“How to write a song”

After we’d had four sessions or so, Ronan sent an email summarizing some of the songwriting areas we had discussed. This is a version I’ve edited from his original email.

“For your first song it’s good to have a teacher. In this case you don’t need a teacher, because I’m the teacher.

These are things on how to write a song – the name of the song and the chorus – these are what we will focus on. It’s up to you if there is going to be a melody. You don’t need a melody. Each song you write will be a little different. We are focusing on just one song now.

You can’t just sing the name of the song the entire time. You need to sing other things, too. The lyrics are what you sing, and the chorus is what you sing over and over again. You need to have a chorus. A song without a chorus would be a boring song – and we don’t want a boring song.

At the top you can write what instruments you’re using for the song. Let’s say you’re using a guitar. You write down what the guitar plays. And let’s say there is more than one person singing. You can highlight in different colors who sings what. If there are two men singing, and their names are Dennis and John, highlight what John sings in red, and highlight what Dennis sings in yellow. And if there is a time when both John and Dennis are singing, you can high highlight it in orange.

You don’t need more than one person singing. It can just be you singing the whole entire time. And let’s say you’re going to perform a song. Before you perform a song you need to write it and then practice it.

What’s the name of your song you want to write?”