School of Rock – Week 11 – Updating Workflow – Mind Like Water

 

“‘Be shapeless and formless.. like water’ (Bruce Lee)” by Akinini.com is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

“Have a mind like water.”

― David Allen,  GTD

SUMMARY

  • Write your weekly summary here, last, at the end of the week…
    • Only one to two sentences of WHAT YOU DID
  • DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS, AFTER YOU ARE DONE

STUDIO (SONGWRITING)

Screenshot from Holistic Songwriting at YouTube
Screenshot from Holistic Songwriting at YouTube

Watch Holistic Songwriting: Do THIS with every song you write | Hit Song Architect S1E3

There are so many good points in this video that if I tried to write them all down, this blog post would take up so much space it would look like the terms of agreement that you see major companies like Apple use when you buy an app or a song. So I’ll just skip to the REALLY good ones. During this I learned a good piece of advice for writing. It goes like this: “If you want your chorus to sound big, don’t make it BIGGER. Make what comes before it SMALLER”. Basically what it means is that if you want to emphasize your chorus, make your verse/pre-chorus smaller, not make the chorus bigger as to overpower everything else. Nice little tidbit there. Not only that, the structure above is the same template I use for writing my songs. Normally it’s the vocal line, then the guitar part to accompany that. The only difference here is that I switch the drum part and the bass. It works well for me, and allows me to be creative when I create that limitation. To bring it back home, the main part that this video tries to get across is KEEP. IT. SIMPLE. Don’t overdo anything, otherwise it will just sound like a jumbled mess. Instead, simplify. Go with 4 parts, and expand/contract from there.

How interested in songwriting, song structure, and music production?

    • 1 (YUCK!)
    • 2 (not really)
    • 3 (sorta interested)
    • 4 (interested)
    • 5 (YES!)

Your score: 5. I found this info helpful, and that it can not only apply to music, but to all careers and forms of life in general. Nice job Holistic Songwriting!

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

  • Write only a few sentences of WHAT YOU LEARNED
  • In one or two sentences, describe a PROBLEM YOU SOLVED
  • DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS, AFTER YOU ARE DONE

WEEKLY ACTIVITY EVALUATION

  • Give feedback on this week’s class Content and Process
  • DELETE THIS WHOLE SECTION, AFTER YOU ARE DONE

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