Original subtitles

so last lesson was all about making the track

making very simple tracks you write over to

and now in this lesson

we're going to write over that track

so the general approach of how I think about writing

in general um

is just to say something that people already say

um as songwriters as artists

as producers uh

our goal is to help people who don't do that

for a profession

to fill in the blank for them

to make something that they want to say to somebody

a bit easier

by showing them a song

by maybe showing them

the song that we're writing right now

the song that you're writing

the one that I'm writing

we want to as artists

because we are artists

we want to make people's lives easier by having

by using like

a song assistant method

and that's why I always kind of think about

that's why I always pay attention

to what people say in conversation

um because people might inadvertently

say something really dope

and might turn into a cool lyric

and I think I was kind of riffing on something

in the last lesson

I had like a little sentence pop up

um in my head

we'll see if that still works

I need a little refresh

I might need to play this track a couple times

but um we'll start with the chorus first

and then build around that

that's what I usually do

come up with the core first

and then all the stuff surrounding it are

we start out by listening at a very low volume

I don't wanna kill my ears

oh yeah I remember that

so I have something in mind

this is the verse section right here

but I'm not gonna focus on that right now

this is the chorus coming up right here

I'm gonna focus on that

for sure changing that snare

but it's good to hear just for the rhythm right now

okay so what I would usually do

and I recommend you to do the same

um I have this little record track right here

I'll make it bigger to put some emphasis on it

um I make it red and yellow and uh

Redford record

and the only thing I have on here right now

um my vocal chain is an 1176 going through a uh

well it used to be a TD two now it's a

it's a nive kind of situation

um I'm not even gonna pretend

I know all the ins and outs of that compressor

just makes my voice sound good

this is a telefunkin

I usually use

um a little cheaper handheld mic

but might as well use a really nice one

if it's right here in front of me

I I'm very insecure about my voice

to be completely honest and um

I try and put as much stuff on it right away

like I know for like

Alicia Keys

for example

is an amazing singer

a way better singer than me

and sings with absolutely nothing

no reverb no auto tune or anything um

I do the opposite because I'm not as good of a singer

so I need to hear my voice kind of perfect

because I guess it's my perfect pitch too

um if I hear one wrong note

I'll just get discouraged and think the melody is bad

so on the first channel strip here

I'll put the auto tune to classic mode

and turn the retune speed all the way up to zero

um so it sounds like a super robot

and put in the classic mode

of course um

d flat major

like I said

this song is in d flat major

um I'll probably

let's put a little reverb on here

chat chat chat

so I put it

I make it super super tune

because I know it's not gonna end up sounding like that

but in my mind it's honestly

I just saw Esther Dean track her vocals like that

back in 2,015 when I worked with her

and I just have done it ever since

and just sounds like

it sounds like a final vocal

even though it's super robotic

and you know that there's room for improvement

so that's why I do it

yeah yeah yeah yeah

um I also have a CLA76 on here

just cause it's low latency um

I do it just like that

I can turn the input up

and squash the vocal a little bit it's the

what's gonna inspire a lot of melodies out of me is uh

knowing that it sounds like like

what's the best way to say this

like super squash but like

not too squashed

and like I want to hear a lot of processing on my voice

let's throw 8th note delay on here to check

check check

yeah yeah yeah

so I have this melody

when I was making the track

this melody kind of just reared its head

um uh I was making it and it's just

just the fifth above d flat

so starting on a flat

and in my mind

this chorus went with

when the vocals completely finished

would have a slightly stacked

tears for fears kind of sounding vocal versus a

and I would stack that kind of like midzi head tone

airy voice like maybe four times

I can show you how I

how I do that

but I'll make the demo

I'll sometimes tune the demo and make it sound perfect

because then I can

I just like

enjoy it more

when I bop around and listen to it in the car

that sounds like a almost finished product

even though it's not

um so let's listen to this chorus one more time

yeah yeah yeah yeah turn it up

it's gonna turn that synth down a little bit too

so the lyric I had in mind was

why you gotta get why you gotta go and get my hopes up

and we'll figure out what

why my brain wanted me to do that

but it just

it also sounds good off the tongue

why you gotta go and get my hopes up

I don't know what it means yet

so oh I'm so upset

oh that could be cool too

the guy gonna go

okay something I love okay

pause real quick

something I love doing is whatever the lyric is

and it doesn't have to work out like this all the time

but whatever the lyric is

um if something's mirroring that in the melody

so if the lyric is

I don't know

I think the lyric in this song is gonna be

why you got to go and get my hopes up

if because it's

it checks a couple boxes for me

it's something that people say

you got my hopes up and

I think it would be really cool if the melody went up

when I go up to

so if I sing up in

the melody goes up

there's some in it

catchiness attached to that

let's see if it sounds good

I could be completely off

but I don't think I am

just gotta get every note perfectly get closer to it

sad sad and that would be stacked too but

get my hopes up oh that's kind of dope

go and get my hopes up

okay so I'll record

I'll turn the autotune a little bit down

on the track that I drag it to

it's just for recording purposes I don't

want that up to be not as whiny I want to be

give up suck suck

go and get my oh suck suck

kind of saying it the same way but it's cleaner

uh do the

okay so this is the most important part

I'll take the unarm the track for a second

on the theme of going slow and methodical

with everything I will

just turn that up a little bit

why you gonna go and get my hopes up

why you gonna go and get my hopes up

I want that to be on the grid

and I know it's a demo vocal

but why you gonna go and get my hopes up

sounds pretty on the grid actually

I might just take this and just drag it

going go going

gotta go and get my hopes what and maybe this one too

why you gotta

why you gotta gotta

gotta gotta

why you gotta go and get

and the y just over to the left a little bit

why you gotta go and get my hopes

why you gotta go and get my hopes get my

let me put it on the grid

see where that 69 is yeah

I can drag this over to the left a little bit it's just

it's so satisfying just having the silly demo vocal

just being so in pocket

why you gonna go

this is what happened we with we don't talk anymore

and that vocal ended up being in the actual song

so you never know

I don't think this one is

but maybe it will be

I don't know

why you gonna go and get my hopes up

oh why you gonna go and get my hopes up

I wanna get get my

just take some space out

there's something rhythmic about it I don't know

go and get my get my

kind of take this one out

this is what I do for every song

go and get my hopes

get my go and get my hopes

go and get my hopes get my

barely noticeable

go and get my hopes up

go and get my hopes

just a little cut right here too

so it just like

impacts it lands

get my hopes up

get my hopes up

just that up

bring it over a little bit so it's get my hopes up

I wanna hear it with some more tune

something like simple okay

so that's the tag right there

and I'll copy and paste that one

since I spent so much time making it good

oops over one

I hate that snare

I gotta mute that snare

no production right now

but I'm just

so much better okay sorry

okay so let's do the B melody right now

this might be a little rough

but let's see

and now we're gonna do it

make me think it did want me from the book

and make it make

why you gotta go and get my hopes up

and make me think you wanted me from the beginning

make me think it did

I mean I know you wouldn't say

make me think you did want me from the beginning

but it like it

it's kind of a weird way to say it

I don't know

could change

but we're gonna get the melody

I did oh I

oh maybe I go up on that

I'm gonna bring the compressor

this LA to I love this by UAD

make it a little more squashed

gonna go and get my hopes up gonna

I should probably here I'll

I'll show you what my chain is right now

so obviously I have my record track right here

and then I record everything here

and then drag it down to this chorus track

I just have it in my template

cause I always start with the chorus um

this just take a little lows out

whatever the hell this thing is

this is like a

what even is this

see I don't even like know

like my engineer at pen help me set this up

I don't know

it's like a compressor or something like that

this is a dser

this is a great compressor

kind of looks like I recorded a very low I

I gained stated a little bit

but like this kind of just rounds everything out

and makes it nice

and pleasant and uh

Zed told me to do this

put a little bit of a widening delay on the vocals

the difference here if I take it off

if you don't want to take the time

to stack a bunch of vocals

you just put the

turn this up here

and it sounds like this

and it's just about kind of

blending it and making it sound

not that you don't want it to be like

that's annoying

so you just bring it up like

I'm gonna take a little bit hmm

I'm gonna drag these here and I want less delay

again it's not a race

it's better to just kind of move slow and thoughtful

why you gotta go

I don't even want the 4th layer

but I'm gonna keep it there anyway

cause it does something

why you gotta go and get my

I'm gonna sing that a little bit softer

yeah I think I'm gonna go na na na na na na before

because about like

I don't know it just feels nice going

but to the B flag twice there let's see

yeah it's catchier we just get that little bit better

take this down here drag it down

I just blend that make it

gonna go and get my

okay so maybe the same kind of rhythm

but like one tiny little change

stop uh low and then down to

okay that's better just a little

like okay so

I'm not gonna figure out that lyric right now

but I know I want that pocket and that rhythm

because I haven't had that straight

it's very syncopated

and I want something to balance it out

so it's like 75% syncopated

this B part

and then you put them

you give it a little bit of a straight notes

like a dot dot

dot 8th notes

and then you're back at the hook again

with the tag line rather

I'm just gonna say like something random right now

it's just like sounds like words but not really

I understand leave me on and then

come on why you gotta go that's cool

the people would say that come on why you gotta go

and get get my hopes up

okay so you do this

I feel like this would be on a

like okay so I have these background

this background bus here I

let's see what that said

that come on sounds like as a response

rather than actually on the lead vocal

I think it'd be kind of a nice ear break

so let's kind of take this up a little bit

definitely need some tune on there we they

let's put it on every first section of the channel

is have a bit of fun with it

take a Valhalla and you know Max does this alone

size down

come on

sucks uh

and we're just gonna stack that right now

and have it like

not on the lead

but in the background as like kind of a response

come on it's like you're having

like a conversation with one voice

I'll back the tune off that a little bit

no

so this is what I usually do

on a set of four background vocals

I have the come on

the very frontal nasally kind of thing

um and then Baby Face always told me to do this

to layer it with like a barely audible whisper

and then a slightly more naughty whisper

so we'll do the slightly more naughty whisper that'll

this is what this is right here

so instead of come on

you do come come on

I guess it's falsetto

would be an easy way to say just layer it in

but like morphing your voice to make it just sound like

to support the other vocal

I gotta go and get my oh that sounds kind of nice

okay and one more

come on

why you gotta go and get come on why

might not even need the little whisper

we'll do it anyway since I said it

come on just that come on

cause it sounds like a crowd

um maybe on those whispers

just take a simple EQ or 1 band just do a high pass

super airy

sorry I know that metronome is annoying

group them together and kind of

turn it down and blend them in

this is without it this is with it

add something which is pretty cool

for fun let's stack that

why are you gonna go

get my hopes up

I'm gonna and by the way

I'm gonna re sing all of this

but it's just so fun again

to have a demo vocal that sounds

like almost done even though it's not

okay let's see him

cause then I kind of have like

an outline of how I'm really gonna record it

like I'll know that I'm gonna stack

why I gotta go and get my hopes up

and maybe leave this next part as a solo vocal

get my hopes up and then nope

why you gotta go and get my

why you gotta go and get my

my upset okay

one more why you gotta go and get my upset and

maybe one more whisper too

why you gotta come and give up

by the way I do this to hear myself a little bit better

sometimes I'll even go off pitch

if I am too much in headphone world

so I can still feel like the

the resonance in my voice by just letting one ear loose

and

if I were recording a real vocal

I would then vocal line everything

and make everything super tight

but we don't need to do that right now

I may be going back on my idea

that everything has to be super tune

it kind of sounds better

I like that better that's better

that's kind of hard on let's put this on a

let's

let's do this

I'm gonna go

let's drag these down here just

I love separation and love being able to like

change something independently

so we're just gonna do this this

hmm hmm hmm

hmm hmm hmm okay

cause I don't want as much reverb on these right here

so I'll just use the proper reverb

now I can take these here

and drag them back to where they once were

okay so now we're at the second half of the course

um I want a different rhyme scheme

because every time I do a course

I think it should sound like a roller coaster

like when I used to go to six flags

like I would want to just ride the roller coaster

over and over again

because there was just something to look forward to

you want the listener to have something to

look forward to

so if you have the same rhyming scheme

is just gonna kind of be monotonous

and maybe they won't play the song again

you want them to play it as much as possible

especially in today's streaming environment

so my last rhyme was make me think you did

I'm also kind of thinking like what could you say

you don't want to make it complete babble

but hint at some words thank

okay so you go why don't you go like

yeah

I gotta feel a little yeah

nice drag that little yacht in there

is the fear oh yeah

you could say something like

why you gotta go and get my hopes up

and make it seem like you're always gonna be here

and then one day just go up and disappear

something like that

I don't know if that's like

cash would be able to like

help me kind of like

bring it home

but like the idea is there

cause that's what someone would do

like in a relationship

like I'm sure you were some

I've definitely gone through like you know

I've been really excited um

about like being with somebody

and maybe she has eyes on somebody else and completely

you know doesn't know how to tell me

so trying to just like you know

what's the term ghost

get ghosted

that's happened to me before um

and I get my hopes up

I was looking for

I was planning out dinners

I was uh you know

thinking about what I was gonna wear

what I was gonna smell like

or something

I don't know

it's real like

everything that you put into your art

should be 100% real

um it should be the truth

because even if somebody listens to this

and they're like oh

I don't like this

this sounds like a typical Charlie song

it's like they can have that opinion

but they can't deny that it's not the truth

and I've written songs that maybe weren't the truth

and those didn't resonate at all with people

because people are smart

they can tell what is truthful

and what is not

and this is the truth

I felt this emotion before

maybe you have as well

maybe you want to look forward to feeling this emotion

in some sick way

I don't know

but it's art it's fun

okay I'll just like

say some babble and then figure it out later

disappear I wanna end on disappear

and that's when you do the little melody change

and then

I would say one day you just disappear

but it doesn't like

fall off the tongue really super nice

and one day you just disappear like

you wanted to be as easy to sing along to as possible

that's why I'm okay with babble for now

and then one day you disappear

not perfect but good for now

and then you go and then you go and disappear

disappear oh that's nice

disappear okay

so one the but I don't want to say go because I say

why I gotta go and get my hopes up

just too many goes

so then you go

so you just kind of jumbling your mind

like what else could be said that

I say want it for now

okay sick let me see if that makes

that's cohesive beginning of it

I gotta sing it the same way that

see how this sounds different than

I gotta sing it like this

some

it's kind of dope actually

but then you want to disappear

could actually be a real lyric

and how did I do the

and that's gonna rhyme

that's gonna mirror that exactly that rhyme scheme

so we have to figure out like another word that has

Nicole turn the door

not this this is kind of cheesy but like it sounds good

keep me up till the dawn come on

and then you do come on and then

now we're starting to have a well rounded chorus

let me just copy paste these couple elements here

gotta sing that better

actually hate that pair but it sounds good for now

okay so paste the commands now

good core should literally just mirror itself

and what's really cool

okay I guess this is the scratch course we have so far

but let me play it going out of the verse chords

because what makes it really distinct and cool

is that the verse chords are different

I'll turn the click off

maybe a post course

or be really boss going into okay

so let's figure out before we figure out the form

let's figure out what the verse melody is gonna be

oh that's dope okay hold on hmm

I'm thinking

as far as references

I'm just I don't even know if I'm referencing a song

but it's definitely

like I feel like someone would listen to this

in their room with like

the big cell phone and like

1992 or something like that

when we didn't have like

so much social media

like this is what we'll be playing

in the background

and you modernize it that way to give it that

like classic feel

oh by the sometimes what I'll do is I'll take even more

what kind of EQ job is this

Jesus I'll take

oh my God I'll take some highs out of the click

so the click doesn't bleed into the headphone

just make it lower so um

what else would you say

why you gotta go him out

I will you'd say like

you set it up like

lyrically again

not being perfectly like

you set it up like

what would a human say before they said

why I gotta go and get my hopes up

you would say

it's almost like you're talking to that person

and you would say

I I was so I was so

yeah you'd say

I was so excited

like I was so

I was looking forward to

to you know

to doing something with you

so you'd start off with like

I was so how do you feel excited in there

and me

yeah like I was

I didn't expect to feel so much pain

I was so excited today to blah blah blah

I never thought I'd be feeling this pain

like I didn't expect to wake up like this

I went to bed last night thinking I was gonna have like

the best time ever

but you hit me with the you're gonna kill me text

you don't want it to be like 2 on the nose

because then it sounds corny but like

just something easy someone would say

yeah maybe not but I saw this

they are

you make me feel this pain

then you suddenly just snap your fingers

make it go away

you know something oh sorry

hey oh my soul is

okay so you can go up so you go down

and then the back half you go away

so I'm just like freestyling not

hey nice I like that

I think just keep going on that that little

let's move out

so on the third one

you hit him with the a flat

just like you

just keeping the listener engaged the entire time with

like keeping the same rhythm in the same form

but just adding a little note there

a little note there

so on this one I'm gonna go

I never I never asked I never

I I could have got I never asked you to say

I could have gotten over you so easily if I weren't so

you know and I I'm in too deep like the some 41 song

uh I don't got

easily easily

and then it's really simple on the third fourth one

you do the same thing so let's hear what we got so far

I guess I got to look too easily

guess I got so I guess I just got to I guess I got yes

I guess I just got to hook easily

not perfect but better

that's good for now and then the fourth one

guess I got to

okay so if that's the end of the verse

going of the chorus what do you say before

I kind of like

sing into it a little bit to get that breath in

okay so now we have something

look in there

I guess this would let me hear this on the speakers

no sense but it's vibe you said

okay so I feel like the verse

should come in right there

I don't think it needs to go to a pre chorus

I want to keep it

I want this to be like

a short song

so let's consolidate that

let's consolidate that and I want the music to drop out

and the second verse is gonna come in right there

and I want the drums even though the drums aren't done

we're not thinking about production right now

we're just focusing on the songwriting aspect of things

I want all the music to drop out

and the verse to start right now

and that's really convenient

because the verse starts hopes up

hopes up

okay so

copy and paste this

this is the form of the verse right here

but we have different chords

so we're gonna copy and paste

this little kick situation here

hmm

what if I still have that

so when we go to the production later

I'm gonna get that same Juno sound

and play the first chords in like a different way

but let's do this

give up give up so music cuts out

just copy and pasting

not doing production but just copy and pasting again

oh wait is that doper oh so

okay so this happened in one Call Away

my song one Call Away

where we had a verse going into the chorus

and it felt right there

but when we got to the second verse

it felt a little bit

too soon to have the chorus come in

so I don't do it all the time in songs

but just add a little

just add four

on the songwriting tip of things

add four bars of the chorus

after this second verse ends

we're gonna

and we're gonna write a

new melody on top of that right now

and I'm gonna take the drums out

and write a new melody on top of that

and that's where the second chorus comes in

and now it's like ah I wanted it again

because if we didn't add those four bars

the second chorus would be like

I heard this five seconds ago but for whatever reason

I could be wrong

let me let's listen to verse 2

first chorus going to the verse two

that'll be that'll be less sustained and everything

but just for the songwriting purpose

we'll just keep it going

doesn't have to sound perfect

oh wait I told

maybe could you do that melody there

that actually could work really well

because at this point as a listener

you've heard that melody in the background

but it'll all kind of connect when you hear it at once

or maybe it sucks but let's see let's let's try it

oh okay so do this right here this little stack

them but I don't know something

not perfect like lyricism

but get the point of what the melody

the shape of everything we're constructing at this

let me hear what this sounds like on the speaker

I'm into the second course now

and then unlike the first course and the second course

the drums coming right away

I gotta go and get my

I'm such a maybe I'm all I got

okay so this is like a bridge now

hold on so I'm sorry

copy and paste this

we're building the form of the song right now

and what I've been doing lately is like

songs are shorter right now

and I'm kind of embracing that um

no third course really necessary right now

get this be out here

so this is the outro chorus we're building right now

take all the you know just mute the drums

signifying that's just going to be the down section

and it ends right there maybe

and no chord under there

just gonna go and get my hopes up

that ends at 2:18 it's like I wanted to be a short song

that might change

I might you know

wake up the next day and do the next lesson be like

oh wait there's a whole different thing we can do

but right now I wanted to be a short song

let's go with the flow

this is everything so far

that's my hair up you make the

easily guess I got to hook way too easily

you said you stay

oh wait hold on let me just

I ain't gonna go and get my hopes and get my or wait

maybe that's dope I ain't gonna go and get my oh so

and right there the base is gonna be like rock

and it's not gonna be as

like it's gonna

go away but just pedal on the d flat the doo doo doo

guess I got to hook

isn't enough

I feel like there's something more special

that could go there

I feel like some

we haven't had a section that has like

long elongated notes

so maybe um

I feel like that would be fun

like I've been in

you know I perform for crowds and as much as

like 15,000 people

and I love it when people sing along to

like long notes

and sometimes my stuff gets a little complicated

so it's nice to break it out with some like

let's put the metronome back on

that'd be crazy

let's do this here

let me nail that line

no but like I want no

oh no what a girl no

uh I don't know where to go

let me just hmm

let me back it up here

just wanted to be

I don't know where to go

I gotta go and get my hopes up

something like that

know where to go

dragons back a little bit make it in pocket

I don't know where to go

now you can like

for the bridge

you can just like

stupidly sing along with the little melody

that's been playing the entire time in the song

that's kind of hard one second

let me duplicate this track

because I want them to kind of overlap

this is the bridge

ah ah what did I do

there you go hmm simple

going the shorter land LA LA LA

oh it all falls into each other

and just for fun do a harmony on that

and I just duplicate that again

so I don't really want to just keep it moving

I could easily make another aux for that

but just just one just to hear the harmony

it's just for reference

LA LA LA oh okay

okay let me do this right here copy paste

okay let's listen to all of this form

let's clean this up here

we don't need this extra stuff at the end here

um let's label all of our stuff

I call this pre

after those four bars we have Chorus two

this is like the sing song Lullaby Bridge

I probably like

stack this vocal and do all my usual

Charlie harmonies and stuff like that

and this is gonna be the out chorus for now and

I always just Mark end where the delay runs out

so the bus sounds

you know what

the bounce rather sounds good it's 2:20

2:10 short ass song might add something to it

but for right now it's good let's listen to what we got

this is my pre a long time

I mean that's aggressively short

that's like short

like a hip hop song

it could work

but I'll probably later in life

maybe add something

another section to it maybe

I don't know

I love it when the um

the first verse goes right into the course

the first course

I think it's like really

really special

so I don't know

but that's my scratch right now

and then I would not spend I

I wouldn't go crazy on the sounds right now

I go to a friend's house

go to you know

eat some food or something

hang out with some people

um safely of course

and then have that bounce in my car

and just play it a bunch of times

and then when I'm not

when I'm like

all relaxed and not in the studio thinking about it

I'll probably come up with like

a better idea or an improvement

um you know

Rome wasn't built in the day

so you just get a little bit of it done

and just get excited about the possibilities

so that's my scratch track

now it is your turn to do the same thing

uh again don't

no need to fill in all the lyrics right away

just get the uh

just get the skeleton of the song

just like I did

and come back for the next lesson

and we'll add to it