Andrea Stolpe is a teacher, clinician, and multi-platinum recorded songwriter. I was fortunate enough to take her class at Berklee’s Online School, a few years ago.
More recently, she was gracious enough to answer 15 questions about songwriting for us. She’s got a ton of invaluable advice, so check out what she had to say, here.
1. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what you teach songwriters?
I graduated from Berklee College in 1998, and spent the first decade of my career in Nashville where I wrote as a staff songwriter for various publishing companies, including EMI, Almo/Irving, and then Universal Music Publishing.
I became involved in teaching for Berklee College Online in 2003, wrote a course for the online program and book called Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling. Later, I moved to L.A. to teach at the University of Southern California, while continuing to teach for Berklee Online.
I released a solo record myself in 2007, and another book on songwriting in 2016 entitled Beginning Songwriting after noticing a gap in the market for a simple and comprehensive toolbox for the songwriter who may have little theory background and simply wants to know the foundational tools of the craft.
I teach songwriters the tools they need for structuring great songs. These tools involve melody, harmony, lyric, and groove. Within these elements lie things like rhythm of the lyric and melody, harmonic color and chord progressions, lyric content, and enhancing daily creativity.
2. You’ve written songs for high profile artists in the industry. What has the path been for you to get to that point in your career?
Lots of co-writing and daily creative writing. I was told early on that to get better at writing, I’d have to write… often. So that’s what I did. And the more I wrote, the better my collaborative experiences became.
I also moved to Nashville at a time when the industry was bursting with opportunity there. There were staff writing deals to be had that paid the songwriter enough to live and develop as an artist. I also had a wonderful Berklee alumni network in Nashville that I used to help get connected.
So, it was a slow process of meeting someone, following up with them, collaborating with them or whomever they referred me to, and playing songwriter-in-the-round gigs with friends.
3. What is your personal approach for putting together a song? Do you start with lyrics, melody or chords and do you do it the same way each time?
I don’t write the same way each time and that flexibility is something that had to develop over years of writing with others with different approaches.
What I do without fail several times a week is sensory writing. From this writing is where I gather my ideas – my lyrics and my titles, and often my concepts. Sometimes I start with a chord progression and groove, and sometimes I then record that and listen back while I do my sensory writing.
When writing with an artist, I often need to ask them lots of questions about what they care about, what they want to say, etc. Then I write down what they say and use that as lyric lines of the song, sifting through it for titles as well.
4. What do you do in your songs to keep them interesting? Are you conscious of anything specific when you’re writing?
Contrast. Contrast describes the change we create between sections of the song to keep it interesting. This can include starting a section with a new chord, allowing the story to progress, starting the chorus with the hook melodically and lyrically, and other such contrasting tools.
5. Do you get feedback on your songs before you finish writing them? If so, who do you trust for that advice?
Yes, always. I never demo anything without running it by others just to see if it’s worth the time and money. I have a small group of people I send it to involving other songwriters, producers, and music fans. I usually group their listening experience into 3 songs, and ask them to choose their favorite. I also get feedback about tempo, groove, harmonic changes, story development, etc.
6. What do you feel the purpose of a good song should be? What will it elicit in a listener?
A good song is one the listener remembers. If the experience is forgotten, it did not provoke a strong emotion of joy, connection with the struggle or pain, etc.
A song serves a purpose within the context it is played as well, and it’s not always valued for its lyric content, but perhaps for another element.
7. Should the writing process differ depending on your goal for a specific song?
If I know the song genre places particular emphasis on melody, I will absolutely write the melody first.
If I’m developing a song based on the title, knowing full well that the storyline is going to be front and center, then I’ll pay particular attention to how the melody and harmony are allowing the lyric to shine.
I tend to toggle back and forth between elements as the song moves forward, so once I’ve got a good lyric idea I’ll set it to music. If there is a musical moment I recognize is strong and the lyric needs tweaking to suit it, I’ll do that. I’ll go back and forth until I feel I’ve gotten it right.
8. What are your favorite ways to come up with song ideas “on the spot,” if you don’t already have a concept for a song?
Sensory writing. I choose an object, location, person or timeframe and start writing with taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, and movement in mind.
I might write about a coffee cup, but the song idea that results is about sitting in a cafe in Back Bay Boston watching someone on the other side of the street try to parallel park. The whole scene could be a metaphor for some bigger message. Perhaps we’re all trying to fit in in life, and that fitting in is sometimes a tedious process with a “parking” limit on it.
9. What’s the most important thing to know about writing a strong melody?
That melodies are built on motifs. A motif is a small musical phrase that repeats throughout the section.
10. How should songwriters approach lyric writing?
With a sense of abandon. Lyric writing is daunting and defining what we like and why can be extremely confusing as a beginner, and even an intermediate writer. Write what you like and make sure not to let your inner critic stifle ideas before they even have the chance to come out onto the page.
11. How do you write an effective chord progression for a song?
Like a guitar player learning to play hit songs, a songwriter should build a vocabulary of progressions from popular songs. Use these chord progressions until they are absolutely second nature. If John Mayer is willing to write a memorable song with six minor, two minor, five major, one major, you should be too. Only after you can effectively build a foundation for a house should you add stories and interesting architecture on top.
12. How essential is prosody in songwriting and how should songwriters approach its use in a song?
There are no great songs without prosody. Prosody is defined as the agreement between music and lyric. The lyric gains its emotion from the musical context in which it sits. The music will always tell the listener how to interpret the lyric. We should always be mindful about what emotion our chord and progression and groove is suggesting, and question whether that matches the lyric intent.
After writing a song or song section, play the music alone apart from the lyric. List some words that describe the musical mood, and take the sections separately if the emotion is different. Note the chord over which emotion changes, if there is that musical moment within the song. Then read the lyric down from top to bottom. Describe with adjectives the emotion in the lyric. Do your descriptions of music and lyric match, or are they vastly different?
13. Are there any songs you feel are beneficial to learn from from a writing standpoint?
The songs I love are the songs that are beneficial for me to learn from. I take the songs I love, and look to the popularized version of those songs that indicate to me my genre. The popularized songs will likely display the techniques more clearly and concretely.
It’s left of center, more artistic songwriting, that is more difficult to analyze in terms of songwriting tools before we have a strong sense of the tools themselves.
Allow yourself to write a chorus with a title that repeats four times, or a verse that repeats at the front and back of the song. Allow yourself to copy structures that work for other songs.
14. What are some common mistakes you feel songwriters make and how can they be avoided?
Staying vague. Staying vague with our lyric, our groove, or our performance leaves the listener feeling disinterested. Give the listener “you” – and to do that you’ve got to be vulnerable.
Tell us about a specific moment you felt the pain the song is trying to convey. Put us in the moment you felt the intensity of the joy the song is trying to convey. Make sure your groove, chord changes, and your melodic shape also tell us about the pain or joy.
15. Are there any final songwriting tips you’d like to leave us with, and is there anything you’d like to plug?
Thank you for asking. I am excited to share that I’m holding several songwriting retreats across the country this year, beginning with Nashville in July, and New York and LA in the fall. The retreats are 5-day intensives, where we songwriters learn tools of the craft and apply them in a supportive, community-driven environment.
We get to stay in these beautiful locations, all our food catered and taken care of. For one precious week, we get to focus on our art, learn what is unique about it and what drives us, and apply those concepts to all our craft and business long and short-term goals for the months ahead. It’s like a shot in the arm, and it gives us all the courage to be more vulnerable and bold with our process and our goals.
My retreat team and I are taking applications right now, and if anyone would like to apply, they can do so at www.andreastolpe.com.
About Andrea Stolpe
Andrea’s songs have appeared in film and TV, and have been recorded by Faith Hill, Jimmy Wayne, and Julianne Hough, amongst others.
Andrea teaches songwriting at USC, and Berklee College of Music Online where her course, Commercial Songwriting Techniques is taught. She’s also written two books, Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling and Beginning Songwriting, and has led songwriting mentorships all over the world for organizations such as NSAI and TAXI.
Click Here for Andrea’s Website
Click Here for Andrea’s Berklee Music Online Course, Commercial Songwriting Techniques
