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Then came the lyric-writing part of the training course, where the Committee
Members talked about the basic requirements of song lyrics. They also explained how lyrics

could change based on different parts of a song and their function. The verse, for example,
sets up the chorus of a song, and usually has lyrics with higher specificity, while the chorus is
the climax of a song, and usually has more general lyrics. Olivia Rodrigo’s “driver’s license”
was used as an example of how lyrics change from the verse, to the chorus and to the bridge.

Next was the songwriting segment, which was separated into 2 parts, 1 part for
each week, for ease of listening. In part one of the songwriting segment, the Committee
Members gave an introduction to chord progressions, by explaining what they were, and

providing examples of two very commonly seen chord progressions. One was the 1-5-
6-4 progression, commonly referred to as “the most popular chord progression”, used
most in Western pop music; the other was the “royal road progression”, a progression
commonly seen in Japanese pop music.

In part two of the songwriting segment, the Committee Members introduced
some special chords that could be used to jazz up songs. They also gave 2 more examples
of chord progressions, one being the famous 2-5-1 jazz chord progression, and the other
Knowledge in Notes one being a unique 1-7 progression that can be found in certain Western pop songs.

In week two of the training course, the Committee Members began the editing
A Class On Music Composing segment, in which they explained the meanings of some common words seen in editing

softwares, such as “reverb”, “compressor”,“amplifier”, “pitch” and “tempo”. They went on
to demonstrate how these could be tweaked or used in editing softwares such as Bandlab

On the 23rd of June and 6th of July 2022, Kuen Cheng High School’s Music and Audacity. The Committee Members also shared about layering in music, and talked
Composing Society held a two-week long training course to provide additional insight about how knowledge of music layers could be used to write songs.
to its club members on the dos and don’ts of songwriting. The course was divided into 5

parts, namely song structure, lyric-writing, songwriting, editing and singing. Last but not least, it was the singing segment, where the Committee Members
shared that voices of different timbres were suitable for singing different genres of music.

The training course was provided by the Club Committee, who opened the training They shared examples of how singers could change how breathy their singing was, in
course by teaching about the basic structure of a modern pop song. The verse-chorus order to achieve different effects in songs. Reducing the air in your voice, for example,

structure was most common in pop music, but there are many other structures present could be used when trying to reach a larger climax. The Committee Members also talked
in songs such as the pre-chorus, bridge, hook and interlude, all used to provide more about the use of portamento and ad-libs in singing, and how these techniques could be
flavour to songs. used to make their singing sound more lively and interesting.

The Committee Members also provided examples of pop songs to demonstrate With that, the 2022 training course for Club Members of the Music Composing
how different song structures could be used. This led to them explaining about the Society came to an end. We hope such educational training courses will be open to other
importance of creating climaxes in songs, and they provided suggestions on how to students in the school in the future!
create such climaxes. For example, a songwriter could use heavier backtrack vocals to

create a larger climax. Reported by: Sofea Chang Hui Zhou Sr1ComB

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