The Producer as Composer: digital sound & songwriting in practice

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• song production fundamentals: Digital Audio Workstation control of dynamics, texture, timbre and space.
• songwriting fundamentals: lyrics, rhythm, melody and harmony;
• roles and processes in contemporary song production, distribution and consumption;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• work independently and demonstrate critical self-awareness;
• apply critical listening and critical thinking skills to recorded music.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• use a range of appropriate techniques to realise musical ideas as sound;
• identify key compositional and production elements of musical styles/genres.
• manage a non-linear creative process;

Topics will typically include:

• Roles and non-linear creative processes in contemporary digitally-mediated song-making cultures;
• Recording, composition, arrangement and audio mixing & processing to control mood, texture and spectral space;
• Working with samples (reduced listening as creative starting point; looping techniques; legal implications & making your own loops);
• New AI- and machine learning-based tools for music production.

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures and demonstrations

Seminars, tutorials and group sessions

Practical tasks (both in-class and in independent study)

Reading Blackboard resources and hardware/software manuals

Watching curated online video content

Critical listening to a range of audio resources (both in-class and in independent study)

Group work

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Holistic Songwriting.

DAW Production Resources.

Textbooks

Pattison, Pat (2009). Writing Better Lyrics: the essential guide to powerful songwriting. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books.

Herstand, Ari (2019). How to Make it in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician. New York City: Liveright.

Moorfield, Virgil (2010). The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Seabrook, John (2015). The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. New York: W. W. Norton.

Assessment strategy

• Formative assessments or tasks designed to provide informal, on-module feedback;
• Production assignments to allow students to demonstrate the practical technical skills covered;
• Reflective report writing.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal