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Songwriting in 8 Steps for Speed and Efficiency

Why work on Songwriting in 8 Steps for Speed and Efficiency?

It’s easy to get hung up on one song when songwriting and not think about bulk. I suggest doing both, but the following quick thoughts are encouragement to exercise your skills of writing quickly and working toward:

  • Writing many songs
  • Writing regularly
  • Doing these to refine your process of the craft

Songwriting Quickly

I love Berry Gordy’s factory approach to songwriting. Working in a Ford factory in Detroit gave him the idea of making a songwriting factory.

Berry Gordy sped up his songwriting approach by departmentalizing the following teams: songwriters, performers, recruiters, booking agents, even used an etiquette coach. His phenomenal process and efficiency yielded a lot of charasmatic material and global success.

To learn more about that, consider getting inspired by watching the documentary “Mototown: the Making of Hitsville.”

Songwriting in 8 Steps for Speed and Efficiency

The main idea for this songwriting approach is to keep things streamlined.

Directing songwriting summer camps for a decade gave me a regular opportunity to refine an 8-step system that helped me streamline my process.

Being the music director at Lakehouse Music Academy in Asbury Park, NJ since 2019 and music director at School of Rock in Marlboro, NJ 2011-19 put me in the position of organizing and teaching curricula…and I’d like to share the following quick approach.

8-Step Songwriting Approach

1) Consider a topic and do a quick word association.

Word association img
Word association sample

2) Get a line or two of lyrics/poetry/thoughts to surface.

3) Use those thoughts to consider a suitable genre.

4) Put a short chord progression together.

5) Allow that progression to spur a melody that couples with that lyric idea.

6) Create contrasting musical parts.

7) Allow a general melody to form against those parts.

8) Consider lyrics that could overlay on the melody.

Bringing Your Song To Fruition (Refinement)

In reality, there are many more conclusive elements to bring a song to fruition. A few elements to mark the finish of the initial quick process include diligence and refinement of the lyrics, settling on chord progressions, and tidying up rhythmic and phrasal hooks. I find it’s very easy to consider every single song writing tool, which for me regularly results in analysis paralysis.

The main point of this eight-step process is to satisfy the craving of writing song parts right now and push yourself to write quickly to swiftly find traction with guttural lyrics, chords, and melodies.

At this point, I try to always recall the McCartney/Lennon 9-5 approach of finishing as much with a song in one day as possible.

When practicing the habit of writing, consider 3 different speed lanes:

  1. Daily writing & process practice regimen
  2. Weekly assessment of daily bests
  3. Monthly completion and setting aside of favorite songs (writing a song a month means an album a year)

 

 

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Male vocal warm-ups 1

5 Vocal Warm ups for Tenors

I’ve been honing a series of male vocal warm-ups for over a decade with my students. Regularly following this series of five warm ups helped us develop in an excellent way.

These are intended for a rock/pop tenor wanting to improve his range. The first three strongly engage the mix range by using sounds that focus at the pharyngeal area of your vocal anatomy.

Let the notes come out naturally, do not push or force anything. If the notes are outside of your vocal range, sing softly somewhere close by or do not sing at all until it gets back to your range.

If anything hurts, stop immediately and rest. Consider hiring a qualified vocal coach to correct your technique.

1.) 54321 — singing Ng

Make an “ng” sound like at the end of running or singing. Done correctly, your tongue should be up against your soft pallet. Airflow: 0% oral, 100% nasal.

2.) 12345 — French “Ahn” sound

Drop your tongue ever-so-slightly from your soft pallet to allow a small percentage of air to flow from mouth while doing this exercise. Airflow: 30% oral, 70% nasal.

3.) 13531 — Knee sound

Use a nasally “nee” sound for this one. Airflow: 70% oral, 30% nasal.

4.) Mums

Circular mum sounds, ascending then descending. I get pretty high up there! Most people will not be able to sing the notes at the top of my range! That’s okay, just hum some comfortable notes until the notes are back in your zone and rejoin.

5) Head voice

This last warm up focuses 100% on your head range, Micky Mouse sounding voice. I’ve discovered that I have greatly extended my upper vocal range by regularly singing way up there, which has helped my rock/pop voice, like getting highs like Freddy Mercury, Robert Plant, and Bruno Mars.
Go easy, if it doesn’t happen at first, try howling like a wolf to “feel” that upper range.

That’s all for now.

Let me know if you want more. There is another range (maybe two) above this head voice range called the “whistle range!” It’s way up there and allows me to hit high soprano notes.

Hope this helped.

Safety First

Remember to take it easy…your vocal anatomy is delicate and needs to develop over time. It’s flesh and muscles, so like an athlete, plan on working regularly, but don’t hurt yourself! Be sure to be sensitive to the feel of each range and don’t over do it. You should never feel sore after doing any of these. If so, stop immediately and rest your voice until it’s comfortable to start again.