Songwriting Classes | Songwriting Lessons in London
Our songwriting classes take place at Alex Von Soos’ studio in Fulham, West London as it’s more geared towards songwriting lessons than our usual setup of individual workstations. Writing a song is one of the most rewarding things a musician can do; it makes you feel happy, confident, attractive and can earn you a pile of cash too! Writing a song can be for simple personal pleasure, for a gig you are playing later that night, for an advert you’ve been asked to contribute to, a theme tune for a film, even a ringtone for a mobile...
read more10 Free Hit Songwriting Tips From A Big Name
Our unique Hit Songwriting course is proving to be a bit of a hit course, so we thought we’d share with you 10 free songwriting tips from our very own Alex Von Soos. There are many ways to write a song; some prefer starting from scratch with an instrument and vocal, some like to have a ‘vibey’ backing track almost finished before finalising the melody. The reason for this is that it’s easier to get inspiration from a backing track with plenty of ‘bells and whistles’ on it than the bare bones of a track or...
read moreHow to Write a Song With Good Lyrics | Writing a Song
Have you ever wondered how to write a song with good lyrics and a good melody? Are you a budding songwriter? Have you wondered whether you should write the lyrics or music first? Writing a song is easy but writing a great song isn’t. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the most successful songwriters in the world including Cathy Dennis, Wayne Hector, Alex Von Soos and (as an engineer) Andrew Lloyd Webber. In this article I am going to tell you about my experiences writing songs during my time signed to Universal Music as...
read moreMajor, minor and extended chords on the keyboard and piano
Major, minor and extended chords on the keyboard and piano: Music Theory Practice part 2 – Extended chords: Just some more music theory rules. You will need to have some music theory knowledge or you could always book workshop 4 of my Logic 9 Music Production course. These notes are for recap purposes. 7 chords have the 7th note in the scale FLATTENED 9 chords have the 7th note in the scale FLATTENED and the 9th ADDED 11 chords have the 7th note in the scale FLATTENED, the 9th ADDED and the 11 ADDED 13 chords have the 7th note in the...
read moreMusic theory practice, chord progressions, keys and scales
Music theory practice, chord progressions, keys and scales: A music production college I worked at in London a while back asked me to teach a Music Theory and Music Composition course with chord progressions, keys & scales. I know my way around a fretboard of a guitar and used to play in jazz bands before I discovered turntables, so I thought I give it a whirl! I looked on the internet for ages for good simple rules for chords, scales and extended chords but couldn’t find anything that I thought would be easy for the students to...
read moreLogic pro 9 Environment Chord Memorizer: Musical tips
Logic pro 9 Environment Chord Memorizer: Musical tips: One object I have in my music production environment click and ports layer is the Chord Memorizer, which can be a great music trick for DJ’s with limited musical skills. The Chord Memorizer can be a useful music production music theory fix for DJ’s if you just want to quickly put some chords together which will have a good chance of going well with each other. I usually set it up so C plays chord one, D plays chord two, E plays chord three right up to B which will play chord...
read moreSongwriting, Music Composition writing chords and bass lines
Songwriting, Music Composition writing chords and bass lines: Yesterday was my last day with my Song Writing and Music Composition students before leaving to set up my own music production school. In the course we covered chord sequences, melody, structure and rhythm, lyrics, arrangement, extended chords, bass lines, rhythmic parts, vocals and harmony. It was a great course to teach but tricky in that they all didn’t want to learn all of the course. For example, most DJs wanted to learn about chord progressions and basic music theory...
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