Module: PM7004-30 Songwriting Skills

Credit Value: 30

Module Tutor: Peter Bernard

Module Tutor Contact Details: p.bernard@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:

• facilitate the individual’s professionalisation of their songwriting practice

• foster an environment wherein students can give and receive peer critique

• lay solid foundations upon which the student can build, augmenting their songwriting skills with a view to success in later modules

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.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: 5 song audio portfolio with lyrics and completed notebook

• % Weighting: 100%