The Songwriting Process Start To Finish
Turn your inspiration into beautiful songs with step-by-step guidance through two professional songwriting methods.
What You’ll Learn:
- Two completely different methods for writing songs: starting from lyrics, and starting from melody.
- How to make great chord choices, create magical melodies and write memorable lyrics.
- How to create a meaningful relationship between your lyrics and music.
- Professional tools and practical exercises for developing and finishing your songs, every time.
- How to create compelling narratives that tell your story and captivate your listeners.
- Detailed breakdown of the two most common song forms.
Who is this for?
- People looking for a structured, comprehensive, step-by-step guide, instead of random YouTube videos.
- People who have a song idea but don’t know where to start.
- People with lots of half-written (and unfinished!) songs.
- People who want to learn from working songwriters who are also expert teachers.
- Band members and instrumentalists who have always wanted to write songs, but are not quite sure how.
- Songwriters of any level looking for new exercises, techniques, and processes to freshen up their practice.
- Musicians who are keen to develop their songwriting skills.
Requirements:
- No prior songwriting experience needed!
- An initial song idea, or unfinished songs you want to finish.
- The ability to play basic chords on the guitar or piano (or the willingness to learn).
- Or familiarity with a DAW to create chord-based tracks.
- The burning desire to write some songs!
- A good sense of humour, and the willingness to try.
- This course is not for people who believe that you either ‘have it’ or you don’t. It is for people who understand that you can get better at anything, if you have the right tools, and are willing to practice
Testimonials
Course Description:
Songwriting is like anything else: YOU CAN GET BETTER AT IT – with deliberate practice, practical tools and repeatable methods.
- Got great idea, but don’t know how to turn them into songs?
- Bingeing YouTube videos on songwriting, but wish there was a step-by-step guide to follow?
- Struggling to bring music and lyrics together?
- Want to create beautiful melodies and interesting chord progressions?
- Want to write your best lyrics and express your ideas with clarity and conviction?
This course has got you covered!
At each step, we:
Even if you’ve never written a song before, this course is all about revealing to you the step-by-step methods that professional songwriters use to write a complete song, every time.
Your teachers, Keppie Coutts and Ben Romalis, are both professional artist and songwriters who have collectively over 40 years of experience writing, performing and teaching at Universities and Colleges around the world.
No matter where you start a song idea—with lyrics or music first—there is a step-by-step process you can follow to turn it into a finished song.
This songwriting course is radically practical!
Our singular aim with this course is to show you how to take your initial inspiration and turn it into a finished song – every time.
We take you step by step through not one—but two!—different songwriting processes:
- Starting with lyrics first, and
- Starting with music first
At every point along the way, we reveal the thought processes and creative decisions essential to the songwriting process, demonstrate how to do it, and how to fill your tool belt with techniques, methods, strategies, and processes that you can apply to your songwriting every time.
By the end of this course, not only will your tool belt be stocked; you’ll have a plan and a method for finishing your songs – all of them.
Course Content
Introduction
2 Lectures (3min)
- Introduction to your teachers
- What you will learn in this course
Writing a Song from Lyrics First
3 Lectures (15min)
- Song Seed: Starting with a Lyric Idea
- Sense Writing: Generating Lyrics
- Core Concept: Finding the Title
Structuring Your Ideas
3 Lectures (12min)
- Song Mapping
- Writing the Verse and Choosing Chords
- Deciding on Song Form: Without a Chorus
Finishing the Song
4 Lectures (17min)
- Creating Contrast: Writing the Bridge
- Creating Variation: The Final Verse-Refrain
- Key Takeaways from Song 1
- LAST CALL – Full Song with Lyrics
Writing a Song from Music First
3 Lectures (16min)
- Song Seed: Starting with a Melodic Idea
- Moving Forward: Developing the Idea
- Words and Music: Finding a Lyrics Theme
Structuring the Song
3 Lectures (16min)
- Developing the Lyrics
- Deciding on Song Form: With a Chorus
- Writing the Chorus
Finishing the Song
5 Lectures (19min)
- Writing the Next Verse
- Creating Contrast: The Bridge
- Creating Variation: The Final Chorus
- TIMEBOMB – Full Song. with Lyrics & Chords
- Key Takeaways from Song 2 + Wrap-up
Meet the team
Keppie Coutts and Ben Romalis
We are Keppie Coutts and Ben Romalis, two professional songwriters, performing artists and teachers with over 40 years of collective experience in the music industry.
We have studied and taught at some of the best contemporary music colleges in the world including Berklee College of Music, Sydney Conservatorium, the Australian College of the Arts, the Australian Institute of Music, the LA School of Songwriting and JMC Academy.
Our goal is to help people write better songs! Our belief, having worked with thousands of songwriters (many going on to find careers and success in music), is that your songwriting, like all things, can get better with meaningful and deliberate practice. Our intention is to share the skills, knowledge and ideas that we’ve had the privilege of gathering with others who embrace the art and craft of songwriting.
Are you ready to join us?
Self-Paced Online Course
Songwriting Process Start To Finish
- 2 hours on-demand video
- 10 downloadable resources