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Gary Barlow
Songwriting
Everyone has a song inside. Discover how to create yours with the writer of 14 No.1 singles.
The Course
Whether you're a beginner, in a rock band, or a producer, there's a lot to be learned from Gary's course. Be inspired as he crafts a new song from scratch.
Your Maestro
Gary Barlow, OBE, is one of Britain’s greatest songwriters. He’s written songs for Delta Goodram, T-Pain, N-Dubz, Lily Allen, Shirley Bassey, Take That and more. He’s sold over 50 million records, had 14 No.1 singles and learnt a lot in 30 years. He's going to share it all with you on this course.
Lessons
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3 mins
Meet your Maestro. He’s going to give you all the inspiration you need to start your songwriting career.
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3 mins
Gary passionately imparts what music and songwriting mean to him personally.
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5 mins
Gary says songwriting is a process that involves many layers of exploration and demands a curious nature.
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9 mins
Gary talks about the importance of training your ears by listening to other people’s songs.
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5 mins
Gary sits at the piano and deconstructs his global number one hit A Million Love Songs, a track he wrote aged 15.
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4 mins
Gary reveals the remarkable songwriting regime that he started as a schoolboy and set him on the path to success.
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13 mins
One Christmas, Gary was given a choice of presents by his parents. His choice changed the course of his life.
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5 mins
Gary explains why singing your own songs in front of an audience will take your writing to a whole different place.
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4 mins
Gary pulls apart the song Pray and shows us its component parts.
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11 mins
There are no shortcuts to finding your own voice. Gary shows you the ways in which you can get started.
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4 mins
It’s critical that you keep all your ideas safe so that you can come back to them. Gary illustrates this with the story of a song that stuck with him until he was ready to complete it.
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3 mins
Find out why Gary likes to get a song started with a chorus.
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3 mins
Chords are great building blocks for songwriters. They have dictated the emotions and sentiments of many of Gary’s most famous songs.
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7 mins
Gary shows us how he brought two ideas to the studio and fused them together to create a song big enough to open a sell out show at Wembley Stadium.
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9 mins
Arguably the greatest comeback in pop history was launched off the back of a collaboration. Gary explains how a partnership with producer John Shanks, helped create the song, Patience.
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3 mins
Gary shares the single biggest moment that influenced his songwriting.
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7 mins
Starting with a clean slate, Gary shows you how to construct a brand new song and explains many of the decisions you need to make right from the start.
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13 mins
Tempo, sentiment and choice of key come into focus as a new song takes shape.
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12 mins
Gary points out the pitfalls one encounters when writing choruses.
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10 mins
Gary talks about the importance of staying in the moment to maintain the flow and puts the melody of our new song under the spotlight.
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10 mins
Gary drives the hook home and fine-tunes the lyrics.
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10 mins
Gary believes the song now has that one piece of magic in the melody of the chorus.
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6 mins
In the creative world, confidence is king. Without it everything falls apart. Gary speaks from the heart about how he once lost his confidence and what he did to build it back up.
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7 mins
In songwriting, everything you do will prepare you for a moment that will take you by surprise.
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13 mins
Gary talks about the joys of living a creative life and reflects on how Back For Good came about through experimentation.
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10 mins
Different skillsets are required for musical theatre and for scoring film soundtracks. Gary touches on what you need to know to work in these areas.
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6 mins
After four decades in the business, Gary has some good advice on how to stay fresh and relevant.
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3 mins
In an age in which music has never been more accessible, Gary gives his take on how to find your audience.
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7 mins
Gary talks passionately about his love and respect for music.
Course notes
71 pages
A downloadable PDF full of further insight and techniques to get you making your own music.
What People are Saying
Easy, intuitive, and great info from an expert.
- Claire MacKelvie
Gary has an honest and encouraging approach.
- Craig McEvoy
Brilliant series, well worth the investment. Lots of content covered, a 'must' for all budding song-writers.
- Myson
Sharing Gary's expertise and passion for song writing was really inspiring.
- Anon
I learnt a lot about songwriting. It was what I needed. The quality of the video was amazing. And it really helped me to improve my songwriting and respect other musicians.
- Anon
I liked that Gary really connected with the people and I liked when he was explaining how to write a hit song.
- Olivia Grace Dunning
Gary Barlow was a wonderful mentor.
- Derek Atkinson
Today I bought and watched the @GaryBarlow course. Have to say, I thought £80 was a bit steep for 3.5 hours of video but I'm so impressed. Inspirational content, proper help on how to construct songs, and his enthusiasm for the subject is through the roof. So worth it.
- SpiritedLinds
I had to watch all of it today and can't wait to rewatch it. Thank you Gary.
- Nick
Gary is great. Very accessible. Simplifies the art of songwriting. Very honest and relatable.
- Eleni Skarpari
Concise, precise, master class. Great insight to how a maestro has developed and honed his craft and prepared to share this with others. Gary Barlow has matured so much with his songwriting and performance over the years. His expertise is enthusiastically broken down in to essential parts, and demonstrated how to build an idea to a polished and completed product.
- Ian Martyn
Common Questions
At BBC Maestro, we want to educate and inspire people to explore their creativity with online courses taught by experts. We've curated top talents in various fields, who deliver video courses to teach you everything you need to know to follow in their footsteps.
BBC Maestro is currently available in the following territories: United Kingdom, Isle of Mann, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Australia, South Africa, Canada, India, Brazil, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. We are planning on launching BBC Maestro in other territories in the future. Please subscribe to our mailing list and follow our social media channels for updates.
BBC Maestro does not currently offer a subscription service. Each individual course can be bought with a one-off payment.
Yes, all our courses have English subtitles that can be accessed by clicking the CC button on the video player. We also have downloadable PDF course notes in English to accompany each course, which offer more detailed information and tips. We do not currently offer subtitles in any other languages.