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Bonnie Hayes wants you to throw out the idea that songwriting can only be done when inspiration hits. Hayes is the director of Berklee Online’s new Master of Arts in Songwriting degree program, and has designed the curriculum to prepare students to write marketable songs at a moment’s notice.

Berklee Online students Danielle Collavino, Jamie Dickinson, and Billy Henry, who took Neil Diercks’ “Collaborative Songwriting” course, kept their remote songwriting dynamic going. They’re releasing their first EP under the name Future Perfect Sound.

With these songwriting tips from Berklee Online instructor Andrea Stolpe, learn how to write lyrics using the destination writing technique. 

Matt Ward shares how a Beatles songbook and a closeted $25 guitar helped define his path as a musician, a journey which has led to create the poignant new M. Ward album, ‘Migration Stories.’

Andrea Stolpe walks us through H.E.R.’s song “Hard Place,” and tells us why it’s a great example of prosody, and how you can apply the same principles to your songwriting.

Berklee Online instructor and multiplatinum songwriter Andrea Stolpe discusses how to embrace lyrical and melodic ideas that don’t always agree, using the example of the 1975’s song, “Give Yourself a Try.”

Eric Church’s Grammy-nominated song “Some of It” is a great example of the personal and universal “slice of life” that makes this type of writing tick.

Chords are a driving element of many songs. When we’ve got four elements of songwriting to manipulate (melody, chords, lyrics, and groove), it’s natural to credit them or blame them for a successful song. But how do we songwriters find and use great chords?

Evan Dando has been releasing music for more than 30 years, reaching a commercial high point in the early and mid 90s with the Lemonheads albums “It’s a Shame about Ray” and “Come on Feel the Lemonheads.”

Andrea Stolpe offers 20 songwriting activities to help you push outside the writing process that may be familiar to you.