all in [Music]
  109. foreign [Music] steps concept chords Melody and lyrics we've written a verse A pre-chorus and A
  110. Chorus we can finally listen to our fully written song for the sake of keeping the video as short as possible I'm just going to play my verse
  111. pre-chorus and chorus and we could just pretend that the song keeps going into the second verse in the pre-chorus and so on so let me show you how the song
  112. goes and we could talk a bit about it after it goes sometimes
  113. and I'd be a fool to try and open up the washer spin in circles in my mind
  114. I'm just too much sometimes was I on purpose or a surprise I'm far away with just my thoughts I'm sitting on the rooftop of my house
  115. [Music] [Music]
  116. [Music] [Music] [Applause]
  117. right now [Music] all right that's as far as I got and I think I was able to capture the
  118. sentiment of feeling like an afterthought so I like a lot of that but there's still some parts here and there that I might want to change like for
  119. instance I use the word sometimes in the verse and the pre-chorus and the line about opening up like a washer and spinning circles in my mind I wasn't a
  120. huge fan of that but I didn't want to overthink it so I just kept going all that said the final stage of songwriting is refinement just listening through
  121. over and over and making changes as you hear necessary sometimes you get lucky and love it the first time but for me nine times out of ten I'll make changes
  122. that vastly improve the song from the first version so don't be afraid to refine your song we are rocking and rolling how to write a song
  123. okay we got the backwards hat on and it's time to get real I have two closing thoughts on songwriting that are really important to consider one I set the
  124. steps of my process in the order that I did because I think it's the most efficient but you can write a song using the steps in any order you can start
  125. with lyrics or with Melody or even jump around back and forth writing some lyrics Here tweaking a Melody there adjusting chords for more emotion and I
  126. encourage you to find what works best for you and embrace the idea that people are different songs are different and it might look a little different every time
  127. and that's part of the excitement of creating art my second and final thought is to put your reps in if you want to write memorable songs get millions of
  128. streams and be the voice of a generation you know whatever your goals are you need to write lots of songs to improve Ed Sheeran calls it running the faucet
  129. to get all the dirty water out before you get to the clean stuff in other words writing some not so good songs to get to the good songs they did a study
  130. on a college photography class and half of the class was graded on one single picture and the other half of the class was graded on the basis that they had to
  131. submit 100 pictures by the end of the semester and then after that they selected the top photos from the entire class and guess which group all the
  132. winners came from the group that had to take 100 photos you could spend countless hours spinning your wheels trying to write the next big song or the
  133. perfect song but you're way better off trying to write a bunch of good songs instead of one Perfect song every time you write you improve a little bit or
  134. sometimes a lot but one Surefire way to slow down your growth or stop completely is to get stuck on one song for too long so lower the stakes and write lots of
  135. songs remember that it's supposed to be fun some people do a song a day or a song a week and find what works for you depending on what your goals are if you
  136. want to do it for a living try to write a song every day if you want to do it for fun right when you feel inspired but either way if you do want to improve you
  137. have to get your reps in and remember most importantly stop making excuses and start making music cheers

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