Welcome to The Songwriter’s Workshop. This is the series where I attempt to write songs based on the process and techniques of famous songwriters. Each video looks at a different songwriter’s writing habits, musical inspirations, and creative process while also including an original song written using those techniques.

With the release of his movie Studio 666 this week, I decided to cover Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl. Using Dave’s songwriting techniques found in his book The Storyteller and various other sources, I write my new song Living Legend.

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00:00 TSW Intro
00:27 Dave Grohl Intro
02:48 Sources
04:20 Session 1 (Music)
06:27 Session 2 (Arrangement)
09:11 Session 3 (Lyrics)
12:19 Living Legend
15:30 Outro

#DaveGrohl #HowToWriteASong #Studio666

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28 Replies to “How to write a song like Dave Grohl”

  1. Your demo is all about you. I know its just an example and it seems like you did a great job of taking cues from DG for the music and style. However IMHO the best of his lyrics are never first person. But then maybe I missed the point. You did say the inspiration for the lyrics was DG's autobiography. Which of course by design is first person. It seems very challenging to write a 1st person song. Very few listeners are interested in hearing about songwriters that lack existing and predefined fame. So first person lyrics seem tough to write if the object of the exercise is to write a great song that people want to hear and share within their social circles.

  2. Dave is one of my faves. I have also read his book and have watched all the references you gave. Great to see/hear the inspiration applied and the final outcome, Foo-esque for sure.=D I would imagine Dave would be happy to see his words in action like this. Keep going, keep posting. Thanks for sharing.

  3. I think you nailed the structure of the song for sure, liking those guitar bits too. Great job and great video as always!

    One thing to consider is getting a different VST for drums, I think that'll take your production to the next level. Although they never tend to be cheap, personally I use Addictive Drums (you can hear it on all of my songs) great plugin ?

  4. Great stuff!

    At some point could try using KLF's book "The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way", from 1988.

    Chumbawamba and Klaxons are meant to have used it to write songs, and it has pretty specific instructions.

    It's out of print, but easy to find by googling.

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