(MUSC 340) Songwriting Ⅰ

Course Learning Outcomes

Each student who passes this course will be able to do the following:

1. Analyze and effectively use basic contemporary harmony including diatonic harmony (major and minor keys), this-and-that, secondary harmony, modal interchange, extensions and alterations, harmonic rhythm, and modulation.
2. Read, understand, and effectively use the common-practice chord symbol and Roman numeral notation systems used in professional contemporary music.
3. Analyze, describe, and begin to use contemporary FORM techniques including the abstract concepts of tension and release, climax, motion, stasis, timing, surprise, and the concrete techniques of melodic contour, AABA, verse, chorus, pre-chorus, bridge, hook, vamp, and the Rule of 3.
4. Fuse analysis with art by making large-scale analyses that pair analytical rigor with your own original visual art, color, beauty, texture, shape, surprise, and originality.
5. Rigorously engage with music from a variety of popular genres including pop, hip-hop, Motown/R & B, Broadway, Disney, jazz, classic rock, bluegrass, gospel, and rap.
6. Analyze and begin to skillfully use professional rhyming techniques including perfect rhyme, additive and subtractive rhyme, end and internal rhyme, assonance and consonance, alliteration, surprise, comedic timing, and common rhyme schemes; understand and engage with contemporary debates over “rhyme and its reasons”.
7. Demonstrate effective use of a rhyming dictionary, a thesaurus, notebooks, copious lists, colored pencils, and the other helpful tools on a songwriter’s desk.
8. Identify and understand the linguistic tools songwriters use to craft impactful lyrics, including imagery, metaphor, simile, narration (both trustworthy and “untrustworthy”), storytelling, dialogue, point of view, juxtaposition, repetition, humor, satire, parody, colloquialism, and slang; understand and describe the differences between effective poetry and effective lyrics.
9. Describe and evaluate a wide variety of approaches songwriters—and political and religious leaders and regimes—have used the power of song to shape opinion and to engage with politics, religion, social issues, philosophy, love, war, and relationships.
10. Create lead sheets that adhere to contemporary professional standards, including proper layout of title, melody, lyric placement, chord symbols, spacing, barlines, and formal features.