“Fix Your Songwriting Problems -NOW!” is being offered free when you subscribe to the Songwriter’s Quick-Tips Newsletter (also free)
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I’ve recently finished a short eBook that addresses some of the most common songwriting problems I’ve encountered as I’ve listened to and worked with students and their music. “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!” takes a closer look at what each of those problems are, and lists some cures for each issue. The eBook is being offered free-of-charge when you subscribe to the monthly Songwriter’s Quick-Tips Newsletter – also free. Visit SecretsofSongwriting.com and click on the graphic in the right-side menu of the page near the top.
Here’s a short excerpt:
You can tell a lot about what songwriters think is important by seeing what they’re searching for online. I’ve been selling my “Easy Music Theory with Gary Ewer” program for the past twelve years, and have been providing songwriting materials since 2005, in addition to working side-by-side with my own students, so knowing what people are looking for has been a great concern of mine.
The number 1 phrase being searched online by songwriters for the past decade is: chord progressions.
If you can’t create a good chord progression, then it’s natural that you’ll want to search for some. But though chord progressions are easy to find, the first statistic I gave you is still true: most songs will not build an audience base, and most songs are never going to be heard outside the writer’s circle of family and friends. So you may be looking for chords, but that may only be part of the problem. In short, you’re possibly not addressing the real source of your frustration.
The fact is that songwriting success comes from following some basic principles. Not rules – principles. Back in 2004 I began researching hundreds of songs from the past 6 decades in preparation for writing “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” That research led me to develop eleven basic principles of songwriting. I didn’t invent those principles, of course, but rather identified them based on research and observation. Each time I analyzed a hit song, I set out to discover why the song was so great, and to determine how other songwriters could learn from it.
As I worked with my own music students, and listened to songs that up-and-coming songwriters were sending to me for analysis, I could tell that the songs that were working were the ones that adhered to those basic principles. And for the ones that had problems, I kept seeing the same errors surfacing over and over again.
In fact, I was able to identify seven basic songwriting errors prevalent in most of the music that was being written and sent to me for critiquing. These errors are certainly not the only ones present in failing songs. But beyond doubt they are the errors that rate as the most numerous. And they are certainly the ones that have the most responsibility for compromising the quality of the music I was listening to, and causing the greatest sense of frustration.
To get a copy of the complete “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”, simply subscribe to the monthly Songwriter’s Quick-Tips Newsletter”. Visit SecretsofSongwriting.com and click on the graphic in the right-side menu of the page near the top.
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