Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Top Ten Tips, Tools and Tricks for Effective Songwriting!

Tonight (Tues, Oct 26), Ben Camp will be presenting the most effective songwriting techniques he's learned in the last 3 years at Berklee. He normally charges Ten Million Dollars for this seminar, but he's giving it away tonight for FREE.  (Mostly because he couldn't actually get anyone to pay Ten Million Dollars.)

There may, or may not, be free pizza and donuts tonight.

In addition, the floor is opened up to ALL OF YOU.  If there's a song that taught you something, email us the lyrics and/or chords, and an mp3 of the song. Come tell us what you learned from the song, and why you like it.  We're all here to learn!


Techniques Include:

 - Songwriting and Psychology: Scientific methods to affect human behavior with music.
 - Title Writing: Never be lost for a song-title again!
 - The Character Rules: Writing convincingly from a character
 - Rhyme Position & Scheme: Make a massive impact by moving 1 word.
 - It's The Little Things: Getting the most out of the details in your song.
 - Open Sesame: How to write a first line that grabs your listener.
 - When are you free for lunch: Effective use of songs in your dating life. 
 - The Fortune Cookie Technique: Make your chorus feel like dessert
 - Appropriately Mis-setting your lyrics: Berklee doesn't have it ALL right (or: When 4/4 isn't really 4/4.)
 - The "Question & Answer" Technique: -- Grab your listener using an ages old storytelling method .
 - Less is More: How to break someone's heart in 32 bars.
 - Friends in LOW Places: Using lower chorus melodies for impact.
 - Writing from the Rhyme: Spotlight your songs emotion before even writting the song.
 - Object Writing: Find the best details to highlight in your song
 - Shut Up Already!: Effective use of space in your songs
 - Attention, Please: Engaging an audience that doesn't care about your subject.
 - Where Are We Going?: Taking your listeners on a journey.
 - Sorry? I Missed That...: The key insight into your listener's mind that will change the way you write.


Examples from Rap, Musical Theatre, Pop/Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Country, and more!

No comments:

Post a Comment