Will Hodgkinson article
Some lovely quotes here. The only assertion I’d disagree with is ‘songwriting can’t be taught’, of course 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/28/music-perfect-pop-song-pulp
“A pop song does, however, follow certain rules. It is generally around three to four minutes, has a verse and a chorus, and uses a bed of chords to support a melody, with words that convey some sort of sentiment that an audience can relate to.”
Although the ‘magic’ element is certainly true – it’s a beautiful thing, as Jarvis acknowledges;
“The beauty of songwriting is that any human being can do it,” he says. “And they learned how to do it their way. One minute someone was sitting in the living room, having a cup of coffee. The next they picked up the guitar and wrote something from nothing. That’s a miraculous event. That’s what keeps me going”.
I suppose that’s the point of the songwriting teaching at SWF – the tutors only really guide people around the technique – starting by covering (or occasionally stretching!) the above-mentioned ‘rules’, and then helping the writer to tackle the bad habits – melodic rat-runs, rhyme traps, lack of imagery, over-abstraction, verboseness etc. But what is remarkable – and rather beautiful – is that however much guidance a writer gets from the tutor, the song is still authentically the writer’s own. It’s that personal quality that everyone brings to their songs, regardless of musical skill or songwriting experience.
Some of our writers have expressed to us a fear that if they work with a tutor – or collaborator – any editing or trimming will somehow kill the authenticity of the song, making it less ‘real’ or ‘true’ because the ideas have been trimmed, edited or adapted along the way. But this fear always seems to evaporate when the song is completed. It’s connected, I’m sure, with that natural protectiveness that all writers have of their first idea – the assumption that it must be the best one simply because it arrived first. Perhaps this is because when we hear a well-written song it gives us the impression, as listeners, that it ‘comes from the heart’ regardless of how many hours the writer spent painstakingly crafting every last syllable. That emotional immediacy (of great songs) is an intoxicating trap for us as songwriters, because it can lure us into feeling that we should apply it to the creative process. Or maybe we should?!!!
There’s a really simple maxim that Andy always says when he’s teaching the MA Songwriting – the more songs you write, the easier it gets…
Writing lyrics is a doodle to me. I have no musical training as a consequence of being the victim of an elaborate con which dates back to when I was at school. The teachers knew, but I didn’t know, that I had the same surname as an author and instead of giving me any praise for what I would write, they just took it and gave it to their mates in bands etc. This carried on after I left school with the music industry insiders becoming increasingly more and more devious in the methods they used.
I expect that I am not the only person who this has happened to. Unfortunately the music industry is a closed shop just like the film industry I expect and has links to some very powerful individuals. I estimate that I have written and had stolen between 3,000-10,000 song lyrics in 30 years. I’ve even had death threats over it all. As I have become very vocal. I don’t have the money for a court case as I have never received a penny for my Intellectual Property.
Writing for me was a hobby which I did in my spare time to get my good or bad thoughts and emotions out. I don’t have proof for all what I wrote as that would require me to have been conscious of it going on for all of these years. I wasn’t conscious of it happening as I would write in one take and never go back to it. I do have some proof for one album which has won numerous grammys and sold in excess of about 50 million copies. However I don’t have the funds to launch a legal case so what can I do.
In my life everytime someone discovered my lyrics instead of saying hey these aren’t bad lets see if someone would be interested in them, they just took it upon themselves to steal them from me. I expect, no I am sure that there are people now who have been hospitalised in mental institutions as a consequence of the devious tactics employed by the Intellectual Property crooks.
I realised what was going on when I was exposed to trauma a few years back. This experience triggered all of my forgotten memories to come flooding back to me. I supose you can say that I was the victim of trauma based mind control to a certain extent. My entire life, my entire potential was stolen from me due to my surname being the same as some famous author.
All rights reserved Ian Y 22 Februray 2009
Editorial note – the only album in history to sell more than 50 million copies is Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which has several different writers and co-writers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_worldwide
and I expect that you think that this is really Michael jackson in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiDNMhETTeU&feature=related