Grammy Award-winning musician St. Vincent wants to impart all she’s learned about the art of writing a great song. The singer has just announced her first course on the virtual learning site MasterClass, where she aims to teach students performance, songwriting, and studio tips.
Throughout the lesson, St. Vincent will break down her song “Savior” off the album Masseduction as an example on how to craft a song from start to finish. The singer also shares a handful of reassuring tips as seen in the course’s trailer, like, “Take something good and bludgeon it until it’s great,” and, “Make shame your friend because there’s no way to get good at something without being bad at it first.”
Speaking to Billboard about the endeavor, St. Vincent said she wants to highlight her song “Savior” in the class because it was 20 years in the making, saying, “I chose ‘Savior’ because it illustrated this point that I wanted to make that there’s no wasted effort. Even if you have an idea from 20 years ago, if it’s still circling around in your head, that means it’s worth something. It will find its way into something.”
St. Vincent added that songwriting doesn’t have to flow perfectly every time in order to be successful: “I think being a creative person in this time requires more forgiveness of yourself. Some days you’re going to be just grinding and it’s going to be flowing and it’s going to be that thrilling thing where you catch lightning in a bottle and then some days you might not leave bed. I find that there’s not a lot of middle and way more polarity in process during this time.”
Watch St. Vincent’s MasterClass trailer above.