The creative workshops have been instrumental in changing my songwriting practice to involve improvisation. I have chosen to focus specifically on our most recent composition, discussing the benefits of collaboration and improvisation from a songwriting perspective. I will reflect on how my process differs when I am writing alone compared to collaboratively and I will be examining how the workshops have affected other areas of my learning.
After the reflection in week 15 it was decided that we would come to the next workshop with some an idea such as lyrics or a melody, so we didn’t waste time coming up with initial ideas at the beginning of the class. We decided to work with a chorus that I had written called ‘What if I’m on fire’. Whilst playing through the chorus for the first time, it was interesting to listen to each part interacting with each other as it illuminated issues that we had at points for example, the song has an 8 line chorus consisting of 2 parts, which can be seen on the lead sheet below, and I was finding it difficult to sing the 5th line “what if it’s too easy” immediately after the first half of the chorus, so we decided to add an extra bar with 2 accented drum beats. This can be heard at 0:33 and 0:46 of the On Fire Group recording. This was helpful for me as it meant I could sing the chorus more easily; it was also effective as it emphasised the middle and end of the chorus I believe this helped make the chorus more memorable, which is a fundamental aspect of popular music. I found it difficult during the initial ideas class to treat the song as something entirely new and forget my own version of it. I felt myself focusing on how I would have written the parts of this song and not treating it as a collaborative piece where others had their own ideas for the song. I spoke to Harry to see what challenges he had experienced during the process. He found remembering structures to the songs difficult and said he would work on “learning songs through their structures and listen for chord changes” to help him overcome this challenge in the future.
When we discussed the previous projects, we spoke about how we had worked on two jazz style pieces, therefore in this project we decided to focus on writing more of a pop song, using hooks to make the song memorable and following the basic structure for popular music. Callum decided to add a rap verse after the chorus. This can be seen below on the lyric sheet. This took the song in a new direction, and introduced me to the benefits of writing collaboratively, as I would not have included a rap part in this song if I were writing on my own, however I think it added a new depth to the song. This will encourage me to collaborate with musicians who write in different genres or styles in the future. When I spoke to Callum about this project, he said that he would also try to collaborate with other musicians in different genres and “write something outside [his] comfort zone”, which I think highlights the importance of collaboration in enhancing songwriting skills.
Improvisation has been an integral part of composition for many years. It started with classical music and the figured bass but has often been more attributed to jazz works at which improvisation is at the centre of (Gould & Keaton, 2000). Hannan used the term “comprovisation” to talk about “the practice of making new compositions from recordings of improvised material” (2006). There were two points of improvisation in the On Fire Group recording below, the first is in the rap section, from 0:45 to 1:11 where I sang a melismatic melody over Callum’s rap. The second is after the second chorus from 1:37 to 2:01 where there was an improvised guitar solo. This process has encouraged me to prioritise improvisation when writing a song, without expectation that my original idea will be the result. I spoke to Harry about his experiences with this project and he said that the process has “helped [him] be more decisive and […] realise that the first idea does not have to be the final product”.
I decided to continue working on this song separately to see how my process and the song changed when I worked alone as opposed to collaboratively. The result was an acoustic version of the song with a slightly different structure. For example, the guitar solo section at 0:45 to 1:11 in the On Fire Group recording became a short instrumental, which can be heard at 0:44 to 0:55 of the On Fire Maddie recording and I wrote a verse instead of the rap section at 0:56. This highlighted the benefits of collaboration to me as everyone was able to introduce their own ideas which I feel created a much more cohesive product than my version of the song. I also spoke to Callum about his songwriting process, and he talked about the challenges of writing lyrics to his rap to coincide with the lyrics to the chorus that already existed, which is something I also find particularly challenging. This process has encouraged me to learn more about other genres of music which has been useful in my specialist group study module as we had to cover a song in a completely new genre.
Overall, I have found the creative workshops to be incredibly helpful for my songwriting process in encouraging me to listen to other people’s ideas to create something entirely new. It also introduced me to the benefits of improvisation which is a practice I intend to continue to use when I am writing songs. I believe that this has helped me greatly in my other areas of study by encouraging me to work with others and learn about different styles and genres.
Bibliography
Carriage, L. (2019) Breathing new life into old forms: collaborative processes supporting songwriting and improvisation. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/20368 [Accessed 5 May 2026]
Gould, C. & Keaton, K. (2000) The Essential Role of Improvisation in Musical Performance. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 58, 143-148 https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/31732535/JAACimprov_copy-libre.pdf?1392386123=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_essential_role_of_improvisation_in_m.pdf&Expires=1778154161&Signature=AqUSiLJ1wtuBglZz~WVnIn7Ab0HqThqFhaPLFix9FifDiYuwjAxgKpcAOsH8KoNXlhMFwOQytSepUwaIRaWkWz5dMxPoi439cOF25xpJSKwO1YinvcvKYRTMHtQwBx9NDdgSgSeoKui0WMIey9owHUT0At8rJvNVehnYLs~Y6Iywc9LRdxBDJ6a-GztIaPAnqdIdJjGKM3V3UzMzRLbJNySl51TXvIDJTOiB43PDkuaFkpY6SZ75EtNN8c6Qa-YoX3LkyjH0qdVAsq69qX4v79w7IzVZ5y1FPPDxDIQzfz08keS~jq9Nx1uR2YuHxNkW5Qe~OzPi5xSEJyl~2pONIg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA [Accessed 5 May 2026]
