Featuring some of the biggest names in music (and one British Comedian), this advice is thoughtful, practical and will empower you to break through the toughest of creative challenges!
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FEATURED ARTISTS
Craig Morrison
John Mayer
Pharrell Williams
John Legend
John Cleese
Joni Mitchell
Pat Pattison
Cole Porter
00:00 Intro
00:55 – The Ego and The Ocean
03:54 – No Judgement
08:43 – Think Like a Poker Player
13:52 – Songwriting Royalty
15:33 – Wait 90 Minutes
20:34 – Stop Complaining
26:35 – Find the Title
ABOUT KEPPIE
I’m Keppie. I’m a professional songwriter, and songwriting teacher. I’ve been teaching song and lyric writing for over 10 years now for some of the best contemporary music colleges in the world—Berklee Online, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Open Academy, as well as for the Australian College of the Arts. At other times, I’ve taught for the Australian Institute of Music, as well as the LA School of Songwriting.
My goal is to help people write better songs! My experience in the classroom, with thousands of students at this point (many going on to find careers and success in music), is that your songwriting, like all things, can get better with meaningful, deliberate practice. My intention is to share the skills, knowledge, information, and ideas that I’ve gathered with anyone who wants to improve their songwriting.
Keppie’s music is here:
https://www.keppiecouttsmusic.com/music
ABOUT BEN
Ben’s passion for music and creativity stretches across multiple disciplines and art-forms. He is a founding member and songwriter / lap-slide guitarist for one of Australia’s best and most bearded country-bluegrass-folk bands, THE GREEN MOHAIR SUITS. To date the Mohairs have released 4 full-length albums and tour both nationally and overseas.
Ben is also the Founder and Head Producer of SILAMOR STUDIOS, a boutique studio specialising in Composition for Film, TV and Interactive Media. He writes extensively across various instrumental and lyric-based genres and has been commissioned for major projects by Adobe, Cathay Pacific and Audible. He also currently releases original songs under the name SILAMOR.
Ben is passionate about education and has taught song and lyric writing as well as film composition for JMC Academy and the Australian Institute of Music. He also designs and regularly facilitates workshops on creative process and innovation.
Links to Ben’s music are here:
The Green Mohair Suits
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7M3Zf0UKjXdQO2mXvxDPX4?si=Y24zyBFjSlqSLteteq8RhA
SILAMOR
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5HOpae5ijIPDXJTtAnkLBN?si=qEX2btO0QM6PbqLIx7TQZw
http://www.silamor.com/music
Work Flow Audio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGWDe9zfvue5uYw1m8r-UlA
Keppie talks about songwriting and creative practice here:
https://howtowritesongs.org
We can be buddies on socials here:
https://www.instagram.com/howtowrite.songs/
https://www.facebook.com/keppiecoutts
Keppie’s music is here:
https://www.keppiecouttsmusic.com/music
#howtowritesongs
#songwriting
#songwriter
#howtowriteasong
#protips
#advice
#johnlegend
#johncleese
#jonimitchell
#patpattison
#pharrellwilliams
#coleporter
#johnmayer
#songs
#musictheory
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Less than 4 minutes in and I'm already crying… sometimes it's painful to accept the good stuff, like "I am enough"
Once again. What a brilliant insight you both have towards music and the aesthetic values of song writing. What a basic question. What is it about what this is that people love?
One of my favourite first lines is from Whiskey and You by Chris Stapleton – "There's a bottle on the dresser by your ring …" It immediately tells you what the whole song is going to be about and it's really visual.
Hi, I'm a fifty six year old song writer, I have been playing guitar and writing songs all my adult life and have now got to a point where I feel like i have lost my ability even though I have many good songs compleated over the years and bands with me and without me playing my material. Any ideas for relighting my spark? Thanks for all the good advice.
I really appreciate these videos ? I am an ex-student of you both, and it's so nice to hear these lessons and ideas once again, to further solidify the ideas. Without you guys I wouldn't have ever been able to write a single song, or go on to write many more!
I get to 30 minutes and start looking at 'how to write songs' videos…..
Muchas gracias por todos los consejos! La que más me llamó la atención fue la de dejar el ego de lado, y es verdad que a veces es muy difícil dejarlo. Excelente!
Great video, thank you for the advice!!
One of your best!
that Joni mitchell quote flipped my lid
Hello, thanks a lot for posting theses advices, it helps a lot as I'm a student working on songwriting
Hello. Thanks for your channel. You have lots of good information. I started writing a couple years ago, as a "lockdown project". I have about 30 completed songs, and it's been quite a journey so far…it's a never-ending learning process.
wow , this channel should and will have more eyeballs .
As a creative, I find it can be very much at odds with cultural elements of ‘ideas are only worth the potential outcome or the data behind them’
Ie. As a family therapist many of my creative teens are told it’s either ‘practice’ ‘lesson’ or ‘performance’. Just playing and exploring? Wasted time…
Now we just gotta find clarity and a connection ?…ideas?!
I think this is one of the most valuable videos about song writing on YouTube. A great collection of advices. Thank you very much.
So helpful! Thanks.
Wait 90 minutes. ????? Thanks for that!
Every moment of this video is value, thanks guys
Thanks again, another great lesson. The 90 minute rule is something I definitely will adopt. I'm often defeated by impatience. So much good advice in one video!
Fantastic concepts
This was a great video. And in no instance did this ever feel too long or drawn out.
Such an insightful video. In relation to emotions and communication, there seems to be one fundamental emotion that can create a strong channel for communication – Empathy. Empathy is the ability to sense other people's emotions, together with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. So how do you reliably evoke empathy in a person hearing your song? Perhaps the same way you evoke empathy when you're telling a close friend something important. Lyrics about anger, resentment, bland contentment, mindless excitement etc don't generally seem to evoke much empathy – and they're also not very interesting because they don't illuminate any new aspect of the listener's life or what it's like to be human.
Thanks again guys. ????
I used that line “you only have time get your feet wet” simple-brilliance
Really enjoying this channel. I find perfectionism a double edged sword it can yield the most amazing results i.e. getting the most expressive vocal during recording or eeking out as much emotion in your writing while digging deep. That said, it can make the process so stressful and stifling and sometimes you lose the essence of what you mihht have found in the initial idea. So many of the greatest writers let it go and embrace the imperfection.
Starting a song from a title, which will very often be the chorus, is a solid way to write pop music. I have found that when you start from a good opening line you'll get a different type of song. Not necessarily better, just a different kind of song.