Course Title
MUS 220 Prosody: Writing Music To Lyrics

Instructor
Danny Arena

Course Introduction
Listen to the instructor talk about this course:

Course Description
A beautiful marriage of music to words can be a challenge even for the most experienced composer. A good musical setting of a lyric will ensure that the lyric is easy to understand and communicates the intended emotion. In this course, you'll learn specific techniques to help your music convey the content and meaning of the lyric. Examples by artists such as the Everly Brothers, Brian McKnight, Kathy Troccoli, Faith Hill and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, among others, are used to illustrate key concepts.

Course Content
Lesson 1: The Right EM-phasis
Lesson 2: Word Weighting
Lesson 3: Phrase Breaking
Lesson 4: Motif Matching And Mood Matching

Estimated Time
This course consists of four lessons each of which takes approximately twenty to thirty minutes to complete. To obtain the greatest benefit, we suggest that you leave enough time after finishing each lesson to do all the exercises and fully absorb the material before beginning the next lesson.

Pre-Requisite Knowledge
This course assumes a thorough understanding of commercial song structures in addition to commercial music structures. Suggested pre-requisite courses include: SONG 100 Commercial Song Forms and MUS 130 Musical Elements Of A Successful Song.

Software Required
This course uses examples that use Flash and iTunes For more information, see our system requirements page.