How To Write a Song #2 - How The Beatles wrote Cant Buy Me Love

FREE songwriting lesson from http://www.HowToWriteaSong.net featuring a study of the 1964 Beatles classic Can't Buy Me Love. Learn how Paul McCartney would have chosen the chords, study the mechanics behind the song, and learn how YOU can apply the same techniques in your own music.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• songwriting
• write song
• how to write songs
• how to write a song
• songwriting lessons
• songwriting techniques
• tips

[Fretanation]

with all due respect, whether u do it instinctively or by the book, theory has everything to do with songwriting, the two are very much entwined. Tension n release, resolution etc are all things that the great songwriters whether formally trained or not used to create memorable songs...for me theory is there to primarily to explain, secondly to support the creative process and thirdly to generate ideas when the instinctive is not as forthcoming.

Not sure where the bullshit lies in this.

[lifeemusicelife]

I think this is some of the best presented information for people without music theory out there trying to write songs. It isn't bullshit and your music isn't going to sound convoluted if you really try and apply what he's saying. True, Lennon and McCartney didn't think of it this way... but nobody has treated it like them since the beatles were around, not even them!(mccarntey's new stuff really sucks comparatively for instance). for the rest of us without divine inspiration it's good info!

[hartistry1957]

@Fretanation That was yesterday; if you didn't catch the Oscars the other night, you need to know that the guy who won for best Score, never had formal theory training. Next!

[twatlasher]

who are you? have you had a hit song? great music is instinctive and spiritual just the way paul wrote this song, its a mash of all the stuff you've ever heared with your own emotion added, you can either do it or you can't....

[andt1994]

I noticed that I have already been writing similar to this and doing this! wow

[jarcho123]

This breakdown of theory can teach someone with no ear to write decent songs, but there's still a lot of "magic" that separates good and GREAT...I learned some theory, only to realize it was all stuff I was already doing intuitively...and I'm still patiently trying to create something half as good as the Beatles...

[loepje1988]

@Mr2010Jamie

This is the most basic stuff, like the first 2 pages of any theorybook.

every songs build is made from chords within a certain key.

Sometimes music goes to another key, i.e. classical pieces.

beatles used a lot of switching between keys, not in this song tho, which is in the prob most used scale, c major.

ow and as far the discussions below, does anybody know something about musictheory..?

[TyVerte]

beatles never knew how to read music or understood any theory. they just came up with tunes out of their heads. doesn't mean its not a good vid though

[PhotoExclusive]

Thanks for the quick clip, it was a good intro to song writing for me and I love the simple mix of Maj Verse w/Min Chorus.

[GalaxyHorse]

@Mr2010Jamie Not sure you could say most songs(IMO)-these principles explain the Harmonic balancing act employed a lot in western songs-but there are many others that employ surprising chord changes-and even others that have only the one chord all the way through-it is more the style, technique and idiosyncratic way in which music is played, and vocals/lyrics woven together that is the creative 'bit'.

[Allrightteam]

@Fretanation You're quite right. Music theory is like math theory. It doesn't define the world, rather it describes it. this guy isn't telling us how the Beatles wrote this song, rather he is showing us how to understand it.