It’s common with many songwriters to start the songwriting process by working out the chorus, if only because that’s the part that’s going to be most memorable to your audience. Once you’ve got a chorus that really works well, it acts as a kind of goal — a target, so to speak — for you to aim […]
I remember one of my first public musical experiences: playing a trumpet solo at church. I was so nervous that just standing up and walking to the front felt almost literally like an out-of-body experience. My face was hot — probably glowing red, and my arms were shaking (not good if you’re a trumpet player.) I don’t […]
The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Online Store has the answer to whatever frustrates you about songwriting. Anyone who composes music — songwriter, lyricist, arranger, film score composer — is a creature of habit. You are a songwriter, and you know that this is true. You probably have your go-to way of working on songs. Those are […]
These days, many or most songs that are produced for broad commercial appeal (i.e., hit songs in the pop genres) use melodies written by “topliners.” A typical scenario might be that a producer sends out a pre-made instrumental track to musicians who can create melodies over these tracks. Someone comes up with melodies and lyrics to […]
Musical energy is a term that a lot of musicians use but find hard to define. You might use the word energy in a very nebulous sort of way, where it’s synonymous with intensity. With that usage of the word, most listeners of music would know what you mean if you said, “I really like the energy of this song.” They would […]
Musicians and psychologists hold slightly different practical definitions for what is known as the contrast principle. A good description of a psychologist’s use of the term might be something like the following, which comes from the JackMalcom.com website: If you put your left hand into a bucket of cold water, and your right into hot water, […]
