In this instructional video, J. Anthony Allen introduces a comprehensive songwriting class that is not limited to Ableton Live but applies to any digital audio workstation (DAW). He promises to create an entire track from start to finish, demonstrating a workflow that begins with a sketch‑like pre‑production phase, moves through song form and lyric writing, and then delves into sound‑design tasks such as drum programming, synth creation, and live instrument recording (including a violin performance). Allen separates the process into two main buckets—composition (notes, rhythms, structure) and sound design (tone‑shaping, mixing). He also touches on mixing challenges when transitioning to a home‑studio environment. The class is positioned as a solution for anyone who struggles to start or finish a song, regardless of genre or software.
Chapters
Hey, everybody, what's up? Welcome to Songwriting in Ableton Live class. Now, I call this Songwriting in Ableton Live, but it's really not about Ableton Live necessarily. So if you're using a different program like Logic FL Studio, anything like that, you will be just fine, and you'll be able to get everything out of this class that you want. In this class, I am going to make an entire track from beginning to end. In fact, it's the exact track you are hearing right now. And if you're thinking, yeah, that's cool, but this track really isn't for me. Don't worry, because we're not focusing on any particular genre here. What I'm going to be talking about in this class is how to use relatively simple techniques to walk you through the songwriting process. We're going to start by thinking about sketching just the same way that a painter might sketch something before they really dive in with the paint. We are going to sketch our track before we really dive in with all our sounds and worry about sound design and structure and any of that stuff. So we're going to use a sketching process. Composers have been using this sketching idea for centuries. It's nothing new, but it can really help you figure out your ideas before you dive in. After that, we are going to dive into form and thinking about how are the pieces of our song fit together, and we're going to start filling in some of the gaps. Then we're going to talk a little bit about lyrics and writing music with lyrics. And then in the second half of the class, we'll dive in a little bit deeper on some of the more sound design concepts, like programming drums and then dialing in all of our synths and even recording sounds by yourself. I'm going to play a little violin in this class. We'll see how it goes. So I had a lot of fun making it. I think you'll have a lot of fun watching it. If you've ever struggled to finish a song, this is the perfect class for you. If you've ever struggled to start a track, this is a perfect class for you. Any genre, any style, any software. Everything is welcome here. And this would be useful to just about everyone. Separate everything into two categories, okay? And this is how we're going to run this class. Category one is the composition. Okay? This is all the notes and all the rhythms, right? Getting everything in the right place, worrying about the actual creation of the song, okay? That's in our first bucket. We're gonna deal with that first the second thing is all the sound design elements. This is all the nitpicky stuff of really crafting the way the song sounds. Okay, we're gonna separate those. What? Okay, so at this point, we're gonna think about what else is here. Right. How else can I play with this a little bit more? So what I typically would do is drag this drum loop. Okay, let's move on to mixing. So mixing is a huge topic, and it's totally okay, but the conversion to working just in an environment like this can. Can be tricky. I know that when I switched to it, I struggled a bit to really wrap my head around how am I creating a sound with these tools that really is tr. Sam.
