Lessons with OmarSanchez

Sup. I don't think you and I have conversed very much so you might not be used to my style of doing things. So before we get into the hard work of writing lovable pop songs! Let's find out some stuff.

I want you to give me some expectation you have of me and goals you wish to achieve. After we establish things, we'll start talking about the lyrics you wrote and how to set them to music, aight?

I didn't write them, someone else did but he wants me to write the music for the vocals and piano.

he said it should be something similar to

This

Cool dude. Well I could write something that fits that, but I suppose it's time for you to learn. So Let's start:

I'm not a strict teacher or anything in fact i'm the opposite. I tend to give the burden of work on my students while I simply guide them. With that said, I want to hear your ideas. You don't have to write anything down musical, but how are you approaching this?

well, considering I don't know how to write pop and I took this commission, I need to learn....haha, but I guess do the same 6/8 arpeggios but sometimes in between in the chorus "Fly phoenix fly" add the R.H to do it in chords. :)

Alright, I guess that's where I pop in.

What's the story of the piece? What's the mood that that the words are trying to evoke? Can you divide the lyrics into an intro-middle-end?

You should be aware, that even though you didn't write the lyrics, lyricist should be aware that sometimes phrases don't work well when set to music, so be prepared to ask the person who did write it to make changes. Good songs are rarely ( i doubt ever) written without making changes to the lyrics.

So before we can get to the musical aspects, we need to understand the writer's intent and the story told by the writer's word. So for your first assignment:

Take time to consider deeply the words and converse about the meaning behind them, motivation behind them and while you are doing this, I want you to explore mentally sounds that would express what you are thinking in your head.

He wrote it because his friend is having trouble and is really sad so he is trying to make her feel better with this song.

Yeah but that doesn't tell us anything. What do the words say and how do they flow together?

You got the motivation, but consider this like what you do for poetry. We know why Dylan Thomas wrote do not go gently into the night. Nevertheless the beauty comes from the words, the phrasing, the meaning in there. To effectively put music to words, you need to understand these things. You also didn't do the most important part. Can you break up the piece into an intro-middle-end?

what do you mean 3 parts?

I just want to inform you that I've been recently contracted to help NSA and CDC on a problem. I'll try to get back to this asap, but right now, this takes priority.

Ok Bitterduck. :)