Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website Follow Gary on Twitter The tonic note is the key note of your song. If your song is in Am, the note A is the tonic note. And it has a lot of power. But the more you use it, the less influential it is. […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. Follow Gary on Twitter There are many ways to add a bit of variety to your chord choices. The problem is, the more you stray from the tried and true, the more confusing it can be to the listener. A pedal point is a great […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website Follow Gary on Twitter Probably the most clever aspect of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” is the melodic construction. Beautifully contoured, it’s what really makes the song work. It even displays writing technique usually reserved for more high-brow compositions, including melodic inversion. Here’s […]
by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. Follow Gary on Twitter If you’re one of the melody-first writers out there, I applaud you. Writers who work on getting the melody right first have a greater chance of coming up with something that will stay in the listeners’ minds. But how do […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website Follow Gary on Twitter The desire to write may be there, but often we get stuck just trying to come up with a topic. It’s frustrating, because you feel that the world doesn’t need another goopy love song. So how do you come up […]
Written by Gary Ewer Follow Gary on Twitter First, let me start by saying that most songwriters worry too much about their chord progressions. It’s actually not as important to get an interesting chord progression as it is to get one that actually works. But if you are looking for ways to get a bit […]
