Generating Song Energy With Delayed Gratification

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”. It’s supposed to be FUN to become the best songwriter you can be! ___________________ Most of the time when we think about song energy we think about fast tempos, loud dynamics, and busy rhythms. Any single one, or combination, of those elements will usually pump up the power of […]

Ideas for Completing your Half-Written Songs

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”. It’s supposed to be FUN to become the best songwriter you can be! ___________________ Everyone who writes music has got tons of musical fragments that have gone nowhere. I mentioned in yesterday’s article that writers need to be “sketching” all the time. But it can get depressing when your […]

5 Improvisation Activities That Generate Song Ideas

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”. It’s supposed to be FUN to become the best songwriter you can be! ___________________ I applaud the songwriter who spends as much or more time working out small songwriting challenges than they do actually writing songs. In the world of the visual arts, great artists do an enormous amount […]

Focusing on Pitch Plateaus Ensures Well-Crafted Melodies

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle. Here’s how to get your songs working right away! ____________________ There is a particular kind of melodic contour that allows melody notes to sit mainly in and around one particular pitch. Pink’s song “Raise Your Glass” is a good demonstration of this. The beginning of each […]

Neil Young and the Art of the "Harmonic Diversion"

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle. Here’s how to get your songs working right away! Back in 1975, Neil Young released his 8th album, “Tonight’s the Night.” The second track, “Speakin’ Out”, is interesting for a lot of reasons. We often think that songs need to be in one key or another, […]

Tips & Tricks: Writing a Song that Doesn't Use a Chorus

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle. Here’s how to get your songs working right away! ______________ It may be your normal way of writing to automatically go for a verse-chorus design, possibly  because the chorus (particularly the title) offers great potential for a hook. For many songs, the hook is a crucial aspect […]