Songwriting Habits: Song Exploder - a great metacognition tool!

Song Exploder: The Decemberists

This podcast interviews songwriters who break down their songs and describe the decision making process along the way. This is an excellent way of showing what metacognition process are used in the development of a song. It can help us too in the development of our own compositions.

Listen to this podcast by The Decemberists and how they wrote the song Once in My Life.

Then answer these questions:

What processes does Colin use to come up with his ideas?

How does he reflect and make decisions on where to take the song after he decides that it needs a change?

Map out how he comes up with his musical ideas, and how he develops them.

How can you use this information when you compose your next song/composition?