Lecture 2 - 2 Minute Songs PDF

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Teachers: James Ewers, Rose Dagul...

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Songwriting Lecture 2 – 2 Minute Songs 

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Task: write a song under 2 minutes o Try one new writing strategy – putting melody to lyrics o To play for next workshop “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (1968) o starts and ends with chorus o no gaps vocally o not much of an intro “On and Ever Onward” – Dirty Projectors & Bjork (2011) o call and response in chorus with herself o short and concise chorus – memorable melody o short intro o focus on vocals – almost acapella o verse felt very open in comparison to chorus which has more of a direction – leads the song forward ‘The Well-Wrought Miniature’ – a perfectly formed pop song, just smaller than the, perhaps, conventional 3 or 4 minute length o e.g.: “Little Piece of Trash” – Ezra Furman “Islands” – Cat Power (2006) o first two lines = imagery – sets the scene, makes me think of being on an island o consistent structure, same chord progression o fixed rhyming couplets ‘The Truncated’ – an unusual or incomplete structure, perhaps only containing some elements of what you’d expect in terms of sections, or narrative/non-narrative verse form (AAA/AAAA etc) o e.g.: “Breaking Glass” – David Bowie “Judy Is A Punk” – Ramone (1976) o melody does not stray far from chords, a lot of the time phrases stay on same note o very repetitive o hard to differentiate between verse and chorus?? o driven by its tempo “I’ll Call You Back” – Erykah Badu o long intro, slower tempo ‘The Dumb’ – exploiting simplicity of (and often shortened) melody, harmony and lyric and often involving less content, repeated, in each case o e.g.: “Why Don’t You Call Me” – James Blake Writing technique suggestions: o work in different genres o write whilst another song is playing o read poetry

o drink a shit load ...