Module: PM7004-30 Songwriting Skills
Level: 7
Credit Value: 30
Module Tutor: Julianne Regan
Module Tutor Contact Details: j.regan@bathspa.ac.uk
1.Brief description and aims of module
This key masters-level module recognises that songwriting is a dynamic and varied field. By considering different approaches, you develop a sophisticated understanding of, and ability to, write songs at a professional level. The module does not focus on production/recording skills at this stage, but rather it emphasises exploration and mastery of song structure, an attainment of lyrical competence, and seeks to encourage you to engage in a varied experience of harmonic and melodic construction. The module aims to:
2.Outline syllabus
As an essential component of this module, you engage with a series of preparatory creative writing and compositional exercises designed to supply the raw creative material from which to increase lyrical, harmonic and melodic range.
These exercises are technique-based and serve to extend the songwriter’s creative palette of choices. We examine imagery, metaphor, narrative, rhyme, meter, melody, harmonic construction, narrative perspectives, intertextuality and rhetorical principles and song-forms.
This process is designed to extend and enliven your natural songwriting practices whilst providing creative writing resources for upcoming modules and their collaborations. Tutorial and group-playback support engage real-time with critical feedback and professional advice.
3.Teaching and learning activities
Seminar-based playback sessions, where you engage in peer/tutor critique, in a supportive environment, around works in progress. Guidance and critique as support to exercises and tasks, via webinars and online tutorials (DL), and in a workshop environment for campus delivery.
A series of guest lectures / presentations will be provided for the campus-based cohort, and will be filmed and made available to the DL cohort.
Exercises and tasks manifest in the form of a workbook, which engages students in weekly exercises. These exercises are then discussed either in online tutorial (DL) or in a class environment (campus delivery), mirroring a professional process of song development. The workbook’s aim is to keep the songwriting discipline supple, embedding the act of songwriting into your everyday experience.
The finished workbook provides you with a rich source of material upon which you can draw throughout the rest of the programme, and often forms the raw material you can call into play for your major project.