Songwriting is usually thought of as a skill that a person is either naturally gifted at or spends time developing in an intuitive manner. It not usually thought of as a subject that can be studied, and it is very rarely taught anywhere. As a result, the methods of the great songwriters have remained a mystery to many aspiring musicians. There are a handful of books available about songwriting, most of which, however, only address lyric writing, and tend to leave the music side of the equation to guesswork. And aside from a few workshops here and there, this is a subject that is not even addressed in most music colleges. So for someone to put together any type of methodical in-depth training on the topic of songwriting is quite a contribution to the world of music education.

The creator of the course, Kevin Thomas, has graduated from some of the best music schools in the world, Musicians Institute (MI), Berklee College of Music, University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, and he holds a Masters Degree in Music. He is currently an adjunct music professor at MUM. Berklee College of Music happens to be the only music college in the world where one can actually major in Songwriting. Much of the Creative Songwriting Video Course is influenced by the unique program that has been developed at Berklee College of Music, in addition to the practical experience from his professional songwriting, arranging, composing, producing, and recording career, which includes the music hundreds of songs, and almost half a dozen full length CDs. This does make him more than qualified to teach such a course.

The concepts covered in the Creative Songwriting Video Course cover just about every aspect of the songwriting process from conception to completion, and is designed to help both beginner and advanced songwriters alike. Topics include how to get started writing, developing and editing a song, creating a strong hook, lyric writing, chord progressions, melody, song structure, and quite a few other areas. For each section there are extensive video trainings.

The format of the course is primarily video tutorials that incorporate both written text and video/audio demonstrations of the topics covered. This makes the program very accessible to many different learning styles. Where some people prefer to learn from reading, some from hearing, and others from demonstration and doing, video encompasses all three. This is a much better way to learn music than from a book or audio recording.

The current price of the course is unbelievably low, priced at $75, considering the many hours of video training that are included. The course is accessed online in a back office that users can log into to study. The fact that DVDs are not actually shipped to your home is probably what has kept the price from rising to several hundred dollars. The videos all expand to full screen, so the back office seems to work just as well as DVDs would, and students save lots of money this way.

I understand that the entire course is going to be rerecorded with many improvements sometime later this year, and anyone who owns the current version at this low price will receive free updates for life. The website does indicate that the price will be going up, so it would make monetary sense to purchase now at a lower price, and receive any new versions for free.

In conclusion, I think that this course from Kevin Thomas and Songwriting Planet is something that musicians and aspiring songwriters have been hungry for for a long time. I hope that he continues to expand on his collection and releases more advanced follow up programs.

Pat Haughey

The Creative Songwriting Video Course