Songwriting Craft and Practice: Form, Lyrics & Production

This course is part of Songwriting Craft and Practice Specialization

Instructor: Alexander Wand

Included with Learn more

2 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Beginner level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

2 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Beginner level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Design complete song architectures utilizing standard forms such as AABA, pop, blues, and strophic styles.
Write lyrics that apply prosody, rhyme schemes, and narrative techniques to complement musical themes.
Utilize DAW production tools and manipulate meter, backbeats, and syncopation to create demos and enhance arrangements.

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

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This course is part of the Songwriting Craft and Practice Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

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There are 2 modules in this course

In this course, you'll begin by exploring traditional and contemporary forms, including 12-bar blues, 32-bar AABA, pop, narrative, and strophic forms, while learning approaches to lyric writing. The course also introduces rhythm, meter, and home music production. We'll cover production in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), mixing, and effects like reverb and delay. You'll also learn to bring energy to your rhythm through syncopation, backbeats, changing tempos, and odd meters. By the end, you'll have the tools to write, record, and produce songs.

Some songs are buildings with clearly walled rooms, and others move like rolling landscapes, one section subtly becoming another. We'll listen to both in Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Robyn, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, and Schumann. Then lyrics: rhyme (or not), prosody (how music and lyrics relate), narrative, the unreliable narrator, and the balance between transcendent and grounded language. By the end, you'll be able to shape a song’s form with intention and write lyrics that connect meaningfully to the music.

What's included

2 videos6 readings2 peer reviews2 discussion prompts20 plugins

2 videosTotal 165 minutes

🎥 Form Lecture101 minutes
🎥 Lyrics Lecture64 minutes

6 readingsTotal 110 minutes

📖 Preparation: Form10 minutes
🎧 Additional Materials (Optional)60 minutes
👥 Song Share Group10 minutes
📖 Preparation: Lyrics10 minutes
🎶 Carless in LA – Alex Wand10 minutes
🎧 Additional Materials (Optional)10 minutes

2 peer reviewsTotal 120 minutes

▶︎ Songwriting: Form Prompt60 minutes
▶︎ Songwriting: Lyrics Prompt60 minutes

2 discussion promptsTotal 40 minutes

🗣️ Discussion: Form20 minutes
🗣️ Discussion: Lyrics20 minutes

20 pluginsTotal 103 minutes

🎵 You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had – Muddy Waters5 minutes
🎼 I Get a Kick Out of You – Ella Fitzgerald (Cole Porter)5 minutes
🎶 Dancing on my Own – Robyn5 minutes
🎵 Nights Like This – Kehlani5 minutes
🎼 Beautiful Boy – John Lennon6 minutes
🎶 Tangled Up in Blue – Bob Dylan5 minutes
🎵 Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold – Townes Van Zandt5 minutes
🎼 Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (from Dichterliebe) – Robert Schumann8 minutes
🎶 I Want Wind to Blow – The Microphones4 minutes
🎵 Turning Is the Motion of the Tao – Desert Magic5 minutes
🎼 Strange Things Happening Every Day – Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Optional)5 minutes
🎵 This Is How We Walk on the Moon – Arthur Russell (Optional)5 minutes
🎶 Alesund – Sun Kil Moon (Optional)6 minutes
🎵 One Step Up – Bruce Springsteen5 minutes
🎶 Drunken Angel – Lucinda Williams5 minutes
🎼 Masters of War – Bob Dylan5 minutes
🎵 A Case of You – Joni Mitchell5 minutes
🎶 The Obvious Child – Paul Simon5 minutes
🎼 Holland, 1945 – Neutral Milk Hotel4 minutes
🎵 Fast Car – Tracy Chapman5 minutes

In this module, we'll explore music production and the foundations of rhythm and meter. We'll jump into music production basics using Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), walk you through mixing with EQ, panning, and compression, and explore the musical reasons for adding effects like reverb and delay. We'll get into the groove by breaking down backbeats and syncopation, and by exploring odd time signatures and tempo changes. By the end, you'll be able to record multitracked demos and use rhythm and meter to get us bobbing our heads.

What's included

2 videos2 readings2 peer reviews2 discussion prompts13 plugins

2 videosTotal 120 minutes

🎥 Production Lecture55 minutes
🎥 Rhythm Lecture64 minutes

2 readingsTotal 20 minutes

🎧 Production Tools10 minutes
📖 Preparation: Rhythm10 minutes

2 peer reviewsTotal 120 minutes

▶︎ Songwriting: Production Prompt60 minutes
▶︎ Songwriting: Rhythm Prompt60 minutes

2 discussion promptsTotal 40 minutes

🗣️ Discussion: Production20 minutes
🗣️ Discussion: Rhythm20 minutes

13 pluginsTotal 78 minutes

🎵 The Sprout and the Bean – Joanna Newsom10 minutes
🎶 Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads5 minutes
🎼 Champagne Poetry – Drake5 minutes
🎵 Fugue State – Vulfpeck5 minutes
🎶 Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping – Grouper8 minutes
🎼 Thousand Eyes – FKA twigs5 minutes
🎵 Running Up That Hill – Kate Bush10 minutes
🎶 D.B. Cooper – Three Thirds5 minutes
🎼 Blame it on the Rain – Marshweed5 minutes
🎵 Voices of Spring – Moondog5 minutes
🎶 Life Is Suffering – Deerhoof5 minutes
🎼 DNA – Kendrick Lamar5 minutes
🎵 Leaving The City – Joanna Newsom5 minutes

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Instructor

Alexander Wand

University of California, Santa Cruz

2 Courses19 learners

Offered by

University of California, Santa Cruz

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