If you’re like most songwriters, you don’t feel the glow of success until you’ve completed a song. While that song is being written, you’re in the midst of what might be called a creative struggle. You’re trying to get all the small bits to cooperate. The struggle is called songwriting. When you win the battle, […]
One of the best ways to come up with creative chord progressions is to: make a very simple one as a first step, and then… modify certain chords within that progression. That way, you start with something that works well, and then the slight modifications you make have the potential of creating entirely new moods. […]
“Heart and Soul“, that popular song that so many people like to plunk out mindlessly on piano, is a lot older than many realize. It was written in 1938 — 80 years ago! — by American songwriters Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser. If you look up “infectious” in a music dictionary, don’t be too surprised […]
Starting today, I am offering a free copy of my eBook “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process” when you purchase “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” It’s been interesting to study the stats on my blog over the past decade of its existence. It used to be that easily 8 out of […]
At its heart, imagery is a simple concept. When you write something that causes images in the mind of the listener, you’ve just made use of imagery. You could argue that imagery, therefore, happens all the time. I could say “I went to a baseball game this afternoon,” and you likely will get images in your […]
This is a common situation in the creative arts. You get some good ideas that get the ball rolling, and then everything seems to fizzle, and you’re left with an incomplete song. At those times, it seems easier to start a new song than finish an old one. So that means you’ve got a box-full […]
