Composing Workshop - Lesson 4

In today's session we looked at what makes a good song and decided that it is an expression of feelings that resounds with others which is why some people prefer and like different songs to others. People connect with different songs. We decided that we wanted to compose a sad song and therefore I automatically started to play a minor based chord sequence and just start improvising around broken chords up in the higher octave. When playing I asked how it made people felt and Yahya and he said it made him feel quite melancholy as it felt quite sad with re assurance. It related to a previous chorus I'd wrote in the past and didn't know what to do with it.

No one said that life's a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

I know today has troubles of its own, but tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

Then from this we developed a middle eight and put harmonies with this. However after this we hit a bit of a block and therefore I suggested the idea of doing free writing for a minute to try and devise ideas. From the writing and pictures developed from this task we then managed to use these to form the verses and by having a verse each it enabled each person to really connect with what they were singing which conveyed the emotion and feeling. Then this helped decide the structure and then I added harmonies to make this more musically engaging. This then also helped me decide on more interesting piano parts to accompany the vocals but allowing the vocals to be the focus as this was more important. We used a male and a female voice to show two sides of a relationship and I think this worked really well as was really clear and suited the song.

Walking everyday through the door step.
Waiting for your friendly warmth but your not there.
I don't know how to feel no more.
People talking, can't hear what they say. 
But,

No one said that life's a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings. 
I know today has troubles of its own, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

I know I know, I know, I know, your heart is heavy.
But believe, believe, believe, believe me, temporary. 

No one said that life's a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings. 
I know today has troubles of its own, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

Sleepless nights and troubled throughts.
Tryna find the demons in your head.

No one said that lifes a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.
I know today has troubles of its own, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

These are the lyrics of the song with who sung them. The pink represents the girl voice of the piece, the male voice is represented by the blue and both of them singing together is the green.

https://soundcloud.com/musicianship-1/tirangle (Musicianship-1 2016)