Transcripts
1. Introduction: If you love and enjoy
listening to music, then you can write songs. In this deep songwriting class, we will learn how to write
songs from the heart. Songwriting is an amazing
tool for self expression. It can help us process
the highs and lows of life and make sense of our
feelings and life experiences. Hello, my name is Laura Lamb, and I'm a singer, songwriter, song sharer, poet and seamstress with over
ten years experience. My songs have traveled
all over the world. From being played out at the LA Convention Center,
to 20,000 people. To being played on
BBC radio in England, to MTV in America. To being shared internationally at community choirs. And in. I love using language, sounds and song as a therapeutic tool for
myself and for others. There are three common
myths about songwriting. Myth number one is that
songwriting is a natural talent, that it's a special gift for the special W. This is false. Songwriting is a practice and it can be
improved with time. If I listen back to the
songs I wrote ten years ago, they have got much, much better over time. Myth number two is that you need loads of
time to write songs. This is false Once you develop a strong
songwriting practice, you can write songs in
little snatches of time to capture your feelings
and your life experiences. Myth number three is that
you need to be able to read sheet music and understand
music theory. This is false. I've been writing songs
for ten years and I have test tiniest bit of
music theory knowledge. And I cannot read sheet music. It's a bit like meditation. In meditation, you
learn how to still your mind so that when
life gets turbulent, you're able to calm yourself. In songwriting, we
learn how to translate our life experiences and
feelings into songs. Then with this skill, we
can start to document our life and understand our feelings in a
constructive way. Many of us carry a heavy
and hard inner critic. And in this style of
songwriting we will work with and work around this. In the first half of this class, we will work through some
concepts, techniques, and tools to help you
with your songwriting, with a particular focus
on language and poetry. Then in the second half, we'll get really practical and design a songwriting session using what I call song seeds
and song spaces. Song seeds and song spaces are something that I've created to guide you and support you through your
songwriting practice. To close, we'll
talk about how to finish songs and then
how to share them. If you choose to,
sitting in front of a blank piece of paper
can be intimidating. But in this class, I hold your hand and guide
you step by step. So in the end, you will have
one or more beautiful songs. This class is suitable for
total beginners or those with some experience who'd like to reinvigorate their
songwriting practice. All you need is to set aside some time and something
to document your songs. It doesn't have to
be anything fancy, it can just be the voice,
no app on your phone. And you might also
like a journal to write your lyrics down. I'm so excited to share
this class with you. Songwriting has helped
me so much in my life, and I can't wait to teach
these skills to you. Songwriting is a
spiritual practice and a self care practice. It can act as a form
of catharsis and help us process and sit
with difficult emotions. Let's go and write
some songs from the Heart together.
See you in class.
2. About This Class: Welcome and congratulations
for signing up to this class. A special shout out to you
if you're completely new to songwriting and this is a bit out of
your comfort zone. Well done for being brave. And a special shout out
to those of you who are more seasoned songwriters who are just looking for
a bit of inspiration. There will be something
here for you too. In the first half of this class, we'll walk through
some concepts, techniques, tools
for songwriting, as well as doing
a vocal warm up. And then in the
second half will get really practical design a songwriting session
and start songwriting. To close, we will
talk about how to finish songs and how to
share them if you choose to. Skillshare classes often include a project as part of them. And the project
in this one is to write your own songs,
which you will do. I leave it up to you whether
you'd like to share them, so you can upload a song you've written in the project
section if you choose to. I would love to see them. But I also understand
that can be a bit vulnerable and
you might like to keep them to yourself or just share them with
some close friends. I'm about on the
discussions tab, so if you've got any questions as you work through your class, please do pop a question in the Discussions tab and
I'll get back to you. Alongside this class is the
Deep Songwriting workbook. You can go and download
that in the Resources tab or you'll find some extra things in there that might be helpful. Right now we know what's
to expect from class. Let's start with
a vocal warm up. I'll see you in the next lesson.
3. Breathe and Warm Up: Welcome to the vocal, warm up. When we are relaxed, all the muscles that we need to use for singing
function properly. When our mind is relaxed, we can get ourselves into the there state or
the creative state, which is the best state to
be in for writing songs. I recommend doing a
practice like this, a simple short practice. Every time you sit down
to sing or write songs, let's get stuck into
our vocal warm up. First of all, the invitation is to get comfortable in your seat. Wherever you're sat, you might just want to have
a little fidget, adjust yourself and
get comfortable. Feel yourself sat on your
chair or on the floor. Just feel your body
in the here and now. One place we often tense
up is our jaw relaxing. The jaw can spread down
and relax our whole body. Taking a moment with eyes
shut to let the jaw relax, you might even let the
mouth hang open slightly. Feeling that relaxation from the jaw travel down the
neck and shoulders, breathing a sigh of relief, giving the shoulders and
the neck a little rub. Again, these are places
we hold tension. I know for myself when
I sit on the computer, really tense up my shoulders
and I can feel knots here. My shoulders just
rubbing any knots, nice little circles
with your hands. Just giving attention to
any places that feel. So you might even like to hold. If you find a knot, just press and hold. Hearing ourselves some
love and kindness today. Tuning back into the jaw, letting that jaw relax again. We're going to do a few nervous
system calming breaths. What that is, is we're
going to breathe in deeply and slowly
through the nose. And then we're going
to breathe out through the mouth as if we are breathing out
through a with pursed lips. Let's get ready to
do that together. Just a normal out breath
to begin in through the nose, out through a straw. I want you to be breathing
into your lower ribs. Into your side ribs. I don't want to
see your shoulders or feel your shoulders going up, So just focusing
on breathing down. Let's do another one of them. In through the nose,
out through a straw. Last one, I'm just checking in with a jaw
again, letting it soften. Also noticing how you're sat on your seat where I'm filming. I tend to naturally
lean forward a bit. We'll all have our in tendency, whether it's to lean
back or lean forward. Just find yourself centered. Now let's slowly bat
the eyes open gently, give the fingers and
toes a little wiggle. Now we are going to do our
body scan. Body warm up. What we'll do is
we'll start from the feet and we'll move all
the way up to the head. And I call this the
golden olive oil. Warm up. You'll
sing along with me. I'll sing like this
in the field war, olevoilld you sing with me. And then when we are
mentioning that part, you might like to give
it a little wiggle. So I'm giving my feet a little
wiggle now for example. Or you might like to just envision warm olivoil
warming up all the muscles, bones, tendons in that part. Taking a nice deep breath
to begin breathing out with a sigh in the field, malevoil in the field, in the calves, warm olive oil in the
calves, in the ankles. Warm olive oil in the
ankles, in the knees. Warm olive oil in the
knee, in the thighs. Warm olive oil in the
thub, in the hip. Warm olive oil in the
hips, in the belly. Warm olive oil in the
bell, in the reps. Lev Oil in the rib, in the shoulders, oil
in the shoulders, in the armslivoil, in the arm, arms in the hands, warlevoil in the hand. Then for our neck,
we're going to do an R and we'll do both ways. So we go like this other way, slow and gentle. Oh, oh, the way. Oh, this side of the face. A yawn on this side of the face. A yawn on this side of the face. Oh, then we do some sirens, so we. Can you do that with me? Ooh. Ooh. Just noticing we. Are there
any cracks in your voice? We're just smoothing
everything out. Finally we're going
to do an art, and we're going to do
it as slow as possible. When we get to the end, we're
going to croak like this. Together we go one more of them. A, Oh lovely. Now we warm up all our
resonating chambers. So, starting with
our mouth and lips, you might feel the
lips tingling. Nice breath. And then the nose with the letter N. You might like to touch
the bridges of your nose and you
should feel it vibrate. You can try different notes. And then the, you like to
touch your throat here. Ung, higher. Ung, ung. And then we go, ungm, ung, mung, lovely. Let's just relax those jaws
and shoulders one more time. Take one more, nice deep
breath, Sigh of relief. Lovely. Now we're all warmed up. I'll see you in the
next lesson, bye.
4. Understanding Your Taste: Welcome to Understanding
Your Taste. This is the first lesson
where we're really going to dive into tools and
techniques for songwriting. The fundamental principle
to understand here is that if you know what your taste
is and you understand it, then you're able to
recreate it or create it. And I would argue that
there's only really two lyrical styles and they are conversational and poetic. So a conversational
lyrical style just sounds like we're talking
like how I'm talking now. If you wrote the lyrics out, it would just sound
like someone talking. And then the second
style is poetic, so it sounds more like
poetry when you read it out. I would also argue that
the best songwriters switch between the two. So in different songs, they switch between conversational
and a poetic style. And as well as that,
they might within a song switch from
conversational to poetic. What makes something poetic? You can go down a rabbit hole trying to understand all the
different poetic devices. But I'm just here to
give you a summary, a little brief overview of six poetic devices which will help you in
your songwriting. Number one is simile and that's
when you use like or as, so you might say slow as a
snail or think of the beetles. I've been working
a dog like or as. I've got a good example here, some British hip hop for you. And the lyric goes, this lady's driving me crazy. She blows hot and
cold like the AC. So we all know what
it's like when the air conditioning blows hot and cold. It's really annoying. And he is using
that as a simile to describe a woman who is blowing
hot and cold like the AC. So that's a fantastic
simile example for you. Number two is metaphor, which is very similar
to simile but rather than using like or as you
just go ahead and say, rather than saying
slow as a snail, you would say you
are a slow snail. This can be really useful to step into this
abstract thinking for how you describe things. I've got a good example of this, a song that's going to be on my new album which
is called Rainfalls. And the lyrics, all I'm doing
is describing the weather, but it's a metaphor
for our own feelings. I sing when the rain falls, don't bother me at all. When the rain falls, don't bother me at all. The rain falls, it
don't bother me at all because I know
it's washing me clean. So, you know, I'm not really
talking about the rain, I am talking about the rain. But I'm using that as a
metaphor for sadness or difficult feelings
and how sadness and difficult feelings
can wash us clean. I love simile and metaphor
because they really help expand your mind
with abstract thinking. So the English language
is limited and sometimes it's hard to describe something that's not the
right word for it. And that's where we can
use simile or metaphor to get across our feeling
and what we want to say. Number three is rhyme and
number four is meter. We are going to cover
advanced rhyme and meter in a lesson
coming up soon. Number five is repetition, which is pretty obvious. It's when you repeat things. In most pop songs,
the chorus repeats. Then sometimes within a chorus, there might be a
word that repeats. An example that came to mind is, I'm a fan of Julia Donaldson
and her children's books. In the highway Rat, she
says the highway at what? She says the highway rat went. Riding, riding, riding, Riding along the highway and
stealing the travelers food. It can be quite repetition can draw you in and it can create some flow
within the lyrics. Then the number six, the final one is illusion. I used this at the very
beginning of this lesson when I said that poetic devices could take
you down a rabbit hole. You didn't think that
I was literally going to take you and put
you in a rabbit hole. You understood that
was a reference from Alice in Wonderland. In all, we use
references from culture, from history to help someone
understand something. And now, just to
give you an example, I'm going to give
you an example of conversational songwriting
and poetic songwriting. If you head to the workbook, all these names of artists
will be written down. If you are interested in an artist I mentioned
you want to follow up, just head to the
songwriting workbook and you'll have
all that in there. This first example
is James Blake. He's got a song called, I Never Learned to Share. The lyric that repeats
over and over is just my brother and my sister don't speak to me and
I don't blame them. That is something that sounds like I'm just talking to you. It's not overly
poetic. There's not. Um rhyme. There's
not any similes. It's just saying, my brother and my sister don't speak to
me and I don't blame them. It's a beautiful song, I
recommend checking it out. Then on the flip side, there's another James
Blake song that I've picked as an example
that was originally written by Feist and it's
called Limit to Your Love. You might know this song
and it's very poetic. There's a limit to your love. Like a waterfall in slow motion, like a map with not, there's a limit to your love. So he's using simile there like a waterfall
in slow motion, like a map with no ocean. I think poetic devices
and poetry is really interesting in songwriting
because it can be understood in
many different ways. Yeah, a different
people can interpret it to mean what they
want it to mean, and I think that's what makes poetic songwriting
connect with people. A little challenge for you now. Pick one of your
favorite songs and just pick it apart lyrically.
What are they doing? Are they speaking more
conversationally? Are they using poetic devices? And which ones and which ones really stand out
to you? Which ones work? I'm going to tell
you my example. I've picked cranes in
the sky by slang les. Again, if you want to find
a link to this head to the deep songwriting book and all the songs and
examples are in there. This song is
fantastic because it uses some conversational
and some poetic. Let's read out the lyrics. I tried to drink it away. I tried to put one in the air. I tried to dance it away. I tried to change
it with my hair, although to me this sounds
quite conversational. She's using repetition because
she keeps saying tried. I tried to drink it away. I tried to put one in the air. I tried to dance it away. I tried to change
it with my hair. The repetition really
emphasizes things. She's also using rhyme because she's rhyming
air and hair. She's also using meter, which we'll find out more in the advanced rim and meter
class then in the chorus. Where are the
chorus lyrics here? Well, it's like
cranes in the sky. Sometimes I don't want to
feel those metal clouds. To me, this is very
abstract to understand. I didn't even understand
it until I Googled it. It's a reference to where she was living in
America and they're doing a lot of building work and how that made her feel seeing
the cranes in the sky. Well, it's like
cranes in the sky. That's simile sometimes. I don't want to feel
those metal clouds. What's it like to
feel the metal cloud? What's that like for you? An interesting thing to explore. I think that when you go too poetic sometimes it can
be a bit alienating. It's like you're off in
the clowns and people can't understand what
you're talking about. And if you're too
conversational, then it doesn't access
people's imagination. So that's why I love switching between conversational
and poetic. So that's this lesson wrapped up on understanding your taste. Hopefully from watching this, you'll start to understand
your lyrical taste more. Do you like more
conversational songs? Do you like more poetic songs? Your favorite artists,
are their lyrics more conversational or
poetic or do they blend the two or switch
between the two? Just make a note of that, that when you start writing songs, you'll know which part
of yourself to access, the more conversational side
or the more poetic side. Okay, let's head
into the next lesson where we're going to
discuss setting scenes.
5. Setting Scenes: Welcome back. In this lesson, we are going to discuss
setting scenes. Before I became a mother, I used to like traveling. A lot is much harder now
traveling with a little one, but the way I can travel
is through music. Music can transport you to different people's lives and different places in the world. Lyrically, that is done by
describing what's going on outside and what's going on inside through someone's song. We arrive plunked in a moment and they might describe
their physical surroundings, what they can see,
what's in the room. White walls, camera, laptop. Or they might be
describing what's going on inside, relaxed, happy chatting. The inner experience or
the outer experience. Let's think of an example again. Can you think of a song that really beautifully sets a scene, whether inside or outside? I found a really nice example. This song is by Maggie Rogers
and it's called Alaska. You'll find a link in
the deep songwriting workbook at the
beginning of the song. First of all, she
describes outside, she describes the scenery. I was walking through, icy streams that
took my breath away. Moving slowly through westward
water over glacial plains. She's walking through Alaska. Then for the core, she
switches inside now. Breathe deep. I'm inhaling and
there's air in between me, I'm exhaling and
there's air in between. She's describing some
letting go process that's going on inside her. And it's really nice how
she takes you to a place, she takes you to Alaska, and then she takes you
into her inner experience. Your challenge now is
to describe your scene, describe it from the outside, and describe it from the
inside, how you're feeling. Depending on where you are, there might not be that much visually to look at
where I am in this room. It would be a bit limited. You might want to go to a
window or go outside in the town or go out in nature
to describe your scene, if you're at home, you
might like to imagine like a bird flying above and what you can see on
a wider perspective. If I was going to describe my outside as just
in here festival, I could say green plant, white walls, light
on the ceiling, gray floor, Things I can see, going to describe it
from a bird's eye view. It would be a bit more
interesting because I could say willow tree, field of pasture sheep. A little path leading to a house in a village
with a green door, a stream filled with crayfish. I'm starting to create the
scene of nature around me. And then I could describe
what's going on inside. So I could describe
how I'm feeling. That could be physically
how I'm feeling. Could check in with my heart and see how my heart's feeling. My mind, what's going on. It could almost do a body scan to notice how you're
feeling and all these different parts that's setting the scene outside and inside. When you're describing a scene, the way you can make it more interesting is where
you're describing it from. I just discussed about being
like a bird flying above. Could you also be under, could you also be next to,
could you be a person? Be watching? So the
perspective that you set the scene from can
add interest and color. And then there's also
whether you're going to describe it conversationally, very directly or poetically. For example, I could
say I have a headache, or I could say my head
thumps, it, bang, bang, bang, like sharp needles. Then I'm using repetition. I'm using simile. Just have a go at when you
are describing your scene, the outside and the inside. Describing it conversationally and describing it poetically. The reason I've talked about
conversational and poetic, and also about setting
scenes outside and inside, is that these can really help as tools when you get
stuck in songwriting. If you find yourself writing very conversationally,
it's getting a bit stuck. Then you can switch and
use a poetic device, or if you are describing
what's going on outside you and you just
start to get stuck. You can start to look at things from a
different perspective. From above, from
below. From inside. These things can
really help your songwriting moving when you're
in a songwriting session, if you go to your deep
songwriting workbook, you'll find a section in there
called Fresh Perspective, which can help you view your song that
you're writing from a different perspective and
give you some fresh ideas. Go and download that now. And for now, we're going
to head to the next lesson which is about advanced rhyme and mere see you in
the next lesson.
6. Advanced Rhyme and Meter: Hello, welcome back.
In this lesson, we are going to go over
advanced rhyme and meter. Which I would say is one of the most
important things that's really improved my
songwriting and the thing that can really
help your songwriting. In this class, I'm
going to describe some techniques and ways of
understanding these things. But I would say that
the absolute, absolute, absolute best way
to fully understand advanced rhyme and mere is by listening to
really good hip hop. And reading, and
listening to good poetry. If you go to the deep
songwriting workbook, I've got some of my
favorites listed there. And you might like to
ask some friends who are hip hop fans or poetry fans to suggest some things
to listen to or read which will help you understand advanced
rhyme and mere. Okay, let's start
with a basic rhyme. So a basic rhyme is
when you just rhyme ham and jam, head and bed. It can be useful at times, but it's not as interesting
as more advanced rhyme. And we are now going to explore two things
for advanced rhyme, which would be off
rhyme and in a rhyme, I've written a really
bad two line poem to convey in a rhyme
and off rhyme. And that is, I like
my bike that I ride. I might just bite
a yummy pi ride. And pi don't exactly
rhyme, they're off rhyme. I've also heard the
term used slant rhyme. It just basically means
they don't exactly rhyme. Because ride would rhyme with slide and it's got that D in there and pi
would rhyme with high. But you can actually
rhyme the two, They still sound okay?
And they still rhyme. And they can be useful when
we get to in a minute, the multiple syllable rhyme. That's one thing, off rhyme. And then in a rhyme is that within the line, things rhyme. In exceptional two line poem, it says, I like my
bike that I ride. I might just be a yummy
pie and bike rhyme. And me and byte rhyme, it just keeps the rhythm
of the line carrying on. Those are two techniques
in a rhyme and off rhyme. I'm going to give
you a bit more of an advanced example
from Eminem, who is, in my opinion, one of the most incredible technical
lyrical writers. He says, in cleaning out my
closet, all this commotion, emotion runs deep as
oceans exploding, tempers flaring from parents, just blow them off
and keep going. You've got the two
lines there and exploding and going
rhyme obviously. Then within the first line,
you've got commotion. Emotion runs deep as oceans. You've got three rhymes
within that first line. Then the second one, we've got tempers flaring from parents, just blow them off
and keep going. Flare in and parents rhyming. That's another
example of rhyme and off rhyme off rhyme within that particular one is flare in and parents in my
English accent, if I said flaring and parents
they don't rhyme at all. But because of M and
M's accent flaring and parents they like sound
enough that they rhyme. So that's another version of off rhyme for you to
get some more examples. Now we're going to talk about
multiple syllable rhyme, which is what so many
hip hop artists use to make rhyme more interesting. I got obsessed with
multiple syllable rhyme, and it can be a really fun game, which we're going to
go into in a minute. I've just picked a lyric
from one of my songs, which is a song
called Pain Game, which is on my first album. And it says, looked at the parts that were
causing me pain. But when I looked again, it was all in my brain at the end of the
line causing pain. And all in my brain, all those syllables rhyme. It creates causing me pain. Four syllables at the
end that really rhyme. It glues it together so nicely. With multiple syllable rhyme, it's often a slant
rhyme or an off rhyme. It doesn't matter
because for example, causing me and all in causing they're not
really an exact rhyme. They're an off rhyme
because there's no causing, it's got all in. But when you hear them together, looked at the parts that
were causing me pain. But when I looked again, it was all in my brain. You'll see how it's just
got that lovely flow to it. How do you improve your rhyme? One way is by playing a game. You can play this on your
own or with friends. One of you starts
with a first line, and then you try it
and rhyme with it as as many times as you can. For example, I used to play this when I was 16 with my
best friend, Flora, waiting for the bus, if I
said sit in on my seat. Listen to the beat.
Isn't it a sweet, give me a treat. You repeat. When you start doing
this, you might come out with a bit of nonsense. When you run out of things,
listen to the beat, diddle, de beat, riddle, treat. You're just trying
to get that feeling of multiple syllable rhyme
more things, rhyming. It's quite nice to do this out. To say out, like I
said with a friend, it can be quite a fun game
to do back and forth. Or you might just
want to do it on your own with your journal. Or you might just like to
have a little voice recorder and record yourself free
styling as it's called. A little challenge for you. Can you set aside
some time this week? 10 minutes, 20 minutes to play the rhyme game on
your own or with a friend. And then share any insights
in the discussions tab. Okay, so that was advanced
rhyme. Now onto meter. I only discovered the word meter from when I started
planning this class, when I was trying to
actually describe things. So if you've never
heard the word meter, don't worry about it. And I really wouldn't
waste your time googling things because a bit
like with poetic devices, you could just go down
a rabbit hole reading about different kinds of meter,
which is something I did. I wasted an hour of my life reading about different kinds of meter and it's not
going to actually improve my songwriting skills. What is going to improve
your songwriting skills is listening to other people
who are using meter. Well, you might like to
Google it if you want to, but I'm going to tell you a few basic things
that you need to know. Meter is basically how many
syllables are in something, Which syllables
have more emphasis. I'm going to have some
examples here to explain that. If you go to the deep
songwriting workbook as I've mentioned earlier, there are examples of
really good poetry and really good hip hop
where they use mere. But I'm just going to
give you an example now. This is an example from
Julia Donaldson's book, Room on the Broom. She is one of my favorite
children's books, writers. And she says, in
Room On the Broom, how the witch wailed
and how the cat spat when the wind blew so
wildly it blew off the hat. Now if you just watch my hand, this is how I
experience the rhyme, the words that it
emphasized to me. It goes like in two
circles and then it goes, bomb, bom, bom. So let's do it. How the witch wailed
and how the cat spat when the wind blew so
wildly it blew off the hat. You'll see how wailed and
spat in the first line, which wailed and cat spat. And then it's almost
like alternate later when the wind blew so
wildly it blew off the hat. This can be partly
down to delivery. So when you listen
to hip hop music, you'll hear the way
people deliver things. They might emphasize a
word that wouldn't in natural conversation get
emphasized, but it helps the, the flow of the line when
you read it in poetry, you'll find that some words just command that
bit more intention. Command that bit more attention. And then when you
read them, it really creates that Bob bon,
bon bon thing going on. Okay, to summarize this class, we've gone over advanced rhyme. We've talked about inner rhyme, off rhyme, multiple
syllable rhyme. And we've talked
about me, when you start to use poetic devices, I think grammar sometimes
goes out the window, so I wouldn't worry too much
about what you're saying, whether it makes perfect sense or whether it be
correct grammatically. So I would say if an English school teacher read
some of the poetic greats, in some of the hip hop greats, they would say that
the grammar wasn't perfect. And that is okay. We're just going to let go of grammar when it comes
to songwriting, because it gives
us more freedom. How do you really
integrate good rhyme, good meter, and good poetry, and good ways of writing? I think it's by studying the
Masters and by memorizing. In the next lesson, we are going to go over how we can best study the
Masters and memorize. See you in the next lesson.
7. Study and Memorise The Masters: Welcome to study the
Masters and Memorize that. In this lesson we're
going to talk about just that I have noticed in my many years as a songwriter
and a musician that some people just get really obsessed with
technique and theory. And it's useful, but also
in a way it can limit you. I think the best way of
understanding good lyrics, good music, good poetry, is by absorbing it
and memorizing it. So how do you choose which
music is good to listen to? You Listen to music that
you like that moves you. If it moves you, it
moves other people. And then when you write
songs that move you, they will move other people. I always like listening
to new music. And I go through
phases where there's a bit of a drought and I don't find anything good to listen to. But I find the best
way for me to discover new music is to ask my close
friends who love music. So if you've got any friends
who are music lovers, they might send some
interesting music your way. In the deep
songwriting workbook, I've listed some musicians that came to mind now in
a few different genres, and that might start you on a little journey of discovery. I also like it if I go on Spotify or music streaming
services or Youtube, that when you watch one thing, it sometimes
recommends something. In a similar vein, sometimes it's off and you don't like it. But it can be quite
interesting to see what is recommended to you. And I have found many
artists that I love. For example, Volfpeck through curated playlists that are on, I personally use Apple music
as a streaming platform, so you might discover
new music like that. Discover it on band camp. You might, I don't
know about you, but I don't think
people so much read music magazines or music blogs. But when I have done that,
I found interesting music. So if you're going
through a bit of a drought and you run out of music to listen
to ask a friend, use the Internet and use my
little list to get started. If you really want
to get the most out of listening to music, you need to practice
active listening. Active listening
means that you are 100% listening to music. So often music gets used as a d backdrop to our
lives, which is lovely. You know, you play it in the car when you're with your friends. You play it maybe
when you're doing housework and it's something
just to cheer you up. But active listening
is where you sit down, get comfortable, and you listen to music as if you're
watching a movie. And you really
actively listen to the lyrics to what's going on with the music,
the different instruments. And that's how you really
get more out of the music. The more attention you pay, the more you will
receive from the music. Next step on from that, from active listening
is memorizing it. Through memorizing good
poetry and good music. It gets into your body, it goes into your brain,
your neural pathways. I think this is the way
that I've really improved my lyrical skills and my melody writing skills is by learning
really good music. I also think if you look into the science
of this is really good for your brain and your
memory to memorize things. For example, Julia
Donaldson's room on the broom book moved me so much that I've memorized
the whole book. I'm not going to do
the whole thing now. I'll just do the first line
because it's just so nice. The witch had a cat and a very tall hat and
long ginger hair, which she wore in a plait. How the cat and how the witch grinned as they sat on their broomstick and
flew through the wind. But how the witch
wailed and how the cat spat when the wind blew so
wildly it blew off the hat. It's a brilliant book,
recommend reading it. And through the art
of memorizing it, it has definitely
improved my songwriting. On some level, I'm going to try and not go into a
rant now about music, but basically, music used
to belong to people. We would get together
with our instruments, with our voices, and
make music together. And it would be a very
participatory, active process. When recorded music came out, it was brilliant and
I love recorded music because then music can
travel all over the world. But the problem
with recorded music is it made people passive, like they couldn't get involved. You go and watch a good band and you're just watching them. Oh, I couldn't do that. Part
of my work as a song leader, I run singing groups with women, is that I want to get
everyone singing. And this is just a bit
of encouragement for you that you
definitely can write songs and you
definitely can sing. But maybe because of being born in the here and
now with recorded music, it sometimes feels like it's a special skill that
only a few people have, but really it's a
skill for everyone. How do you memorize
lyrics and songs? Keep repeating it,
keep practicing it. Make pictures in your mind. Really good poetry is
actually easy to memorize. I really took very little effort in memorizing room on the broom. I just loved it so much and seeing the picture book
really help me as well. So in my mind I see the pictures
when I recite the poem, experiment with different
ways of memorizing. I love learning songs as
well as memorizing poetry. If you go to my teacher profile
as of making this video, there's two other classes
which involve learning songs. There is singing for self
soothing and intuitive harmony, in which I teach
you songs by ear, which is how we always
used to learn songs. We listen to a song,
we sang it back. So if you'd like to
practice your song learning skills and your
musical memory in that way, head to my teacher profile and you can go to those classes. I've also put links to them in the deep songwriting workbook. A little challenge for you. Set aside ten to 20 minutes this week to memorize one of your favorite
songs or poems. The best way to
memorize is little and often start a memorizing
practice now. And then share any insights in the discussions tab. See
you in the next lesson.
8. Observation and Listening: Welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to talk
about starting an observation and
listening practice. So I personally keep a journal, and I recommend that all
songwriters keep a journal and that you just start
paying attention to life. And that means paying attention to everything
that's going on around you. Everything you can see,
everything you can hear. And also paying attention to your own inner experience and having a go
writing about it. And then you will develop
your own language for describing your world both on the outside and
on the inside. It's a way of being
present in life, and to me, that's a very
healing thing to do. It brings wholeness when
you don't reject anything. When you just see and
are present with. What is there to improve your observation and
listening practice? I have written out a few creative prompts or
games that you can play. You'll find them all listed in the deep songwriting workbook. And I'm just going to talk about all four of them right now. The first one is called
Look Up, Look Down. And so often in our life
we just keep our eyes at eye level and just notice
what's going on at eye level. So the challenge is here to walk or spend some time
in nature where you either look down or look up. And you might like to set a
timer for a certain amount of time to walk around and
look down for 10 minutes, or walk around and look
up for 20 minutes. It's particularly
interesting in cities. When you look up, you'll
notice some funny things about buildings that you might have walked past
your whole life. And you didn't notice it
until you started looking up. Then after the experience of either looking
up or looking down, you write down in your
journal what you observed. Number two is streams
of consciousness. This is basically where you just get a pen and paper and you just write a stream of whatever
is going on in your mind. I find this
particularly useful if I'm feeling very
overwhelmed or stressed. If I just write right,
right, right, right, I don't know what I'm
doing, I'm a bit confused. What am I writing
about? It's this thing that's bothering me.
You just keep going. Writing, writing, writing,
same with the other exercise. It might be nice to set
a timer for 10 minutes, 20 minutes just to
write everything out. And this can be a very
clearing process to clear your mind before a songwriting
session onto game three. Call this one, Look and
Listen in the city. And that is exactly
as it describes. You bring your journal, you go and find yourself in
the town or the city, and you just start to pay
attention to what you can see, what you can hear, and
what you can feel, and write it down
in your journal. With the other exercises you might like to set a time or two. And then the fourth exercise, which is a bit like the look
and listen in the city. But it's just look
and listen in nature. Go out, find a spot in nature
and observe what you see, what you hear, and
what you feel. I used to live in London, and I really notice now if I go into a busy town
or a busy city, what it does to
my body and mind. And this process, for you might be quite
interesting to see. How does the town or
the city make me feel? What do I see? What do
I hear? What do I feel? And how does nature, how does, how does that make me feel?
I have a challenge for you. Can you set aside
ten or 20 minutes this week to try out one
of the creative prompts? You will find them all in the
deep songwriting workbook. And if you'd like to talk
about your experience of working with one of those
prompts, please head to. Please head to. Please head to the Discussions tab
where we can have a chat about how the
experience was for you. Okay, I'll see you
in the next lesson.
9. Songwriting Recipe: Welcome back. In this lesson, we are going to talk
about the four things we need for our
songwriting recipe. Number one is time,
two is space, three is intention, and four
is a structured practice. Let's go over each
one number one time. This is so obvious, but so fundamental that we need to set aside time for our
songwriting practice in order for it to develop. For example, when you
arrange to meet a friend, you set a date, you set a
time, you make a commitment, you put it in your diary, and you don't let
anyone mess with it with our creative practices. Often they get put
at the bottom of the list and we make
time for other things. What I would like you to do is set aside time in your diary. Now you might like to pause the video and work out a
time that works for you. We're all a bit different. I'm more of a morning person. I'm much fresher in the morning. Other people are
more creative in the evening. So think
about yourself. Pick out the best time for you, a creative time for you, and set aside some time. Now, how much time
should you set aside? This is totally up to you. I find that the minimum, bare, minimum time for
songwriting is 15, 20 minutes, but
that's not very long. You might want more like
40 minutes or an hour. And then I also say, you
don't want too long for me, anything over an hour,
I get distracted. Songwriting requires
a certain head space, and I think it's better
to do little and often than set aside really
long periods of time. Also, your concentration
will develop over time to develop a longer
practice, if you wish. Number two is space. I've set aside a
whole lesson on this. It's the next lesson, we will get to space in the next lesson. Number three is intention
with low pressure. If we have two
people, one who says, I think I might try writing
a song that sounds like fun, or I could never write a song. This is pointless.
Why do I even bother? Which person is more
likely to write a song? Is this person just setting some simple and kind intention? Then on the other hand,
when it swings too far, is this person who says, I'm going to write a
number one hit song, that's going to be a hit
song all over the world, or I'm going to have an
enjoyable songwriting practice. Who's more likely to
write a good song? This option here puts
too much pressure on yourself when you are trying
to do something really good. That is not a good idea, setting your intention and
a low pressure intention. Then number four is a held
and structured practice which we're going into. If you don't have a practice, a way of writing songs, it can seem very alien
and strange and you just sit down with your blank paper and you
don't know what to do. But in this class, we have a very structured
practice which best puts us in the creative space and is conducive
to writing songs. So those are the
four things we need. Let's dive into the next
lesson where we're going to go into the nitty gritty
of setting space. See you in the next lesson.
10. Setting Space: Setting space, it's really important to find a
space for ourselves where our nervous system feels calm and we
can be creative. You might have a
private space in your home that you
like to retreat to. Or if your home is very noisy or you're likely
to get interrupted, you might like to go out
and find a spot in nature. As part of your space
setting practice, it can be nice to
develop a ritual. For example, I
like burning sage. To burn some sage in my
space to make it smell nice. I like to make myself
a nice hot drink, Maybe a hot chocolate
or a herbal tea. All these things I do signal my mind to get into
a creative space. As part of your space setting, it's nice to prepare
what you'll need. It's good to have a journal to write down any
of your lyrics, and it's also nice
to have a recording device of some kind. I like to use my phone and I sometimes put it on
airplane mode or do not disturb mode when I'm having a creative session so that
I don't get disturbed. Once your outer space is set, you're either in a private space in your home or
you're out in nature. Then you can take a moment
to set your inner space, which is what we do in
the vocal, warm up, take some nice calming
breaths, warm up our body. You might even have your
own warm up practice that involves some yoga
stretches for example. Then it's nice also to
set your intention, you might like to
say something like, I'm setting aside this time for myself to express my creativity. I'm setting aside this time for myself to enjoy the
art of songwriting. All these things set
the scene so your mind, body, and heart are all aligned
to start writing songs. Let's head into the next lesson where we're going to learn about song seeds
and song spaces. See you in the next lesson.
11. Songseeds and Songpsaces: We've prepared ourselves. We've got our space
all prepared. We've done our relaxation, set our intention.
Done a warm up. We've got our journal, We've got our phone ready to record. We sit down with
the blank paper. And now what this is where newcomers and maybe even
people who have been practicing a while
might draw a blank. That's why I've created
song seeds and song spaces. Song seeds are a little
idea, a little moment, planted into your
mind to get you started with your
songwriting practice. These five song seeds I've created are common starting
points that I use. And if you listen to
other people's songs, you'll find that they are
using similar starting points. To this, these song seeds get right to the
heart of the matter. They are an opportunity to feel, to heal, and to express
your creativity. Then onto song spaces. As with a blank sheet of paper, it can be hard where to start. If we are sat in silence, it can be hard to start too. Song spaces are a sound
for us to work with. We have a rhythmical beat, and we have a drone, playing at one note,
playing at a chord. That chord and that beat hold us in our
songwriting practice. All the song spaces
are in different keys. If you're not
familiar with a key, it's just a family of notes
that sound good together. When you sing over that drone, you can play with what sounds
good working in that key. All the song spaces are
also in different tempos. Some tempos fit very
specifically into a genre. For example, hip hop
is at 85 to 90 05:00 P.M. and house is commonly
in 115 to 130 PM. Saying that many of these rules can be
thrown out the window. For example, folk
music can be found in many different kinds of
tempos as can pop music. When you try out all the
five different song spaces, you might find a key and a
tempo that work best for you, that most inspire
your songwriting. The other thing to
mention is you might play a song space and
find it irritating, or find that it's
not inspiring you. I recommend then to
just sit with it. You could sit in silence and
just listen to the beat, because the beat will naturally get you into the
theater creative state. And you could just
write what you think about or you could
just sit with it. Because when we start
a creative practice, it can make us feel
all edgy and antsy. And we just need to sit with that edginess anciness
and see what comes. The song spaces I've recorded
are 10 minutes long. That's if you've just
got a really short time that you will definitely have time to complete the practice. If you would like to
practice for longer, you can just rewind to the
beginning of the song space. I'm going to make
sure the videos have a timestamp on them, so it's easy for you to rewind back and to play the
song space again. As of making this video now, I had to go with one
of the song spaces. And I found in 10 minutes
I just wrote two lines. Don't be expected that
you're going to write a whole song in that time. In 10 minutes, something
might come out, you might be really inspired and just loads of lyrics
and melodies come out. Or you might just sit there
and draw a blank for a while. And then maybe just one
or two lines will come. And you'll need to listen
to the song space. Again, set aside more time
to complete the song. Okay, that's it for song
seeds and song spaces. I'll see you in the next lesson.
12. Designing a Session: Signing a songwriting session
and about song seats. The number one thing, we've
talked about it before, is that you need
to set aside time. So if you haven't done that now, please stop the video
and take a moment to think about a good
time for you that you can set aside for a
songwriting practice from 20 minutes to an hour. Then when you set
aside that time, this is how I would make the best use of your
songwriting time. First of all, you
set your space. You prepare your space in a way that makes
you feel creative. Then you do a warm
up of some kind. I've got my vocal warm up. If you'd like to
warm up in that way, then take a moment to
set your intention. You might like to
speak this aloud or write it in your journal. Today, I am setting aside
time for myself to explore my feelings through songwriting or an intention which
more fits with you. Make sure you've
got your journal and your recording device handy, and then all you need to do
is headphones recommended, listen to the song seed
and the song space, and that will get your
creativity flowing. Once you finish your session, you might like to
make a recording on your phone of any
ideas that came up, or make some notes
in your journal. The five themes of the
song seeds are comfort, connection, catharsis,
clarity and celebration. If one really jumps out at you, if one of those words
really jumps out, you might like to head
straight to that one. Or you could work through
all five in succession. And then once you've had
to go at these five, you might find and create your own song seeds
to work with. Later on in this class, there is a lesson
called examples, where I am going to link
you to some songs which I think are perfect examples of songs that link
with the song seeds. And then when you're sat
down in your practice, you can use the four S to help you scene sounds,
style and switch. So the first one is the scene, so we've talked about this
earlier in the class. We set the scene, we set
the scene outside inside, describing what we can
see on the outside, describing what we can see
and feel on the inside. Make your description
of the scene vivid. Then number two is sounds. Earlier in this class, we
explored rhythm and meter. Use rhythm and meter to express
yourself and make sounds. Some people find that
the melodies come first, some people find that
the lyrics come first. So for me, it's a bit
of a mix of both. But sometimes when I'm
writing I just might Dava, whoa, what am I doing? It sounds like I'm saying words, but I'm actually
saying nonsense. And that can help me
melodies together. So you might like to
try a bit of that. Da, so just exploring with making sounds over the
drone and over the beat. Third S to think about is style. Are you writing conversationally or poetically, or a bit of both? The number four is switch, this is if you get stuck, so you can switch between
different things. Switch between
describing the outside to describing the inside. Switch between writing conversationally and
writing poetically. Switch the perspective
you're writing from. Are you writing from the
perspective of you or from someone else or an observer perspective
are you writing from? And then switch your focus. Switch your focus from
lyrics to melody. If you're getting
stuck on the words, you might like to come
back to the melody, keep singing the tune
you're coming up with. Or if you're getting
stuck with a melody, just start jamming out lyrics,
something else to know. It is completely normal to have a quiet moment or draw a blank in your
songwriting practice. This does not mean you
have writer's block, and we don't need
to make a big story or a song or dance about it. We can just sit with
whatever's there. Like I said, you
can sometimes get a bit antsy and frustrated, or bored, or all
of these things. And that's why we set aside
this time, this 10 minutes. And we just sit with whatever
comes up and we allow it to be and we express whatever's
there alongside this. We can also have the critic who comes up and
says things like, you're never going to
write a good song. Or I've written, I've been writing songs for
ten years and my in a critical say things like you're never going to
write another good song. All of the ideas have been written about. What's the point? If your critic is saying
things like this, you might just
like to write what your critics saying down. You can either, it's your
choice, invite the critic. Oh, you can just sit here
and watch if you like, or if your critics
really annoying you, you could just say, excuse me, I want to just
join my songwriting practice. So I'm just going
to invite you, Mr. Critic, to just wait
outside there in the waiting room and you can come and give me
your opinion later. We all have to find our own way of working with
the inner critic. It exists for everyone. The
next lesson is exciting. We're getting into our first
song seed and song space. Let's just check, we're already, have you set your space?
Have you warmed up? Have you set your intention? And have you got all your
bits that you need with you? Your journal, your
recording device? Okay, I'll see you
in the next lesson, where we are going to get into our first song and song space. See you in the next lesson.
13. Songseed and Songspace 1 - Comfort: Welcome to Song seed
and song space One. The theme today is comfort. We are going to offer kindness and comfort to get
into our practice, we're just going to make
sure we're sat comfortably. Wherever you're sat, just find a nice comfy seat and
make sure you've got your headphones ready and you're listening through headphones
when you're already. You can close your eyes
now, your eyes are closed. Let's take a moment to check in and notice our
inner experience. Often we hold tension in
our jaw, in our shoulders. Just take a moment
now to relax the jaw. You might let the jaw
hang open slightly, let the tongue
rest in the mouth. With that relaxation of the jaw, let that spread down
to the neck and shoulders and centered
in the here and now. We all need to be comforted
at times in our lives. Today, we are going to act as a good friend to ourselves
and offer comfort. I want you to recall a moment that has
troubled you lately. Don't pick the most
troubling thing, if you've been experiencing something very
stressful recently, Pick a moment that you can
handle that you are ready to search in your memory for a moment that
needs soothing. A moment where you needed
kindness and comfort. Once you arrive in this moment, notice your surroundings.
What can you see? What can you hear?
How do you feel? Make it real in
your imagination. Looking around the inside. Looking around the outside. Take a few breaths and a few
moments to survey the scene. What can you see?
What can you hear? How do you feel? Make it
real in your imagination? Then a kind and comforting
figure appears. It could be a being
from spiritual realms, a god, deity, angel. It could be a family
member or friend. Or it could be a creature
who gives you great comfort. Take a moment to observe the look of love
they are giving you. They are here to soothe you. Look into their eyes. As you lock eyes, feel
yourself drawn into the gaze so deeply
situation switches. Now you are looking at yourself, from the eyes of this being. Look at your eyes. What do
you want to say to yourself? What words would comfort
you in a moment? The song space is going to play. You might like to keep your
eyes shut and speak out, or sing what you
felt or experienced. Or you might like to open your eyes and make some notes in your journal as a starting point for singing and sounding. Enjoy this time for self
expression and connection. That's your songwriting
finish for today. Doing in a work like this can sometimes leave us
feeling unsettled, maybe a bit emotional, or a bit shook up, if
you feel like that. Here's a few things
that you can do. You might like to go and drink some water or make a nice tea
or hot drink for yourself. You might like to
splash your face with cold water or have
a shower or a bath. Or you might like to go outside
for a walk or just take a moment to sit outside
and ground yourself. Or you might need
to eat something. Part of being an
artist and having creative practice is to
take care of our own needs. Now you've finished this
songwriting practice. If you're experiencing
any challenge, just take a moment to notice what you need and give
that to yourself. To close, we are going
to chant sat num, which is a Kundalini chant, which means truth is my name. It's just like drawing
a little Z, Z. Closing our practice and
finishing for the day. We're going to rub our
hands together like this. Place our hands on our heart. Take a nice deep breath. Si, no, si num. Last one n just taking a little bow, bowing to yourself for making
this time for yourself. Feeling gratitude.
Feeling thankful you might want to just the jaw and the shoulders relax again. May the act of making time for creativity for
yourself bring you peace, wholeness, joy and
connection. Well done.
14. Deep songwriting Songseed 2 - Connection: Welcome to Song Seed and
Song Space number two. The theme today is connection. We are going to connect with ourselves and
whatever is present. Take a moment to
get comfortable. Find a comfy seat. Make sure you've got
your headphones in, and then we're going to gently
close our eyes to begin. Now your eyes are shut. Take a moment to notice your inner experience
and relax in the here and now relax your jaw. Might soften and open it gently, let the tongue hang,
breathe a sigh of relief. Let the relaxation spread
down to your neck. Your shoulders present and
resting in the here and now. Now is the time to allow
your mind to wander. Let your mind travel
through moments from the past week and
let a moment claim. It could have been
something hard, it could have been something beautiful drifting through time, run back through the days, walk through the week, until you arrive in
a memory that would like your attention yesterday, the day before that,
the day before that. The day before, a
moment claims you. This could even be
the moment you found yourself in for song seed one. We will be looking at it from
a different perspective. You can do this exercise as
many times as you'd like. Don't worry about finding
the perfect moment. Just pick what comes
up, something present. If there is a big
stressful event going on in your life right now, please be gentle with yourself and choose
a moment you can handle taking a few more
breaths to find the moment. Arriving in this moment. See everything in full color. Listen to what you can hear. See what you can see, feel what you can feel. Make it real in
your imagination. Tuning into your vision. Are there any colors or
objects that catch your eye? Make a mental note. Tuning into your hearing. What is the sound you can hear? What is the quietest sound? Make a mental note. And most importantly, now
tuning into your feelings. Notice how the feelings
affect your body. Tuning into your hands, your temples, your jaw. How is your throat? How is your chest, your
heart center, your belly? Traveling down to the feet, what sensations can you
notice in the feet? What emotions are present? Are you tight or
relaxed and soft? Are you light or heavy? In a moment, the song
space is going to play. You might like to keep your
eyes shut and speak out, or sing what you
felt or experience. Or you might like to open your eyes and make some notes in your journal as a starting point for singing and sounding. Enjoy this time for self
expression and connection. That's your songwriting
finish for today. Doing in a work like this can sometimes leave us
feeling unsettled, maybe a bit emotional or a bit shook up, if
you feel like that. Here's a few things
that you can do. You might like to go
and drink some water or make an ice tea or
hot drink for yourself. You might like to
splash your face with cold water or have
a shower or a bath. Or you might like to go outside
for a walk or just take a moment to sit outside
and ground yourself. Or you might need
to eat something. Part of being an artist and having creative practice is to take care of our own needs. Now you've finished this
songwriting practice. If you're experiencing
any challenge, just take a moment to notice what you need and give
that to yourself. To close, we are going
to chant sat num, which is a Kundalini chant, which means truth is my name. It's just like drawing
a little zip zoo closing our practice and
finishing for the day. We're going to rub our
hands together like this, Place our hands on our heart. Take a nice deep breath. Si, no, si. No last one n just taking a little bow, bowing to yourself for making
this time for yourself. Feeling gratitude.
Feeling thankful you might want to just the jaw and the shoulders relax again. May the act of making time for creativity for
yourself bring you peace, wholeness, joy and
connection. Well done.
15. Deep songwriting Songseed 3 - Catharsis: Welcome to Song Seed
and Song Space Three. The theme today is catharsis. And we're going to use
this seed and song space today to hold experience and
feel difficult feelings. We're going to make time for more challenging
emotions to be seen, heard to be witnessed.
Let's get ready. Just finding ourselves
comfortable in our seat. Make sure you've got
your headphones. When you're all comfy,
close your eyes. Now your eyes are closed. Time to focus on your
inner experience. Pay attention to your
jaw and let your jaw, it might drop open slightly, breathing a sigh of relief. Let that relaxation from the jaw spread down to
the neck, shoulders, all the way to the toes relax present here and now today we are
going to allow hurt. We are going to let
our mind wander to a moment where someone
hurt our feelings. It could be a colleague, a friend, a family member. Somebody disappointed us,
hurt us, let us down. Maybe we have been
carrying a resentment. Maybe we can't forgive someone if there is a big stressful event
going on in your life Now, please be gentle
with yourself and choose a moment you
can handle Taking a few breaths and
allowing our mind to open and find the memory
we want to be with. Travel to a specific moment. A moment that
commands attention. Breathing, notice the moment. Notice what you can see. Notice what you can hear. Notice what you can feel. Make it real in
your imagination. Noticing the person
who you are with. What have they said or
done to cause hurt. Feeling a strong, fierce, vibrant dragon force
growing in your belly. Dragon in your chest. Dragon in your throat. Dragon in your hands and feet. A force for change. Make it real in your mind. Dragon energy is present. It says it how it is
now in your mind, say what you want to
say to this person. Don't hold back. Tell them
how they've hurt you at them. Tell them what they
have done wrong. Let it all out, breathe
fire in a moment. The song space is going to play. You might like to keep your
eyes shut and speak out, or sing what you
felt or experienced. Or you might like to open your eyes and make some notes in your journal as a starting point for singing and sounding. Enjoy this time for self
expression and connection. Or make a nice tea or
hot drink for yourself. You might like to
splash your face with cold water or have
a shower or a bath. Or you might like to go outside
for a walk or just take a moment to sit outside
and ground yourself. Or you might need
to eat something. Part of being an artist and having creative practice is to take care of our own needs. Now you've finished this
songwriting practice. If you're experiencing
any challenge, just take a moment to notice what you need and give
that to yourself. To close, we are going
to chant sat num, which is a Kundalini chant, which means truth is my name. It's just like drawing
a little zip zoo closing our practice and
finishing for the day. We're going to rub our
hands together like this. Place our hands on our heart. Take a nice deep breath. Si, no, si num. Last one n just taking a little bow, bowing to yourself for making
this time for yourself. Feeling gratitude, feeling
thankful you might want to. Just the jaw and the
shoulders relax again. May the act of making time for creativity for
yourself bring you peace, wholeness, joy and
connection. Well done.
16. Deep songwriting Songseed 4 - Clarity: Welcome to Song Seed
and Song Space Four. The theme today is Clarity. We are going to
take this time to access and enjoy wisdom. Take a moment to get
comfy in your seat. Make sure you've got
your headphones on, and then when you're already, you can close your eyes. Your eyes are shut.
It's time to focus on your inner experience.
Relax your jaw. Let the tongue
rest in the mouth, breathing a sigh of relief. Let the relaxation from your jaw spread
down to your neck, shoulders traveling
all the way down to your toes resting in here. And now, wisdom is
always accessible to us. We just need to make time
and space to access it. In this session, today, we are going to access
our inner wisdom. What obstacle currently
exists in your life? You might go back to
the difficult person that you worked with
in the last song, Seed, or is there a problem with your work or with a
certain relationship? The obstacle could
be a pattern of behavior that you
keep repeating. Something you do
that bothers you. Take a moment to find your
biggest obstacle right now. Breathing. Let that obstacle present itself in front of you. Looking at your obstacle, what color is your
obstacle? What texture? Hard, soft, hot, cold. What feelings does
your obstacle present? Feel yourself within
the obstacle, trapped within the obstacle. Now inviting wisdom
into the space, a wise being enters. Who is it? A spiritual
being, angel, God, deity, a family member, an ancestor, an animal. Make the wise being
real in your mind. This wise being looks at
you inside your obstacle. They know the solution. Feel yourself stepping
out of the obstacle, you might slip out, rise up, roll over, then step into the wise being, look through their eyes, see it as they see it, hear the solution,
experience the solution. The solution to my
obstacle is in a moment, the song space is going to play. You might like to keep your
eyes shut and speak out, or sing what you
felt or experienced. Or you might like to open your eyes and make some notes in your journal as a starting point for singing and sounding. Enjoy this time for self
expression and connection. Or make an ice tea or
hot drink for yourself. You might like to
splash your face with cold water or have
a shower or a bath. Or you might like to go outside
for a walk or just take a moment to sit outside
and ground yourself. Or you might need
to eat something. Part of being an artist and having creative practice is to take care of our own needs. Now you've finished this
songwriting practice. If you're experiencing
any kind of challenge, just take a moment to notice what you need and give
that to yourself. To close, we are
going to chant num, which is a delinichant, which means truth is my name. It's just like
drawing a little z. Closing our practice and
finishing for the day. We're going to rub our
hands together like this, Place our hands on our heart. Take a nice deep breath. So, so, um, last one s, um, just taking a little
bowing to yourself, making this time for yourself. Feeling gratitude,
feeling thankful. You might want to just let the jaw and the
shoulders relax again. The act of making time for creativity for
yourself bring you peace, wholeness, joy and
connection. Well done.
17. Deep songwriting Songseed 5 - Celebrate: Welcome to Song Seed
and Song Space Five. The theme today is celebration. We are going to take
some time to think about what we're grateful for and celebrate the joy in our life. Make sure you've got
your headphones on. Take a moment to get comfy in your seat, make
sure you're warm. Then we are going
to close our eyes. Now your eyes are
comfortably closed. Taking a moment to focus
on your inner experience, relaxing the belly, noticing any tension you're
holding in the belly, relaxing the shoulders and
relaxing the jaw with a sigh. Comfortable in your seat
in the here and now. Today we start by
focusing on gratitude. Despite whatever is
going on in our life, we have something
to be grateful for. If you are listening to this, you are lucky enough to own a gadget that accesses
the Internet. We are grateful for technology, that we can share
information so easily. My work can travel
to you all the way from a little village in
England to wherever you are, from my laptop to your gadget for your
ears, heart and mind. Take a moment to think about
people you are grateful for. People who bring
joy to your life. With a few breaths, picture them in your mind. Now turning your attention to things in your immediate surroundings that you
are grateful for. Your comfortable
chair, your desk, things in your home
that bring you joy. Take a moment to
think about them. Take a moment to think about creative activities
that bring you joy and a therapeutic
view, singing, writing. What other creative
activities do you love? Think about how those creative
activities make you feel. Now take a moment to think about a person who brought a huge positive change
into your life. Picture them in your mind
and feel thankful for them. Now take a moment to think about a beautiful place that exists
somewhere near to you. A spot in nature
that captivates, make it real in
your imagination. Feeling thankful that such
beauty and peace exists. In a moment, the song
space is going to play. You might like to keep your
eyes shut and speak out, or sing what you
felt or experienced. Or you might like to open your eyes and make some notes in your journal as a starting point for singing and sounding. Enjoy this time for self
expression and connection. That's your songwriting
finished for today. Doing in a work like this can sometimes leave us
feeling unsettled, maybe a bit emotional, or a bit shook up, if
you feel like that. Here's a few things
that you can do. You might like to go
and drink some water or make an ice tea or
hot drink for yourself. You might like to
splash your face with cold water or have
a shower or a bath. Or you might like to go outside
for a walk or just take a moment to sit outside
and ground yourself. Or you might need
to eat something. Part of being an artist and having creative practice is to take care of our own needs. So now you've finished
this songwriting practice. If you're experiencing
any kind of challenge, just take a moment to notice what you need and give
that to yourself. To close, we are going
to chance sat num, which is a cundini chant, which means truth is my name. And it's just like
drawing a little Z. Closing our practice and
finishing for the day. So we're going to rub our
hands together like this. Place my hands on our heart. Take a nice deep breath. Nu, nu. Last one s n, just taking a little bowing to yourself for making
this time for yourself. Feeling gratitude.
Feeling thankful. You might want to just let the jaw and the
shoulders relax again. The act of making time for
creativity for yourself, bring you peace when joy
and connection. Well done.
18. Examples and Discussion: Welcome back. In this lesson, I'm going to share
some discussion points and also point you to some examples of songs which link to each
of the song seeds. First of all, I'd like
to say, well done. If you have got this far, I'm assuming you've
at least listened through one of the song
seeds and song spaces. And I'd be interested
to know where you're at When you experience
the song spaces, Did you experience any
irritation or frustration? Did you have any blank moments? Did you write anything,
even a line or two, or did you write a whole song? The Discussions tab exists on Skillshare as a
place we can chat. Here's some questions that I'd love to know the answers to. How was your experience? You have a favorite song space, a favorite tempo, or a
favorite key to sing in. Write a comment in
the discussions tab and we can have
a chat about it. In the deep
songwriting workbook, you will find an example for
each one of the song seeds. And listening to them
might just give you another perspective on that particular song seed
and how to work with it. I'll just tell you
those five songs now. For comfort, we've got Guilt by Mountain Man For connection, we've got Cold Water by
Damian Rice For Catharsis, we've got Cleaning out my
closet by M and M. For clarity, we've got Heartbeat by
Dante and for celebration, we've got L Mysterio
by Rayna Schuunobrand. Always find his heart
name hard to pronounce, but so all of those
are written down in the deep
songwriting workbook. So download the workbook now. Have a listen to those songs, and then when you approach
the song seed again, if you'd like to, it might
give you another perspective. A way of looking at
that particular idea. Okay, let's head to the next lesson where we're going to talk about
finishing songs.
19. Finishing Songs: Back in this lesson, we are going to discuss
finishing songs. Finishing a song looks very different for
different people. I have got three different
types of finished. Number one is satisfied. You've written out your song, you've maybe written the
lyrics in your notebook. You maybe recorded them on your phone and you like
singing it to yourself, and you feel satisfied
that it's finished. The second kind of
finished is shared. You might like to share
it with a friend, either offering them
a live performance or sending them a recording. You might like to do an open mic or you might like to
share it on social media. The third kind is
professionally finished. This might mean that you make
a professional recording in your home studio or at studio
and release that song. What does finished mean to you? Work that out now, does
finish mean to you? You want to be
satisfied with it, you want to share it, or you
want it to be professional? Then now I'm going
to go into how you can finish on each of
those three levels. For me, songs exist in
different stages of finished. I like it when I'm
just satisfied with a song and
I've finished it, it might never get shared. I might just sing it at home, and that's its purpose served. Then some songs get shared, whether I put them
on social media or share them with
my singing group. And then some of my
favorite songs I pick out and I get
professionally recorded. Let's work through
those three levels of finished and see where
you're getting stuck. Talking about finding
satisfaction in a song, you might be unsatisfied with
your song for many reasons. One might be that just
your inner critic is very harsh and is being
mean about your song. And maybe you just
need to let it sit and wait and come back
to it on another day. The song might actually need more time and more work on it. If, for example there's a
lyric you're stuck with, You might like to set aside a session just to work
over that particular line, those particular lyrics that are irritating you, that
you're not happy with. And make some time and space
for new lyrics to come. Sometimes we get stuck on a particular word or
phrase that annoys us. In my third album, which
I'm currently working on, there's a song called Cambo. The first line of the
chorus just came like that. I loved it. And then
the second line I tried about five different
iterations and I was like, I'm not sure of
any of these five, what I want to say
then in the end, I just picked out the best one out of those five
and I just went with it. And then a few months later,
I did actually love it. And now I like the way
the whole chorus sounds, but sometimes you just
need to a bit of space from the song to
find love for it. Again, I keep coming back
to this theme of time. Songwriting is not
something you just sit down with for 5 hours on one day
and write an amazing song. It's something you
just little and often keep coming back to and
keep improving day by day. If you're more stuck on sharing, I think it's a
really good idea to find your edge when it comes to sharing
and not pushing it, so it can be very,
very vulnerable. Sharing a song, if you
put a song, for example, on the Internet and you're
already feeling a bit raw about it and somebody
writes something not very nice. It can be a bit too
much, too soon. When I first started
writing songs, I shared them with my
very close friend. I have a precious moment
in my mind in London, sat on my best friend,
Adeline's sofa, and singing my first song I've written on
my guitar to her. And I was just so
nervous, shaking. And she gave me
lovely feedback and that gave me confidence
to go and then sing a open mics and eventually make professional recordings.
Find your own edge. Don't push it too much. Push yourself into
the stress zone. Find a way of sharing your songs that feels like
you're challenging yourself. If you're getting
stuck on recording, you might like to check out my Y album class on skill share, which talks about how to
DIY your own recordings. Because there's something
very satisfying about completing
and finishing and recording a professional
recording and sharing it with the
world, head that class. Now, if you need more
help with getting a professional recording
from watching this lesson, have you decided
what finished is for you and found your
solution for finished, and would you like to
share the song with me? Skill Share offers
the project section where students can
post their project. If you would like to
share your song with me, I would love to see it. You can post a link in the project section If
you feel a bit more shy, you might like to
DM me on Instagram, a link to your song. Just so you know, if you
share your song with me, I'm only going to
offer encouragement. And if you want more
critical feedback, you might like to write a
question with your upload. So you might like to
say, do you think the lyrics in the
second half makes sense? Does this bit work? You know, so if you want
more critical feedback, please just write a bit of
a comment or a question about what critical feedback
you like for your song. I know that sharing songs can make you feel so vulnerable. So I will only offer kindness and kind encouragement when
it comes to your songwriting. If you're feeling really brave and you want to share
it on social media, I'd love you to tag
me at Laura Lamb. Let's head into the last lesson. We're going to summarize
and say goodbye. No, see you in the
next lesson. By
20. Goodbye: Welcome to our final lesson
of this class. Well done. Well done. Well done for
sticking all the way through. Now you finish your class. You should be offered the option now to
download a certificate. I personally love the certificate
feature on Skillshare and it's something that you can show your inner
critic to say, ah ha, you said I
can't write songs. Look, I have a
certificate and I can, and I have written a song. So download your certificate, print it out, and put it
somewhere with pride. If you've enjoyed this class, I'd really appreciate it. If you write a review, you
can go to the Reviews tab and just write one or two words, or one or two sentences. And that really helps other
students find this class. If you'd like to stay in touch and find out more about my work, you can head to my teacher
page which will show you all my other classes I
have on skillshare and also other projects I'm
involved with there. You will also find a link
to my e mail list where I send out friendly e mails
once or twice a month. As well as that, there's
my social media links, Facebook and Instagram. May the art of deep
songwriting bring peace, joy, clarity, and
fun into your life. Thank you so much
for watching. Bye.