Musical Success: “Design is how it works…”

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Kick-start your songwriting career, starting now. _________ The death of Steve Jobs has everyone in a bit of a stunned state of reflection. Like other iconic individuals whose life work has affected and influenced us so deeply, the ubiquity and immortality of their life’s work and product has […]

What Can Today’s Songwriters Learn From Yesterday’s Songs?

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Kick-start your songwriting career, starting now. _________ History, at least as it pertains to the arts, has a way of filtering out garbage. For example, it’s easy to think that during the Classical era it was mainly Mozart and Haydn who were doing the bulk of the writing, […]

Chord Progressions That Work Well in a Bridge

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Become a top-level songwriter, starting now. _________ Because most songs are 4-5 minutes in length, you don’t get a lot of time to venture far away from your chosen key. There are songwriters who specialize in progressions that are often best described as ambiguous (Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, […]

Songwriting and the Value of “Snapshot Analysis”

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Become a top-level songwriter, starting now. _________ Whether it’s writing a 4-minute song or a 3-hour long opera, a composer’s task is to take the listener on a musical journey. And while composing a complete opera might seem to be a daunting undertaking, there are particular challenges that […]

Using Bass Lines to Craft a Better Song Melody

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Become a top-level songwriter, starting now. _________ Recently I wrote about the benefits that come from writing a melody first, and then creating a chord progression to harmonize it. In that post, I mentioned that one of the dangers of chords-first writing is that melodies can get neglected, […]

Keith Urban’s “Long Hot Summer” – A Study in Lyrical Layering

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 6-eBook Bundle“, and become a top-level songwriter! ______________ Every distinct section of your song (verse, chorus, etc.) should treat lyrics differently and have a different goal. Lyrics, when done well, should show a clear 2- or 3-level design. Messing this up can cloud your message, and your song can fail to produce […]