Guitar Lesson 27: Songwriting tips – writing and arranging a song from scratch

In guitar lesson 27, Dan and I look at the thorny topic of songwriting and arranging original songs.  Starting with a riff I wrote a long time ago and with lots of background discussion about how to write songs in general, Dan develops my idea and gives me some options for second guitar parts and song structure.  By the end of our lesson we really have something which I can take away and work on.  We hope you like this lesson and will look forward to some further developing of our song next lesson.

5:14 Gary’s riff and the basis for our song lesson
8:30 Discussion of famous songs and an examination of what makes a good song
12:30 Tweaking the main riff
14:30 Starting to consider a melody which will work over the riff
18:05 Exploring the chorus and finding a way back into the key of the main riff
20:31 A potential melody as a hook
26:46 A review of what we’ve done so far
29:33 Further work on the melody for the verse and chorus
31:49 Using palm muting for dynamics
35:51 A bit of harmonic analysis on the chords we are using
37:15 Some harmonic analysis of Bruce Springsteen’s chromatic run  in ‘Born to Run’
41:10 Using shared chords to move between keys
44:14 Adding interest to arrangements and including second guitar parts
50:19 Explaining ideas for using octaves and repeating licks

Keep listening for more great lessons and ideas from Tune in, Tone up! Another lesson coming up on songwriting soon along with the start of some additional content in which we interview guitarists and musicians following a standard set of useful questions….

We really appreciate all your support and engagement,

Gary and Dan – Tune in, Tone up!