John Lennon's 'EASY' Songwriting Formula
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- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
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In this video, we investigate the songwriting formula of John Lennon and go deep on the specifics of narrative, rhyme scheme and rhythm.
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ABOUT BENNY
Hi, I'm Benny. My passion for music and creativity stretches across multiple disciplines and art-forms. I am a founding member and songwriter / lap-slide guitarist for one of Australia's best and most bearded country-bluegrass-folk bands, THE GREEN MOHAIR SUITS. To date the Mohairs have released 4 full-length albums and tour both nationally and overseas.
I am also the Founder and Head Producer of SILAMOR STUDIOS, a boutique studio specialising in Composition for Film, TV and Interactive Media. I write extensively across various instrumental and lyric-based genres and has been commissioned for major projects by Adobe, Cathay Pacific and Audible. I currently release original songs under the name SILAMOR.
I am also passionate about education and have taught song and lyric writing as well as film composition for JMC Academy, Collarts and the Australian Institute of Music. I design and regularly facilitate workshops on creative process and innovation.
Links to Bennny's music are here:
The Green Mohair Suits
open.spotify.com/artist/7M3Zf...
SILAMOR
open.spotify.com/artist/5HOpa...
www.silamor.com/music
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Correction: 'Something' is absolutely written by George Harrison and was not meant to be on that list - in the frenzy of scripting, filming and editing I got my lists mixed up - it happens. Thanks for understanding. Benny
Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about. There is no Lennon formula. John said this as an off the cuff remark and you took it like a real wanker.
Without a doubt . Across the universe is much higher quality
I did have a wtf moment there. Anyway, nice video.
This is just one way Lennon wrote. He also had an absurdist phase. This just happens to be the method Bowie was told about and quoted.
i will never forgive you
Great stuff! People don't hear YOUR story in YOUR music. They hear THEIR story in YOUR music! Be plainspoken, straightforward and cut to the quick of it!
Great point
That is the exact opposite of Lennon's philosophy, he was very clear that he was interested only in his own story.
I think from a sales angle or for a broader popularity reach, to write a song so it can be interpreted in different ways, that different listeners can find their own personal meaning and love for the song is not a bad approach.
The great thing about a back beat is that you really can't lose it, and not just in certain situations, but, and I really mean this, any old time you use it.
But it damn well better be Rock n Roll music, at least if you wanna dance with me! 😂 Cheers buddy
Chuck berry , wrote that John covered it
The same Lennon saying " Half of what I say is meaningless.." - excerpt of Julia
I always interpreted that as the things he said to Julia.
He got it from Khalil gibran. Foam and sand
@@artistaccount I love Khalil Gibran. I grew up in Brazil reading him. I wonder how many great poets and writers are under the rubble in Palestine or rotting in israeli prisons.
@@marcoaurelio8058i promise you that ppl in gaze are not poetry ppl. Not because they are bad ppl, just perceive the world differently than you think
The Weeknd does that too with often and another song I forgot
I have written over a thousand songs in my life. My first ones when just a child were what were known then as bubble gum songs. Due to the fact they appealed to that age group. I’m 70 now and have been retired for 12 years.
The songs that I’ve written in last 12 years have had themes such as: Dealing with pain, death, tear jerkers, cheating , lust, and of course love.
I have to have a “hook”. I read things, see things on RUclips or TV, or hear something someone might say. I think ,”that’s a song “. After that I simply write a story around the hook, and set it to rhyme. Once this is finished I assign it a genre . I then use the appropriate instruments to achieve the desired sound of that genre. Also, I feel one of the most important details in the creation is attitude. Try to impose your attitude upon the singing and playing.
I have always approached writing with the mindset of establishing a method and a technique. Once you have perfected your technique, never deviate. Play the instruments in the same order, use the same levels when recording, and once your tracks have been laid down, get away from it a few days before mixing and mastering.
As far as the Beatles are concerned, I think they were exceptional talents. But, the great talent only gets you so far. You have to have a determined work ethic. Which I think was very obvious. Also, the amount of songs that you write hones your ability. But if you have a passion for music and for creating it , you’ll never work one day in your life. Cheers!
Where can we hear your songs?
Larry! Where is this beautiful sounding biographic catalog?
I’m sort of old fashioned and do not participate in social media. I produced an album in the 70’s . I lacked a proper monitoring system , thus it was out of sync and not my best work. I performed in bands for around twenty years off and on.
Since retiring, I produce CD’s . I play all the instruments ,do the engineering , and recording. Then, I give them away to people I know or meet.
Folks are always telling me ,”You should put your music on Spotify or RUclips “.
My music is my therapy. I’m afraid if I were to publish it on social media , it would become a hinderance .
If you wish ,you may send me an address , tell me what genre you prefer, and I’ll mail you a CD. Cheers!
I love this comment. Screenshotted, will come back to it.
@@BuckBarker I say you should share with us your work and let it be heard instead of rotten. As someone once said it : "It's better to burn out rather than to fade away". Who knows, maybe you could have become one of the biggest artists nowadays
Songwriting is such an enigma. It’s good to acknowledge the importance of “rules” or guidelines, and this video is great,.. if it helps. Don’t get hung up on formulas and rules. That’s where songs become predictable. It’s good to hear about how others write, especially Lennon. I’d like to hear McCartney’s thoughts. My thought is: be constantly writing lyrics. Be constantly writing chord progressions. Dedicate a block of time in your week in trying to smash the two things together. Know that you are going to write some crap. But in being prolific some good stuff will emerge. Good luck!
Vulnerability, authenticity, and consistency. Be raw, true to yourself, and stay on the bus. This is the way. 🔮🧙♂🕴
This is the way 😜
in Lucy in the Sky, "Look for the girl with the sun in here eyes, and she' gone" is rhyming gone with sun. If you try it with say 'light' instead of 'sun', the finality of 'gone' doesn't have the same impact. It's subtle. there is also phasi-rhyme of 'cellophane' and 'green'... it's going for a psychedelic feel, so the patterns are more fluid and unexpected, and the connections are more delicate, but they are there!
And 'flowers' rhyming with 'towering'
@@frostyclimesmusic yes... and the most obvious one being 'sky' with the first syllable of 'dia'monds which is held for the same length of two beats... not sure if that would be called a rhyme though... but it's definitely an intentional mechanism of a similar type.
@@oldmossystone Yes it's an internal rhyme.
Assonance
Lennon also liked to drop in an instrumental pause or musical change in those places when his lyrics didn’t rhyme. You can see that perfectly in those two examples: Imagine & Lucy
Ya know what....even though 'Something' was written by George, there is a definite John connection. In the film Get Back George is having trouble with a lyric in the song and John tells him to just stick any ol' word in there until the right one presents itself. Obviously that right word did present itself because its a masterpiece! So of course it turns out he wasn't just giving that advice to George but to all of us 'mere mortals' as well! Great video by the way!
This is quickly becoming my favorite channel on RUclips.
It’s good to remember why we have meter and rhyme. They are remnants of our ancient oral tradition. Before writing the only way to pass down culture from one generation to the next was by memorization, so mnemonics were invented to aid the memory, meter and rhyme. When you structure your lyrics following meter and rhyme, you are creating patterns that humans have evolved to seek, recognize and delight in. A technique I use is to not write anything down while I’m composing. If I can’t remember it, it wasn’t any good.
It’s all good. I believe “Something” was a Harrison song? One of my favorite Beatles tunes 😊
Great advice, especially the first part. I enjoyed the dissection of rhyming couplets and patterns. Breaking up normal rhyming schemes, but still having a flow and natural feel…not easy.
Was just about to say the same 😂
In the words of John Lennon, “a Harrisong”
This is the same mistake Frank Sinatra would make in concert. He would start by saying he initially disliked the Beatles, but had to admit that Something was a GREAT Lennon / McCartney song before singing HIS rendition. This was Frank Sinatra, though, no-one was going to correct him. YES, George wrote Something, not John.
P.S. Very good content overall on this channel. Shocked & saddened to witness this slip up.
My very sentiment
Hopefully you read the top comment!
I was lucky enough to have a songwriting module as part of a general music course some years back. It was very inspring and led me to write some of my best songs. Your channel elaborates many aspects of the craft we didn't have time to cover in detail. It has reignited my passion for pursuing this great art, which I feared was lost. Thank you.
I tend to hear a melody or beat and rattle it around in my head until the words fall in place. Rarely do the words and music come together but when they do it’s like magic.
I think that is fantastic. I basically have one way of doing it, which is to write a bunch of lyrics and then pick a key and then come up with some slightly boring diatonic melody.
I mean, I can pick up a guitar and just make up a song and be a little adventurous… But those need a lot of extra work.
I wish I could be a little more like Elvis Costello and be adventurous with melody and the limits of my voice.
I mean, someone like Paul McCartney… It’s ridiculous. His ability to come up with endless beautiful melodies is astonishing and then throw in all the rest of his gifts.❤❤❤
Man this channel is unbelievably good. Thank you so much!
Songwriting is just a stream of consciousness. The ideas you get before you go to sleep, during the day when you get an idea, and some can just tap into it through working.
You are an exceptional coach/instructor/communicator. Thank U
I LOVE yours and Keppi’s videos- thank you.
"In musical theater, perfect rhyme is really the only rhyme that counts"
Lin-Manuel Miranda: Hold my coffee
Lin manual has an Eminem type of style to his songs, just throw in rhyme after rhyme
Ohhh no. Is that true? 😮
I'll be back to watch more. You've got a great approach to explaining songwriting. Thanks!
I learned a lot from this video… I’m going to go back and look at some of my lyrics
Great video; interesting analysis, organized very nicely and delivered succinctly. Thankd, Marty
A top notch presentation, very generous & inspiring. Grazie mille!
Excellent, great job Benny 👏👏👏.
I learned a lot, this was one of your best videos.
Thank you
One of the big barriers to writing lyrics- NOT saying what you mean or what you want to say. Great advice on this video. Other examples of saying what you mean - Morrisey, Fagans/ Becker.
As always on this site, a very insightful helpful and clear analysis. Many thanks.
Great video. Thanks for putting this together.
Amazing and helpful content! Thanks a lot!
Songwriting is my favorite part of the musical process (when you have a good idea) and I heard that John Lennon quote before. I agree, say what you mean and be direct. I've written songs like "You Should Have Known Better" "Bad Man" and "Please Dont Miss Me When Im Gone". Imperfect rhymes have the same effect as a suspended chord, they are dissonant, then resolved, unless you are leaving something open. One thing I learned from Dylan was placing rhymes in the middle of your lines, lots of ways to change that up
Thanks a lot for your amazing analysis ♥️
That was very useful information presented in a way I could understand. Thank you!
Great explanation - cheers.
Great value video!
Brilliant lesson
13:30 "Something" is a Harrisong
On a sidenote: cool instruments in the background, with the weissenborn and resonator. Love the sound of those
Great video! Confessional, Storytelling, Abstract (about a virtue or other specific quality) , Impressionistic, Protest, Satirical, Character-driven (from the pov of someone other than the writer or performer) - these are some of the most common song-writing subjects which only the best songwriters have a good handle on (though they will usually favor one or two) and good challenges for the rest of us to write outside our usual bags.
Rhyming is usually important, but its a wonderful accomplishment to pen a "American Girl" or "Rocket Man".
"All meaningful change begins in the imagination" - Cole Kitz
Very informative! Thanks! ❤️
The best! 💛
Great video. I'll be trying some of this out. I love complex ideas and techniques distilled down to a simple statement Like Lennon did here. We can all take the distillation, think about it, make our own methods and routines out of them and teach them to others like you have done here. Thanks Bennie!
this is golden, ty :)
👋🏾
It’s Trinity from the Songwriting Intensive, I just love ❤️ how this is so timely because I JUST finished ✅ writing ✍🏾 a song 🎵 using y’all’s formula 😊
Go you!! 🎉
"Rhyme" also comes from the Latin roots of "fitting together, sound rhythmically, repeating motion, vibration" and further more Greek roots of "to arrange, to count, to put". So "... and make it rhyme" could also be translated into "make it count" or "make it resonate (vibrate) with others". The double meaning of words and using that as a tool in lyrics is a bit missing in the video tho.
So much of the inspirational music of the day was derived from the interaction of key individuals period
great video!
From an old music industry saying , IT'S NOT THE SONG , IT'S THE SINGER . Only one in so many million people are lucky enough to be born with Magic Tone Qualitys in their voice . This is what makes John Lennon and all the other successful songwriters great , not the fancy lyrics .
After writing songs for 17 years, I feel only within the last 4 have I truly grasped what John meant. Before I would write songs as more of stories that had music as the conduit for the story. Lyrics would be straight forward, and rhymes were more forced. My middle years were more planned, stories had a direction and lyrics were shaped to say what I needed poignantly, but also with open rhymes. Now, I write lyrics with every intent to be followed by a narrative, and rhymes are completely tertiary to expression of lyrics, and flow of the music. And ironically, my rhymes are better, but not as frequent as my early work.
Interesting. Noel g always writes music and lyrics last, that's totally opposite to me, everything comes from lyrics and subject matter
@@thesingingaccountant1 my writing has fluctuated over the years. When I first started I wrote music first then lyrics, and over time shifted to lyrics first then music. Occasionally I will discover a progression I like and then add lyrics later
@@BlueJayWaters cool
Really Great! Would be interesting to see something about melody writing
I lived thru all that and seen them twice. Once in 65 and again in 66. Lennon was a better lyrist, but McCartney was more moladic.
I've been watching your videos for a while, and they've been very helpful and I enjoy them. Please do one for Alex Turner, his songwriting is incredible!
Oh my... You hit me straight in my soul about the authors being vague on purpose so as not to become vulnerable...This is the biggest obstacle to my creativity now. This is very hard to overcome.
Is there a special term for "rhyming" a word with itself? I'm referring to the rhyme scheme in IMAGINE when you list "hurt you" and "hurt you" as a CC rhyme in the context of the song. Thanks for the info, Mark
George would be most upset to see Something on your list of Lennon songs! Love your channel though - so much good stuff
Fantastic!!!
❤very helpful 🎉
Lennon had some great songwriting tricks, like playing with chord voicing, using iv chords etc. he then was able to put his life into lyrics, like he had to songwrite as therapy, and sing like he really meant it
Instant Karma is written in 6/8 - two beats split into triplets.
I think Norwegian Wood is classic Waltz time - 3/4.
As is Hide Your Love Away.
The second portion of I Want You is also classic Waltz 3/4.
Dig a Pony is definite 3/4 - they even count the one, two, three at the start.
So John mixed it up a fair bit.
Excellent!
It’s easy!!! All you need is love!
Yes, I think he meant give the words a purpose alongside the meaning, like using alliteration, plosives, fricatives, multi-purpose words, etc., so when you sing it, one sound leads into another, flips off your tongue and blows out your lips with the right syncopation and is simpatico with the music in a way that seem both clever and natural. I think he meant play with words like an instrument and have them fit together like they belong there.
I found that very interesting and informative. The Beatles in general were able to create leaps of imagination. For example they wrote “When I’m Sixty Four” when very young but we’re able to accurately describe and project the process of aging.
nice video! thanks
For all of the great stuff John wrote with The Beatles,I think that maybe my single favorite song he wrote is (Just Like) Starting Over. It's just so...pretty.
I prefer to discover the song as im writing it. I try to start with the music, whatever i play, i play for some subconcious reason. And that sound usually informs me on the lyrical content. Its hard because unless i grab on to something that im playing, it can be difficult to complete. But its what works for me usually
Thanks very discriptive
Great to see you both today, across the check-outs, at Woolworths.
Love your channel.
Gordon Pavilion xxx
Lovely to see you out in the wilds (of Woolworths!)
@@htws ❤️
Benny, it's interesting you chose Jealous Guy as an example of Lennon's work because I think there may be a further lesson to be learned from that song. If you've watched the Beatles film "Get Back" you'll hear Lennon introduce a song he called 'Road to Marrakesh' to the rest of the band. It's a song that was to become Jealous Guy. The majority of the chord changes and melody were there but the lyrics were not his best at that point. Maybe a future tutorial could discuss when and how to edit or when to let a song go and when to persist until the best version of the song is uncovered. Thanks for all of your tutorials.
I missed the part you are talking about. Guess I'll have to watch "Get Back" again, oh darn :)
It was also called Child of Nature on the Esher Demos (demos of songs mostly from the white album, recorded at George’s house)
John’s quotes says it pretty well
Not to be a vampire but Something is a Harrison composition. Still, point taken 👍
It would be fantastic if you could do a video on what makes a gorgeous timeless catchy melody as found in so many Beatles songs, versus so-so or even really good melodies.
Hi Benny! Interesting material here, will be on the lookout for more.
What kind of guitar is that? It looks fantastic and sounds great…
Cheers!
More Lennon stuff please!
I have been told many times in my life that my songs remind them of the Beatles and specifically John Lennon. Those 3 things might have helped John but for me it was 10 hours a day of work, life experience including many tragedies and writing years of stinkers that brought me to the level I'm at today. What's funny is that my musical heroes are Depeche Mode, Erasure, OMD and the new wave sound. But it was Beatles & John Lennon sounding stuff that would channel through me.
John wasn't even a cowriter on "Something." Great video though!
I very frequently end up using time signatures OTHER than 4/4. Usually it's on accident, but I'd say the majority of my songs aren't in 4/4. However, I have noticed that a fair number of my choruses are, even if the rest of the song isn't. Usually I end up writing the chorus in either 4/4, or in some cases, 3/4, but I have never written one in a weird time signature like 7/4 (at least, not yet).
There is something to be said for building some tension and then resolving it in the chorus. I'm always trying to do that as a writer, but I always make sure not to introduce too much tension at the beginning (the first few lines of the song need to hook the listener in for the rest).
Revolution
I Am The Walrus is not exactly 4/4. It feels like 4/4 but it’s all over the place when it comes to time signature. Same thing for Good Morning, Good Morning. Feels like 4/4 but has multiple time signatures. Just Like Starting Over may have a 12/8 feel but could also be counted as 4/4. Sgt. Pepper and after his writing is focused on lyrical phrasing that forces measures to be extended or shortened depending on the lyric lines. This was his true genius… making unusual times feel like 4/4. Revolution does this at times too. Don’t Let Me Down is another great example is unusual times being made to feel like 4/4.
Very interesting video thank you for that. I am wondering about the "put a back beat to it" idea, Did John actually mean it literally as in 2 and 4, or perhaps he meant it lyrically. The first two statements are about the lyrics, maybe so is the third: give the words a lyrical rhythm. I can definitely hear a rhythm in the lyrics of many of John's (and other songwriters) lyrics independently from the musical rhythm. Emphasis on certain words, phrasing, accents, space between words, also serve to give the lyrics a certain sense, or emotions, just like a back beat. It's just a thought. Thank you again
John : just say what you mean
Also john : yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dogs eye
Sadly John Lennon proved to be very mortal too.
Nice songwriting video. One of John's astounding songwriting talents were his melodies. Who'd like to make a video about that? how to write the most melodious of melodies? He could rhyme just 2 words in a song and it would still be brilliant
that's a great example of how people who do great things often cannot really explain what their doing. clarity is the last thing you want in music
The method is make it work. Say what you want to get across. Try to keep the syllables even, have pattern of rhyme. If you can't make a line rhyme in a verse that line or lines in all the verses won't rhyme but it must flow. Don't write to long of a song helps too.
Imagine someone going over to one of Yoko's mansions and helping themselves to some of John's stuff because he meant what he said.
Cool
I think it’s come out that Yoko wrote most of imagine. I believe there is a recording of John saying as much.
This was very interesting and I agree with most or all of what you say about his writing so the following comments don’t detract from a general thumbs up rating (which I have given).
However, regarding rhyming, I think the example you give is not a good one.
You say “insecure” and “more” don’t sound like they should rhyme, but that’s because you pronounce “insecure” as “insekewer.
Having grown up in the same part of Liverpool as John, I can tell you that we pronounce it “insecyore”. So the pronunciation doesn’t need changing to make it rhyme and it wouldn’t have occurred to him that it did. In the song, he doesn’t actually change “more” to sound “muer” but the opposite, he pronounces the end of insecure like more, just like he would in normal speech.
Similarly, I agree that most of his songs were 4/4 - he was, after all, basically a rock’n’roller , as you suggested - but showing a limited list of songs could be misleading; he wrote other songs in 3-time that were not listed. Also he often used triplets even within a 4/4 songs - the words “Strawberry Fields Forever” or the refrain of “Give peace a chance” have a triplet feel, though you correctly describe the songs as mainly 4/4 and your general point that 4/4 is versatile is a good one, well made.
A third point is that John, partly for humour and partly modesty, sometimes down-played his own and The Beatles’ achievements. John’s sophisticated use of harmony, which was crucial to his individuality - and genius - is not covered by his own, rather flippant formula and I don’t think, therefore, that we should take it too seriously or too literally. Yes, it’s a good starting point, but it takes more than that to be a Lennon or a McCartney.
Brilliant video! As to .... how did John Lennon so consistently write so many brilliant songs .....? I'm sure "clarity of mind" had something to do with it, but also - he could focus 100% on his music, without wasting time on social media, creating online promotional "content", self-promotion, etc, etc, etc .... Everything that today's artists are almost forced to do (at least that's what we're told!)
Every artist has a choice and I think that is, in part, what makes an artist an artist. Once an artist is familiar with all the tools of songwriting, they can choose to use them in a unique way that suits them. A songwriter should create their own formula unless they are under the heavy influence of a producer or manager to make use of a cookie cutter formula that will lead to profit.
I don't completely agree: John became a simple and almost bare composer after the Beatles with his solo production, an absolutely magnificent and (unfortunately for us) unrepeatable season, in which his most important values took over: love , peace, social justice, nostalgia and pain for the loss of the mother. But he hasn't always been like this, he has often used a cryptic language, sometimes inserting words only for the sound they produced, puns and assonances, a meta-language that can very well support the meaning of a composition:
"Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye.Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess,Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down. I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob..."
Another example of a beautiful song with absolutely incomprehensible lyrics is Alifib by Robert Wyatt:
"Not nit not, nit no not, nit nit folly bololey, burlybunch, the water mole Hellyplop and fingerhole, not a wossit, bundy, see for jangle and bojangle Trip trip pip pippy pippy pip pip landerim Alife my larder Alife my larder..."
without any sense... yet the song is enchanting and emotionally very strong.
@How To Write Songs - to make an artificial division between yourself and John Lennon - "...mortal beings..." - no wonder there are so many "lessons". He's a bloke, his style, his songs, you're a bloke with your own style, your own songs. There is an infinitude of songs and styles, literally the "vault" never goes empty.
5:00- "I want to possess her to death" is much deeper - close to rawness and vulnerability in my view. "I am a jealous guy" feels more like sugar coating... doesn't cut so deep.
Having said that, I really appreciate your presentation. Dont agree entirely, but appreciate it.
Chords rhythm and melody come first for me and then I put the words and meaning into it. I think the Beatles did the same thing. I know they heard the music first and then came up with the words and meaning.
I still struggle with the rhyming thing. I listened to the Eagles’ “Take it Easy” literally hundreds of times before I realized they rhymed “easy” with “crazy” and it works so well you don’t even notice
Phonetic congruence and similarity are so huge.
I have a song where I rhymed "people" with "needle", sort of in an interior rhyme.
Don't give away the gold whatever do!!! Enjoy the song folks
i love your channel so much ❤ but something is by george
Paul Mccartney makes any song on the fly, but John talks about this. The ones he actually wrote with real feelings, inspiration are different.
Maybe he did mean both lyrics and music, actually. "Say what you mean" might as well refer to musical statements. Picking up that context, "making them rhyme" then refers to the temporal and harmonic assembly of a song.
Yoko had a big impact in the writing of imagine. John admitted it later and didn’t give her full credit