Songwriting Intensive

The intensive that spanned over the past few weeks has been an effective introduction to songwriting. Before the first lesson of the intensive began, I had already begun to write my own lyrics. At the same time, I was also listening to a lot of different records and learning some of the techniques and theory that were to be taught during the intensive. For instance, I was already familiar with the common use of the descending bass line and the I IV V chord progression and had already used such elements in some of my own songs. Nonetheless, there was still a lot I learned from the intensive.

Concerning the musical theory taught during the intensive, the most important lesson for me was the Approach chord, which is a major chord above or below the tonic that eventually resolves to the I chord. I recall that when I used to hear Approach chords in different songs, I couldn’t really tell what was happening to the key and thought that they were something of a one-beat key change. But now, such a chord is a vital tool that I use time to time in my songwriting. It provides a different flavor or twist than that of the usual pop tune. I’ve never actually learned about such irregular music theory, like the Approach chord or the Two chord modulation, but something interesting happened during the intensives. I started to switch the quality of certain chords in a progression to experiment. For example, I’d take a simple progression, like I IV V I, and make the IV and V chords minor instead of major. As I played around, the progressions definitely sounded a little off, but it was nice to see where things went, and I’m sure this technique of switching chord qualities around will present itself in my songs in the future.

Lyrically, I didn’t learn as much as I did about rock theory during the intensive. A lot of the blurbs in the packets focused on keeping the writing tight and specific, such as the concept of locked imagery. I try to stay away from writing too generally, but my lyrics almost always contain clichés. During the intensives, my main goal was to keep the span of the imagery as small as possible. For instance, if I was writing about a girl I was pursuing, I tried to write based off of one or two images in my head that I had of her. On the other hand, one of the last packets, which was the breakdown of Luke’s song based on George Harrison’s tune, was quite useful. It was reassuring to look at another writer’s process and notice some of the same things I do. Sometimes when I write, a lot of lyrics are pulled out of nowhere, and I worry that the method I use to obtaining these lyrics aren’t legitimate.

The intensives were great because they reassured a lot of the techniques I was afraid to use in my own songs. Actually, this is the only time I’ve discussed or learned about songwriting. Before the intensives, I would write and hope that my work and process were what everyone else was doing. In a conversation with Luke, he asked me if I liked the intensives when the assignments were specific and to the point or when they were more expansive. I replied that I liked the assignments when they were expansive and I had more freedom to do what I wanted. But now that I think about it, I actually preferred the restricted nature of the intensives. I really like the idea of working with a limit and trying to get the most out of the little that you have. I think that I was just really anxious to use the ideas I’d learned from the intensives in my own writing.