guitar - keyboard - headphones

A Process For Creating Chord Progressions

If you have a reasonable understanding of how chords work, and already know which chords are likely to be useful in a given key, you’ve got an advantage over songwriters who must rely solely on improvising to create progressions. If you want to have just a bit of chord theory to get you started, try […]

Guitar - chords - songwriter

5 Tips for Writing Two Songs at the Same Time

Songwriters are very familiar with the chorus hook, but there are other kinds to experiment with, and you will want to discover the power of layering various kinds of hooks in the same song. “Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base” shows you how it’s done. One […]

McCartney - My Brave Face

Songwriting in Chunks

Pop songs are relatively short. But despite that fact, it can be a daunting task to imagine and then create a complete three or four minute musical journey. You have all sorts of ways that you typically create this musical journey. Most of the time, you’ll find a couple of chords that move back and […]

Happy New Year 2022

Happy New Year (Stay Strong and Think Positive!)

To all my friends, family, and readers of this blog, I wish you a very happy and successful 2022! I may be an incurable optimist, but I believe better days are just around the corner for us. It’s been a difficult year – very hard for musicians to perform without jumping through hoops. And no […]

Piano and guitar - songwriter

Why Starting Your Songwriting Process With a Title is a Great Idea

Lyrics become all the more powerful when they’re properly paired with a good melody. That’s what Chapter 5 is all about in the eBook “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” Polish your songwriting technique with the 10-eBook Bundle. If you start your songs by vamping on a short chord progression, the advantage is that you create […]

Classical guitar - songwriting

A Short Excerpt from “Hooks and Riffs”

The eBook “Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base” is part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” In it, you’ll learn why the hook is such a crucial part of pop songwriting, and why so many songwriting successes comes down to the success of the […]