 Cat Cohen Reveals the Structure of the Hits
at L*A*M*P's "Secrets of Successful Songwriting" Series
by THE G-MAN, MusicDish Associate Writer
 From pop to jazz to R&B, David Cat Cohen has seen his songs
recorded by Cheryl Lynn, Syreeta, Freddie Hubbard, Bo Diddley, and many more. His background includes playing keyboards and guitar, writing about music theory, and composing musicals.
In private sessions as well as in the classes he teaches at UCLA and the Musician's Institute, he loves demonstrating how songs are crafted.
"There's an art to songwriting," he states with a broad smile, "and it's more art than science, or I could just give you a formula and then we'd all write hit songs all the time."
Appearing as part of the month-long "Secrets of Successful Songwriting" series presented by Leslie Waller's Los Angeles Music Productions (L*A*M*P), Cohen primarily
concentrated on song structure. During the two-hour session, attendees heard his definitions of verse, chorus, pre-chorus, and bridge.
Of special interest to every songwriter was his outlining some of the methods that can help differentiate verses from a
chorus, starting with groove and moving through melody, range, phrasing, phrase length, chord contrast, and harmonic approaches. .
A lot of information was packed into a relatively short space of time. "You're actually getting enough content to form several of my lectures at UCLA," he joked at one point.
The workshop was not only fast-moving and quite helpful, it was also full of great tunes, as Cohen played some
marvelous music from artists such as Norah Jones, Destiny's Child, and John Meyer. Particular attention was paid to
the lyrics and song structure of "Lose Yourself" (Eminem), "Beautiful" (Christina Aguilera), "White Flag" (Dido), and
"Independence Day" (Martina McBride), among others.
Cohen also had a piece of advice for everyone who wasn't able to attend the seminar. "Want to see great songwriting?
Get the complete Beatles songbook. You won't find better writing in the twentieth century."
For more information, visit Cat Cohen online at: http://www.catcohen.com.
The G-Man is on iTunes and at: http://www.gmanmusic.com.
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DAVID CAT COHEN is a long time songwriter with R&B,jazz and blues credits including Cheryl Lynn, Syreeta, Freddie
Hubbard, and Bo Diddley. His songs have been featured in the HBO film, The Rat Pack, and the Universal Pictires
movie, Undercover Brother. He teaches a 3-semester songwriting program at UCLA Extension and also teaches
songwriting and artist development at Musicians' Institute. On the side he coaches and produces recording sessions for songwriters throughout the LA area. He can be reached at his website at
www.catcohen.com and his EMail address at david@catcohen.com.
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