Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Well, let me tell you. Its actually so blindingly obvious that youll wonder why
you didnt think of it yourself!
Heres the exercise:
1. Take a page of lyrics that you love.
2. Write out the lyrics in your own handwriting.
3. Thats it!
This is the one exercise that is practiced by thousands of writers all around the
world.
And if you practice this exercise, your lyrics will instantly improve.
I can hear you now
Why will this help me to improve my lyrics?
Its too simple!
I know. I know.
I mean, how could such a simple exercise allow you to make such large
improvements?
After youve gone through this process and proven that it works, you will no
doubt go out and begin writing out many more lyrics, transforming your own
lyrics in the process.
Be sure to use this technique. Its one of the easiest ways to make instant
improvements in your lyrics.
You dont need to take a songwriting class or have a degree in music to benefit
from this strategy either.
Heres what you can do:
Take a song from your genre of music that you love. A song that you (and
others) have labelled as a great song.
Listen to this song, and as you do, jot down on a piece of paper the structure of
the song.
Once you have done this, you have discovered how to structure a great song!
You can take ideas that you have created, and match them to this structure to
form your own song.
This strategy works particularly well if you have a collection of ideas for a
song, but are struggling with how to set them out into a song format.
All you need to do is match each idea to the structure of a song that has
already been a success, and BAM, you have your song!
For example
You might find that the great song you are modelling goes like this:
1. Intro idea
2. Goes into verse 1
3. Pre-chorus idea
4. Chorus
5. Small lead out riff
nd
6. 2 verse
7. Pre-chorus with orchestral background
nd
8. 2 chorus with extra guitars
9. Lead out riff with more aggressive feel
10.Into new idea (aggressive)
11.Leads into climactic ending
12.End riff fades out
Keep in mind that this is just one structure that could be used. There are really
an infinite number of ways a song can be structured.
Once you have this basic structure though, you can begin matching music
from your body of ideas to the description that you have taken from your
modelled song.
Firstly, you can ask the question
What idea will fill the role of the intro idea (1 above)?
And once you have an idea that fits that profile, What musical idea will fill the
st
role of the 1 verse?
And so on
Is Working Out the Song Structure Part of the Creative Process?
Yes and no.
You can certainly treat the way you structure your songs as a creative process.
And in the next chapter you will discover just how to do that.
But this is a part in the music creation process where, if need be, you can
begin to invite the analytical part of your mind back into the picture, and use
it to nut out the format of the song.
Just think There are an enormous number of great songs that have been
written, which means that there are an endless number of successful song
structures that have been created. Why not benefit from the work that has
already been done?
I feel the best approach is to combine proven song structures with creative
song structure techniques (which will be discussed in the next chapter).
Combining these two methods will surely get the best results for any song
youre working on.
My personal method is to begin with a proven structure, and then to adjust
this structure as I perform my creative method of writing the structure for a
song.
Remember that your mind is the most powerful tool in this process, so feed it
with the right information (i.e. some previously successful song structures),
and set the intention of discovering the best way for a song to flow, and it will
work out the answers for you.
One Last Thought
Remember to never get caught up at any point in your songwriting process. If
you keep moving quickly, you will at least have a song structure to work with.
I find that I never get it exactly right the first time. That means that the first
attempt at laying out the structure of a song is usually a rough draft.
Just get something into material form, and then you can listen back and readjust when necessary. After two or three re-adjustments, things will be
sounding great!
Homework
Go to your CD collection and pick two of your favorite tracks that are similar
to the music genre that your music falls into.
Listen to these tracks and document the structure and format of these tracks.
Make sure you write this structure down.
Now, if you have some music ideas that currently have no structure, see if you
can piece it together using your proven song structure.
Lets move onto the next chapter and find out how to inject your creativity into
this process, to turn your ideas into music masterpieces.
I began by simply showing a close circle of friends this new way that I was
approaching songwriting. And as they began to shift their approach to this
new method, they began to experience the same staggering results as I.
It was these friends that really pushed me to complete whats now called The
Songwriting Genius Within You.
And I can tell you It took quite a bit of nagging to get me through it!
I mean, what would you rather be doing? Writing a book on how to write
music, or actually writing music!
All fun aside though, I believe that this book is the most powerful collection of
information that you will ever read on the topic of songwriting.
And if you are at all serious about experiencing your full potential as a
songwriter, I want to make it easy for you to try it out for yourself.
For that reason, and to also thank you for reading this insider report Id like to
give you a special deal.
When you invest in The Songwriting Genius Within You right now you will be
rewarded with a selection of extremely valuable bonuses all of which contain
some of my freshest material (some of these ideas are incredibly powerful).
Go to this website now to discover all the bonuses you will receive.
And remember, your purchase is fully covered by my full 60 day guarantee. If
at any time you dont feel that the information is everything Ive suggested,
just shoot me a quick email and you will be fully reimbursed.
Plus you get to keep everything as my way of saying thank you for giving my
material a go.
Well, thank you once again for reading this report.
Also, I'd like to invite you to send to me your comments or questions about
this report. I really appreciate the feedback! Please write to me at:
Geoff@genius-songwriting.com
I wish you all the best with your songwriting.
Sincerely,