How to write a classical pop song: Lyrics and Form

Hi everyone!

I hope you are prepared to have some fun today! We are going to talk about two things today. One is how you write your lyrics and the next is going to be about form and how you build up your song.

Lyrics:

Chosing a theme: Let’s start! Get a piece of paper and start writing down some themes that you would like to write about. Your first ones might be very classical: „love“, „friends“, and so on. That’s ok, but if you chose on of those you really want to narrow it down, such that „love“à“falling in love“ or „braking up“ and „friends“à“betrayal“ or „someone is moving away“. You see what I mean. But if you listen to songs you will most likely be inspired. Some nice themes that I like are social injustice (of course narrow it down) or social behavior that may be annoying or lame.

Writing a verse: The verse will differ from a chorus: In your chorus you probably want the main idea to be portrayed, while in your verses you want to focus on a special aspect or example. A lot of people will already center on a melody writing the lyrics and that’s ok, but don’t be too sure because you might want to change that later. What is good to have though is a rhythm. That will most likely come naturally. You wouldn’t  say: I-came-and ate-your-cat. You would rather say: I came and-ate your-cat. I hope you understand what I mean. Well, back to the verse: Write down that verse!

What’s a bridge?: A bridge is something that leads into the next part. When you were writing your verse maybe you had a very steady rhythm and it sort of doesn’t change? Well the bridge is the part where it changes! Here the energy starts building up (or unbuilding). The bridge can also be a part where you are asking about your verse. You want to comment on what you said in the verse and lead into your main theme.

The chorus: For some people this is the easiest part to write. Sometimes it is! For me, it depends on what I started writing. If I started with a verse it is difficult to make a chorus and vice versa. What goes in your chorus? I already mentioned some things: you should talk about your main idea and really express an opinion. Don’t just state the facts. Say what you think! I think it is best to leave that up to you.

Next verse: You most likely want to keep the rhythm of the first verse, but this time you want to develop the theme more. Maybe you give another example or you could see how things change from the first verse. Be creative!

What else to know: What’s very common is to have to verses, and then a third verse that is different. Where you come to some sort of conclusion! Of course you don’t need to do that, but it gives some more meat to the song instead of repeating the same things over again.

Form:

This is a fun part! It’s like a puzzle. You may thing that your song is best as verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus. But how about trying something else. Putting a chorus in front? Skipping a chorus? Play around and see what develops your theme best!

Examples!

I’m sure you could find much better songs with ideas, so I will actually leave this up to you. There’s a german song though with very catchy lyrics. Since you won’t all understand it though… you should look for your own songs.

My example!

Time flies by,

people change.

So do I,

it’s nothing new.

Still somehow

I can’t explain

Something odd

About you.

When you leave,

I could swear,

it’s all true,

when you’re here.

But when you turn

Back around

I know it’s just

To appear:

Sincere and nice and all the things you want to be.

Amazing, cool, and everything you’re not.

You fooled me,

you do it every time.

I fell for it,

you know what I don’t mind.

’Cause every lie

makes me strong.

And every smile

Shows me how fake you are.

I don’t know yet I try to explain.

I should go, but I’m caught in this game.

Tossed up and down,

turned inside out.

Knowing you’re all I can’t Stopp

Thinking of.

Yet knowing I’m all you don’t give a goddamn

Shit about… you think you’re so:

Sincere and nice and all the things you want to be.

Amazing, cool, and everything you’re not.

Time flies by,

I have changed,

so have you,

never mind.

Still somehow

I can’t explain:

Something’s same

About you.

When you leave,

I could swear,

you’re the same,

when you’re hear.

But when you turn

Back around.

I know that

I’m not the only one it fear!

’Cause every lie

makes us strong.

And every smile

Shows me how real you are…

*(doesn’t belong to lyrics) Please don’t copy my lyrics!

I hope you enjoyed this first start on your song. I know my lyrics seem a little scrambled, but when it all comes together you’ll see! If you have any questions please leave a comment or feel free to send me your ideas! I’m excited about next week! I’m sure your song will get better and better!

How to write a classical pop song

Today I am going to start my tutorial on how to write your own pop song. I know I’m one day late, but since yesterday was Halloween and some other stuff I had to do I had no time to write or even check my email. But, sorry to disappoint you again, the actual fun doesn’t actually start until next week. (Continue reading, because there’s some important information about the project…)

Many people try writing songs, but get frustrated or bored. Well let me tell you, I am not the most experienced with this, but I sure think it’s fun! All you need is a little experience and it would be good if you play an instrument (or have a keyboard handy). I will be guiding you along with a piano, but a guitar will work too. If you are a completely unexperienced musician but want to give it a shot then prepare by knowing this keyboard!

Some more about my project: Every week I will teach you some more and touch another aspect of your song. Additionally I will be tracking the whole thing with my own song and I will give you an example of another song.

If you want to make your project a little different, how about making a song together with a friend?

I promise you, if you hang on and try a little, you will have great fun with this. Feel free to send me any tracks or ask any questions, I will try to answer as best as I can.

Here are some more helpful hints/ideas for those of you who are more unexperienced with this:

• Practice any sort of scales, key signatures, chords or whatever at http://www.musictheory.net/.
• Listen to some classical pop songs: ABBA, The Beatles, (A-Ha), and all you can think of. Do you know Natasha Thomas (Save Your Kisses For Me)

Have fun!!!

Popsongs again!

Hi, sorry it’s been so long.
I got back recently from a week in Paris. Me and my mom had a great time! Don’t forget to check my blog starting this weekend… The first entry may come a little bit late because my Saturday is packed with things to do… Bye the way I have to apologize because of the last entry I wrote… I told you I would start on the 30th, but I meant the 31st… sorry because of that!
So don’t forget about me next weekend!
See you soon!

Popsongs

Hey!
Don’t forget to check out my blog every week starting the 30th of October. Learn how to write your own song, but in a fun way. With a friend, or whatever!
Bye bye!

Popsongs?

Interested in how to write a popsong? Then visit in a couple of weeks and follow the week by week progress and explanation about how to write your own popsong!

Crazy Rainbow/Zebra/Giraffe Nails

Aren't they beautiful? Just read along to find out how to make them!

You will need:

• Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, and red nail polish for the rainbow. Or if you wish, other colors, but more or less these should be good.
• Black and white for the zebra.
• Yellow, brown, and black for the giraffe.
• A transparent top coat.
• If you have a thin brush, this will make it easier for you…

So, let’s start with the rainbows:

• Chose the colors that you want to use. I used purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, and red. If your nails are shorter you can either use those colors or maybe less since it makes it easier.
• Line them up in order and take the nail polish that will be in the middle of the nail. For me that was yellow. Draw a yellow line across the middle of the line: it can be as slanted as you want. Mine goes from about the bottom left to the top right corner of the nail.
• Next, take the color above the „yellow“ (middle color) and paint just along the yellow. You will have to use your eye to measure how fat the lines have to be or if you really want to be exact use a ruler, but I think that’s a little too crazy.
• This way, work your way up, and then down.

Next, we’ll do the… Zebra pattern:

• This one is quite easy as you can guess… Paint the whole nail white! My white is sort of ugly, since it turned out to look like Tipp-ex (white-out)because I couldn’t find the white I wanted.
• Then take a black polish. Now comes the hard part. If you have a thin black nail polish, you can figure out what to do. If not…
• Use your normal black! That’s what I did, I’m always up to a challenge. Makes sure that the brush doesn’t have much color and only the end has paint. Hold the brush above the nail, don’t press, and carefully drag it along where you want the line, letting the polish „drip“ evenly.
• Make unsymmetrical stripes, and don’t make too many. Make some long lines, some short lines, some in the middle, some on the side, and so on…

Finally, the Giraffe:

• First, as you will guess, just paint the whole nail yellow.
• Take your brown color and carefully make small dots that are sort of deformed. This isn’t as hard as it looks.
• You may not be able to see it on my picture, but there is a black outline for the dots. For this a thin brush will really help, but go ahead and use the normal one if you want to. It’s not too hard, but slightly challenging. Like with the zebra stripes, don’t actually press the brush on the nail. Once you do this a couple of times, you’ll understand how it works so that it looks nice!

Now you are ALMOST done! The last step is almost the most important! Since you have used so many different colors, they are bound to come off quite easily. Use a transparent nail polish and cover everything, BUT, wait till the nails are 100% dry, so that the colors don’t smear.

Of course you can also paint all your nails either rainbow, giraffe, or zebra, or do whatever you want.

P.S. Please comment if you have other ideas! For anything. But if you want nails, you’ll have to wait for a couple of weeks (about 2) since my nails need a break from paint. They discolor slightly if you paint them too often…

Good Luck, Tamar!

Wishful Thinking

Recently, on my way from school, I caught myself slouching, dragging myself along, simply tired. So I told myself „Walk straight. Look up. Smile!“ At first I felt really silly, walking along happy like a little child, but after five minutes I was 100% optimistic. I began to smile, just because I was happy. And just thinking about myself made me laugh. That made me smile. So the whole thing triggered some sort of chain reaction. I don’t know if this is some amazing new scientific idea, but I suppose not. So now, having had that experience I’ve started smiling much more and being a much happier person!

During my history test, writing an essay, I was happy! What kind of person is happy during a test? And whether it ends up being a good essay or not, I know that I know the material and I didn’t freak myself out.

So if you haven’t done it yet today, it’s definately time to show the world your beautiful smile! As my math teacher would say „just dominate!“ and „Let’s do this thing like a chicken wing on a string from Burger King.

That’s my idea for today, and I wish you all the best being the happiest person ever… or maybe the second happiest. (I’m not the first)… (and I’m starting to get pointless here!!!)

Sixteen and enjoying it! <3

I know, it sounds like it and actually, yes, a lot has changed since I’m sixteen. 16!!! I don’t know, but I’m having a huge flashback of great 8th grade times full of optimism and joy. I was so easy-going, and I feel like I can be like that again. But I’ve also grown up. I don’t know, everything seems to go much easier. Even if not everything works out perfectly I feel like I know what I’m doing. Is that what it feels like? Growing up? Or am I just frantically trying to work out. Well whatever it is I won’t let it destroy my mood. But I don’t know. People say, that when you are over-optimistic it is because you want to hide something. What would I hide, I feel so much more open. I want to talk to people, be myself again, not care about what others say. Don’t worry, be happy! I always feel like something between laughing and crying and I don’t know why. And maybe I do, I just don’t want to tell myself. Well I see, I’ve started to speak in riddles, so I’m thinking I’ll go to bed, get a clear mind, stop writing random words that burst out of my head. But my head just wants to get rid of so much. Oh well, I realize that what I am writing does not make sense. My whole text is just a hole long run-on sentence as my english teacher would say.

Good night, rest you minds and come back soon to see if my brain is working a bit better then…

How to make Holiday Beach nails:

So… here you have the picture of what it will eventually look like: hopefully even better, since I didn’t spend a long time on it as you can see.

1. Use light blue nail polish as a background for the sky and cover the whole nail. With the polish I used I had to do two layers to make it look like sky.

2. Use a yellow polish for the sand: make a wavish like motion on the bottom of the nail and fill it in. For the sun, make a part of a circle in the corner of the nail and have thin lines going from it for the sun rays.

3. The umbrella looks harder than it is. First take white nail polish and make a thin line from the sand to about the middle of the nail. From the top of that line, make more white lines come of. 4 or 5 should be enough. Fill the space between the lines with red.

4. To make your nails shiny AND to make all the polishes stay, cover the nail with clear polish. Make sure to let the nail dry first, because otherwise when you apply the clear coat, it will smear!

I hope you have fun with this!

Bye bye!

Good morning.

Since school started I really have had no time to write! It’s crazy! Well, now I finally have a couple of minutes, so I would like to tell you about my summer. The first week I stayed here and we had out street party which me and a friend organized. It was really fun, although the weather really didn’t go with it in the end.

After that, two friends of mine, my uncle, and I took a bus to Sweden. It took ages, but I thought it was really fun (unlike others…). The weather in Sweden was nice the first 5 days, but then it started raining. My friends left, but more and more family started rolling in, still, the weather mostly wasn’t exactly good. After what seems like millions of birthday parties and other celebrations my mom and I drove back.

THEN, I flew to New York. I stayed there for a couple of days, then went on to Washington and did some sight seeing. On to Boston: we went to a “Shakespeare in the park” play of  ”Comedy of Errors”, and visited some more family. We took the train back to New York where we stayed, went shopping, ate, and tons more!

Back home, my dad, his gf, and I took a Canoo tour for two days, then we flew to Denmark and celebrated into the new school year (sort of…except for we were back here by that time).

So… now you know what I did, but I’ll put up some pictures just for fun anyways!

my friends and me in la Suède

me all dressed up!

me standing in the rain