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Writing Song Lyrics

Module description

This module explores varying traditions of writing song lyrics, letting you write creatively in response to weekly prompts. You will explore different genres from traditional folk, to C20th protest songs; the singer-songwriter tradition; love songs and the classic ‘Jazz Songbook’; 1970s innovations; punk and protest; and the roots revivals in North America and the UK. You will study the writing of song lyrics in their historical and social contexts, and work solo and in small informal groups. The module offers the opportunity to present the song lyrics you have written for assessment, along with a presentation. It will be team taught by experts in contemporary and historical song, some of whom are also songwriting practitioners. You will need to have an interest in writing poems and song lyrics, but it should be note that this is not a performance module – it is the writing of the lyrics that counts.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to introduce you to a diverse range of lyric writing traditions and genres. You will develop narrative strategies, patterns of imagery, lyric voice, and other textual practices appropriate to your developing song writing projects. Where appropriate, you will integrate research, autobiography, and field work into your lyrics. You will develop an advanced understanding of varied technical and imaginative approaches to song writing in a range of genres, including folk, ballad, ‘protest song’, love song, and popular song. You will also develop an understanding and appreciation of developments in C20th song writing, and its historical antecedents. The emphasis is on writing LYRICS, with some opportunity to work collaboratively, as well as on your own. There will be film screenings of influential material, and you will have the opportunity to present your song lyrics, although performance is NOT a requirement of participation or assessment, and is not a focused intention of the module.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of narrative structure and song form.
• 2. Demonstrate advanced reading (and listening) skills necessary to analyse and adapt techniques and strategies present in model songs for your own song writing projects.
• 3. Evaluate your own songs and those of others at an advanced level, and demonstrate the ability to justify those evaluations in depth, and with reference to song writing genres.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse and critically examine, at an advanced level, diverse forms of song writing.
• 5. Present sustained and persuasive written and oral arguments concerning your own song writing and the work of others, both peers and published writers, and to use such ideas relating to your own work to develop creative ideas.
• 6. Demonstrate the ability to independently originate and develop song writing projects that respond positively to appropriate criticism and genres and styles covered by the module.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate advanced communication skills and the ability to work both individually and in groups.
• 8. Demonstrate an awareness of readership, publishability, market and an understanding of the purpose of formal structures, layouts, and techniques.
• 9. Demonstrate the ability to plan and manage time effectively in order to meet deadlines.

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary depending on the tutors available to teach on the module, it will cover some of the following topics:

• traditional song structures – verse, chorus, bridge, hook, narrative structure
• imagery, voice, plot and other features of imaginative song writing
• traditional English & American folk songs
• the ballad – murder ballads, trickster ballads, border ballads etc.
• love songs from folk, through classic jazz songs to the contemporary popular song
• the legacy of Dylan (film viewing: No Direction Home)
• the legacy of Canadiana – The Band (film viewing: The Last Waltz), Joni Mitchell, Neil Young
• Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, Jason Isbell - the Americana roots revival
• Nick Drake, John Smith – English roots revival
• From political ballads, to the protest song and punk

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Tutors will provide you with weekly reading/listening in class. A precise reading/listening list will be available, weekly, on the module’s ELE page. – College to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

You will find the following texts useful:

• Bob Dylan. Chronicles: Volume 1. (Simon and Schuster, 2005)
• Bob Dylan. 100 Songs. (Simon and Schuster, 2017)
• Richard Morton Jack. Nick Drake: the authorised biography (John Murray, 2023)
• Nathan Wiseman-Trowse. Nick Drake: Dreaming England (Reaktion Books, 2013)
• Steve Roud and Julia Bishop. The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. (Penguin, 2014)
• Paul Zollo, Songwriters on Songwriting (Da Capo, 2003)

Films:  there will be screenings of the following films which you will need to have watched

• The Last Waltz
• No Direction Home

You may find the following electronic resources useful:

www.thesongfoundry.com

Key words search

English, Creative Writing, Writing Song Lyrics, Song Writing