Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 2
Lesson 46 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 2
Lesson 46 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Lessons
Writing Drums and Bass Part Introduction
01:11 2Making Drums Beats with Ultrabeat
14:27 3Beats with Ultrabeat and Drummer
08:48 4Writing Bass Parts - Part 1
15:03 5Writing Bass Parts - Part 2
04:53 6Writing Drums and Bass Parts Assignment
00:44 7Writing Chords Introduction
00:56 8Writing Chords
19:38Experimental Chords
09:44 10Writing Chords Assignment
00:56 11Writing Melodies Introduction
00:58 12Writing Melodies - Part 1
19:28 13Writing Melodies - Part 2
05:12 14Writing Melodies - Part 3
10:38 15Arpeggiator
08:02 16Writing Melodies Assignment
00:59 17Arrangement Introduction
00:45 18Arrangement
18:14 19Arrangement Continued
16:16 20Adding Effects and Instruments
18:28 21Arranging into a New Song - Part 1
14:57 22Arranging into a New Song - Part 2
17:31 23Arranging into a New Song - Part 3
08:24 24Arrangement Assignment
00:38 25Mixing Introduction
01:02 26Cleaning up and Basic Mixing
15:52 27EQ
11:46 28Tuning Drums
05:58 29Compression
10:56 30Sidechain Compression
10:30 31Reverb and Delay Sends
07:58 32Automation
06:59 33Mixing Assignment
00:58 34Recording Audio Equipment
10:55 35Recording Audio
04:01 36Vocal Melodies Introduction
01:04 37Vocals Intro
00:26 38Verse A Section
06:56 39Chorus and Harmonies
05:12 40Verse B and Pre-Chorus
05:20 41Verse 2, Chorus and Middle 8
17:37 42Song Title
00:50 43Vocal Melodies Assignment
01:00 44Lyrics Introduction
01:02 45Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 1
15:25 46Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 2
14:37 47Lyrics Assignment
00:54 48Adaptive Songwriting with Peter Darling
12:13 49Thanks and Bye
00:09Lesson Info
Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 2
Right. And then, hello, it's Peter darling. Here, I'm gonna talk to you in this lecture about a song called Kate that I wrote. It was for a concept album called Invita, which is all about people and places and stories from Kent in the United Kingdom, which is where I'm from. Originally. With this song, I wanted to write a story about my dad and remembering being a kid and walking to church with my dad when I was young. And I also wanted to mention the performer Kate Bush who I've loved for years who has some ties to Ashford. And I wanted to write a song about how when we walk to church, we, me and my dad would pass this big house on the corner. And I'd always either he told me or I just decided that it was so that Kate Bush used to live there. And I wanted to write from the point of view of being a child and then as an adult and how my relationship with my dad has changed or if it hasn't and how my relationship with my faith had changed as well. So what I thought would be a good idea i...
s if I play the song and then I'll stop it here and there and we can have a look at the lyrics and I can discuss the sort of lyric choices that I made and how I developed the narrative. So this is the star of the song I used to walk to with my dad. And as we would, he talked about those, we pass, we rounded the bed of the house on the turn that you live Clare one and never return. Each week we went by, I feel the house seems so tall. Ip the fan. I never saw you at all. I'm just gonna stop it there and leave you in suspense for a little bit. So let's talk about this first verse. I wanted to describe the story as simply as possible, mainly because I felt like I was talking from the point of view of a child. So I wasn't gonna use this really florid, fantastical language. I wanted it to feel quite grounded and feel like a normal situation. So just simple lines like I used to walk to church with my dad. Basically, when I started the song, I had an idea that by the time you get to the chorus, I wanted to be able to sing to Kate Bush. So that meant I had the space of about one verse in order to establish the relationship with my dad, what we were doing and then introduce the idea that Kate Bush used to live in this house. Let's have a little listen to the chorus. It. Can you now you love. I can thou I miss your is calling me, tell me, help me. So in the chorus, I wanted to direct the song specifically towards Kate and I saved using her name until the first line of the chorus. So it had maximum impact. And then I also wanted to reference her song, Hounds of Love. So obviously, I've written the line, I Miss Your Hounds calling me and then help me someone, help me please as a direct quote from the chorus. I'm not gonna sing it to you now. But I wanted to reference stuff that Kate Bush had already done because it almost works like little clues that you can give to your listener. So I was chatting to Thomas before we filmed this and he'd always assumed that this song was about a girlfriend that I had called Kate. Whereas actually, it is not and I enjoyed the confusion that this song can cause because it's talking about someone called Kate. But ultimately, it's not within a romantic setting. And I found that at an interesting angle to try and write a song from, OK, let's continue and have a listen to verse two. Now, I don't go to Che very much and I don't see my in, we keep in touch something. Oh, a so put OK. So in this verse, I wanted to progress the narrative on further. So now I'm older and I wanted to contrast what my life is like now with how it was when I was a child. So I immediately addressed the fact that now I don't go to church a lot and I don't see my dad. I wanted again to tell this story in a simple way as possible. Cos I wanted it to feel confessional and in some ways authentic as well. And I still wanted to put across this idea that we're all still Children at heart. And with the line, just a story, my dad told me still, I pretend I wanted to show that sometimes it's nice to still have a sense of innocence and ignorance to the world around you. Cos often the alternative could feel quite depressing. Ok, let's have a listen to the chorus. So stay by your side. I'll always stay. Ok. So within the final chorus, I wanted to wrap up both the narrative to do with Kate Bush and also the narrative where I'm speaking to my father. So I wanted to put across this idea that Kate Bush is still living in this house and conjuring up images of her throughout her career. So the line flailing arms and auburn hair is actually a reference to the song Jolene by Dolly Parton, where she talks about your flaming locks of auburn hair. And I just thought I really like that line So I'm gonna try and repurpose it for talking about Kate Bush. And the phrase flailing arms refers to Kate Bush's performance within her video for the song. Wow, where she's kind of wheeling her arms around in a ridiculous fashion. And I just always was really struck by that image of her. And then auburn hair refers to the color of her hair. And then the second half of the chorus is referring to my dad and also referring to how I've now left Kent. I live in Leeds now in the north of England. But there'll always be a part of me that is connected to my hometown and there'll always be a part of me which still feels like a kid stood next to my dad walking the church, which is referred to by your side. I'll always stay. So that's an example of a song where I wanted to write about personal things that were going on in my life and using stories from my past to kind of just create an interesting concept for a song rather than just writing a romantic relationship style song. I wanted to actually write about being a child, being a son and writing about your imagination when you're a child and how that is contrast to when you're older. This song was part of a collection of songs which is all about different stories and people and places to do with Kent. So this is the front cover of the In Victor album which Kate is featured on. As you can see, it's a white horse and a red background which is the flag of Kent. And this would be the middle sleeve of the artwork. This is a quote I found that Julius Caesar apparently said about Kent. He said of those who live there, the ones in Kent are the most civilized of the lot which I entirely agree with were very civilized people. I'm sure you all are as well. I don't mean to be offensive, but we're very civilized. And this is my back cover here. As you can see, there's seven songs all in all and I'm just gonna give you a brief synopsis of each track and what they're about. So the track Frank John William Goldsmith junior is concerned with a real life person who traveled from Kent on the Titanic over to America and his father died within the disaster of the Titanic. And then it's him dealing with the aftermath of that invasion is concerned with a sexual assault happening on the A 259 near bought. And le the song Iron Heart is sung from the point of view of Nigel Farage's wife. For those of you of you don't know Nigel Farage was the former leader of the UK Independence Party and has gained the reputation of being a bit of an idiot. So I wanted to write a song from the point of view of his wife kind of questioning why he is an idiot. The song Guns on the Table is all sung from the point of view of smugglers in the 17th and 18th century who used to kind of basically they ran the town of Rye. And the phrase guns on the table comes from the fact that they would go to the local pubs and then just stick their guns on the table. That meant that no one would mess with them at all. The song, Great explosion 1916 is all about surprisingly, a large explosion that happened at a factory in where 100 and nine people died. Kate. We've already talked about the song Man of Kent is also told from my point of view where I talk about being born and raised in Kent, but now moving away and sometimes feeling like I am from Kent and sometimes feeling like I don't really identify with the place I grew up in anymore. So all of those songs are linked by place, but they're also linked by relationships to fathers, by sense of displacement and sense of what really is home and also a sense of growing up and learning and thinking back to childhood. So, thanks so much for listening to me. Talk about this feels quite self indulgent, but I hope it's been helpful. I just really want to encourage you guys to think about writing songs from interesting points of view. If you can find an interesting angle to write from. Most, probably your lyrics are gonna have more depth and people are gonna want to read more into what you're writing about. So I really wanna encourage you to do that. This song Kate will be downloadable with sessions, so feel free to have a listen to that. And thanks so much for listening.
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