Course notes
A downloadable PDF full of further insight and techniques to get you making your own music.
Everyone has a song inside. Discover how to create yours with the writer of 14 No.1 singles.
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.
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The songwriting process with Gary Barlow
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.
Meet your Maestro. He’s going to give you all the inspiration you need to start your songwriting career.
Gary passionately imparts what music and songwriting mean to him personally.
Gary says songwriting is a process that involves many layers of exploration and demands a curious nature.
Gary talks about the importance of training your ears by listening to other people’s songs.
Gary sits at the piano and deconstructs his global number one hit A Million Love Songs, a track he wrote aged 15.
Gary reveals the remarkable songwriting regime that he started as a schoolboy and set him on the path to success.
One Christmas, Gary was given a choice of presents by his parents. His choice changed the course of his life.
Gary explains why singing your own songs in front of an audience will take your writing to a whole different place.
Gary pulls apart the song Pray and shows us its component parts.
There are no shortcuts to finding your own voice. Gary shows you the ways in which you can get started.
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.
Find out why Gary likes to get a song started with a chorus.
Chords are great building blocks for songwriters. They have dictated the emotions and sentiments of many of Gary’s most famous songs.
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.
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.
Gary shares the single biggest moment that influenced his songwriting.
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.
Tempo, sentiment and choice of key come into focus as a new song takes shape.
Gary points out the pitfalls one encounters when writing choruses.
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.
Gary drives the hook home and fine-tunes the lyrics.
Gary believes the song now has that one piece of magic in the melody of the chorus.
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.
In songwriting, everything you do will prepare you for a moment that will take you by surprise.
Gary talks about the joys of living a creative life and reflects on how Back For Good came about through experimentation.
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.
After four decades in the business, Gary has some good advice on how to stay fresh and relevant.
In an age in which music has never been more accessible, Gary gives his take on how to find your audience.
Gary talks passionately about his love and respect for music.
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A downloadable PDF full of further insight and techniques to get you making your own music.
Brilliant series, well worth the investment. Lots of content covered, a 'must' for all budding song-writers.
- Myson
Easy, intuitive, and great info from an expert.
- Claire MacKelvie
Gary has an honest and encouraging approach.
- Craig McEvoy
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
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
Gary really does make it all seem approachable. Last night I watched a lesson where he demonstrated playing 2 notes with 2 fingers and said, "Anyone can do this", so I sat down at the piano and tried it out. He was right! I'm thrilled to have started on this new adventure.
- Anon
Really helped how to pull a song apart and learn what goes into it. Very inspiring - can't wait to get on my piano!
- Esther
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The songwriting process with Gary Barlow