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Hi,
On the third week of the songwriting course where the study is Rhyme. I must admit I'm finding it pretty tough going, a few of the concepts are pretty straight forward like perfect rhyme and to an extent family rhyme, but I know its going to take me a lot lot longer than a week to grasp the concepts involved, if I ever grasp them all.
Anyone else in the same boat?
Musiclover
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I am finding the concepts OK (even though I missed that ros-ey / ston-ey rhyme type), but I think the real challenge will be to put it into practice. Most writers probably grab the first or second good rhyme that comes along (as long as it fits). Pat really preaches using that thesaurus and rhyming dictionary to dig deep into the english language to find suitable words and rhymes that really make the song come alive. The discipline to do that will take some re-training on my part!
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Journeyman
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I've been trying to keep up with the course and lessons but was surprised to find how often I was missing deadlines due to the intrusion of simple day to day living. Having written songs for years as a hobby, I was anxious to learn the "correct" way to do it and was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of "technical information" involved. I would equate it, in my case, to playing by ear vs having to learn music theory and to sight read music in 6 weeks. Then my video's were stopping mid way thorough until I found I could switch to Flash Player in the Course Preferences. Things were not looking good. Then I came to the realization that my frustration was because I was taking the course too seriously. My old brain cells don't work the same as my young ones did, but they still work, for now  ...just takes longer for some things and requires more repetition. I noticed that even Pat (the instructor) agreed that there was some confusion by other students over a certain question on one of the quizzes. Pat's analogy in the beginning of the course of each concept being a tool that can be added to our song writing tool belt is a great one. It means we can choose to use all, some or none of them in any particular song. So if I cant get a handle on one of the tools right now, no big deal, there are others in the belt to choose from and maybe someday I'll add the other...or not. The bottom line is, since it's a free course, the lectures are often very humorously entertaining, and having the video format allows at least 6 weeks of unlimited reviewing (haven't tried to download them), then regardless of how much I'm able to absorb, at least I'm adding a few more tools to my songwriting tool belt....for free! As in everything in life, all we can do is our best and try to enjoy the ride. It's better than the alternative:) Hang in there and have fun, Carkins
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Thanks for replies. I think part of it too is to actually enjoy writing the songs, and I feel if I was going to go into it too deep or take it too serious I would loose that.
I have downloaded the videos both for the songwriting and the introdcution to music production courses about 500mb each week in total and good to keep for future reference.
musiclover
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Haven't started week 3 assignment yet. Still watching the video lectures. Just finished my week 2 assignment evaluations. Confusing in that evaluation is the mention of the 'chorus title' which wasn't asked for in the assignment to begin with.
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Quote:
Is anyone else in the same boat?
I think the "same boat" is the Titanic. I've resolved myself to glean whatever I can and not try to absorb everything on the first pass. I have downloaded all the lecture videos and will review until I "get it", if ever.
I was happy to see that the quizzes still function on the downloads.
Go to Pat's site for more videos and great songwriting tips.
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I am enjoying the video lectures and learning from them! The quizzes are not so good as they contain contradictions and Pat has even reversed some of the answers because everyone complained about them. The assignments are useful for you to practice what was covered but the peer evaluation process is fatally flawed! If the comments on the forum are any indication many (most?) students are confused by the assignments so you have people who are unsure of the assignment grading others??? And the assignments are also not prepared very well. All in all, the course has been and probably will be very useful to me. It was free so I am only out my time and the time I have invested was worthwhile as I have learned something. However, I would give the overall course a fairly poor rating with quizzes and assignments containing subjective components and introducing concepts never covered in the lectures. It seems as though someone unfamiliar with the lectures put together the quizzes and assignments! And the grading system is completely useless except for the practice you get in going through it. I would not be a very happy camper if I had paid Berklee's standard fees for this class!! 
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I think the quizzes and assignments are just fine. You do need to read the book and/or search the internet to get more info. All of the required information is not just in the lecture -- just like live academic classes.
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Quote:
just like live academic classes
maybe these exist but I have never seen any "live academic classes" where students of all levels (many clearly unqualified) do the only evaluations of other students and then use that as part of the basis for scoring the class! Pat's video lectures are good and I am reading through two of his books that I would highly recommend to anyone. However, if this particular online course was not free I'd certainly not recommend it! But, for the price you can't go wrong!
Last edited by JohnJohnJohn; 03/20/13 05:28 PM.
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Quote:
I think part of it too is to actually enjoy writing the songs, and I feel if I was going to go into it too deep or take it too serious I would loose that.
musiclover,
When writing the first draft of your song - do NOT think of ANYTHING but what you're feeling and want to say. This is NOT the time for ANY editing of ANY kind. Kick the editor OUT of your mind. AFTER you have written a first draft THEN take these tools you are learning and try your draft through them. IE., make sure there's enough there beyond the first verse (the boxes), see if you can make it more interesting still saying what you wanted to say (Rhyming)..... And so on....as you try out your tools to see what works with your draft to make it shine.
Also here's a tip from me to you as an adjunct or alternative to the "boxes" if you run out of steam after the first verse and chorus. When you feel stuck trying to get that second verse. Simply make your first verse your SECOND verse. Then write a first verse leading up to that one.
None of the tools you are learning are meant to inhibit your creativity. First drafts anything goes. Polish later.
Hope that helps you.
Hang in there.
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Hi Musiclover
I did find the lectures on week three a bit tough..mainly because my internet connection keeps stopping so it takes about 2 hours to view a fifteen minute video!!! Very frustrating. I am going to look at the flash player option mentioned here.
I thought I knew a little about rhyme from a previous song writing course but clearly I didn’t because I didn’t do too well on the quiz. The assignment is going to be interesting.
I am enjoying the course and taking from it what I can. I refuse to get my knickers in a knot about the assignment grading or my score on the quizzes. I just cannot believe there are 65,000 people registered for this course!
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Joanne: Try downloading the videos and then watch them using your local media player. It might take a while to download, but at least you can watch the video with no interuptions. John^3: Don't bother turning in the quizzes or the assignments if you are not happy with them. I think they are fine. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit: One of coursera's founders: TED talk, explains accuracy of peer reviewing (a little) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Right click the furthest right icon on each video it looks like an arrow with a bracket under it. then save link to a folder on desktop. this way you can keep them I plan to burn to a disk and store them for later.
I try to keep in mind these are creative concepts and to be used to help the student understand the concepts of creation better, and how words and phrasing evoke emotion and thought. Pat said it early on there are no rules. i run through the quizzes and get as many right as possible, but wrong answers teach lessons as well. We all know that from life.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Quote:
Quote:
I think part of it too is to actually enjoy writing the songs, and I feel if I was going to go into it too deep or take it too serious I would loose that.
musiclover,
When writing the first draft of your song - do NOT think of ANYTHING but what you're feeling and want to say. This is NOT the time for ANY editing of ANY kind. Kick the editor OUT of your mind. AFTER you have written a first draft THEN take these tools you are learning and try your draft through them. IE., make sure there's enough there beyond the first verse (the boxes), see if you can make it more interesting still saying what you wanted to say (Rhyming)..... And so on....as you try out your tools to see what works with your draft to make it shine.
Also here's a tip from me to you as an adjunct or alternative to the "boxes" if you run out of steam after the first verse and chorus. When you feel stuck trying to get that second verse. Simply make your first verse your SECOND verse. Then write a first verse leading up to that one.
None of the tools you are learning are meant to inhibit your creativity. First drafts anything goes. Polish later.
Hope that helps you.
Hang in there.
Thanks for replies everybody and Josie that is good advice.
musiclover
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i didn't think that i could get through this (it looked too theoretical), been a while since i've been in school, but Introduction to Music Production https://www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction seemed like i'd do better, i'm pretty happy with it though sadly my existing tablet computer wasn't up to the task of producing the youtube videos so i had to get a new one, more on that experience in an upcoming post (it wasn't pleasant) presuming this new one, 2d i've tried, works out i'll be even happier i do like the mooc concept though here are some links to mooc courses the mooc list http://www.mooc-list.com/MOOCs: Top 10 Sites for Free Education With Elite Universities http://www.bdpa-detroit.org/portal/index...n&Itemid=20Class Central is a free online course aka MOOC aggregator http://www.class-central.com/
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I've found reading the transcripts of the videos to be a lifesaver, especially when I have trouble playing the videos. Occasionally I've had to check back with the video - for example, the "family" of phonemes wasn't transcribed. And there are typos and homonyms that add a bit of difficulty. But once you've got seen a couple of Pat's videos, it's easy to imagine him as you read through the transcripts.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Quote:
I've found reading the transcripts of the videos to be a lifesaver, especially when I have trouble playing the videos.
Occasionally I've had to check back with the video - for example, the "family" of phonemes wasn't transcribed. And there are typos and homonyms that add a bit of difficulty.
But once you've got seen a couple of Pat's videos, it's easy to imagine him as you read through the transcripts.
Is that the subtitles that you are talking about here David?
Thanks
Musiclover
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Yes. They're the second column of icons, to the right of the quizzes. They have the hint text Subtitles (text). They're plain text files.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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One of coursera's founders explains accuracy of peer reviewing (a little)
yeah, I think this is fine for a free online course; not my preference but OK. However, I would not want my cardiologist getting his degree this way! when the outcome really matters you want some standards in the evaluations!
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I am quite sure that there are many classes that a cardiologist takes that peer evaluation followed by peer discussion (the forums) would work quite well. I have a degree in mechanical engineering -- many of the classes that I took could have been scored this way.
Sure, if I way spending $1,200 - $1,500 for a berklee on-line 12-week songwriting class and there were only 20 students, I would expect more teacher grading. But peer analysis is a part of that too, I assume.
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