Songwriting: The Basics

Yes, you’ll be guided through the songwriting process and encouraged to write your own material. You’ll also undertake ‘writing activities’, where you’ll be encouraged to try your hand at professional real-world songwriting briefs.

Yes. If you're struggling where to start - the melody or the lyrics. If you're wondering how to translate your new ideas into a complete song. If you want to write a great song. Then we can help you with your song craft. The techniques of writing a good song are tried and tested, but that doesn't mean you'll simply write a song that lacks originality. Far from it. Our course will teach you how to write a song that listeners can connect to, turning your song into a hit song.

This course provides you with a solid foundation so you can embark upon your songwriting journey. We recommend you begin here, unless you’re already an experienced writer with at least ten or more songs under your belt. Having mastered Songwriting: The Basics, you can then progress onto our other songwriting courses, which are for intermediate-level songwriters.

Yes, lyric writing is an integral part of songwriting and features prominently in this course. If you’d like to progress your lyric writing skills at the end of this course, you might like to consider taking our Lyric Writing course where you’ll explore the craft of lyric development in more detail.

If you play an instrument, then yes, you can learn chord progressions and discover which are the most popular chords in modern music. But to be clear - you don't have to be able to play an instrument to write great song lyrics or a melody.

No. Being able to read and write music will help, but it's not essential to do this course. Nor do you need to be able to read music to become a top songwriter.

Yes, because song structure is a hugely important thing in songwriting. A solid structure will provide your song a strong foundation from which it can grow and develop. Having an easy to follow song structure will help guide listeners through your song from the first note to the last. In our course, you'll learn the most common contemporary hit song layout, as well as how to play with this. We'll teach you the different add ons you can include with your structure as well as other popular variations that hit songs have utilised over the years.

We don't have a crystal ball, so alas we're unable to predict the future. But what we can say is this: after the course, you will have a solid understanding of structure, content and melody in popular music. You'll know how to construct a song title, compose lyrics, and structure your song by teaching you the songwriting skills that will elevate your songs.

You can start whenever you’re ready! Elevate courses are accessed on demand, so you can start and pause your learning at any time. There are no deadlines to begin or complete your course by, so you can progress your studies when it suits you. All course materials are yours to keep forever, so you can take the course again further down the track if you’d like.

Yes. We work with a range of partners from the creative industries to provide Elevate students like yourself with discounted software to support your learning journey. Your courses will include links to discounts, where relevant. 

Yes – you absolutely do! ICMP Elevate courses are designed to be revisited, so you can reuse the course material to practice, develop and continue to improve. As long as you have an account with us, you’ll have access to all the courses you’ve purchased.

Once you’ve completed all your course lessons, you’ll be awarded a certificate found on your dashboard page, which you can download and share.

Expect something highly engaging! Elevate courses are packed full of interactive learning elements. You’ll have access to video and written lessons, and will use diagrams, case studies and insider hints and tips in your studies. Once you’ve completed an Elevate course, you’ll have lifetime access to all information shared, meaning you can revisit your course materials whenever you like.