There’s a lot of value that comes from writing songs quickly. Speedwriting requires you to use your musical instinct as a primary part of your process. And most good songs have a noticeably improvisatory sound, as if the singer and players are sort of making it up as they go along (in the best sense […]
How the role of computers in the creative arts has changed! It wasn’t very long ago that using a computer in music practically always meant using it in some aspect of sound synthesis. So you’d use a computer, or computerized device to generate a particular kind of sound. And at those times, a big challenge […]
You’d think that it would occur naturally to us to read lyrics aloud as an important part of the song editing process. For practically every other aspect of songs, we test them out by actually performing them for ourselves: we strum chords, improvise melodies by humming or otherwise singing, try different instrument combinations, and so […]
If you spend any amount of time listening to today’s pop offerings, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that mainstream pop music is steadily dumbing itself down. Lyrics often fail to inspire, melodies are less than inventive, and chords are usually simple and repetitive. Getting melodies and chords working well together is vital knowledge for any […]
Music theory tends to get a bad rap in the world of songwriters. The main argument against the use of music theory is that it can stunt one’s creativity, but that’s a ludicrous suggestion. If an understanding of the nuts and bolts of theory results in you feeling less creative, you’re using it wrong. Music […]
On this blog I’m often pointing out the similarities between what the classical music masters were trying to do, and what today’s good pop songwriters are trying to do. Except for the fact that the instrumentation is usually completely different, it’s the presentation — the musical arrangement and basic beat — that tends to differ. […]
