Recounting all of my songwriting classes at the Elder Conservatorium (Semester 2 2024).
Class 1: Prosody, Metre and Lyric Modes.
During this session, our group focused on prosody in arrangement. With “prosody” being the measure of how cohesive/ effective an arrangement or song is – depending on how all elements of the song work together. While there are several elements that contribute to a song’s prosody, this session of songwriting emphasized the importance of lyric writing.
With Grayson explaining how metre and metrical “feet” can alter an arrangement, we were asked to give a few examples of how stressed syllables can affect the evocation of a lyric. Unstable metrical patterns tend to evoke harsher, more hostile feelings, while stable patterns are more suitable for more jovial or heartfelt songs.
“That time of year in which we start again”
Working with Tilly and Ruby, we wrote a song called “Eryn Stopped”.
Eryn Stopped
Fmaj7
Just by simply using the phrase, “I don’t want to break up again,” we learned how varying the emphasis on a different word can change the delivery, and in turn, the intent. This then led us into a discussion about iambic and anapaestic metre and how stressing syllables in a consistent pattern is inherently musical.
Eryn Stopped
By my door.
Does she know
What she’s looking for?
C
I know
(Echoes)
Fmaj7
Running late
Is it fate?
It won’t be long.
I won’t hesitate.
C
I know
Fmaj7
Metro’s slow
Nowhere to go
So, I’ll wait for you
To come home.
C
I know
Am
Even though
Em
On the car ride home
Fmaj7
I’m driving slow,
With nowhere to go
Nowhere to go.
Am
Into the night
Em
I see bright lights
F
Into the night
D
I see bright lights.
Class 2: Harmony Part 1.
In our second workshop this semester, our group worked on harmony and how the elements around a melody can change the feeling/interest of a piece. Focusing on four main harmonic techniques:
- Line progressions
- Pedal/ Ostinato
- Chord Variations
- Guitar Shapes
We were tasked to write a song in the key of C or C minor utilising these four in different sections of the song. Working with Ruby, we wrote this arrangement:
Cm Cm/Bb
Cold wind blows
Cm/Ab
Silver rain drops falling fast
Cm Cm/Bb
I don’t know where you are
C
I hope this feeling won’t last.
Fmaj7 Bbadd11
Cm Cm/Bb
Trees cast shadows on the pavement
Cm/Ab
I wish you were here
We could chase them
Stepping lightly on this tightrope
I hope this won’t be long
C
I hope this feeling won’t last
Fmaj7 Bbadd11
Alfie and Robin
(refrain)
This session was fast-tracked and made easy for me as an accompanist using my capo on fret 3 of the guitar. Being able to use open an Am chord shape helped me in writing a simple descending bass line (C, Bb, Ab) along with the corresponding chord shape (Cm). The arrangement was lifted by using the non-diatonic C major chord. It gave the driving chord pattern a resolution.
Class 3: Lyrics Pt 2.
Week 3 of this semester elaborated on the work from week 1 in lyric writing. In this session, we discussed idea development and how impactful lyrics are full of metaphors, references and imagery. Specifically, Grayson explained how names, time, places and colours can bolster a straightforward lyric into one a listener can interpret. Through this we, as a class, thought of some key words to develop. These were:
- Lavender (colour)
- Heaven (place)
- Statue (object)
- Derek (name)
- Train (object)
- Saturday night (time)
- Mum’s Basement (place)
- March 12th (time)
In this session, I worked with Ruby and Miguel. As Miguel is an extremely proficient pianist, he suggested to use a classic jazz line-cliché pattern in C major. The colourful chord progression allowed room for some lovely descending melody lines. The lyrics we came up with were:
When Saturday night
Turned to Sunday morning
Caught in a haze
And I’m already falling.
Lavender, scent of her hair
Now she’s got me
That much is clear
That day.
Well, it lingers on my mind.
It was March,
March the 12th
If I remember it right.
She lives
Rent free
In my mind
In my mind
These lyrics paint a picture for the listener. It sets a scene where the performer describes the atmosphere where they are reminiscing over a love interest using time and place (Saturday night, Sunday morning, March 12th) and colour (lavender) as a sensory element.
Class 4: Harmony Pt. 2 – Harmonic Modulation
During this week of our song writing sessions, we talked about the concept of harmonic modulation. Harmonic modulation is essentially moving away from a songs key centre into a different one (higher, lower, major, minor). Harmonic modulation can be used to lift an arrangement or bring a different colour to a progression to increase the listeners interest in a song. We learned about the common ways musicians effectively use this concept, these were:
- Relative Minor/ Major
- Transition or pivot chords
- Parallel Major/ Minor
- Changing chord function
Working with Ruby, we came up with a fast-moving melody and lyrics featuring some references to location and time (New York, Barcelona, Main Street, 1987). The chord progression features two secondary dominants (changing chord function) that deviate from the diatonic (C major). These were the B7 into the Em chord and the E7 into Am. The melody featured a lot of triadic movement to accommodate the loaded chord progression. In my own version I added some ascending chromatic runs over the modulating harmony.
Chords:
C B7 Em
A7 Dm C#b5 E7
Am9
Dm7
Am7
Gm7
Lyrics:
80’s fever!
Main street baby
1987
Seems like yesterday
You pulled away from me
On the dance floor
Distant memory
Drive me crazy
Just can’t overcome you.
Seems like yesterday
Swear I saw your face
Down in New York
Or Barcelona
Nice to know ya
Pull me closer
I’ll see you later in Spain!
Class 5: Motive Development
Motive development was not a class we did in person but one I explored in my own time. Like in the literary sense, a musical motif is a recurring musical pattern that appears throughout an arrangement or builds a section of it. One of my favourite songs is, “I Wish I Didn’t Miss You” by Angie Stone which samples the intro of “Back Stabbers” by the O’Jays. The rising bassline is a musical motif that makes up the basis of the whole song and heavily inspired my process with this song.
My personal style of songwriting often includes an ostinato pattern that makes up the foundation of a song. Sitting at my piano, I enjoyed the sound of an arpeggiated Eb motif over a Cm chord (iv) and Fm (iii). In my production, I recorded the piano with a metronome playing in the background. I liked that the only percussive element came from this and with the added bassline, I cut up the piano to fit into the groove. The harmonies are repeatedly saying “to” which eventually makes sense as the refrain resolves with, “and she knows you love it (to)”.
Celia loves your company
Knows just what it takes to come off
So well-versed in society.
She’s the lock on the door,
You’re a fly on the wall.
Takes as much as she can carry
Gives as good as she gets, and she’s gone.
Knows she’ll never have to worry
‘Cause she’s living for it
And she knows you love it
To
To
To
The lyrics were entirely improvised. There was a gifted candle box sitting on top of my piano and when I looked up, the brand name, “Celia Loves” really stuck out to me – I thought it was very strange. Interpreting the lyrics after having written them, it seems I was inspired by an anecdote of a codependent friendship a friend of mine relayed to me the night before. Narcissistic people isolate, much like Celia being a lock on the door.
Class 6: Minor Melodies, Melodic Momentum Melisma
During this week, all the members of the songwriting class got sorted into their semester bands. We were all very excited to find out who we were going to perform with at the end of the semester. In this session, we talked about the different ways to use minor melodies in songwriting. Focusing on four different minor scales:
- Natural Minor/ Aeolian
- Dorian Mode
- Harmonic Minor
- Melodic Minor
The intervals of each scale provided different colour and tone to a piece of music. Paying attention to where each unstable interval leads into a stable one can elevate a piece of music. In our band group, we chose to build our song after a common minor chord progression: i (Cm), iv (Fm), VII (Bb), VI (Ab).
You say,
You wish you were born in 1972
The park that I first met you
It’s so cliché
The castle was crumbling
The sky started falling through
When I look at you
I don’t want to do this in vain
I’ve practised the words I wanted to say
I’ve already taken that train
I’ve walked down that road
I’ve stood in the rain
Skip to chapter 58
Don’t have to explain
I’ll procrastinate
I’ll procrastinate
I’ll procrastinate
Within the song, there is one instance of a Dominant V (G) chord, which is derived from the raised 7th in the harmonic minor scale. This strong pull is what leads the verse into the chorus section. The chorus section also exhibits some phrasal acceleration that adds complexity to the arrangement.
Class 7: Arranging
This week of songwriting was dedicated arrangements of songs and compositions. In the workshop we listened to many different versions of well-known songs and discussed their strengths, weaknesses and overall emotional evocation. Moving away from this, our class discussed how modern popular music is majorly a recreation of melodies and chords that have been used many times over. The appeal of modern music is that there are ways to rearrange and rework melodic ideas to make them sound entirely new. This discussion reminded me of New Order’s “Blue Monday”. The song was a global hit that used a very distinctive (and borrowed) drum part. The introductory kick is a reworking of Donna Summer’s, “Our Love”.
It was just Ruby and I working together in this session. We wrote this short song from the brainstormed words. I feel that the hook sections have a lot of potential to be fleshed out and arranged, they sit nicely above the piano chords.
In the backseat of my mind
All the faces I couldn’t find
Looking down that rabbit hole
Excitement I can’t deny
I’m falling
I’m falling
I’m falling through
Red skies
I’m dreaming
I’m dreaming
I’m dreaming of
Cherry blossom nights.
Class 8: Arrangements
On the first week back of the semester, I was absent from the songwriting tutorial. Having read the set module for the week, the class focused on the arrangements of our intended songs for the recital. For this week’s entry, I have my demo for my song “non-issue”. Working through this song was a bit more difficult than I initially expected. Having written the hook first it seemed difficult to work the verses around it. I struggle to let words breathe in my arrangements, I enjoy fast moving rhythms and often get carried away. Because the pre chorus sections are very wordy I made sure to slow the arrangement right down – about 85 bpm. The demo features some finger-picked guitar, vocals and an electric piano. In my opinion the electric piano drives the harmonic accompaniment, I wrote it to in the high-end frequencies on top of the guitar, and it does a lot of the heavy lifting to create interest. Overall, I’m happy with the result.
Class 9: Non-Diatonic Chord Progressions
In this week of songwriting, our class focused on non-diatonic chord progressions. Chord progressions that function outside of their key centres are usually borrowed from keys that have a relationship with the original key e.g. borrowing from the parallel minor. We also touched on the concept of “plagal” stacking. This is finding the chords between one diatonic chord to another using the perfect 4ths below the last chord until the initial chord is reached. This session focused on using these non-diatonic chord concepts in practice.
The song I have submitted for this entry is not one I did in class. This is a song I wrote specifically with multiple key changes in mind. Essentially chromatically moving down the neck of the guitar to create an ever-changing melodic pattern. I feel that it suits the style and content of the song quite well as the narrator is essentially relishing in their instability of character.
Dm Dbmaj7 Cm Bmaj7 Dbm9 Ebmb5 Emaj7 Ebm7 Dbm7
You can be resentful if you like
It’s not my fault I’m so good at
Repeating past behaviours
Once or twice
It’s not so much of a vice
If I just take it in stride
You’re confusing favours from the past
With ones, I never promised you
And now you’re feeling cheated of your chance
To say
That, “I was always feeling this way”
But I’d save my breath
‘Cause I find your rambling boring
‘Cause I know that once I’ve left my
Witching hour’s impending…
Sooner, perhaps or later
You might find
That the image that you’ve made of me
Exists only in the limits of your mind
She’s much too idealised
And she slips the wool right over your eyes.
So kindly, if you think I’ve been mistaken
I’ll ask to look inside yourself
To see what it is to make you become so taken
Against reason
Cause it’s all my fault
And never just even.
Class 10: Melody Pt. 3 Secondary Melodies
For the last class of this year, Grayson asked us to showcase our original songs that we felt represented us the most authentically as artists. For this class, I decided to play my song, “Miss You”, a song dedicated to home. The song is about the time I spent in the Eyre Peninsula straight out of high school. Beginning university right after graduating in 2020 proved not to be the best idea for me. As an alternative, I leapt into rural full-time work. I missed everything about home, but I knew I had to do it for my well-being. I believe I became all the better for it.
Lyrics:
To only say I miss you
Would hardly articulate
A fraction of the feeling that I get when my heart aches without you
And to only say I love you
Falls just short of a longer phrase
I could only string together
If I had better words to say about you
Cause the sun rises and falls with you
So taken by the things you do.
But you know I have to be here
Not only for my own good, for yours.
And you know I have to stay here
Just for a little while so I can find what I’ve been searching for.
So I’ll take it by the day
And I’ll take it by the dollar
And I miss you every second and I miss you every hour without you.
Cause the sun rises and falls with you
So taken by the things you do.
I know that I’ve hurt you more than time and time again.
And I know that you hate when I’m an on again off again friend.
I know you’ll wait till I’ve gone and come back again.
But you know I’m trying my best not to fall off the deep end.
And so to only say I need you
Would grossly understate
The feelings that I have
When I’m so few and far away from you.
Cause the sun rises and falls with you
So taken by the things you do.
But you know I have to be here
Not only for my own good, for yours.
And you know I have to stay here
Just for a little while so I can find what I’ve been searching for.
To only say that i miss you
Would be to say I don’t care
And to only say that I love you
Would be to say I was already there
And to only say that I need you
Would be to say that I’m fine
‘Cause to find the words to say would hardly be the ones to neither write.
‘Cause the sun rises and falls with you
And darling I miss you.
Unfortunately, I do not have a solid recording of this song, and as this module is on secondary melodies, I have placed a recording of me building the counter melody line on my song, “nonissue”. In my creative portfolio, the song features a lot of vocal stacking, using the counter melody vocals as a key part of the arrangement.
Citations:
AngieStoneVEVO. “Angie Stone – Wish I Didn’t Miss You” YouTube, uploaded by AngieStoneVEVO, 25 October 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PWz-NubVpM.
“New Order – Blue Monday” YouTube, uploaded by jrrr90, 2 February 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYH8DsU2WCk.
Donna Summer. “Our Love” YouTube, uploaded by Donna Summer, 8 August 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCcQDxSmlvY.