Songwriting: Write Your First (or Next) Great Song Now

Explore decision making in creativity by choosing this versus that, using a blank page, starting with a single creative decision, and applying varied chord progressions to spark lyrics and momentum.

Explore the muse as a source of inspiration, and never refuse its transmissions; write down phrases, record melodies, and memorialize moments before they fade.

Explore the line between borrowing and stealing in songwriting, learning to transform borrowed ideas into original work, own your voice, and turn theft into ownership.

Steal something by reimagining a song’s vibe through a new melody, altered tempo, or flipped verse and chorus, then build a fresh story inspired by Odyssey or Macbeth.

Explore how mentors and apprentices shaped great songs and artists through studio tutelage and woodshedding, and the guild system, revealing the enduring master-apprentice path in songwriting.

Explore how a songwriter studies a mentor like Steve Earle, learns songs, then cuts the cord to develop a personal voice, evolving from country twang to a more rock-infused style.

Learn to craft a quick, three-chord song in the John Prine-inspired style, with guided exercises to get you writing now and building toward a deeper, fully formed songwriting practice.

Master a quick rhythm using three chords aligned to the vocal, channel John Prine’s cadence, learn a simple root-note G pluck-strum, and prepare to craft the lyrics.

Write lyrics that fit the strum pattern and rhythm, prioritize words over melody, avoid fillers, and practice a 15-minute lyric sprint from prompts with humor and twists.

Create a simple melody that fits your chords, using three verse notes and four chorus notes in the key of G, then record and assess its fit and feel.

Finish your scratch outlines and assess your song to build confidence. Record and listen, note fresh ideas, and plan to revisit after the course to refine the draft.

Explore the basics of guitar chords via the caged open-chord system, covering C, A, G, E, D and their open minor forms, plus root notes and a songwriting chord sheet.

Explore how scale degrees map to guitar chords, using the G major scale to show one-to-four relationships, major/minor choices, and how to call chords by numbers for key-based progressions.

Explore the circle of fifths as a songwriter's cheat sheet, learning to pick chords for any key, including relative minor and borrowed chords, to craft progressions for chorus or bridge.

Explore seventh chords built from familiar shapes like E major and D7, using a flat seven to achieve a bluesy blue note sound across genres.

Master barre chords by using your index finger to bar the neck and move shapes up the fretboard, focusing on E major and E minor forms.

Explore how major and minor keys shape emotion, from the tonal center and tonic to the third, and how drones or missing thirds create mood.

Discover the not so secret songwriter super hot sauce for success by training your mind's ear, mumbling melodies, and using Henry Cooper as a placeholder to shape verses.

Explore songcraft using the hot sauce technique, riffs, ostinato, guitar techniques, and alternative tunings to spark memorable melodies and dynamic arrangements.

Explore chord progressions as the song’s skeleton, using the seven main chords in a key and practical open and bar shapes, with classic G–C–E minor–D and G–E minor–C–D progressions.

Explore the one four five chord progression (I-IV-V) and its deep roots in blues and western music, explained through harmonics and the 12-bar blues.

Master the minor sixth chord, the relative minor, and effective progressions to move between the relative minor and the one, four, and five chords, elevating your songwriting.

Learn how walking up and down between chords, with passing notes and relative minors, enriches melodies using open chords and progressions from one to four and six to four.

Learn a major-to-minor swap trick that adds sophistication to chords. Play a chord, then its minor to create changes in the chorus, with Brandi Carlile and Fats Waller as examples.

Explore how strumming patterns shape the vibe and rhythm of a song, using accents and variation. Practice syncopation and selective note placement to make your guitar parts serve the song.

Master four core time signatures—4/4, 2/4, 3/4, and 6/8—and see how the downbeat and chord changes shape feel, motion, and energy for writing and performing songs.

Develop your musicality by listening closely to how notes blend, resonate, and form melodies, and explore how guitar position and pickups shape timbre for songwriting.

Explore deriving a melody from a given chord progression by choosing notes from each chord, incorporating passing notes, and using melodic symmetry to create a concise, engaging tune.

Discover how to craft a melody by melodically mirroring a riff, using the riff to establish the vibe and build the melody in sync. Next, find it in the scale.

Explore first person and third person points of view in songwriting, including limited or omniscient narrators. Learn when to use autobiographical or fictional material and how third-person storytelling broadens scope.

Learn to tell autobiographical stories in the first person, using universal experiences, detailed imagery, objective reporting with quotes, and a strong payoff.

In songwriting, let titles or hooks emerge during the writing process, and craft a strong, repeated hook in the chorus for memorable earworms; trust intuition over formula.

Explore the beauty of metaphor and ambiguity in songwriting through Rickie Lee Jones’s gas-station imagery, rhyme, and double entendre in 'Last Chance Texaco' to create unresolved emotion.

Explore truth telling in songwriting, revealing insights while balancing fact and fiction. Use composite backstories and artistic license to craft authentic, dramatic songs.

Show how characters prove who they are through action or inaction, because actions speak louder than words, using backstories and social context like in Joplin Sunday morning's three concise verses.

Set your songwriting with specific, tangible details that tie place to story and characters. Elevate authenticity and memory by detailing setting to deepen listening and foreshadow events in the story.

Explore how songwriting can deliver a three-act arc within a few verses, using motif, verse-to-chorus progression, and narrative turns from pursuit to rescue and cold revenge.

Explore how rhythm and rhyme align lyrics with music by matching accents, line length, and tempo, using poetry and musical sensibilities to craft stories with coherent, powerful song lyrics.

Explore rhyme mapping and rhyme schemes through Bob Dylan's master strokes, analyzing verse, chorus, and bridge with examples like jumpstart my heart to reveal embedded rhymes and couplets.

Explore how Bob Dylan uses bookends to anchor five verses in a hard rain's a-gonna fall with a minimal rhyme scheme, shaping performance and audience reaction.

Don't be too rigid; scheming sparks creativity by pushing you beyond the obvious. Let rhyme schemes bend for something equally intriguing to keep the creative flow.