Some of you have been asking about what happened to the lecture I mentioned in my first post. Well, here you go as promised…. This talk is over an hour and includes a lot of dancing to Beyoncé and r&b from the 90s so I had to break it up. It’s not a very formal “uni” kind of lecture – so feel free to comment and let me know what you think. If you have any specific questions that aren’t answered in the talk, I’m happy to answer them.
Milena Mépris talks about Songwriting @ NYU (Part 1) from Milena Selkirk on Vimeo.
Hi Milena,
Thanks again for spending your time to upload this, you did a really great job.
I have a quick question though, and since this is a classroom setting, my hand is raised and waving frantically.
Ms. Mepris, what’s the best way to flow vocal melodies when you’re writing your verse, chorus, bridge, etc? I process the auditory listening and understanding of it when I hear it, but constructing it is so much different. Thanks again.
I totally agree with the mumbling part! haha!
Thats how i go about it!
I would love to hear the rest of this lecture.
Well done.
Hey Tyler…. I’m big on improv – singing whatever comes into your head and pressing record. Sometimes I’ll sing 4 or 5 options for the same part and then start to go back into it and fine tune. It’s important to let your imagination exhaust the possibilities for each part. You’ll know when you can’t think of anything else. It’s also good to come back to it the next day or week because sometimes you’ll have a brand new melody idea for the part. Sometimes what you sing for the chorus works better for the verse etc. Programs like ProTools and Logic allow you to move parts around… but you can do this the old skool way too – with a cassette recorder and an acoustic guitar. MM x
Oh Professor Milena! *waves hand frantically*
I was so inspired by the words that came up on the projector during your lecture, I wrote an “old skool” haiku using them!
Writing you something.
Usually I’d call in.
Hank Williams won’t.
I exhausted my imagination and everything! LOL