So many mad artists on this thread! Lesson 1: Balance Story and Emotion Lesson 2: Look for a fresh angle on a familiar topic. Lesson 3: Write from what you know.
Too RIGHT! If a raspy, weak, 2 note range singer like Willie Nelson can have a mega career spanning over seven decades, almost anyone can. Cliff is a brilliant songwriter. In the music business, you see moderately adept singers blaze to superstar, and brilliant musicians toil away in obscurity, never hitting ‘the big time’. His song “Not Quite” sung by Heather Rigdon, is a standard in the making.
Thank you Cliff! Your passion for songwriting really shines through. I've been writing songs for 15 years cause I can't help it. I appreciate your insight and sharing your gifts.
Good advice! This gentleman is truly professional and talented. For those being rude and hateful about this video..please post your work so we can judge it. Otherwise, take the advice and improve and encourage other songwriters.
I love this video of you Cliff. It really shows just who you are and you shine. Thank you so much for all the hard work you do for all of us. I feel so fortunate to have found you and Nashville Studio Live for my music!
advice from experience, never turn down free advice, take what you can use, build your skills and have many. learn all the mechanics from a to z and keep learning and practicing. it never stops.
Wowza! The good news is that if you ever get tired of the songwriting biz.....you've got a stand-up comedy career waiting in the wings as your back up plan. Just watched this twice and actually learned something about making tunes. You totally crushed it! Congrats, Juan Patino
Finally someone said this! 'Hey Jude' wouldn't be a classic if it was strummed with a ukulele...the orchestral involvement made it great and historic. You are correct, Brian.
@@bassinblue except, have you heard Jake Shimabukuru play it on the uke? Transformational. Without a beautiful tune, the lyrics are floating in the ether, untethered.
I hear a little bit of Jonathan Richman here. And yes, he's a songwriter, in the old, classic Tin Pan Alley or Brill Street sense. A lot of the songs you love have been written by people who are no more talented as performers than, or who are even less talented as performers than, this guy.
Dont get you guys here . The guy is a Songwriter which means he writes songs. The lyrics and the angles that he shows so easy are glimpses of what hardships he‘s been through . Means he sticks to it and thats what count in music. P.s.very nice songs and insight.thank you
the guy still non the less put together great four universal tips to writing songs. every song writer has their way for gods sake. but these can work for everyone. chill with mean comments.
Thanks for this clip. I have been stuck in my creativity. This reminded me what i have been forgetting in the process of writing one song after another.
Working within parameters and light limits is great, but when you apply the same formula to each song, they all tend to sound the same. Songwriting is discovery, of what kinds of lyrics and sounds can be sculpted by different ratios of emotion and story and other elements of song. Everybody has their own sound.
Every lyricist and tunesmith has a signature “sound”. They all have a “formula” or method of crafting a song. A Sammy Cahn song is easily identifiable from a Marvin Hamlisch tune, Willie Nelson from Kris Kristofferson. Because their songs have a similarity doesn’t lessen their value. They’re all working with the same 8 notes and 26 letters!
dude all of these comments are so mean! this guy would be a PERFECT stand up comedian.. not a cool, good musician from what i have seen. he likes music.. he has heady lyrics.. yeah.. stand up comedian using music.. 100% fit for this guy.
Excellent. Really tongue in cheek but very sound advice. What is music these days? A commodity which is really awful. Hail to all songwriters. You guys are the best.
In my official capacity as some guy on the internet I'm going to say yeah, this is good advice, but it won't help you if you're like me. You sit at a computer with a guitar thinking "I need a familiar topic and a fresh angle.. hmmmm... *strums a G & a D chord for 10 minutes and gives up*" If you're like me, go start by searching for "Why is writing so hard?" and watch Damien Walter's video. So what he's saying is, you need to do creative writing exercises. Fortunately I have Pat Pattison's Songwriting without Boundaries. Buy that book. Google him. Watch his videos. Excellent resource. I'm developing a method of subtle theft and mining. Take notes. If a song has a nice little metaphor or a turn of phrase, write it down. Re-write it in your own words. Steal the rhythm for your notes. Write song fragments - don't try to write full songs - you're just doing the research. Then, when you sit down with the guitar and you think "what should I write?" Open the notebook or the google doc with all your fragments. You'll forget where they came from and they'll be brand-new. Get creative. Re-write stuff, sing it out. Remix. Recycle. Play. You'll find yourself naturally doing what this guy says. Also, songs don't need to mean anything until they're written, or the thing you started with. The meaning of the song can change mid-sentence. If you do it right, it'll feel like you didn't write the song yourself. Write bad things intentionally. Write good things by accident. Time yourself writing. 5 minutes of free association about a lampost or a flower pot. Stop as soon as the timer goes off.
This guys interesting take on a love song.... about it being hard to write a love song that isn't generic and has something new to say... is the exact premise of a John Entwistle song "Its Hard to Write a Love Song" much better than what he's got.
okay, but...the lyrics he wrote say EXACTLY what he said would be too much emotion. Like almost freaking verbatim. How did this guy get a Ted spot? Can I have one? I can do the same thing.
I started writing songs only because something was telling me to and they just keep coming one after another where they come from I can only guess but it’s like it chose me not me had chosen it
Hes writing commercially, for the public at 8am on the radio when they are going to work and listening mindlessly. Its easy to listen ti and understand qithout effort. He's not writing for the artists in the world. Its harder to write simply more than you might realize
Started my own songwriting tutorial series on my channel. Best advice I could give to anyone whether it's songwriting, music production, composition, and even improvisation: Analyze/Transcribe/Recreate your favorite pieces of music. It's as simple as that.
sorry what was you billboard charting single - surely not one of the examples played here. might lend this some street cred to know what you've actually achieved. examples here are a little soft
+Cliff Goldmacher hello, I know your probably busy, my you tube is Michael south Times of life if you could give me your feed back would be awesome, any help would be appreciated . Thanks you !
Lyrics are not that important, melody is key just listen to k pop.. or french pop music most people dont know wth they are saying but still bang foreign speaking songs thnks 2 rhythm, harmonic structure and melody,
John Cavanaugh I didn't say a degree is required to be successful. Some of the most successful artists ever had no formal education. For example, Miles Davis, who's album "Kind of Blue" is the best selling jazz album in history, was accepted to the Juilliard School of Music but he dropped out because he didn't think he needed it. But seriously, many people here don't know anything. They think that all you have to know is the sales basic scales and chords.
Okay, as a teacher by trade, I'm going to have to take offense to this. You wouldn't be able to do whatever it is you do if you hadn't learned from a teacher first. Teachers are experts in their field. They may not all be great teachers, but they know what they're doing. So, miss me with the teacher's insult. Besides, as terrible as this guy sounds, he is actually writing songs, which is the whole point. Tell me. What have you done lately?
The first three songs were basically comedy songs. Quite embarrassing really. I'll stick with my Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon. Nothing to learn from here.
The music couldn't be more old-fashioned, boring and unsurprising. Why care for the lyrics then? People who can't write interesting, fresh music should write poems.
25 years composing and you compose like that? sorry dude but this sucks. I mean it's very mediocre. Maybe try getting a band and singing about other fellings? like anger, agony, oppression, euforia, depression...
did you really watch the video? and still you say this guy is creative? I guess the word-choosing is good but the overall lyrics are so plain, boring and predictable that the overall lyrics are still mediocre
Nonsense what has this man ever written that people would BUY ?? trouble with using a Joke as the Theme Once its been heard thats it, Too much Dissonance in his melodies, Nothing hits one between the eyes its just drivel you can hear from any cafe amateur, who believes he is a musical genius ; Billboard Jazz Charts ???? say no more
His songwriting is very generic, he’s very lucky he has a platform to perform. I know a lot of songwriters better at both singing and writing who would kill for that stage. It’s a shame how privilege even affects us in the creative industry. It’s not about what you sing or play it’s how much $$$$’s you got for lessons and co writers
His lyrics are just misogynistic "give her to me", yeah he thinks it's a punchline but really it's just removing all agency from the woman. "I'm the nicest guy you ever knew" classic whining of a man who thinks he's entitled to something just because he's Mr nice guy.
