It may feel natural to some to consider that once you’ve created a melody that you really like, your job is to set about finding chords to harmonize it. But in reality, most good melodies already imply the chords that make that melody work. Another way of saying this is: good melodic structure strongly hints […]
Develop Your SONGWRITER’S MIND! – Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle and START WRITING GREAT SONGS! ______________ Try this little experiment. Take your latest song and sing the first few notes of the verse. Then immediately sing the first few notes of your chorus. And if your song has a bridge, sing that as […]
Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-book bundle, and learn to write better songs! We usually think of good melodies as having a distinctive shape and a climactic high point. It may surprise you to know, however, that it’s possible to have melodies that use very few notes, almost no distinctive contour, and seem to […]
We know that melodies that just aimlessly wander will kill a song by making them impossible for listeners to remember. Obviously, songs need a captivating contour in order to be successful. Part of that contour is the placement of a climactic high point. This is a part of the melody that seems to be a […]
Why is it that I hear the term “killer chord progression” all the time, but I hardly ever hear anyone talk about a “killer melody.” Frankly, as long as your chord progression merely works, you’ve got something that can produce a hit song. But melodies – they have to do more than work. They need […]
By Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Make songwriting enjoyable again! Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ I use the term “plateau pitches” to describe a way of constructing melodies where the notes dwell on one […]
