songwriting diploma

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travis16vp

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Is there a songwriting diploma in California that takes one year to complete like the one in Brighton Institute in England?
 
What if I already have a degree in Composition, will the certificate program still be good for helping me with my lyric writing? Will I need to take the Fundamentals of Music course even if I have a university degree in composition?
 
if its just about the lyric writing - skip the course and get the book on lyric writing by a teacher at Berklee called Pattison - Chris Pattison, I believe. If the lyrics aspect is not your strong suit, this would be a big help. Since you can already compose, I think a whole program on songwriting would be a waste of your time and $$$. (IMHO)

Some people have a gift for writing good lyrics - but for those who don't, learning how to write good lyrics is essentially learning how to edit and rewrite well, and to develop a good sensitivity to taste.
 
its pat pattison and the book is called writing better lyrics... GET THIS BOOK! It is the best book I have ever read on writing lyrics. You can get it at most bookstores and online for under 15 bucks. It has brought my lyrics writing to a whole other level.
 
Thanks, that was what I needed. Do you think a songwriting degree would be a big plus on my biography when I pass my demo cd? Or would record companies not notice it?
 
i believe it would be completely insignificant. It's not accountancy or the law. If your songs are good they won't care at all where they came from or how you got to be able to write them.
 
Man, I had a couple of years of music theroy in High school and other than the classical music I've written I've never needed to know any of it. Can't imagine how a degree would have made the Beatles any better. Funny what people will find to spend their money on.
 
I kind of feel the same way you do, but I might not have put it the same way ('I can't believe what people spend thier money on') in a thread by a guy considering spending money like that! :)

Anyway, I think that good - sorry *great* - songwriters are born not made, BUT a lot of stuff can be improved. Myself, I'm good with lyrics. But I have limited musical experience, so I'm going to music school to be a better composer. Now, the Beatles didn't go to music school, but they were constantly playing from thier teen years (and before that probably taking lessons) to thier middle twenties when they actually started writing really good stuff (ie Rubber Soul, etc). In my case, I don't have a musical community (that is, band members or fellow musicians I am always working with) so music school will give me a lot of that.

Every persons circumstance is different, but, I still think a class in songwriting is ... redundant. Much better would be to take a class in creative writing/poetry for the writing, and a class in composition for the music part of song writing. IMHO
 
Sorry, did not mean to be rude.
 
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travis16vp said:
Is there a songwriting diploma in California that takes one year to complete like the one in Brighton Institute in England?
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Say Travis,

What do you think of the idea of taking a creative writing class and a poetry class?


LN
 
Toker41- You’re right. Music theory doesn’t help a lot especially in pop. I have a lot of songs without lyrics though. I read some articles about songwriting yesterday and it helped a lot.
My dad teaches creative writing and poetry here in the university but that that would be too weird for me. I read about brighton institute in a mag. It seems that a lot of famous British musicians studied there (Coldplay, Robbie Williams etc.) I don’t really care if it’s a diploma or a certificate or a summer course. They just said that they teach lyric writing, subject matter development, music theory which I don’t really need and performance. It only takes one year. They seem to be affiliated with BMG publishing. I don’t know if that’s a good thing.
 
"Music theory doesn’t help a lot especially in pop. "

---> what are you talking about?!? Sure it does..... A good part of things studied in classical theory are useless for writing pop, but jazz theory sure is helpful.
 
BigLex said:
"Music theory doesn’t help a lot especially in pop. "

---> what are you talking about?!? Sure it does..... A good part of things studied in classical theory are useless for writing pop, but jazz theory sure is helpful.
Click to expand...


It doesn't help that much when all you need at minimum is 3 chords. Have a look at the rules for meldody writing for this debate.
 
I saw an interesting thing about John Mayer a few months ago.

Now, I'm sure that he's not at the top of the list for many of you, but he went to Berklee for a couple of years before dropping out.

His justification: "I finally realized that I wanted to PLAY music...not study it."

And in my ever-so-humble opinion, he does fabulously. :)
 
I really can't stand the guy, reminds me of Dave Mathews, or Sting. All those guys sound like they studied music. Some of thier songs are ok, but it all sounds so musicly "scienced". Not to mention, half the time I never know what the lyrics are suppose to mean.

But....
I love the quote...hit's the nail right on the head!
 
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