Songwriting | Coursera

…in a free, online course. Learn an efficient, effective process for writing songs that express your ideas and emotions, including a range of tools that revolve around the concept of prosody—the matching of lyrics and music to support your underlying message.

View intro video on page (link below). Other free music courses from Coursera include Introduction to Guitar, Listening to World Music, How Music Works, Survey of Music Technology, Introduction to Digital Sound Design and more

Mar 1st 2013 (6 weeks long): Songwriting | Coursera: taught by Pat Pattison, Berklee College of Music

About the Course

There’s a songwriter lurking somewhere inside you, peeking around corners, wondering if it’s safe to come out. Now it is. This course is an invitation to let your inner songwriter step into the sunlight. All it takes is a simple “yes” and you’ll be climbing that windy hill, marveling at the view.

If you haven’t written any or many songs, this course will show you an efficient, effective process for tailoring songs to express your ideas and emotions. If you have, you’ll look at your process differently, taking control of aspects of the process you may have not noticed.

The course will start by examining the tools available to you, all revolving around the essential concept of prosody. You’ll learn to use your tools to enhance your message—to work compositionally at the same time you’re developing your ideas.

You’ll be working both lyrically and musically, though musically it’s not necessary that you either read music or play an instrument. If you play, great, and you’ll be encouraged to play and record your musical responses to the assignments. If you don’t play, the course offers you a number of musical loops to work with. All you’ll have to do is sing your melodies over the loops.

Assignments will ask you to post something for peer review—sometimes lyric lines or sections, sometimes melodies, sometimes both. None of it has to be polished. The course is about writing, not performing.

Most important, you’ll have a lot of fun.

About the Instructor

Pat Pattison is a professor at Berklee College of Music and the author of several online courses in songwriting and creative writing offered through the college’s continuing education division, Berkleemusic.com. The courses—Lyric Writing: Tools and Strategies, Lyric Writing: Writing from the Title,Lyric Writing: Writing Lyrics to Music, Creative Writing: Poetry, and Creative Writing: Finding Your Voice—are instructor-led and offered four times each year to anyone, anywhere in the world. Pat’s former students include Grammy-award-winning artists John Mayer, Gillian Welch, and Tom Hambridge. In addition to teaching, Pat is the author of four books on songwriting, including Songwriting without Boundaries, Writing Better Lyrics, The Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure, and The Essential Guide to Rhyming. He has written over 50 articles on songwriting for various magazines and blogs and presents clinics for songwriters around the world.

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1: Standing Straight or Leaning Forward 

By the end of this lesson, you will understand the concept of prosody as it relates to the number of lines/musical phrases in a section. You’ll create both stable and unstable line/musical groupings, using an odd or even number of lines and musical phrases. You’ll begin thinking about the song you’ll create and perhaps its chorus.

Lesson 2: Stopping and Going

In this lesson, you’ll work with line lengths/musical phrases, the school crossing guard of your song. You will gain a deeper understanding of prosody by creating both stable and unstable sections using matched and unmatched line lengths and musical phrases. You’ll apply this information to your song.

Lesson 3: Sonic GPS—Mapping your Song with Rhyme

By the end of this lesson, you will understand the relationship of rhyme schemes and matched and unmatched musical phrases to prosody. You’ll create both stable and unstable sections, using various rhyme schemes to show your ear the way to go home. Matched and unmatched musical phrases solidify your sonic GPS.

Lesson 4: Finding the Song’s DNA

By the end of this lesson, you will confirm or find a song title, put it in a spectrograph to see its growth potential, and create a chorus. You will address setting: the relationship between lyric rhythm and melodic rhythm.

Lesson 5: Serving the Song’s Boss

By the end of this lesson, you will understand the principles of creating verses that serve your chorus and create structural/musical contrast with it. You will address the use of musical downbeats and its relationship to prosody.

Lesson 6: Crossing the Finished Line

By the end of this lesson, you will understand the function of bridges in creating lyrical/musical contrast with both verse and chorus. You will put the finishing touches on your song by working through a checklist.

Recommended Background

No prior songwriting or musical experience is necessary.

Suggested Readings

Writing Better Lyrics, second edition, by Pat Pattison. Publisher: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN-10: 1582975779.

Course Format

The course consists of video demonstrations, with integrated quizzes that allow you to reinforce your knowledge of the material before moving on. You will have assignments that ask you to write or record examples of your song ideas for peer review.

FAQ

• Do I need to have prior songwriting experience or musical ability?

No. Playing an instrument, such as the guitar or keyboard, is helpful but not necessary.

• Can I work on my own music?

Absolutely. If you do not have your own music, you will be able to use musical loops supplied in the course.

• What do I need in order to submit recording assignments?

During the course, you will be asked at times to submit recorded examples of your song ideas. In order to do this, you will need your computer's built-in microphone or an external microphone plugged directly into your computer (via built-in ports or an external audio interface), in addition to basic audio recording software, such as Audacity, that will allow you to record yourself and save the recording in MP3 format.