Songwriting, ep 1: How to Turn Your Ideas Into Songs

[00:00] [Music]

[00:17] today we're talking about songwriting uh

[00:19] working with little pieces that you may

[00:21] have and turning them into something

[00:23] more before we even do that step one is

[00:27] whenever you play something even halfway

[00:29] into interesting or surprising to

[00:35] yourself immediately grab your phone or

[00:37] whatever way that you capture things and

[00:39] get it creativity is a magical little

[00:42] thing and it really you know it's

[00:44] different for everybody but I can only

[00:46] speak for myself you get very little

[00:48] Sparks very little I met grab it and so

[00:50] it's our job as creative people to

[00:52] become aware when cool stuff happens

[00:55] I've said that in other videos that like

[00:57] the more you pay attention to when cool

[01:00] little things happen okay guess what the

[01:02] more cool things happen so assuming that

[01:05] you've done that and maybe you have a

[01:08] progression here a riff there a

[01:10] progression there a riff there now we're

[01:12] going to talk about how you can work

[01:14] with those to get them to become

[01:17] complete songs I'm going to use existing

[01:18] songs because well that'll be just more

[01:21] entertaining for everybody say we wrote

[01:23] Lou Reed's perfect day

[01:35] [Music]

[01:42] which yeah it's also Cat Stevens's wild

[01:44] world it's also I Will Survive it's

[01:46] several songs so that's a really cool

[01:48] progression that we came up with in a

[01:50] minor and it might just live there like

[01:53] that for forever we might just be stuck

[01:55] with that going that's cool I'm going to

[01:57] use that for something neat all right

[01:59] store it away and who knows months later

[02:02] maybe you came up with this

[02:05] [Music]

[02:18] thing where's the melody if I get that a

[02:20] little

[02:27] bit which is really uh that's the chord

[02:30] is from uh what was that song Sister

[02:31] Golden Hair by America another 70s soft

[02:34] rock hit I love that stuff so that

[02:38] chorus is let's see

[02:42] B

[02:43] A and you're like man that's a cool

[02:46] thing too that's neat you wouldn't think

[02:48] that you could put those two things

[02:49] together you know if you had made those

[02:51] little uh song Parts but you can and

[02:55] here's the deal this is another thing I

[02:57] always talk about write stuff down we

[02:59] got to write stuff down to like kind of

[03:01] think about it in front of us being like

[03:03] huh okay so here's how Eric

[03:07] does quick and simple

[03:10] charts talked about this in my music

[03:13] Theory series oh by the

[03:15] way there's all my links my website my

[03:18] patreon my Instagram my album my Spotify

[03:20] my true fire me me me me me there they

[03:23] are and you know about the check the

[03:25] description box below it's all down

[03:26] there too guitars amps whatever else

[03:30] there you go simple chart right those

[03:32] equal bars huh what do we got

[03:35] b b a e does it again b b a e then I'll

[03:45] let's go ahead and put the rest in F

[03:48] minor e over G sharp and then

[03:53] a CS two would be the complete chorus

[03:57] there in the key of E so if I want to

[04:00] move that to be copacetic with this

[04:02] other imaginary thing that we made

[04:05] up I need

[04:07] to understand the major scale and how

[04:11] that generates chords in the key so that

[04:13] I can analyze this as the chords in the

[04:15] key not just as they are so B is

[04:18] actually the

[04:20] five a is the four e is the one and this

[04:23] is the thing that I talk about we don't

[04:25] need to know all the music theory in the

[04:27] world but we need to know

[04:30] enough um so that we can major keys and

[04:34] those chords minor keys and those chords

[04:37] and then we can analyze things and take

[04:38] a look at be like oh okay so it's 541

[04:42] 541 214 is is our chorus because that

[04:46] means then if the perfect day chorus or

[04:51] sorry Perfect Day section you know which

[04:53] we had imaginarily made

[04:55] up was in the key of A minor I be like

[04:59] dude dud let's go ahead and just move

[05:02] this whole section to the key of a major

[05:05] CU that's what perfect day does um it

[05:08] has the verse is in a minor the CH is in

[05:10] a major so I'm going to keep it the same

[05:13] okay so let's see that means again

[05:15] having a know enough theory that I can

[05:17] be like what's my five chord in the key

[05:20] of a well that's e what's my four chord

[05:23] D and a is

[05:25] one does that again what's the two cord

[05:29] in the key of A B

[05:32] minor kind of does that little inversion

[05:35] thing and then the

[05:37] four boom I just moved it to the key

[05:41] that's going to be copacetic with

[05:42] perfect

[05:45] day just hear how that

[05:52] sounds can I get the melody there

[05:56] [Music]

[06:17] by the way I'll tab all this stuff out

[06:18] put it up on my patreon page for free so

[06:20] you can go grab that and kind of look at

[06:24] it and scratch your head and be like boy

[06:26] this is very academic Eric sorry

[06:30] one more

[06:33] [Music]

[06:37] time so there it is Sister Golden Hair

[06:40] moved to the key of A but let me go back

[06:44] and

[06:46] check uh-oh different time

[06:54] sign watch I'm going to do it I'm going

[06:56] to just shoehorn them together

[07:01] 1 2 3 4 five

[07:04] [Music]

[07:11] six oops nope that's not going to work

[07:13] because perfect day that original thing

[07:15] we wrote is in 68 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5

[07:21] 6 Sister Golden here you know that we

[07:24] made up no we didn't is in 44 okay that

[07:28] means can I put

[07:30] Sister Golden her to

[07:32] [Music]

[07:38] 68 yes I

[07:40] [Music]

[07:50] can now let's put the two together the

[07:53] verse

[08:04] [Music]

[08:11] new thing

[08:14] [Music]

[08:41] back

[08:41] [Music]

[08:52] around and so it works you know again

[08:54] our ear it's doing you know it's like

[08:57] fighting against me it's going that's

[08:59] not the chorus that's not the chorus I

[09:01] know because you know we programmed to

[09:04] hear the song a certain way but it

[09:05] doesn't not work is a little bit funky

[09:07] cuz perfect day ends on an E major the

[09:11] new section starts on the E major so

[09:13] that's always a little bit of a weird

[09:14] thing but it's not a wrong thing to do

[09:16] again this is Art you can do whatever

[09:18] you want I'm not saying this is the

[09:19] coolest matchup ever made but I think it

[09:21] illustrates the point and the point is

[09:23] this a good idea is a good idea

[09:27] regardless of key or Groove that all

[09:32] your ideas especially because they came

[09:33] from you they're actually probably able

[09:36] to get manipulated to work with each

[09:39] other to create a bridge a verse to A

[09:43] Chorus a verse to a pre- chorus to A

[09:45] Chorus a verse to a break you know I

[09:47] mean these things that you've made they

[09:50] probably actually work together you just

[09:52] might not see that um because of the the

[09:56] the keys being different or the grooves

[09:58] being different and I can tell you I I

[10:00] mean I do this all this is how I write

[10:03] music a lot I'll be like I'll have a

[10:06] thing that was you know

[10:08] cool for one was like my favorite part

[10:12] of one thing that I made up of the rest

[10:14] of the song was really a throwaway I'm

[10:15] like well then I'll just move that to a

[10:17] do

[10:23] thing you know to a new key and be like

[10:26] ah it worked it it it it worked so so to

[10:29] review capture every good little idea

[10:32] that you ever have cuz yay you know the

[10:34] more you do that the more cool little

[10:36] ideas you have and then yeah no enough

[10:39] music theory to be able to look at

[10:42] things as chord changes and manipulate

[10:44] them through different keys because

[10:46] that's how you can recombine things in

[10:47] various

[10:50] ways thanks so much to everybody who

[10:52] supports me and all the ways that you do

[10:54] even if it's just clicking like And

[10:55] subscribe that cues me in business with

[10:56] the algorithm relevancy as Bill and Ted

[10:59] would say be excellent to each other

[11:01] that includes yourself happy Friday eat

[11:03] pizza

[11:05] [Music]