Show date: Dec. 15, 2024
The third of four batches of listener and guest songs for our songwriting challenge 2024 to write a holiday song.
Gerben Westerveld shared his song Christmas Love. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- Writing a nice clear chorus
- Maintaining focus on your song being a love song
- Does your song need another verse or bridge?
John White & Michelle DiPalma shared their song You’ll Be Coming Round. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- Is that a chorus or a refrain? Who cares, it’s great!
- How to write rhythmic melodies with a strong identity
- What a gorgeous transition to the bridge!
Steven Taetz shared his song Magic For Me. Download the lyrics to follow along, and check out Steven’s full holiday album!
- Start off your song with a great musical hook
- Having a two-part chourus with a great shape and considered ending
- Are many Christmas songs in 6/8 or 4/4 shuffle time?
James Clark shared his song Orange Christmas. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- Quoting famous songs in your song – what fun!
- Writing a catchy and interesting chorus
- You can’t go wrong being inspried by Evlis Costello
Thanks to Gerben, John & Michelle, Steven, and James for their awesome songs and submiting to our challenge!
If you didn’t hear your song in this episode or our past two episodes, worry not, you’re in the queue for the final episode of listener and guest songs next week, so stay tuned.
Show date: Dec. 10, 2024
The second of four batches of listener and guest songs for our songwriting challenge 2024 to write a holiday song.
Melanie Peterson shared her song All Roads Lead to Christmas. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- using conventional holiday images in fresh new ways
- writing melodies that are sing-song and nursery rhyme-like
- writing with an economic use of language
The Noble Kind shared their song Christmas Again. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- ways to create a strong contrast between your verse and chorus by simplifying your chorus
- what a strong, lovely bridge!
- recontextualizing titles from classic holiday songs into their song
Don Thomson and Neel Modi (yes, our very own) shared their song Bulls in a China Shop. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- making it clear what your song is about with concrete images
- rhyming or not rhyming – what does it do for your song?
- having clear roles when you’re collaborating
Thank you to Melanie, The Noble Kind, and Don & Neel for the awesome songs!
If you didn’t hear your song in this episode, worry not, you’re in the queue for one of the next two episodes, so stay tuned.
Show date: Dec. 06, 2024
Our first batch of listener songs for our songwriting challenge 2024 to write a holiday song.
Victor Hathaway shared his song Keeping Christmas. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- Pulling off a melancholy song on the ukulele
- Phil was reminded of the songwriter Moondog
- Changing the lyric and message a bit in your final chorus
Steve Johnson shared his song Psychedelic Christmas. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- Incorporating Christmas images in a fresh way
- Being intentional about chord choices to create interesting moments
- Writing a funny or clever songs can create emotional distance from your listener
Alex Whorms shared her song This Christmas. Download the lyrics to follow along.
- Internal rhyming in the bridge
- Using music theory in a crafty way to make it sound easy and natural
- Another example of a bridge that is different enough and still unified with the song
Thank you to Victor, Steve, and Alex for the awesome songs!
If you didn’t hear your song in this episode, worry not, you’re in the queue for one of the next few episodes, so stay tuned.
Show date: Nov. 25, 2024
Jimmy Dunne Says is a collection of author and songwriter Jimmy Dunne’s best bite-sized stories that Americans everywhere are spreading and sharing. These stories are heartfelt, smart, and thought-provoking, and some will have you absolutely belly-laughing. Some stories about navigating everyday life today, some that take you right back to your childhood days. You’ll see why stories such as Downsizing virally swept the country—about discovering that one thing you didn’t know you had… “enough.” Or Stories that will have you laughing out loud taking you back to your first dates, stories about the art of being a father… essays that you’ll be sharing with your family and friends. One thing is for sure. They’ll remind you how truly blessed you are—to be alive right now, with so much possibility knocking on your amazing door.
We talked about:
- The essence of creativity
- Writing a book vs. writing songs
- Songwriting as storytelling
- How the value of music, and life, resides in the spaces
- How lucky we ought to feel that we get to do this thing called songwriting
- How modern artists both need to be and can be business people too
Show date: Nov. 18, 2024
Hailing from the quiet, wooded, mountain towns of New England, Nathan Jacques is a singer/songwriter now based in Los Angeles, CA. Contrary to his geographical roots, Nathan paints deeply woven narrative stories in cinematic soundscapes that are undeniably and irresistibly Western.
Starting with his 2021 debut album, ‘Loud Mind’, Nathan has been building his brand and following, offering something different than the traditional country trend taking Los Angeles and the rest of the country by storm. His unique sound features powerful yet soothing baritone vocals shepherding audiences through dramatic stories in song. Showcasing a wide range of influences, listening to Nathan Jacques feels like traveling through time and dreams into landscapes of classic films and records of old.
Nathan shared the process behind his song All I See. Download the lyrics to follow along.
We talked about:
- The passing away of Quincy Jones
- Memetic music, a term we learned about after last week’s episode with Nancy Blue
- How Nathan was very deliberate about his verse melodies to maintain tension
- Writing an upbeat song with dark lyrics
- What it means for Nathan for be a “Western” artist and how that differs from Country Music
- How Nathan wrote notes for a larger concept album and story first
- Keeping the chords simple, but playing with tension and release by holding onto chords for extended time
- Be sure to check out Nathan’s music videos – they are fantastic!
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