So why do people need entertainment? the answer to the above question is that people, I think people need an escape from their everyday, normal life, Â right? We are all surrounded by everyday normal life. It surrounds us. We open our eyes, we wake up, we go down, grab some breakfast, we get ready for the day, we go to work, we work, we come home. We’re with family, we watch some tv. We brush our teeth, you know, we go to sleep, day in, day out, day in, day out.
We’re surrounded by everyday normal life. So people need an escape from everyday, normal life. And that’s why people go towards new entertainment or entertainment that they know and they love already. we are surrounded by everyday normal life all the time. And people want to go on a journey. They want an escape. They need to go on a journey. They are looking for next level entertainment. Â And wherever they can find it, that’s what they’re gonna latch onto. So if you can be the one to bring people on a journey, Â that’s amazing, because then people will latch onto what it is that you’ve created, and they will listen to it again and again and again, and they’ll tell all their friends about it because they were able to escape their everyday normal life for that brief moment of listening to your song.
That’s really the reason I think, why we need to send people on a journey during  listening to the song process. Â
So, Â listen, there are exceptions to the rule with everything in here, but for me, the first step to me in creating a song that takes someone on a journey is to co-write, is to always co-write.
There are some people out there that are like prints that are able to write the most amazing songs like Purple Rain, that will take you on a journey like crazy. It’s really hard to find those people, even though there, I, there’s some people at the TSA that can write on their own, and they’re amazing. But I just think that great power comes from co-writing, for sure. so that’s the first step for me. And then when you do co-write, Â don’t just sit down and say, Hey, nice to meet you. Let’s start writing a song right away. Â That’s always the kiss of death. If you want to take someone on a journey, you have to have a discussion with your co-writers.
You need to talk,  you need to get to know them, even if you know them already, right? Even if you have limited amount of time, all that stuff, you need to have a discussion. You need to just figure things out, even just to say, hi, how are you? And just start from there and then see where the conversation goes. But yeah, even if you know them already, definitely have a talk, right? Get to know what’s happening in their life today. It’s like that, that saying that no person ever steps in the same river twice  for, it’s not the same river, and they’re not the same person.
That is so true. Like, get to know what’s happening in their life today, because their experiences are completely different on a day-to-Day basis. And your experiences are different on a day-to-day basis, and the kind of energy that you bring into the room will be different than the energy that you had yesterday and the week before. It’s just an organic thing because we are organic creatures, right? so yeah, talk, talk and get to know what’s happening in their life today. Swap stories, share experiences. Listen, open up and speak from the heart.
Speak from the heart. Like, don’t be afraid of whatever you say is gonna get laughed outta the room. Write with people that are just like, you know, that you can open up and say whatever’s on your minds, what, whatever’s in your heart, because all of this is where writing a song that takes you on a journey, it’s where it begins. It’s where it starts. If you’re writing from the heart, if you’re speaking from the heart, if you’re sharing experiences and stories that are personal things to you, these are all really, really great things, right? So that’s a great place to start. And listen when you’re talking, listen for those interesting phrases that come out from time to time.
if somebody says something that’s like, oh, that was cool. I, I, I, I don’t think I would ever say it quite like that, but it’s an interesting take on it. So unique ways of describing something, right? Very, very important. And please, please, please write everything down. Write everything down, be in Google Docs, and be writing down the entire conversation. Â Assign someone to, to, in the co-write to be the, the person that’s, that’s taking all the notes down. and or you can record everything. I just fee find that when it’s all written down, things that are, you know, a little bit extraordinary, write those things down and write down different things that are going on in everybody’s life.
Because once you have it all written down, you can then go back and look over the notes and then say, aha, what you said over here was really, really cool. And it really means something to me. So write everything, everything down, record everything, because if you don’t, something will be said and then something else will be said, and you might forget about what was said just before it happens all the time. and then try and find a  story or an experience that you have all felt or gone through at one time or another,  right?
That’s the real thing. It’s like if somebody brings up something and says, oh yeah, this happened to me and I felt like this. And then you could say, wow, I went through something very similar and I felt that way too. that’s the real secret right there. Just all of a sudden, if you can find something that together, Â you can be excited about this idea, or that you’ve both felt this same idea, or if there’s three people in the room that all three of you have felt this idea, you felt this experience, that this emotion based off of what happened.
because if you find that within the discussion that you’re having, then chances are that other people out there in the world  have also gone through the same thing as well. So if you start writing from that place, you’re onto something where it’s gonna be universally felt, and you’re gonna be writing it from an emotional place that everybody understands.  And if you come up with an interesting way to say it  from the discussion that you had,  then that’s a, a, a new and unique take on that particular subject matter.
So you can now start explaining that subject matter in ways that nobody’s ever heard that before. So these are the first steps that I definitely go through right here. let’s go onto the next page of this. yeah, if you’re coming up with a concept or writing a lyric, melody or chord structure that makes you and your co-writers feel something emotionally, Â you are onto something, right? I think I’ve, I’ve just, I just finished saying that I jumped ahead a little bit, but that, that’s, that’s definitely it though.
If you are feeling something and if everyone’s feeling it in the room, then you’re onto something. My problem with writing on your own is that you really don’t have anyone to have as a sounding board on the other side, right? If you come up with an idea and you’re  all by yourself, you don’t know whether that idea is gonna work with somebody else, or it’s not. You might have an idea, you might think, oh, people will get it. But I’ve, I’ve heard lots of songs where songs are just like, have been written by one person, and it’s really hard to let anybody else into the song because it doesn’t completely make sense to anybody else.
So when you’re co-writing, it allows you to bring up an idea and bounce it off other people, and they can instantly tell you right away in the room or on the zoom, wherever you’re writing, they can instantly tell you whether the idea works or it doesn’t work for them. And so if you can come up with something where everything’s working, then you know it’s gonna work outside of the room for sure. So you’re onto something. If everybody in the room is feeling something emotionally, Â keep crafting your song until it makes you cry. Get up and dance, feel happy, or whatever emotion it is that you’re trying to achieve, Â that’s the real thing.
Like, just don’t worry about the production, just worry about the actual songwriting itself. Just something that makes you feel these emotions, right? Keep going, keep going until you feel like, my God, what have we done? We’ve just created a masterpiece that just really makes me feel something. and if it’s working in the writing room, I guarantee it’s going to work outside the writing room. Absolutely. this is the first step to taking a listener on a journey when they listen to your song, is writing a song that universally means something to people all around the world, right?
but then feeling like you’ve just written  their song. That’s, that’s very, very important for sure. okay, here’s another example of a song that really, really blew me away. My parents took me to go see Superman when I was about  seven, seven or eight, right around there. and the soundtrack John Williams soundtrack just completely blew me away. But there was one moment in the movie where it affected me way more than, than than normal.
And, it’s a moment where in the original 1978 Superman, where, Clark Kent realizes he’s different and he’s gotta go to the north  and go build the fortress of solitude. And he knows that he’s gonna leave home. And his  mother, his earth mother, who raised him since he was a baby, is saying goodbye to Clark Kent, and she doesn’t know when she’s ever gonna see him again.
So this is such a beautiful piece that John Williams wrote. and the melody is so amazing, and it just packs all the emotions in there. This is an example of a song that just really works without any lyrics, and you can totally bring in the emotion there. So just imagine the scene. Clark Kent is standing in a cornfield. His mother is there standing beside him, and they’re saying goodbye to each other, and it’s such an emotional scene. Incredible.
I’m so sad that he’s retired now, but obviously he’s like, he’s well up there and he’s, he deserves it.
If, if anyone else, that’s a great, great moment.
It’s just like the whole first half of, of the original 1978 Superman movie is really well done.
And then it starts going into this like, Â you know, the, the second half, which is him being in metropolis with Gene Hackman being Lex Luthor.
And it sort of takes on a more comedic role, or, or comedic, vibe.
Whereas the first side is very dramatic.
And, and the John Williams score is just so excellent in there.
I hope you felt emotion listening to that. I definitely did. When I was a little kid in the theatre watching the scene. It just, like, without the soundtrack, I don’t think I would’ve been as emotional in there. It’s just, it just really brought out the feelings that, that, you know, that they were trying to give visually in there. Music when you’re watching a movie is 50% of what you take in. So  yeah, really, really good stuff. Anyways, let’s move on to the next slide.  The next steps to creating that journey after we’ve done the first few steps, creating lyrics  that are simple, yet effective.
