We want our songs to be accessible to our listeners - and this week's featured videos can help us achieve that. Toggling is a technique we can use to create an effective flow of imagery and ideas. Using chords purposefully can help people fully experience the lyrics. And of course, being grounded in music theory (like understanding the chromatic scale) helps the whole process.

Writing Without Limits, Part 2: Toggling (0:32:52)
Andrea Stolpe

In part two of her Writing Without Limits series, Andrea explains Toggling -- patterns that shift between sensory detail (external) and thoughts/feelings (internal) in the lyric. This simplifies the writing process by giving you a technique for testing out different ideas in your song. She gives real-world examples, and then works through an exercise with the audience.

Using Chords (0:42:22)

Steve Seskin

Let people experience your lyrics to a greater degree by using chords to really express the true emotion of the lyric. 

To show how powerfully the chord selection can color the emotion, Steve takes an example where his co-writer said the broken-hearted in the lyric didn't feel broken enough. While keeping the melody exactly the same, Steve shows how an unexpected choice in the chord gave the depth of emotion the song needed.   

Theory with Bonnie: Part 1: The Chromatic Scale (0:05:21)
Bonnie Hayes

In this short lecture, Bonnie begins her series on music theory. What is the chromatic scale? What is a half step? What does sharp mean? What does flat mean? Why are there 12 tones in our chromatic scale?