Whether you’re a full-time student or a full-time employee, a busy life can make songwriting difficult. And that’s a shame, because songwriting gives you the opportunity to be creative in a way that your job or studies often can’t, or at least don’t. But after putting in an 8-hour shift, it can be difficult or […]
Winning an Oscar means much more than simply getting recognition for your efforts from your colleagues in the industry. Much, much more. Sure, the accolades are nice, but everyone knows that if your movie happens to snag a Best Picture award, your movie gets a second run. Many people who might have given your film […]
Yesterday I wrote about how to take old melodies and make new ones. The end result should be a song that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original tune, and that’s the intent. That method should allow your own creativity to make something entirely new out of something old. Having said that, unintentional plagiarism is […]
I’m excited to announce that my book “Beating Songwriter’s Block: Jump-Start Your Words and Music”, published by Backbeat Books (Hal Leonard Corporation) has been translated into French and Italian, both of which are now available on Amazon. The French translation was done by Laure Valentin, and R. Ponte was the translator for the Italian version. Both versions […]
I’ve just published a new songwriting video today, “5 Reasons to Include a Bridge in a Song’s Design“. It’s based on posts I’ve done in the past on this blog about the bridge section, and looks at five situations that arise in a song that can be dealt with by including a bridge. In truth, […]
“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle will take you quickly to a higher level of excellence. Polish your songwriting technique, starting right now! In the mid-60s to early-70s, there was a notable attempt by some pop musicians to make rock music more respectable by borrowing compositional techniques from the classical and jazz genres. Called progressive rock, […]
