Miranda - The song creation formula : 7 easy steps to writing your song

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2014 Signe Miranda. All rightsreserved. Second edition.

Published at Smashwords by SigneMiranda

No part of this publication maybe reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, orby any information storage and retrieval system, without writtenpermission from the author or publisher, except in the case ofbrief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN 978-0-9938506-0-8Paperback

ISBN 978-0-9938506-1-5 HardCover

ISBN 978-0-9938506-2-2Digital

Published by:

Your Love Wins

PO Box 6069, Station A,Toronto, ON, M5W 1P5, CANADA

yourlovewins.com

Edited by: Sarah Greene &Lars Miranda

Proofread by: JanetHoransky

Cover Design: JeffLittlejohn

All images used withpermission: 'author photos' Siyoung Byun; 'dancing musical notes'Lorelyn Medina/Fotolia.com; 'Introduction' imagechris/Fotolia.com; 'Step 1' & 'Step 2' image ASL Creations/Fotolia.com; 'Step 6' image venimo/Fotolia.com; 'Step 7' imageTomasz Rzymkiewicz/Fotolia.com; 'Jim Cuddy' & 'Oh Susanna'Heather Pollock; 'Luke Doucet' Ivan Otis, 'Jeremy Fisher' RmiThriault; 'Craig Northey' Cole Northey; 'Kat Goldman' AnneRuthman; 'Taylor Abrahamse' Daniel Camer. All rights reserved.

A portion of the proceeds fromthis book goes to Start2Finish, a Canada-wide running and readingprogram for kids living in low-income communities.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank those whohave helped me grow as a songwriter, inspired me, encouraged me andwhose influence brought me to where I am as a songwriter.

Thank you to Brian Allossery,who I am so grateful to have in my life, for helping to bring mysongs to life and standing by me as I follow my heart; my parentsfor always being there for me and for showing their support for mydecision to become a songwriter and touring musician; my mom forsending me to piano lessons and my brothers for encouraging me toplay guitar; those who inspired my songs; those who I've played inbands with over the years and those who I've toured with andco-written songs with: Brian Allossery, Shamakah Ali, Jeff Stone,Dominic von Riedemann and the Song Creation Workshop students, aswell as my new songwriting friends from the Coalition ArtistEntrepreneur Program (some of whom I've written songs with) Nathan & Trevor Crook, Jean-Paul De Roover, Noel Johnson, MissyKnott, Andre-Anne Lecelerc, Declan O'Donovan, Noah Pascoe, EricaSchiopu & Grady Welbourn, and instructors Vel Omazic and SeanKelly, who both advised me and gave me guidance as I was working onthis book.

I would also like to thankeveryone who contributed to the book: Taylor Abrahamse for writinga chapter, for editing my seven-step guide and for being an amazingco-facilitator and collaborator in our workshops; Chris Birkett forwriting the foreword and for his mentorship at our Song CreationWorkshops and those who generously gave their time and shared theirknowledge by granting me an interview and allowing me to sharetheir stories with you; Jim Cuddy, Greig Nori, Suzie Ungerleider(Oh Susanna), Jeremy Fisher, Kat Goldman, Luke Doucet and CraigNorthey; Judith Coombe at Starfish Entertainment, who helped me setup my first interview, as well as Paul Quigley at Upper Managementand Emily Smart at Six Shooter Records for helping me set up acouple of the interviews, and Peter Linseman who invited me toattend Toronto Regional Writers Group events and appeared as aguest at our songwriting workshop.

I would like to thank SarahGreene (with whom I played in the Pickups) and Lars Miranda forediting this book and for their advice, as well as Janet Horanskyand Julia Collins for additional proofreading and editing. I wouldlike to thank Jeff Littlejohn for designing the cover, and GerryRobert and James MacNeil for the inspiration to write a book. Iwould also like to thank Jason Chechik for his advice on publishingand releasing the book.

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FOREWORD

What is songwriting?

Just like painting, graphicdesign, poetry, architecture and cooking, songwriting is a creativeprocess. If we do any of these things in a spirit of unconditionallove then we are in the creative process.

The creative process existsthroughout nature. If we stand near the ocean long enough andlisten to the sound of the sea or the wind we will eventually hearmelody. Beautiful music is all around us; we just have to listencarefully and bring it into our material world.

The songwriting processfunctions on two levels: intuitive and intellectual.

Intuitive:

Our intuition, when notgoal-driven, becomes a channel for the expression of beauty. Whenwriting down your ideas, just let them flow without judgement orcriticism. Try not to look back on what you're writing until you'veexpressed everything you need to express.

Intellectual:

When you're done expressing,then it is time to edit your work. The editing process is not thesame as the creative process. It comes from a different part of us.The intellectual mind multiplies, divides, analyzes. Editing,arranging and improving your song falls into this category.

As songwriters our mission isto transform fine energy in its pure form of potentiality into amedium that can be perceived with our senses. We simply allowourselves to become vehicles for creative energy. To do this weneed tools. If Mozart had not been an awesome piano player themusic that came through him would not have been on the samelevel.

That is the purpose ofsongwriting workshops. To give us the tools so that we can learn tocommunicate our perceptions, feelings, insights and truths throughthe medium of song.

It is through songwritingworkshops that I became acquainted with Signe's perspective onsongwriting and I think that this book is beneficial to newsongwriters and songwriters looking for inspiration, because itincludes both the intellectual tools - in Signes seven-step guideand the chord progressions chapter by Taylor Abrahamse - and theintuitive inspiration-driven aspect of songwriting, in theinterviews with esteemed Canadian songwriters.

So relax, enjoy yourself, becreative, open yourself like a flower opens to the sun and allowthe universal creative spirit to flow through you like a river.

Chris Birkett

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CONTENTS

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7 easy Steps to writing your song

You may be wondering what theSong Creation Formula is; that's probably why you are readingthis book. You may be thinking that there is no formula; thatsongwriting is too subjective, too expansive and full of too manypossibilities to be narrowed down to a formula. I agree: there isno one formula. There are so many ways to write a song that bookscould be continually written on the subject. This book provides aformula, a set of seven steps that will assist you with writing asong that is recognizable as a song if you've never written onebefore; or it will provide you with new perspectives onsongwriting, to pull you out of a rut, break through your patternsand help you see things in a new way. Step by step, you'll have asystem to follow, to test out one path to writing a song, a paththat contains the basic elements of every song. I've focused on thelyrical aspects of songwriting in this book, partly because that'swhat I feel I understand the most about songwriting; it's what Igravitate towards. When I buy an album, the first thing I do isopen up the liner notes and read the lyrics and song titles. It'sthat tangible, visual-kinesthetic connection to the musicalcreation. When I listen to a song, to understand its structure, Iprefer to have the lyric sheet in front of me, to understand theoverall picture of the song. Some people understand a song byfocusing on the musical atmosphere that it creates. These are thepeople who can hear a song and instantly sing it or identify thechords. For that reason, I've included a chapter on chordprogressions, written by Taylor Abrahamse, who has studied musicand composition and who naturally listens to a song and can easilyidentify the chord progression and the musical landscape of thesong. This will assist you in shaping the musical structure of yoursongs.