All Instruments: Songwriting

This class is aimed at amateur songwriters hoping to express their ideas better through songs. We'll explore song structure, and the melodic, harmonic, and lyric choices that the authors made in putting the song together.

This course will present weekly ideas such as how chords relate to each other, or how a song can build up from a bass line or a beat, with the goal of spurring participants to create their own songs each week. The class will breakdown some of the greatest songs as well as lyrics by artists such as The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams, Bruce Cockburn, U2, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Cole Porter, Carole King, Marvin Gaye, and others. We will also look at how song forms have changed over the history of popular song.

Instructor Michael Occhipinti will upload and share audio files via Bandlab that can become the basis of songs. Students will be not be required to have any special technology beyond a means of connecting to the internet and recording themselves. Recordings may be made using an interface or by making use of the simple voice memo app found on phones.

It is recommended that students have a basic understanding of chords on a guitar or piano, but students who sing and compose using loops are also welcome. Students will be encouraged to write their own music and lyrics, but it is not presumed that everyone is able to sing even if they wish to write songs (many songwriters are not performers). And if you’re not a lyric writer, the course will look at songs written with different lyric techniques such as the newspaper cut-outs David Bowie used, or with poetry and found words, such as John Lennon referenced (newspaper and a circus poster).