[0:00] if you learn to write songs the world
[0:02] will open up to you being able to write
[0:03] a song is like having a superpower you
[0:05] can make a crowd of people Swoon over
[0:07] your every word or you can start an
[0:09] entire movement with a song or you know
[0:12] songwriting could just be this little
[0:13] thing that you actually look forward to
[0:14] at the end of every day you know after
[0:15] school or after work or after you get
[0:17] the kids to bed so whether you want to
[0:19] write for fun or actually make a career
[0:21] out of it I'm going to show you a
[0:22] step-by-step method for songwriting that
[0:24] really works and it's so simple that
[0:26] anyone can do it I'm serious whether
[0:28] you've never written a song before or
[0:29] you've written a hundred songs and
[0:31] you're looking for some fresh motivation
[0:32] and insight this method will be super
[0:34] helpful for you in your songwriting
[0:36] Journey I've personally used it to write
[0:37] over 30 songs that each have over a
[0:39] million streams but more important than
[0:41] the numbers it gives you a clear path
[0:42] from the beginning formulating an idea
[0:44] all the way to the end having a finished
[0:46] fully written song you can use almost
[0:49] any instrument with this method whether
[0:50] it's a guitar or a piano or a banjo or
[0:53] ukulele honestly just whatever you have
[0:54] access to or whatever you have lying
[0:56] around so no excuses you can follow
[0:58] along and start writing music right now
[1:00] if you want to throughout the video I'm
[1:01] going to show you each step in my
[1:03] writing process then I'm going to
[1:04] demonstrate each step in real time and
[1:06] we're going to write a song together so
[1:08] you can finish this video with a fully
[1:09] written song I mean doesn't that sound
[1:10] at least like kind of exciting I know
[1:12] that this video would have changed my
[1:13] life when I was first starting out so
[1:15] I'm super excited for you now this video
[1:17] is going to be a bit on the longer side
[1:18] but consider this a comprehensive master
[1:20] class on songwriting this is the kind of
[1:22] information that experts are charging a
[1:24] bunch of money for but good news for you
[1:26] I'm an expert and I'm giving you the
[1:28] information for free so grab some water
[1:29] and an instrument if you play one
[1:32] and take a deep breath and let's get
[1:34] started songwriting can be broken down
[1:36] into four simple steps and those are
[1:38] concept chords Melody and lyrics that's
[1:41] all you need to write a song when you
[1:43] write a song it's super helpful to begin
[1:44] with a concept in mind what is the song
[1:46] about is it about you is it about a
[1:49] friend is it a story that progresses
[1:50] over time like the song driver's license
[1:52] by Olivia Rodrigo or is it more of just
[1:54] like a singular idea like hotline Bling
[1:56] by Drake if you're thinking where do I
[1:58] even start in terms of getting ideas
[1:59] well I have just the thing for you
[2:01] here's a super helpful way to get
[2:03] unlimited ideas for Concepts I have a
[2:05] notes folder on my phone dedicated to
[2:08] song ideas often times throughout the
[2:09] day I'll write little notes down of
[2:11] things that seem interesting or
[2:12] inspiring to me and I'll be honest a
[2:14] huge amount of them are pretty laughable
[2:16] and just straight up unusable but the
[2:18] important part is that I write down
[2:19] what's inspiring me in the moment I can
[2:21] judge the idea later on when I'm working
[2:23] on the song but strike while the iron is
[2:25] hot and make sure to get your ideas on
[2:26] paper no matter how silly they seem if
[2:28] you're interested or inspired just write
[2:30] it down it's as simple as that you you
[2:32] can't depend on your memory because
[2:33] humans are flawed and we forget things
[2:35] way too easily you think oh that's
[2:37] interesting I'll remember that the next
[2:39] thing you know someone calls you or you
[2:40] get an email and a couple hours later
[2:41] the idea is just completely gone forever
[2:43] this trick may seem like a little
[2:45] inconvenience the first couple times you
[2:46] do it but it's way easier than sitting
[2:48] down to write a song with no inspiration
[2:50] and trying to figure that part of it out
[2:51] in the moment create the list of
[2:52] inspiring things throughout the day in
[2:54] advance so by the time you sit down to
[2:56] write you have a list of options the
[2:58] more you do this the easier it gets and
[2:59] the quicker you're able to recognize a
[3:01] good idea and instead of a chore this
[3:02] becomes this exciting thing that you do
[3:04] throughout the day and you go oh that
[3:06] could be a cool idea for a song and then
[3:07] you write it down very low effort for a
[3:10] huge reward when it comes to songwriting
[3:11] okay so that's the concept or what the
[3:13] song is about let's go ahead and look
[3:15] through my song ideas and find a concept
[3:16] that we want to work with Okay so here I
[3:18] have my song ideas folder on my phone
[3:20] and usually before I start I'll just
[3:22] look through and see what catches my eye
[3:24] some ideas are just one word like this
[3:25] one that says delusion I wish I gave you
[3:27] up for Lent
[3:29] I mean like I said some of them are just
[3:31] straight up unusable but this one I'm
[3:33] lonely like an astronaut let's take a
[3:35] look at that I'm lonely like an
[3:37] astronaut am I more than just an
[3:38] afterthought to me that seems like
[3:40] there's some emotion behind it and I
[3:42] remember writing this idea down because
[3:43] I was thinking I'm the third child and
[3:45] my siblings were born two years apart
[3:46] and I was born four years after them so
[3:49] I was thinking like hmm am I an
[3:50] afterthought and then thinking what
[3:51] rhymes with afterthought
[3:54] astronaut astronauts are in space
[3:56] they're lonely and so then I just kind
[3:58] of landed on this little note right here
[3:59] and for me I'm gonna go with feeling
[4:00] like an afterthought as my concept so
[4:02] now that we have our concept the second
[4:04] step is Chords chords are the foundation
[4:06] of your song as soon as you have a
[4:08] concept the next step is to figure out
[4:09] how to communicate that idea musically
[4:12] how do you tell the story of your song
[4:13] in the language of music chords are so
[4:16] powerful because they can establish a
[4:18] certain mood let me pick up the guitar
[4:19] and I can show you what I'm talking
[4:20] about so for those of you crazy music
[4:22] theory people out there I'm gonna get
[4:23] really simple right now and you're just
[4:25] gonna have to deal with it some chords
[4:26] sound happy
[4:29] and some chords are sad
[4:35] you write a song you need to use what's
[4:37] called a chord progression a chord
[4:38] progression is just a sequence of chords
[4:40] played over and over different
[4:41] progressions create different moods for
[4:43] instance if I want to write something
[4:44] really uplifting I might do something
[4:46] like this
[4:47] [Music]
[4:56] some songs that use this are Thinking
[4:58] Out Loud by Ed Sheeran Let's Get It On
[5:00] by Marvin Gaye I think there was a
[5:02] lawsuit between them as well
[5:04] and speechless by Dan and Shay uses
[5:06] those first three chords so let's say
[5:08] you want to go a little darker and more
[5:09] Melancholy I could do a chord
[5:11] progression like this
[5:14] [Music]
[5:16] a really oversimplification of chords is
[5:19] Major is happy
[5:21] and minor is sad
[5:24] you can even play chords that create
[5:26] feelings of romance
[5:28] [Music]
[5:37] if you learn a little music theory or
[5:40] even just a couple chord progressions
[5:41] either on guitar or piano it'll give you
[5:43] a ton of freedom to write a little bit
[5:45] goes a long way with this stuff and it
[5:47] doesn't take much to set the right mood
[5:48] you can even use the same four chords
[5:50] for an entire song or better yet you can
[5:52] even use two chords for an entire song
[5:54] Tennessee whiskey by Chris Stapleton is
[5:56] like one of the best songs ever written
[5:58] and it's only two chords so all that to
[6:00] say we have our concept now let's get
[6:02] some chords going I'm gonna play chords
[6:04] until I figure out something that I feel
[6:05] is communicating my concept of feeling
[6:07] like an afterthought or stuck in space
[6:09] like an astronaut so something a bit
[6:10] more Melancholy I'm going to record the
[6:12] progression into Ableton but if you
[6:14] don't have Ableton you can use
[6:15] GarageBand which is free or audacity for
[6:17] PC people which is also free there's a
[6:19] bunch of free recording software out
[6:20] there honestly or you can record the
[6:22] progression into your phone and voice
[6:23] notes just so that you don't forget it
[6:25] or you can even go the old-fashioned
[6:27] tried and true method of just writing it
[6:29] down on paper but whether you record it
[6:30] in or write it down it doesn't matter
[6:32] what matters is that you remember it
[6:34] later do not leave this up to chance or
[6:36] assume that you'll remember something
[6:37] later because you most likely won't just
[6:39] trust me on this one the reason I prefer
[6:40] recording it into Ableton is because I
[6:42] can remember the tempo of the song and
[6:43] the feeling and all that stuff instead
[6:45] of just looking at the chords written
[6:46] down okay so let me run through a few
[6:48] progressions and settle on something
[6:49] that I like alright so one thing worth
[6:51] mentioning is you want to record to a
[6:53] click if you can as far as production
[6:54] goes it's just going to make your life
[6:55] so much easier
[6:59] so if you are recording in a Daw I would
[7:02] play your chords until you feel what's
[7:03] natural and settle on a progression and
[7:05] then figure out the tempo of the click
[7:07] from there so I was fiddling around with
[7:08] some chords and I kind of like this
[7:09] progression
[7:11] [Music]
[7:20] so that Tempo is kind of like this
[7:24] so I could tap something like that into
[7:25] Ableton figure out what it is and then
[7:27] record my guitar into the click
[7:31] [Music]
[7:38] okay so it doesn't have to be perfect I
[7:39] just need to have one area that I can
[7:41] Loop over and over okay so now we have
[7:43] our little progression this is what it
[7:44] sounds like
[7:46] foreign
[7:56] progression is that you can Loop it all
[7:59] Daws have a loop function and this way
[8:01] we can hear our chords over and over
[8:02] without having to play them over and
[8:04] over it's super convenient and it frees
[8:06] up more mental real estate for you to
[8:07] write with so we've got our concept and
[8:09] now we have our chord progression before
[8:11] we continue it's important to mention
[8:13] song structure right now I'm teaching
[8:15] you how to cook foods I'm teaching you
[8:17] the recipe for efficient quality
[8:19] songwriting but there's also the
[8:20] presentation of the food there's a
[8:22] specific formula and a way to order the
[8:24] parts of a song that's designed to pull
[8:26] the listener through the song so they
[8:28] keep listening to the entire song then
[8:30] it's stuck in their head by the time
[8:31] they're done so songs are typically
[8:33] structured like this first pre-chorus
[8:36] chorus second Verse pre-chorus Chorus
[8:39] Bridge chorus this follows a certain
[8:42] story-like format that keeps people
[8:44] listening the whole way through I'm not
[8:46] going to go into the nitty-gritty
[8:47] details of every single section but I do
[8:49] want to give you an idea of the purpose
[8:51] of each of these sections so the verses
[8:53] in pre-choruses establish details and
[8:56] move the story along and then the chorus
[8:58] is kind of the main idea and the most
[8:59] important part of the song so for
[9:01] example in the song Shape Of You by Ed
[9:02] Sheeran one of the most successful songs
[9:04] of all time by the way the verses
[9:06] establish the setting and add details by
[9:08] saying the club isn't the best place to
[9:10] find a lever so the bar is where I go
[9:12] he's using the power of story to suck
[9:14] you in but all the details in the world
[9:16] are nothing without a memorable chorus
[9:18] I'm in love with the shape of you is the
[9:20] main idea of the song and it's also the
[9:21] most memorable Melody of the song it's
[9:23] the stickiest Melody meaning it gets
[9:25] stuck in your head and it stays there so
[9:27] now that you know basic song structure
[9:29] we want to write Melodies my best advice
[9:31] for Melodies is throw spaghetti at the
[9:34] wall and see what sticks or rather hear
[9:36] what sticks generally you want to sing
[9:38] whatever melodies come to mind and
[9:39] record them as you sing them so if you
[9:41] sing something that sticks or catches
[9:42] your attention you won't forget it once
[9:44] again back to this theme of not
[9:45] forgetting things this is how I write
[9:47] Melodies I'll just Loop the chord
[9:49] progression and record myself singing
[9:50] over the chords I'll sing whatever feels
[9:52] natural without worrying about words I
[9:54] focus more more on the way the melody
[9:56] makes me feel we can worry about the
[9:58] lyrics later but for now we just want to
[9:59] communicate a feeling there's a huge
[10:01] tendency for people to overthink things
[10:03] during this stage but I can guarantee
[10:04] the more you let go and sing whatever
[10:06] comes natural the closer you're gonna
[10:08] get to a memorable Melody a lot of times
[10:10] your first instinct is the best for
[10:12] Melodies and if you end up recording
[10:13] that gives you even more freedom to sing
[10:15] whatever you want and then once you feel
[10:17] like you're saying something that you
[10:18] like you can stop and listen back
[10:20] instead of thinking like what was that
[10:21] Melody that I just sang I can't tell you
[10:23] how many times I've forgotten a
[10:24] wonderful melody in the blink of an eye
[10:26] and for that reason I record everything
[10:28] so now I'm going to listen to my chords
[10:29] I'm going to sing some Melodies and I'm
[10:31] gonna stop once I feel like I've got
[10:32] something that makes my brain light up I
[10:34] don't have a great singing voice
[10:35] naturally so it's easy for me to
[10:37] overthink this step but you just have to
[10:39] sing like nobody is listening if I allow
[10:41] any space in my brain for insecurity all
[10:43] that's going to do is take away from the
[10:45] Purity and the quality of the art that
[10:46] I'm trying to create okay let's go for
[10:48] it
[10:50] check one two
[10:54] [Music]
[10:59] [Music]
[11:06] three
[11:09] you just gotta sing like nobody's
[11:11] listening even if it sounds kind of
[11:12] stupid
[11:13] [Music]
[11:20] foreign
[11:22] [Music]
[11:32] I would highly encourage you to kind of
[11:35] form makeup words as you're singing just
[11:37] gibberish there's something about the
[11:38] kind of babbling made-up speech that
[11:40] helps you come up with Melodies but I
[11:42] kind of like that Melody that I was just
[11:43] singing remember the chords like this
[11:53] tear it down
[11:56] so I like that as simple as it is it
[11:58] makes my brain light up and it's my
[12:00] favorite Melody out of everything I sing
[12:01] so I'm going to use it for the chorus
[12:03] and I know I forgot to record from the
[12:04] get-go so all of my Melodies were
[12:06] recorded but don't forget to do that
[12:07] just record everything that you sing
[12:09] trust me also really quick if you're
[12:10] finding any of this informative or even
[12:12] just entertaining I would love for you
[12:14] to subscribe and give me the chance to
[12:16] teach you more about how to make the
[12:17] best music that you're capable of and if
[12:19] you're afraid of commitment I'll settle
[12:20] for a cheeky little like until you're
[12:22] ready for something a little more
[12:23] serious okay at last we've made it to
[12:25] the fourth and final step of the
[12:27] songwriting process lyrics if you've
[12:30] done a good job establishing a strong
[12:31] concept and then written chords to
[12:33] support the mood of the concept and gone
[12:35] with the most sticky compelling Melodies
[12:37] you could come up with while singing
[12:38] those over your chords then lyrics
[12:40] should be a breeze or at least
[12:42] significantly easier that being said I
[12:44] could probably make a whole master class
[12:46] on lyrics alone there are so many
[12:48] different styles and rhyme schemes out
[12:50] there it's easy to get overwhelmed and
[12:51] lost in the sauce so my best advice for
[12:53] lyrics is to lower the stakes
[12:56] and rhyme if you can your first version
[12:58] of lyrics doesn't have to be your final
[13:00] version and you can change things at any
[13:02] point in the process sometimes it's
[13:04] helpful just to get something down on
[13:05] paper and then improve it over time but
[13:07] it's hard to get anywhere without a
[13:09] starting point so just come up with some
[13:10] lyrics that match and go along with your
[13:12] Melody and also go with the concept of
[13:14] your song don't overthink it so what I'm
[13:16] going to do is play my chords and my
[13:18] melody over and over and try to craft
[13:19] some lyrics that are in line with my
[13:21] concept of feeling like an afterthought
[13:22] Pro tip the notes app is great for
[13:25] writing lyrics down
[13:39] thank you I just don't trust it I've got
[13:42] to have a check looking and feeling good
[13:45] oh that's the other light there
[13:48] this could take a while and you don't
[13:50] need to rush it but you also don't want
[13:52] to overthink and not get anywhere
[13:53] because you're trying to write the
[13:55] perfect lyrics so now that I've got a
[13:57] working chorus I'm going to go through
[13:58] and write a verse and a pre-chorus to
[14:00] establish some details and just finish
[14:02] the rest of the song now you can go
[14:03] ahead and pause the video right now and
[14:05] finish the rest of your song too or you
[14:07] can wait and listen to mine first so I
[14:08] can give you a few more pointers before
[14:10] you go all in
[14:11] [Music]
[14:16] foreign
[14:18] [Music]
[14:20] steps concept chords Melody and lyrics
[14:24] we've written a verse A pre-chorus and A
[14:26] Chorus we can finally listen to our
[14:28] fully written song for the sake of
[14:29] keeping the video as short as possible
[14:31] I'm just going to play my verse
[14:32] pre-chorus and chorus and we could just
[14:34] pretend that the song keeps going into
[14:35] the second verse in the pre-chorus and
[14:37] so on so let me show you how the song
[14:38] goes and we could talk a bit about it
[14:40] after
[14:42] it goes sometimes
[14:53] and I'd be a fool to try
[14:58] and open up the washer spin in circles
[15:02] in my mind
[15:04] I'm just too much sometimes
[15:08] was I on purpose or a surprise
[15:15] I'm far away with just my thoughts I'm
[15:19] sitting on the rooftop of my house
[15:23] [Music]
[15:35] [Music]
[15:42] [Music]
[15:52] [Music]
[15:53] [Applause]
[15:56] right now
[15:58] [Music]
[16:00] all right that's as far as I got and I
[16:02] think I was able to capture the
[16:03] sentiment of feeling like an
[16:05] afterthought so I like a lot of that but
[16:07] there's still some parts here and there
[16:08] that I might want to change like for
[16:09] instance I use the word sometimes in the
[16:11] verse and the pre-chorus and the line
[16:13] about opening up like a washer and
[16:15] spinning circles in my mind I wasn't a
[16:17] huge fan of that but I didn't want to
[16:18] overthink it so I just kept going all
[16:20] that said the final stage of songwriting
[16:22] is refinement just listening through
[16:24] over and over and making changes as you
[16:26] hear necessary sometimes you get lucky
[16:28] and love it the first time but for me
[16:30] nine times out of ten I'll make changes
[16:31] that vastly improve the song from the
[16:33] first version so don't be afraid to
[16:35] refine your song we are rocking and
[16:37] rolling how to write a song
[16:40] okay we got the backwards hat on and
[16:43] it's time to get real I have two closing
[16:45] thoughts on songwriting that are really
[16:46] important to consider one I set the
[16:48] steps of my process in the order that I
[16:50] did because I think it's the most
[16:51] efficient but you can write a song using
[16:53] the steps in any order you can start
[16:55] with lyrics or with Melody or even jump
[16:57] around back and forth writing some
[16:58] lyrics Here tweaking a Melody there
[17:00] adjusting chords for more emotion and I
[17:02] encourage you to find what works best
[17:04] for you and embrace the idea that people
[17:06] are different songs are different and it
[17:08] might look a little different every time
[17:09] and that's part of the excitement of
[17:10] creating art my second and final thought
[17:13] is to put your reps in if you want to
[17:15] write memorable songs get millions of
[17:16] streams and be the voice of a generation
[17:18] you know whatever your goals are you
[17:20] need to write lots of songs to improve
[17:22] Ed Sheeran calls it running the faucet
[17:24] to get all the dirty water out before
[17:25] you get to the clean stuff in other
[17:27] words writing some not so good songs to
[17:29] get to the good songs they did a study
[17:31] on a college photography class and half
[17:33] of the class was graded on one single
[17:35] picture and the other half of the class
[17:37] was graded on the basis that they had to
[17:39] submit 100 pictures by the end of the
[17:41] semester and then after that they
[17:42] selected the top photos from the entire
[17:44] class and guess which group all the
[17:46] winners came from the group that had to
[17:48] take 100 photos you could spend
[17:50] countless hours spinning your wheels
[17:51] trying to write the next big song or the
[17:54] perfect song but you're way better off
[17:55] trying to write a bunch of good songs
[17:57] instead of one Perfect song every time
[17:59] you write you improve a little bit or
[18:01] sometimes a lot but one Surefire way to
[18:03] slow down your growth or stop completely
[18:05] is to get stuck on one song for too long
[18:07] so lower the stakes and write lots of
[18:09] songs remember that it's supposed to be
[18:11] fun some people do a song a day or a
[18:13] song a week and find what works for you
[18:15] depending on what your goals are if you
[18:16] want to do it for a living try to write
[18:18] a song every day if you want to do it
[18:19] for fun right when you feel inspired but
[18:21] either way if you do want to improve you
[18:23] have to get your reps in and remember
[18:24] most importantly stop making excuses and
[18:27] start making music cheers