Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome. I'm Kate heart. I'm a nerd folk musician
and I've written over a 100 songs in
the last three years. In 2018, I wrote a
song every week. And in the spring of 2021, I was stuck at home. A lot of people, I
wrote a song every weekday with a self-imposed
time limit of one hour. I wrote most of
those songs in front of a live audience on Facebook. And dozens of those times, I went into that
broadcast with an hour on the clock and absolutely no idea what I was going to write about. But I was never worried
because I've developed a fast, straightforward, and
most importantly reliable method of songwriting. That's the method I'm
going to teach you over there in the
next few lessons. This course is not vague. There is no magic to my method. At no point will I advise
you to think deeply about what you want to say or get in touch with
your creativity. When I first started writing, I wasn't ready for that
level of artistic advice. I was staring at
a blank page and wondering, what do I do now? I think the most valuable thing for beginners to do is write a song or two to prove to
yourself that you can do it. So I designed this course to be a practical step-by-step
guide to take you from blank page to finish
song in one hour. If you follow the steps,
you'll write a song. It's that easy. What are those steps? There are three. Number 1, first, make
a chord progression. Next, write the melody
and the lyrics. You're going to go through
that process several times. The first time through, you'll write a section,
probably the chorus. Follow the steps again
to write the verse. After that, the chord progressions
and melodies are done. And it's just a
matter of filling in additional lyrics
for additional. Versus. Finally, you'll make
a few easy decisions about what order to play
things in and you're done. In this course. First, we'll discuss what
chord progressions are, how to write a good
one, and some commonly used chord progressions that
are sure to sound great. Then I'll teach you how to pull a melody out of thin
air. Don't panic. It's not as hard as it sounds. Next, we'll add the words with special attention paid
to meter and rhyme. Finally, I'll teach you how to take that starting
point all the way to a completed song by following simple rules about
song structure, rhyme scheme, and storytelling. If you're getting ready to
write your very first song, then this course is for you. If you've written a few songs, but you're not sure
exactly how you did it and you're not sure
you could do it again. You're in the right place. If you're already an
accomplished songwriter, you might want to use this
method to break through writer's block or to
write songs really fast. There are two prerequisites
to my songwriting method. You need to be able
to sing and play an instrument at the same time. If you can sing
along to the radio, you're plenty good
enough to write a song. If you want to learn how
to use your voice better, checkout my intermediate
voice course. We won't cover that stuff here. When it comes to
your instrument, you need to be able to play at least three chords without
thinking about it too hard. Although of course four or H or being a master on your
instrument doesn't hurt. It gives you more options. It doesn't matter what
instrument you choose as long as you can play it
without using your mouth. The guitar is a popular choice, as is the piano or the keyboard. You can use an accordion or a marimba or anything you
happen to have lying around. My main instrument is a ukulele. And if you don't yet have an instrument you can
play for songwriting. I definitely recommend it. It's one of the fastest, easiest, most delightful
instruments to learn. And I can get you up to speed in my beginner ukulele course. And then you can come back to the songwriting course
when you're ready. If you're still with me, hit the enroll button and
let's start writing.
2. Chord Progressions: Common Chord Progressions: When I write a song, the very first thing I do is
write a chord progression. A chord progression is a series of quartz
you play in order, usually many times in a loop. It forms the basis of your song. It's the accompaniment. If you want to get
fancy with a scream and keyboard solo, That's up to you. But it's not necessary. Chords are all you
need for my method. Out of all the possible
combinations of chords, we use a handful of them
in Western music a lot. So you shouldn't feel like
you need to come up with a totally unique
chord progression for your very first song, or really any song because
there's no such thing. The popular ones are
popular for a reason. So feel free to use them. Lots of people do.
Here are a couple of simple examples of very, very popular chord progressions. Here's one in the key of C, it uses C, G, F. Then we'll go back to see
to get a group of four. That'll sound like this. Back to say. That probably sounds
familiar or intuitive. If you're going to add
a fourth chord to that, your top choice would
probably be a minor, and that might sound like this. C minor. Now that probably
sounded pretty familiar. That's one of the most popular chord progressions
in the world. If you use it, you
won't be the only one. We could do the same
chord progression. It'll, it'll have
the same flavor, but in a different key. If we do it in the key of
G, that would be G. D. Back to doing, that
would sound like this. C, back to G. If you added a fourth
chord in the key of G, that would be E minor. That would sound like this. G, E minor. You can do the same
in the key of D. Your three chords in d, r, d. That would sound like this. Then if you are going to
add a fourth coordinate, that that would be B
minor and that key. Those all should sound very
familiar, very intuitive. You could take
those three chords or those four chords in any of those keys and put them in almost any order and
they're short sound grade. Those are just groups of
chords that go great together. There are other groups of chords that you
might want to draw. And especially if
you want to write a song in the blues genre. Blues is absolutely
notorious for using the same chord
progressions all the time. There's a chord progression. You can look up called a
twelv bar blues in any key, like many, many,
many blues songs use those 12 chords in a row. As you write your own
chord progressions. Feel free to use any of
these anytime you like. You won't be alone.
And the popular ones are popular for a reason.
3. Writing a Chord Progression: Any series of any number of chords can be a valid
chord progression, but some will sound more
catchy than others. So take a moment and
play some of the chords, you know, in any order. Just try something. And
if it sounds goofy, try something else
until it sounds right. Try it. Most western music uses
four or eight bar phrases. So a progression of four chords usually
sounds pretty good. But remember you can double up, especially if your core
vocabulary is limited. I could do a progression
that's d, d, f, d, and those could be my
four corners like this. D Again. You can also use a
series of five chords, but two of them share a measure, they share a bar, and
they go a little faster. So that might sound like this. You could do a minor. In that case, the a minor
in g shared a measure. If you feel more comfortable
with your instrument, you can randomize your
core progression. Take a six-sided die
and roll it four times, and then use this chart to convert those
numbers into courts. Now, there's a lot of music theory hiding
in that little chart. But the important thing
for you to know is that those chords will
put your song in the key of C. If you're playing an instrument that
lends itself to the key of C, like the guitar or the
piano or the ukulele. Those chords should all
look pretty easy to play. Again, there are no rules, but these are all good options that are likely to sound nice. These charts are included
in the course materials, so definitely feel
free to try them out, but don't feel
trapped by the dice. Use the dice as a
starting point. And you can always make substitutions until
you're happy with them. You don't have to write the
whole songs chords right now. We're only writing the
first progression. If we need another progression,
we'll come back to it. What we just wrote. Maybe that's the chorus or maybe
it's diverse.
4. Melody: Let's practice writing a melody. What you're gonna do is
you're going to play the chord progression
that you just wrote through on a loop
and start to sing along. Don't worry about
words right now. Just saying law or o or
yeah, or whatever you like. My chord progression was d, d, f, d. I'm gonna play
those through on a loop. Back to D. And then we start over. And I'm just gonna sing on
top of it saying, Oh, maybe if you're having
trouble with this step, try doing this exercise, singing along to the
radio or to music, you know, really well. Don't sing the songs words
just ad lib on top of it in the spaces between the lyrics or in an
instrumental break. There's kind of a shyness
barrier to break through. But you've listened
to lots of music in your life and you know
how music should go. So just open up and you'll
find that you can do this. However, if you're
really feeling stuck, try visiting my
intermediate voice course. There's a series of lessons
on vocal improvisation that will give you a
lot more detail on how to write a
melody from scratch. Practice the exercises in those lessons until
you feel comfortable, and then head back to
this course and start writing melodies for
your own original songs. As you play a chord
progression through on a loop and you sing along to it. Don't worry about
memorizing right away. Just keep singing through,
keeps singing through. And eventually as you start to figure out something
that you like, it'll start to sound
the same every time you'll see the same thing
every time you loop through. And when that happens, that's the melody
that you want to carry forward into your song.
5. Lyrics: Once you've established
the melody, it's time to write some words. Maybe you have a topic in
mind and maybe you don't. But when I don't have
a topic in mind, I like to let meter be
my guide at the start, will discuss what that
means in the next lesson. You can also use a prompt. Occasionally, you
might find a group of songwriters all writing
from the same prompt. That's a really cool
exercise and it can help you learn more
about songwriting, but you don't have to
write in a group and your prompt doesn't have to be made specifically
for songwriting. Any short story writing prompt will serve
you just as well. Use the prompt or the magic of meter to
write your first-line. Once you have your first line, the second line drawn with it. At this point, you might be establishing a topic
or at least a mood. If you didn't come
in with one in mind, you'll continue like that until you finished with
your first section. In the next four lessons, we'll discuss a few
elements of lyrics that will be crucial to
your own lyric writing. Those elements are
number one, meter, number to rhyme scheme, number three, song structure,
and finally, storytelling. Together, they'll help you
narrow down your options from any words in the
English language to the right words
for your song.
6. Meter: Meter is the element of
lyric writing that I see riders of all levels
ignore most often. But writing lyrics with good meter will help
your lyric sound better. And in my method, it can even help you figure
out what your song is about. Meter is the emphasis we put on words which gives
them their rhythm. Just like with Melody, your brain has you covered here. Even if you've never
thought about meter before, you would immediately
know something was wrong if my emphasis
went out right? If you pay attention
to my speech patterns or your own for a minute, you'll be able to
recognize emphasized syllables in your song. Generally speaking,
syllables that fall on beats should
be emphasized, but you'll know what's
right when you hear it. You'll know what's
wrong when you hear it. Let's look at an example of really good meter from the
Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you're familiar
with their music, you might have noticed that
the vocals often sound like they're part of
the rhythm section. Of course, there are
also often do brush. If you pay attention
to the meter, you'll notice that
it is perfect. Here's the lyric I love from
the song, Come on girl. Disenchanted diplomat
asleep inside the laundromat
conveyor belts are moving and once you
to be sure of that, now obviously that's nonsense. But if you just
spoke those lyrics, the emphasis would fall in
exactly the same place. Disenchanted diplomatic
sleep inside the laundromat. It's kind of hard to speak those words without
sounding rhythmic. The rhythm isn't being
imposed on the words. It's already there. The song is just
matching that rhythm. Let's try an exercise
on matching meter. Picture the teacher from
the Charlie Brown cartoons. Can you hear it? Won't lot want,
want, want, want. We're hearing the rhythm of
the words and nothing else. Those six syllables want, want, want, want, want, want. They could be a lot of
things, but not anything. The moon is in the sky fits. The moon is in the sky. But the Lion Sleeps
Tonight, doesn't fit. The lie against sleeps tonight. Sounds terrible. The word lion is crossing a
gap in the rhythm and you would never stop
in the middle of the word while you
were speaking. The word sleeps is
just one syllable, but in the context
of the sentence, it should be emphasized. So it sounds weird
when it isn't. And tonight only night
should be emphasized. But in that rhythm, both syllables are sort of equally emphasized
and that sounds weird to try this exercise
for yourself. Try to fit six
syllables into want, want, want, want,
want, want. Rhythm. With good meter. There are
lots of right answers. You could say, my
books are almost here, or when will you return? Try to think of your
own example that would fit that rhythm with good meter. That is exactly how
you're going to use meter to guide your lyrics. As you write the very
first lyrics of your song, start with some words that fit the rhythm you've
already established. Don't think too hard about it. Just the first thing you
can think of that fits. Once you've done that,
consider what you've written and let it help you figure
out where to go next. Always keeping meter in mind.
7. Rhyme Scheme: Every song has a rhyme scheme. There are no wrong answers about what yours
should look like. In general, you're
going to be creating rhyming lines at a minimum. That means rhyming the
very last syllable of a line with the very last
syllable of another line. If you've done that,
the two lines rhyme. With one exception. Rhyming a word with
itself doesn't count. So yesterday, my troubles
seems so far away. That last syllable day rhymes
with the last syllable way. The two lines rhyme. But you can go further. You can rhyme the
last two syllables or the last three or more. In a precise rhyme, the final vowel sound and the final consonant
that comes after that, if there is one, should be
the same in both words. Cat rhymes precisely with
hat, they will have at, and then me rhymes precisely with Jubilee because they both have e
and then nothing. You have the option as you write your rhymes to be flexible
and use a slant rhyme. Slant rhyme, maybe
the vowel matches or maybe the consonant
matches, but not both. For example, Blackbird
singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and
learn to fly all your life. You were only waiting for
this moment to arrive. That's Night. Fly life and arrive. And they all have
the I vowel sound, but they end in a
different consonant. In each case, there's
slant rhymes. They're still
considered rhymes for the purposes of that
songs rhyme scheme. And they feel like rhymes
when you sing the song. Feel absolutely free to
use slant rhymes anytime. Don't force yourself to
be unnecessarily precise. In addition to writing
lines that rhyme, you can use rhymes inside lines. That's called internal rhyme. For example, why she had
to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say say is going around with
yesterday in the next line, but go and no rhyme
inside the line. Internal rhymes are
always optional, but they can add a little
spice to your lyrics. The way we arrange rhymes in the song constitutes
the songs rhyme scheme. Rhyme schemes for songs are just like rhyme schemes for poetry. You probably learned
about them in school. For example, couplets. That's when two rhyming lines are placed right
next to each other. The notation for that would be AA or the a lines
rhyme with each other. You could also have a
four-line section of a, b, c, where the bead lines
rhyme with each other. But the ANC lines don't. And that's also very
common and intuitive. You can use the rhyme
structure of a limerick. Have a AA, BB, AA. You can write a whole verse where every single line rhymes, like in the example we
just looked at, Blackbird. You can also write a song with almost no rhyming in it at all. Look at the lyrics to
Here comes the sun. Almost. None of those lines
rhyme with each other, and yet the songs still
sounds catchy and normal. I'm not here to
advocate that you use a certain rhyme scheme or
that you use rhyme at all. You should write
with total freedom. But if you can analyze your
rhyme scheme as you write, it becomes a tool to help
you finish the song, and we'll cover that
in the next section.
8. Song Structure: While there are no binding
rules to songwriting, my songwriting method
assumes that you'll have a chorus and at least
two versus to your song. Most songs do. A chorus is the part of the song that's repeated several times, sometimes with a
little variation. It's often catchier and more
high-energy than the verses. It's also usually more central
to the theme of the song. So the first thing you write
is usually the chorus, although it doesn't have to be. Versus, on the other
hand, are unique. Though one verse may be similar to another and
it probably should be versus usually have
the same rhyme scheme. There, usually the same length
and sometimes even have repeated lyrics or
nearly repeated lyrics. They usually have identical
or nearly identical melodies. And that's all very
good news for us because it means that once you've written
your first first, you've already made a lot of progress towards
your second third versus less like magic at that point and more like
filling in a Mad Libs game, you can still bring
your creativity to it, but you have a path to follow. You might also choose to add a bridge to your
song if you like. That's a section in the song
structure that's unique. It usually has its own chords, it almost always
has its own melody. It can have its own
rhyme structure. It isn't bound by the length
of the verse or the chorus. It can be very, very
short or very long. The only thing
that's predictable about a bridge is its position. It's usually right
before the last chorus. So that could be chorus, bridge, repeated chorus, or final
verse, bridge, final chorus. If you're writing
your first song, I don't recommend
including a bridge, but if you're ready to
get fancy, try it out. Think of it like a third section that's distinct from the
chorus and the verse. And use the same method to write it as you would the
course of the verse. That's chord progression,
melody, lyrics. The bridge should be the last thing you
write after you've already established the music and lyrics for the
rest of the song. It's an opportunity for you to emphasize an
idea you've already established or introduce a twist that changes how the
song is interpreted. It's also an opportunity to do something musically different
than the rest of the song. Try using cords you
haven't used elsewhere, or switching from
mostly major chords to mostly minor
chords or vice versa. You might also consider other optional sections
like an intro or an outro. Those sections go at
the very beginning or at the very end of the song. And you can think of them as
being similar to a bridge, because those sections also have the freedom to be completely different from the
rest of the song. That's especially
true of outros. If you're playing
with a full bands or if you're an advanced
instrumentalist, you might choose to add an
instrumental break or solo. I can't really help
you here except to say that the instrumental
solo section is usually following the
same chord progression as either the chorus
or the verse. So you'll probably want to
start writing that solo. You're screaming keyboard solo. You want to improvise
on top of those chords, just like we did
with the melody. Until you figure out
something that you like. If you've written your
chorus and your Vs, and maybe some additional
sections or maybe none. The last thing to consider is how your songs
should begin an end. What order should you
play those sections in? As with most things
in songwriting, there are several right answers. You can use averse or a chorus
to begin or end your song. Either one in either
position will work. The most basic configuration
is to start with averse, then alternate with courses
until you run out of verses, then add a final
chorus on the end. So if you had three verses, that would be verse one chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus. Or you might choose to end
by repeating a chorus. Or you could repeat the first verse or just the
beginning of the first verse. Or you could end
with a unique verse. The very last thing you decide will probably be what
to do at the very, very beginning of your song. You can jump right into your chosen first section
right away and start singing. But it's more common
to play a few chords. First, you can play the chords all the way through
of your first section. And that will always work. But sometimes there's
a shorter series. You can use maybe just the
last one or two chords of the section you're
starting with, or the last one or two
of the opposite section. Try a few of those options and just figure out
which one you like best.
9. Storytelling: As your song starts
to take shape, you'll need to flesh out
an idea or a feeling, or maybe an event
into a whole song. There are no wrong answers and the process in this lesson
is not a set of rules. It's just a
straightforward way to quickly develop a few
lyrics into a whole song. Every time I write a line, I asked myself what I've learned about the
story of the song. At first, that usually means establishing the songs
two main characters. Most of my songs have at least two
characters, me and you. And that's a really
common construction. You can call them the
narrator and the object. If you pay attention to
the music you listen to, you'll notice that a lot of songs are structured this way. There's a me and to you, and it's a great way for you to start building out your story. As you write your first lyrics, pay attention to what they imply about those two main characters. Who are they? Who is the narrator
and who's the object, the one that song
is being sung to. You can work from
there into the plot, the things that happen,
and the emotions. If you've established
that the narrator is feeling a certain way,
ask yourself why, what events or actions
caused that or what events or actions caught will follow
from that feeling. You can do the same
with the object of the song and you can work in the opposite direction
from plot to emotions. How did they established events make both characters feel? You just keep working
outward along that ladder from
plot to emotions, emotions to plot backwards
and forwards in time for both characters until you
start to sketch out a story. It's at this point
that the story will probably run ahead
of your lyrics. Maybe you'll get excited
about a character and invent an
elaborate backstory. Sometimes I use direct or
indirect inspiration from stories I already know or characters I'm
already familiar with. But those details don't need
to make it into your lyrics. They just need to inform
your songwriting so that the plot and the emotions of the song makes sense to you. Be explicit, be vague. Either approach can
make a good song. But generally speaking,
you need to know exactly what happens
once you know that. It's just a matter of telling
the listener pieces of that story in lines that fit the rhyme scheme you've already established
for your song. As a final note, remember that nothing is
written in stone. So anytime something
isn't working, you're always free to circle
back and change your mind. That's normal and it often
leads to a better song.
10. Finishing the Song: So let's assume you wrote
a chord progression, that melody, then some lyrics. So you have one section done, it's time to write another. I'm going to assume that
what you wrote first was the chorus and you're
about to write your verse. Usually the first thing
you write is the chorus because it captures the
central idea of the song. But if you decide the first thing you
wrote was the verse, and now you're going
to write the chorus. That's fine. It works just as well. You're going to use
the exact same steps to write the verse that you
use to write the chorus. First chord progression,
next melody. Finally, lyrics. But this time you have a little bit more information
to help you with each step. On the chord progression, you can choose to use the exact same chords for the first that you
use for the chorus. Or you can start over and
find new ones by any of the methods that you would use to write
the first section. You could use a common chord progression or you
can roll dice, or you could just wander
through the cords, you know, until you find
something you're happy with. If you decide to use a
new chord progression, make sure you like
the transition in both directions into
the verse and back out. Once you're happy
with the chords, you can move on to the melody. For the melody, if you
use the same chords, you can choose to
use the same melody, but you probably don't want to. The reason to use the same melody throughout the whole song is to help the audience catch
on and sing along faster, which you might want
if you're writing a children's song
or a drinking song, or a protest song,
or a sea shanty. Outside of those contexts, you probably want a new melody, even if you're using
the same chords. So just like before
sing all are o or yeah, on top of your chord progression
until you converge on something you like when
it comes to the lyrics. Now that you're in
your second section, you have a lot
more to work with. At first, maybe all
you had was the meter, but now you should
have some idea of what the song is about. You might know who your
two main characters are, what they're feeling,
what happens in the song. Now it's just a
matter of filling in lyrics that fit that story, the meter, and probably rhyme with each other in some way. If that feels like a lot of
constraints, don't worry, you still have lots and
lots of possibilities. And narrowing down
your options make this section a lot easier to
write linear first section, once you're happy with
the sections lyrics, you've got a chorus
and the verse, and you're actually almost done. Your next step is to write at
least one additional verse. And you're well on your way. As we discussed in the
song structure section, you're going to use
the same chords, the same melody, the same
rhyme scheme as the first. First of all you have to do
now is fill in the blanks. If you can match the
rhyme scheme precisely, use internal rhymes and multi-syllable rhymes
in the same places. You use them in the first first. You can also repeat
parts of the first verse lyrics wholesale if you
feel it's appropriate. Once you're done
with your verses, you can consider adding in
some optional sections. You might add a bridge or an instrumental break
or an intro and outro if you feel comfortable and if they contribute
something to the song, those sections are
always optional. You don't need
them. Finally, you want to decide how to
order your sections. How will you begin
and end the song? Should you start with
a chorus or averse? What chords will you play
before you start to sing? Should you end with a chorus or repeated chorus or a unique
verse or repeated verse. Once you're happy
with those decisions, your song is complete. It might not be finished. You can continue to fiddle with it to your heart's content, but it's a complete whole song. You can perform it, get feedback recorded, and
let it loose in the world.
11. Write a Song: It's time. You're ready to write a song. Print out the one-hour
songwriting worksheet. Strap yourself in with your instrument and
a pen for one hour. No distractions,
no interruptions. You're going to
work your way down the worksheet from
top to bottom. And after an hour,
you will have a song. I'll leave you here
with a countdown timer and some reminders
from the whole course about each step in the process at about the time I
expect you'll need them. Good luck, and I'll see
you on the other side.
12. Closing Thoughts: At this point, you've at least attempted to write
an original song. If you came up
short, keep working on it or scrap it and try again. None of this is magic. And I hope that at this
point in the course, you can see the path
from nothing to a completed song and you have some confidence that you
can get from a to B. Even also fairly
prolific songwriter, I continue to use the method described in this course
most of the time. For me, completing
songs is crucial. I tend to write
quickly even when I'm not on a self-imposed
time limit. And I find that I end up recording about half
the songs that I write. So it's better for me to spend two hours
writing two songs, one of which will
probably be pretty good, then to spend days and days on one that might or
might not turn out. I don't sweat it when
I write a song and then decide that I don't
really like it very much. It's part of the process.
Not every song is a hit. For me. Quantity leads to quality because if I
write enough songs, a few of them are
bound to be good. And the more you write, the better you get at it. So writing in high
quantity without worrying too much about quality
has really worked for me. But there are a lot
of great songwriters out there who take the
completely opposite approach. They spend meditative months
with their songs before sharing them as gleaming,
polished masterpieces. And that's great. I got you started
with a method that emphasizes finishing
a song quickly. Because as a beginner, I think the most
important thing for you to do is to prove to yourself that it's possible that you're capable
of writing a song. And I wanted you to
get to that point as fast as possible. But as you progress, you may drift away
from that approach. You may find that any number of strategies in this method don't
really serve you anymore. And that's fine. If you find yourself writing your lyrics first
instead of your music. Go ahead and write that way. If you want to write
several songs in parallel, start this one and then start another one before
finishing any of them. That kind of freaks me
out, but go for it. If you want to break all the rules of structure
and meter and rhyme, I will be absolutely
delighted to see you do that and to have helped you
get started on that journey. So please go out there and explore the joy and
the art of songwriting, knowing that you have what it takes to write a great song.
13. Bonus Lesson: Just One Hour: This is a bonus lesson. I'm going to step you through
a song I wrote in an hour. It's the last one I wrote in the series I did in
the spring of 2020. And it's a bit meta. I wanted to write a song about
writing songs in an hour. So this can be an example for you to see how
the whole process works and also encouragement for you as you write
your own songs. I started with a chord
progression that goes like this. I started with D, F, C, G, D. This was a pretty random choice. It wasn't I didn't
roll dice for it. I think I was just
desperate at that point to use a chord progression
that I hadn't used before. And D major in C major
hardly get used together. So I was pretty confident that I hadn't done
this one before. And that's really
all there is to it. Here I am with deep
time during the melody. You just improvise on top. I gonna do. I'm not sure exactly
what I improvised, what I did this before. But it was something
like that. The kind of thing you might do to do. Now it's time to
write some words. If I wanted to assign
to be balanced, I have some starting point. I want it to be about
writing songs and an hour. I decided that long bit, this is gonna be the word song. First-line would
be, you can try it. I have derived what songs. So clearly it's gonna be, it's okay if it's wrong. So that's it's okay if
it turns out bright, but it's okay if it
turns out wrong. And then I decided to just
run with that again and say, listen to your heart and it won't take very long to write. And then I'm just
gonna do song again. I have my chorus that's done. Four lines, four chords. And two of them were
basically the same. Now I need a verse,
and I decided in this case to use the
exact same chords. Again, I didn't
write new chords. I used the exact same
chord, so I'm back on deep. Now I need to Melody. I am provided
something like this. Students to do. Those two melodies were
exactly the same except one resolved in the same
place at one result down. So it really, I've only
written one line of melody, but it's going to count as two. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Same thing again. Do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do. That's the melody.
It's very simple. It's actually a
little bit similar to what I did in the chorus. And I started to put
words on top of that. And I changed the
melody a little bit. As I added the words. I added just a little
bit more variation. So it ends up being, I knew I wanted the song
to be encouragement. I wanted it based on what
the chorus ended up being. You can write a song. I am encouraging you
to write a song. The intro was gonna be, maybe you think you can't, but actually you can. The words ended up
going like this. Maybe bed thinking that you
just don't add the tie, pull it in seven different ways. Got so much on your mind. Let me be the one to tell you that you can do amazing
things in just one hour. I decided at that point to make the chorus twice
as long as that. Since I said amazing things
and not just a song, I decided that the second
half of that verse was just gonna be a list of
things you can do in an hour. And then the second
bursts was also going to be a list of things
you can do in an hour. And at that point, it was just a matter of
filling in the lyrics. Then I decided that I wanted
to start with averse, not a chorus because
that kind of had an introductory feel. I decided to end the song with an additional verse
that's only half the length. So a partial verse, just to introduce one last
idea at the end of the song. So here's what it sounded
like when it's done. This is just one hour, a song I wrote in just one hour. Maybe you've been thinking
that you just don't add the bold and seven different
ways got so much on. Let me be the one to
tell you that Gil, how the past you can do amazing
things in just one hour. You can take a walk
and get some Vitamin D. You could make a batch of cookies or
maybe two or three. You could call your mom. I bet she loved
to hear from you. These are just a few
things you could do. You could write. Maybe
it turns out bright, but it's okay if it
turns out wrong. Listen to your heart and it won't take very long to write. You could write a poem or
read a chapter of a book. You could try a recipe for
something new to cook. You could finally breakout all those art supplies you got. It turns out 60 minutes
is quiet a lot. You could tell your diary
what's happening today. Drive down to the shelter
and adopt to stray. You could start a battle
with your favorite nerve. Find a way to have a little fun. You could write it. Maybe
it turns out bright, but it's okay if it
turns out wrong. Listen to your heart edit ball and take very
long to write. I started writing this
song not too long ago. I just can't help it. I want everyone to know not to be afraid
of what you want. It'll take the pressure
off and write your song.