So in your song, you'll want to express an

idea.
And where do those ideas come from?
Where do your song ideas come from?
And the answer is everywhere.
There's so many ways that a song can
start.
It can start from, well, typically for
those, for those of us who play an
instrument.
You'll be playing some chords.
And you may start humming over those
chords and that sort of starts you off on
a little path and then you might start to
just mumbling some syllables and, and
things just stat kind of progressing.
And that's really fun when that happens.
But there comes a point where you have to
answer the question, okay, what am I going
to say?
What is this idea?
And that's where things really start
getting interesting.
So what is it that you want to talk about.
I mean of course it may be that you are
motivated to say something, as Donny was.
Motivated to say something because
something has happened in your life.
Maybe of course we all have this moment of
because our heart's been broken, or so on.
And we feel like we need to express
something.
It may be actually that we're happy.
And we want to express something, like,
we're happy.
It may be something, like, I'm so
grateful.
That you're in my life, or it maybe
something like, I wish things were better
between us.
Something like that, there's something
that you have to say and the song will
then be a vehicle to express that feeling.
To express that idea.
It may be something like, oh, it makes me
so sad to see somebody homeless on the
street.
And you want to write this song about
homelessness.
It may be that you have, you, you,
somebody had said something.
And that little piece of what somebody
says.
You say, wow, that could be a song.
So for example, Tom Hamilton from
Aerosmith.
H, on the, on their new album has a song
called Tell Me.
In which he thought that might be a really
interesting idea to center his song.
He, he got that idea from taking the tools
and strategies class on the Berkley music
lyric writing courses.
Which was, which was really great and so
tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me what?
Tell me why is it That I loved you so much
but, it wasn't returned.
And that was the thing that he built this
song around.
Certainly John Mayer's song Belief, where
he talks in his Continuum album about the
nature of belief.
A very interesting political song.
There's something that you need to
express.
And so, one of the things that I would,
encourage you to do is to start listening
to people's conversations.
Because almost anything, if you think
about it, can be the centerpiece of its
own.
I remember, I was I believe in Australia,
and I was coming around a corner driving
and there on the side of the road were all
of these houses that looked exactly
identical.
And they were all two-story houses.
And I said, wow.
Those are all two-story houses.
And then, you know, click, oh, that could
be a song, a two-story house.
That is to say, a house with two stories.
So that it could be you're the artist.
And you like a lot of light and so you're
living on the second story.
And I'm of course the musician and I'm
down there in my studio.
And so we have sort of a two story house.
I thought, that might be an interesting
thing to start a song.
So not that, not that I immediately
started writing that song, but I jotted it
down.
And I put it in my little file of possible
song ideas, which I'd really encourage you
to take.
You know just a little book or perhaps on
your computer, just have this little list.
Of, of potential song ideas.
Of things that will take you someplace.
What, what could this mean?
What kind of idea will this song be?
So that keeping, keeping a little list of
songs.
And then you can start thinking about
them.
What could this song be?
And who's talking, to whom, and why?
Now, Donny and Donna again is a really
interesting platform because it really
focuses where we're trying to go.
But just note that not everything Has to
be me talking to you.
So that's the who is talking.
Because this, this whole thing of who is
talking starts us now on the path of what
is the relationship of the singer.
To the audience.
And there could be four possible
relationships that the singer has.
The singer could simply be a storyteller.
And so the idea would be something like,
he loved her so much.
And yet she failed to return his love.
She loved him so much, and yet he failed
to return her love.
Whichever way.
But note that the singer Is now the
storyteller and that I, as the singer,
sing he loved her so much and yet she did
not return his love.
I am asking you to turn with me to observe
him and her.
That is to say, that we, I the singer and
you the audience, do not have An intimate
relationship.
I'm simply the storyteller.
This is called third-person narrative.
It's sort of a story kind of point of
view.
And that's what we're talking about here,
is point of view.
That which defines the relationship
between the singer and the audience.
So here, he loved her so much, you and I
do not have a relationship other than the
fact that I'm telling you this story.
So that, we can call the most objective.
That sits out here with if we talk about
cameras.
That sits out here as sort of the long
range shot, it takes in everything.
And the third person narrator.
Is god.
The third person narrator has access to
everybody's mind.
Has access to the past, the present, the
future, knows everything, omniscient.
And so, in the third person narrative,
we're taking the long distance view.
It's not very intimate.
And there are many ideas that will work
really well in third person narrative.
We bring the camera in closer to what's
called first person narrative.
Then we're saying, I loved her so much,
and yet she never returned my love.
Now you and I, the singer and the
audience, we have a relationship.
We have some intimacy.
I'm telling you something about me.
But yet she remains at a distance.
So that, this, first person narrative is a
great format, a great point of view.
For me, expressing something about how I
feel.
We have, now, an intimate relationship.
I could, by the way, be telling you a
story about something that happened to me,
and so I am still a narrator, but I will
be talking about me and her.
Or me and him, or me and them.
And the point of the story, the why of the
story will be something that I have
learned usually in this first person
narrative.
So there's some intimacy involved in
there, in that first person narrative.
There's also something called second
person narrative.
Where the camera actually comes in a
little bit closer, and that would be, you
loved her so much, and yet she did not
return your love.
You loved her so much, and yet she did not
return your love.
And so now there is this kind of sense of
intimacy, although the word I or me or us
or we or any of the first person pronouns
are never going to be stated.
It's only you and she.
You can take a look at Dylan's Like a
Rolling Stone for, for that one.
Or the Beatles' For No One.
Really good examples of second-person
narrative.
Or on the Eagles latest album a song
called Somebody.
Really good examples of second person
narrative.
But the thing about that is, is that at
any second it seems like the singer is
going to peek around the corner and say,
I.
Going to open the curtain and say, I.
So that there's a sense of connection, the
sense of intimacy that really isn't going
to be fulfilled.
So would be you loved her so much, and yet
she would not return your love.
And then finally, the most intimate point
of view.
Direct address.
I loved you so much, and yet, you would
not return my love.
I loved you so much and yet you would not
return my love.
Now, I want to say right up front, that
there are no rules in song writing, only
tools.
Well, there is one rule, but we'll talk
about that later.
But there are only tools.
And so you should try, when you have a
song idea, to deal with it from all four
points of view, and see which way it feels
the most genuine.
And see which way it feels the most real.
And then you can start working to build
your song and create a journey for the
listener.
Create that relationship to the listener.
What am I to you?
What am I, the singer, to you, the
audience?
Am I the narrator?
Talking he and she.
And my first-person narrator talking I and
she.
Second-person narrator talking you and
she.
Or am I talking I and you.
And that's the point of view.
That's to deal with the question, who is
talking and to whom?
Who is talking?
And to whom?
The first two questions of the three
questions that every song must answer.