Okay. So specifically we’re gonna go through what a top line is. ’cause I am a top liner. I do not play an instrument. I play enough to, Â you know, put some chords together. But for the most part, I’ve, pretty much surrounded myself with incredible, instrumentalists, who I depend on and go to, to help me get my ideas down and get them, and get them all sorted and done.
So top lining. Top lining is basically the melody, and the lyric that sits on a track or sits on an instrumentation.
I get called into the room to be the lyric and melody person. and the other thing I bring in is my voice that can record all the demos. So the first thing I would say is, know what your strengths are  and don’t be shy about them, and don’t feel like you have to be every  part of the song in that room.
my favorite thing to do is to co-write. So co-writing is, gold to me. I feel like that’s the, where all of my best songs come  from is when I’m writing with other people. and I get to, you  know, share their strengths and share my strengths with them.  So, okay, let’s get into the preparation of, of, your top line.  For me, this is where everything is.
you gotta write as much as possible. Preparing for a song is not just the day of, it’s not even just the week before. Preparing for a top line or, you know, to open up your creative channels, is a life long thing. It’s has started with me since I was, I can’t even remember, since I had a pen and paper in my hand, or realized that I could hold a note. That’s where those creative channels, they start, and  you, they are a gold mine.
And capture as many of those as possible. Don’t take them for granted. You will come up with so many ideas, just walking down the street, sitting in a cafe, going to a library, opening up a book, watching a movie, you name it. Gather all of those little ideas that come up. Don’t think you’re gonna remember them. You won’t, you know, open up a note  on your phone.
You can get the notes. you can open up a book. I know people who  they work best when with a pen and a paper. first time I sat at a computer and started typing, I realized that opened up  so many more ideas for me. So, my favorite way is to use  a keyboard or use my thumbs to get all of my ideas down. and, you know, don’t feel like you have to fit into any box to do that.
Do it your way. Do it the way that opens up that channel for you. and write as much as possible. Writing a song, writing lyrics is just like,  you know, any other thing that an athlete does. The more you do it, the better you get at it. and, you know,  I have been writing, I could show you a bag of stuff, just little notes  that I have that I have been collecting,  you know, since  Yeah, as far back as I can remember, since computers weren’t even around.
I mean, they were around, but I, I didn’t have one. So, I used my paper and my pen, and I’ve got little, little pieces of paper that, I still have. And I do go back to them now and then, and they give me ideas. yeah, so let’s keep going about your ideas. Work on keeping your, your ideas down and finding a place for them, Â and protect those ideas.
’cause they, there will come a day where you’re just not feeling inspired, and you need to open that up and get some prompts and get your mind moving. secondly, yes, work at clearing your mind and opening up those channels. We’ll just whip by these things, because to me, this is the most important place to start songwriting. if you have the clutter in your head telling you, you know, I have been thrown into rooms  where everyone around me has written  big songs, hits, and I was the rookie in the room, and I, I had  that chatter in my head, you know, feeling like, oh my goodness, I’m gonna suck.
This is gonna suck. My, my, my lyrics aren’t good enough. My my  ideas are not gonna be, you know, I’ve gotta practice so much more before being in this room. But that’s where the best ideas come from. If you could sit back, relax, and realise that everybody in that room  is feeling the same way the first time you co-write with someone,  that,  that chat chatter just goes and goes, and goes.
 But we’ve gotta practice to let that stuff go.  And open up your ideas, no matter how bad you think they are, and just show them off. Because I can’t tell you how many times my little ideas that really,  they weren’t that great, but they sparked a concept. They sparked something that made that room turn into like an incredible songwriting session.
So please do that. Whichever way you get to do that, do that. Clear your mind, take your breaks. Go and sit somewhere and like,  just,  you know, meditate. A lot of people do that. They do. They breathe, they meditate, they go into rooms. That’s more on co-writing.  But, if you do get that chance to do that, then please remember that your ideas are all worth something and never take that for granted. the other place where I find so much of my stuff and all of my ideas  is listening to music.
I listened to so many different genres I’ve been listening to. I, you know, when I was younger and starting out, I used to go into the bookstores and they’d have those listening stations, and I’d sit there and I would listen to a stack of music, and just welcome all those influences. Â Again, Â not everybody loves to do that.
People love to just go in their own lane. They don’t wanna get distracted by other influences. But  I feel like for me,  that is my favorite way of opening up the world, to letting my creative,  you know, juices flow. Like I just,  I, I love references. I love to hear and see different patterns and songs and how people use their voices to do different things.
I listen to Brazilian music.  I love Brazilian music in jazz and old du the melodies are so left, they’re so different than what we hear in,  in North America that I’ve had situations where I come into the room and I’m like, let me try some of these little infliction that I’ve learned and the, all this other music, and it just  works. people love it. we all love new things. And, and, and,  and, you know, getting out of the box.
Getting out of the box is the best way to find new and creative ideas. And then apply the tools  to this. You know, whatever you’ve created, if you wanna go down the pop lane, apply the tools of, you know, the guidelines of pop music, and you can always fit that in. And I’m, I’ll show you an example, afterwards of, of how I did that with a song that  today has become, you know, my, I, I, I’d say my,  my favorite, my favorite song that I’ve ever done.
It’s kind of hit all the marks in terms of why I write, why I write music and, and the purpose to why I do this. So I will show you that later. and then lead with your passion. you know, you don’t lead with the rules. I’m telling you, like, you apply the rules to what you’ve created  afterwards.  Start with this open mind and like, just flowing all your creative  ideas down.
Get stuff out, even if it doesn’t rhyme, even if it doesn’t sound like something you’re after, just yet, get them out. Once they’re out, you can start applying the tools and all the, you know, these pop song rules that we can get into.  All right, so then,  let’s sort of dive into, you  know, once you’ve created this mindset, once you’ve done,  have all of these ideas, and over time have, you know, written down some stuff to start with, when you go in to write your song, you gotta know why you’re writing it.
 You gotta be clear on that. all the sort of free writing and all that stuff happens before  that’s out of the way.  Now you’re gonna write your song  and you gotta ask yourself why you’re writing it. If the song is free, you, you’ve got a free range.
 Go crazy.  You know, try new ideas.  My best songs happened when I did exactly that.
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