So in your song, you'll want to express an idea. And where do those ideas come from? Where do your song ideas come from? And the answer is everywhere. there's so many ways that a song can start. It can start from, well, typically for those, for those of us who play an instrument. you'll be playing some chords. and you may start humming over those chords and that sort of starts you off on a little path and then you might start to just mumbling some syllables and and things just stat kind of progressing. And that's really fun when that happens. but there comes a point where you have to answer the question, okay, what am I going to say? What is this idea? And that's where things really start getting interesting. So what is it that you want to talk about. I mean of course it may be that you are motivated to say something, as Donny was. motivated to say something because something has happened in your life. maybe of course we all have this moment of[SOUND], because our heart's been broken, or so on. And we feel like we need to express something. it may be actually that we're happy. And we want to express something, like, we're happy. It may be something, like, I'm so grateful. That you're in my life, or it maybe something like, I wish things were better between us. Something like that, there's something that you have to say and the song will then be a vehicle to express that feeling. To express that idea. It may be something like, oh, it makes me so sad to see somebody homeless on the street. And you want to write this song about homelessness. it may be that you have, you, you, somebody had said something. And that little piece of what somebody says. You say, wow, that could be a song. so for example, Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith. h, on the, on their new album has a song called Tell Me. in which he thought that might be a really interesting idea to center his song. he he got that idea from taking the tools and strategies class on the Berkley music lyric writing courses. Which was, which was really great and so tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me what? Tell me why is it That I loved you so much but, it wasn't returned. And that was the thing that he built this song around. certainly John Mayer's song Belief, where he talks in his Continuum album about the nature of belief. a very interesting political song. there's something that you need to express. And so, one of the things that I would, encourage you to do is to start listening to people's conversations. Because almost anything, if you think about it, can be the centerpiece of its own. I remember, I was I believe in Australia, and I was coming around a corner driving and there on the side of the road were all of these houses that looked exactly identical. And they were all two-story houses. And I said, wow. Those are all two-story houses. And then, you know, click, oh, that could be a song, a two-story house. That is to say, a house with two stories. So that it could be you're the artist. And you like a lot of light and so you're living on the second story. And I'm of course the musician and I'm down there in my studio. And so we have sort of a two story house. I thought, that might be an interesting thing to start a song. So not that, not that I immediately started writing that song, but I jotted it down. And I put it in my little file of possible song ideas, which I'd really encourage you to take. you know just a little book or perhaps on your computer, just have this little list. Of of potential song ideas. Of things that will take you someplace. What what could this mean? What kind of idea will this song be? so that keeping, keeping a little list of songs. and then you can start thinking about them. What could this song be? And who's talking, to whom, and why? Now, Donny and Donna again is a really interesting platform because it really focuses where we're trying to go. But just note that not everything Has to be me talking to you. So that's the who is talking. Because this this whole thing of who is talking starts us now on the path of what is the relationship of the singer. To the audience. And there could be four possible relationships that the singer has. The singer could simply be a storyteller. And so the idea would be something like, he loved her so much. And yet she failed to return his love. She loved him so much, and yet he failed to return her love. Whichever way. But note that the singer Is now the storyteller and that I, as the singer, sing he loved her so much and yet she did not return his love. I am asking you to turn with me to observe him and her. That is to say, that we, I the singer and you the audience, do not have An intimate relationship. I'm simply the storyteller. This is called third-person narrative. It's sort of a story kind of point of view. And that's what we're talking about here, is point of view. that which defines the relationship between the singer and the audience. So here, he loved her so much, you and I do not have a relationship other than the fact that I'm telling you this story. So that, we can call the most objective. That sits out here with if we talk about cameras. That sits out here as sort of the long range shot, it takes in everything. And the third person narrator. Is god. The third person narrator has access to everybody's mind. Has access to the past, the present, the future, knows everything, omniscient. And so, in the third person narrative, we're taking the long distance view. It's not very intimate. And there are many ideas that will work really well in third person narrative. We bring the camera in closer to what's called first person narrative. Then we're saying, I loved her so much, and yet she never returned my love. Now you and I, the singer and the audience, we have a relationship. We have some intimacy. I'm telling you something about me. But yet she remains at a distance. So that, this, first person narrative is a great format, a great point of view. For me, expressing something about how I feel. We have, now, an intimate relationship. I could, by the way, be telling you a story about something that happened to me, and so I am still a narrator, but I will be talking about me and her. Or me and him, or me and them. And the point of the story, the why of the story will be something that I have learned usually in this first person narrative. So there's some intimacy involved in there, in that first person narrative. There's also something called second person narrative. Where the camera actually comes in a little bit closer, and that would be, you loved her so much, and yet she did not return your love. You loved her so much, and yet she did not return your love. and so now there is this kind of sense of intimacy, although the word I or me or us or we or any of the first person pronouns are never going to be stated. It's only you and she. You can take a look at Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone for, for that one. Or the Beatles' For No One. really good examples of second-person narrative. Or on the Eagles latest album a song called Somebody. really good examples of second person narrative. But the thing about that is, is that at any second it seems like the singer is going to peek around the corner and say, I. going to open the curtain and say, I. So that there's a sense of connection, the sense of intimacy that really isn't going to be fulfilled. So would be you loved her so much, and yet she would not return your love. And then finally, the most intimate point of view. Direct address. I loved you so much, and yet, you would not return my love. I loved you so much and yet you would not return my love. Now, I want to say right up front, that there are no rules in song writing, only tools. Well, there is one rule, but we'll talk about that later. But there are only tools. And so you should try, when you have a song idea, to deal with it from all four points of view, and see which way it feels the most genuine. And see which way it feels the most real. And then you can start working to build your song and create a journey for the listener. Create that relationship to the listener. what am I to you? What am I, the singer, to you, the audience? Am I the narrator? Talking he and she. And my first-person narrator talking I and she. second-person narrator talking you and she. Or am I talking I and you. And that's the point of view. That's to deal with the question, who is talking and to whom? Who is talking? And to whom? The first two questions of the three questions that every song must answer.
