Lesson Plan: Guitar Songwriting 1

1. Good morning! I’m very happy to see you today, and happy to be with you if you’re on
Zoom.
a. You should’ve filled out a form about your favorite songs
b. Today we’re talking about how songs capture emotion as well as how they are
structured.
2. Let’s start by talking about a song you said makes you happy. This is “Un Poco Loco”
from the movie “Coco.”
a. We’ll listen to it once and describe what we’re hearing using adjectives.
b. What’s an adjective?
c. Listen and come up with 2 adjectives to describe what you’re hearing. I’m going
to call on everybody at least once today, so be ready!
d. Please share your adjectives! Three students share adjectives.
e. What is the HOOK of this song? The “hook” is the word we use to describe the
defining feature of the song, usually a set of lyrics or the most catchy part of the
melody. Often, the hook is featured in the chorus of the song. We’ll talk about that
in a minute.
i. Nod at me if you understand. Zoom robots gimme a thumbs up
ii. What’s the hook?
1. We can tell it’s the hook because the ENERGY picked up, and if
someone asked us to hum this song, we would probably hum that
part.
3. Let’s listen to a song that you said makes you less happy and more relaxed. This is the
“Pina Colada Song” by Rupert Holmes.
a. Repeat adjective exercise with the first verse.
b. We have verses, choruses, and something called a “Bridge”
c. One more time. This time, listen carefully to the song and raise your hand when
you think a section has STARTED. When a verse begins, when a chorus begins,
etc.
d. What kind of map do we have?
e. What is the hook?
i. We can tell it’s the hook because the ENERGY picked up, and if someone
asked us to hum this song, we would probably hum that part.
4. Let’s do another map. This is “Love Story” by Taylor Swift.
a. What does this map look like?
b. What’s the hook?
c. Let’s compare this map to that map.
5. So, as we venture into songwriting, we’ll be largely following this structure. Not EVERY
song is like this, but when we write a song TOGETHER, we’re going to follow this simple
structure formula of VCVCBC.