Musical Futures International
  • About
    • What is Musical Futures?
    • Vision, Aims and Values
    • Background and history
    • What We Do
    • Learning models >
      • Informal Learning
      • Non-Formal Teaching
      • Just Play
      • Play Now
      • Everyone Can Play
      • Hear, Listen, Play
      • Find Your voice
    • Research
    • Learning outcomes
    • International Teacher Community >
      • Online Teacher Networks
  • Training program
    • Musical Futures in-person workshops >
      • Musical Futures - Listen and Play Your Way, Sydney: 18th October 2023 >
        • Listen and Play Your Way Registration
      • Shepparton Workshop 16th October 2023 >
        • Shepparton 1 day workshop registration
      • Perth Workshop 20th October 2023 >
        • Perth 1 day workshop registration
      • The Big Gig Kuala Lumpur Sept 2023 >
        • Big Gig KL 2023 registration
        • KL Sponsors
    • Musical Futures Online Training >
      • Webinar series
      • Musical Futures Online Consultancy
    • Music consultancies
    • Musical Futures for Instrumental Teachers
    • About Our Workshops >
      • Hosting an International Workshop
      • Hosting a Workshop in Australia
  • Resources
    • Resource menu >
      • All MFI resources
      • MFI resource subscription
      • Online Resources FREE TASTERS
      • Other free Musical Futures resources >
        • Musical Futures FREE teacher resource pack
        • Key Cards
        • Free Guide to Songwriting
        • Free Guide to Minimalism
        • Free Guide to Collaborative Songwriting in Soundtrap
        • Free Resource for Planning a Music Curriculum
  • MF International News
  • Join
  • Contact
  • About
    • What is Musical Futures?
    • Vision, Aims and Values
    • Background and history
    • What We Do
    • Learning models >
      • Informal Learning
      • Non-Formal Teaching
      • Just Play
      • Play Now
      • Everyone Can Play
      • Hear, Listen, Play
      • Find Your voice
    • Research
    • Learning outcomes
    • International Teacher Community >
      • Online Teacher Networks
  • Training program
    • Musical Futures in-person workshops >
      • Musical Futures - Listen and Play Your Way, Sydney: 18th October 2023 >
        • Listen and Play Your Way Registration
      • Shepparton Workshop 16th October 2023 >
        • Shepparton 1 day workshop registration
      • Perth Workshop 20th October 2023 >
        • Perth 1 day workshop registration
      • The Big Gig Kuala Lumpur Sept 2023 >
        • Big Gig KL 2023 registration
        • KL Sponsors
    • Musical Futures Online Training >
      • Webinar series
      • Musical Futures Online Consultancy
    • Music consultancies
    • Musical Futures for Instrumental Teachers
    • About Our Workshops >
      • Hosting an International Workshop
      • Hosting a Workshop in Australia
  • Resources
    • Resource menu >
      • All MFI resources
      • MFI resource subscription
      • Online Resources FREE TASTERS
      • Other free Musical Futures resources >
        • Musical Futures FREE teacher resource pack
        • Key Cards
        • Free Guide to Songwriting
        • Free Guide to Minimalism
        • Free Guide to Collaborative Songwriting in Soundtrap
        • Free Resource for Planning a Music Curriculum
  • MF International News
  • Join
  • Contact
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART




​
​Musical Futures news

All the news from Musical Futures International

9/24/2018 0 Comments

Getting started with songwriting using backing tracks

Find a workshop near you
Picture
Subscribe to Musical Futures and receive a free songwriting e-book
There are many different ways to get started with songwriting and as the diagram above, taken from our free guide to songwriting suggests these could be words, words and music or music. 

A great way to help students grow in confidence to try out their ideas is to provide them with backing tracks to sing along to. The advantages of this are:

  • The backing tracks can be in any style of music such as reggae, rock, hip hop that students recognise.
  • The associations they have with these styles and familiarity with songs they have heard before often helps them to feel more confident to sing along, try out ideas and take inspiration from music they already know
  • They don't need to know too much about chords, keys, instrumentation or harmony as this is done for them, however they do need to demonstrate some understanding of how to add a melody and make it fit and the only way to do this is to sing or play along!
  • They can take the energy and feel of the backing track and put that into their performance
  • A good quality backing track with a strong groove or swing means that moving as they sing comes naturally
  • If they are struggling with lyrics they can repeat one line or word and experiment with just the melody keeping in time and in the style of the backing track and it can still sound like a 'real' song!
  •  The backing tracks can already be arranged into song structure which can help students to start to recognise how to develop verse, chorus and other sections, preparing them for when they create their own music
A selection of backing tracks and play along videos are available in our free e-book which you will receive if you join Musical Futures. Already a member? Drop us an email and we can send it to you! 
click for a free guide to songwriting
What better way to demonstrate this in action than in the following video examples which were recorded in Dalian, Northern China in 2017. The teachers were given a selection of backing tracks on their phones, asked to choose one, then add and perform a vocal line.

​Singing in another language made no difference to the overall shapes of the melodies and the delivery of the performances and it was a fun way to end our workshops because very little explanation was needed, once they heard the backing tracks they quickly started to write and experiment with the lyrics with no help at all from the workshop leaders.
find a workshop near you
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    August 2023
    February 2021
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


​Where to find us:
Picture
          Privacy|Terms and conditions