Controlling the Mood of Your Song With Altered Chords

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Build Your Audience Base with“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ Every major key has seven chords that occur naturally in that key. Of those ones, three […]

To Be a Good Songwriter, You've Got to Listen!

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Build Your Audience Base with“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ I learned in my composition days at university that no music is created, in the strictest […]

Starting a Song: So Little Time to Make an Impression

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle is available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ It’s impossible to know exactly how long listeners will stick with a bad song intro before moving on, but it’s […]

How To Increase Your Chances of Writing a Good Lyric

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle is available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ For many, getting a lyric to work properly is the toughest part of songwriting. It seems that the line between […]

How One Chord Can Replace Another

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle is available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ Substituting one chord for another is a useful way of injecting some life into an otherwise mundane chord progression. But […]

How Pedal Tones Make Chord Progressions Sound Great

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle is available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ I was a child of the 70s, and loved (and still do) the music of Chicago, Genesis, Yes, Alan Parsons […]