Recently, I was thrilled to coach one of my teenage students in songwriting. We studied chords, chord progressions, and the singing of ideas - including melodies and harmonies - into being.
It was exciting to share with her a bit about my own background in songwriting and to hear her work out her own ideas on paper, writing down the verses and chords to her song. During the process, we also touched on rhyming verses and it came up in our discussion that today's songs are often on the longer and wordier side than before, and noticed that in an observational way. For homework, my student will sound out the chorus and further verses of her song.
The writing of a song can take many different directions and reminds me of driving a car in that respect. It is an act of agency to write one as much as it can be to write a story starting from a blank piece of paper. But songs don't start so much on paper as they do in the heart and in the soul of a person.
Writing a song can be a very empowering endeavor for a songwriter, and I am always excited to support my piano students in this effort whenever it comes up at the piano.