Every key has seven chords that exist naturally within that key. And they’re easy to find. First, take any key (C major, for instance), and play a chord that uses each note of the scale as a root. To know if you should be playing a major, minor or diminished chord, follow this simple guide that uses […]
The November 2015 edition of the Songwriter’s Quick Tips Newsletter has been released, and is sent free of charge to subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed yet, I’ll be sending it again to new subscribers a bit later this week. To subscribe, fill in the form below. Subscribe to The Songwriter’s Quick Tips Newsletter * indicates […]
If you can’t express or sum up the main concept of your song — what the song’s all about — in one sentence or less, you’re going to have trouble connecting to your audience. Lyrics may take the listener on a journey, but there needs to be one concise way of describing that journey. It’s like […]
A few listener reviews of some of pop/rock music’s big names: Regarding Neil Young: “For as far back as I can remember I’ve disliked this guy. His whiney voice is like nails on a chalkboard.” Regarding Bob Dylan: “Like if a wistful Lee Marvin swallowed a kazoo.” (by Ted Pillow.) Regarding Lucinda Williams: “Out of […]
Repetition in music of any genre is vital to its success. That wasn’t always the case. If you go back a few centuries, much music was “through-composed”, a term that refers to music that was one new idea after another, with very little repetition. Through-composed music has the benefit of establishing a mood, and then keeping that mood. […]
One way to make a song stand out and grab attention is to create an instrumental hook, one that may or may not have much to do with the song itself. One of my favourite examples of how this can work is Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition“. The sung part of the song doesn’t really have a […]
