SUMMARY
I deepened my understanding of songwriting and the lyric writing process.
CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)
- Holistic Songwriting’s Artist Series
- Genius’ Songs Deconstructed Series
- Rick Beato’s What Makes This Song Great Series
I watched the Deconstructed video on Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”. In the video, there’s a scene that goes through how he created the beats and the heavy thump sound and shows how he randomly placed one drum part at a time. I think the hi-hat trill(?) placement was remarkable, and it gives the song the light energy that works as both a trap and country music.
LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)
-
- Hooktheory.com/videos
- Songwriting Series. (4 videos)
- Lyrics to music videos (2 videos)
- I watched the four videos on HookTheory’s songwriting series (sultry sax song). It takes me through the steps of building a song, from bottom-up to the melody which is the final piece of the music. Thinking on this, I realized how music is developed from the ground layer yet the listeners perceive the melody as the most important.
OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY & THE BRAIN)
- Adriel Wallick’s creative process (even though it’s about game design, it’s still a great process for any creative person)
- Time limitation is a good thing. Setting goals for yourself is doubly good. Unlimited free time is freeing in terms of workload, but terrible with how it unmotivates us.
STUDIO (SONGWRITING)
- Holistic Songwriting: Songwriting Corner
- Holistic Songwriting: Songwriting Exercises
- Holistic Songwriting: 5 Minute Lessons
- I watched the Songwriting Corner.
- Leaving gaps open may be an interesting choice for songwriters, as it leaves room for the listeners to fill in the gaps themselves.
- Play around the piano and see if you can identify the notes in your head. find a scale around the melody you just created that portrays the mood you want.
CONTROL ROOM (RECORDING & MIXING)
- Clark Eagling: Soundtrap tutorial 5 – Arranging the song, Mixing and adding effects
- all five videos in the playlist, if you are interested.
- Soundtrap Support (Effects and Mixing)
- Swick’s Classroom Recreating Chainsmokers
- Moving through different DAWs and completing the arrangement is fascinating. There are a lot of differences and problems that arise from exporting from another program, which seem to be very specific issues.
WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED
- I really like watching the processes of how professionals compile music, but I’m also shy about trying it out myself. That might be one of my interests, it would be a cool part of music production to explore in the future.
TODAY’s ACTIVITY EVALUATION
Content (The WHAT)
Rating: OK – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – HIGHLY ENGAGED
Rating: 4
The videos were substantial today, I really enjoyed them.
Process (The HOW)
Rating: OK – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – HIGHLY ENGAGED
Rating: 3
I wasn’t in the mindset to be productive for the majority of the morning. I felt better after I took a break, but the process would’ve been better if I were in a better mood.