Songwriter Theory Podcast: Learn Songwriting And Write Meaningful Lyrics and Songs · Joseph Vadala

How I’d Learn Songwriting (If I Had To Start Over)

·51 min·3 clips

He says the goal is to write chord progressions rather than keep using stock ones forever.

1. Songwriter Theory Podcast: Learn Songwriting And Write Meaningful Lyrics and Songs frames "How I’d Learn Songwriting (If I Had To Start Over)" as a beginner roadmap. 2. Joseph Vidala is the host, and he says music theory was "the most impactful thing" he learned in his songwriting journey. 3. The episode asks what to learn first if someone had to relearn songwriting from scratch as an 11- or 12-year-old. 4. Vidala says the first step is understanding keys, phrases, and song sections at a high level. 5. He explains a song in C major as using chords and melody notes from the same key, while noting there are exceptions like borrowed chords and non-diatonic songs. 6. He says learning keys fixed the "disjointed" feeling he used to get in his own songs. 7. He describes phrases as musical sentences that usually line up with lyric lines. 8. He says melody feels less overwhelming when it is broken into patterns like ABAB, AAAA, or AABC. 9. He defines a chorus as the repeated musical and lyrical highlight, a verse as repeated music with changing lyrics, and a bridge as an alternate section. 10. He says understanding verse, pre-chorus, chorus, post-chorus, and bridge is enough to start writing. 11. Step two is a "stock chord progression" and probably a "four-chord song" as an easy first win. 12. He recommends keeping the first song simple, like a scarf or blanket compared with a harder crochet project or the Statue of David. 13. He names a 1-5-6-4 progression in C major as an example of a tried-and-true starting point. 14. He says step three is diving deeper into lyrics, starting with meter, storytelling, and rhyming. 15. He defines meter as syllables and emphases, and he says the stress in words and melody should match naturally. 16. He says rhyme is "probably the single most overrated thing" in songwriting and warns against forcing a cringy rhyme scheme. 17. The tone is instructional and conversational, with Joseph Vidala using examples, self-corrections, and long explanations. 18. The format is a solo teaching episode with a structured step-by-step list rather than an interview. 19. Listeners who want a practical songwriting starting point will get the most value. 20. Listeners looking for a short entertainment-first episode will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A practical beginner's map that turns songwriting into a sequence of learnable steps.

Joseph Vidala presents songwriting as something that can be learned in order, not guessed at. He starts with keys, phrases, and song sections, then moves into simple verse and chorus melodies over the same chord progression before turning to lyrics.

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Why you'd press play

Start songwriting from the ground up, without getting lost in theory fog.

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