Songs Without Contrast: Can You Say "BORING?"

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: Contrast is what sets the different sections of your song apart. And a song without enough contrast will make it about as interesting as your Great Aunt Bertha, who just keeps saying the same thing. Contrast, simply put, means that one part of your song says […]

Writer's Block: When You Just Can't Write Good No More

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:   Writer’s Block: When You Just Can’t Write Good No More Every songwriter suffers from it from time to time. The ideas just don’t happen. And even when they do, you don’t know what to do with them. Writer’s block is curable if you really […]

The Descending-by-Thirds Chord Progression

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: There’s nothing random about a good chord progression. Starting on any chord, descending by 3rds will give you a great one to try. Let’s use the key of A major as our example. Starting on the tonic chord (A), then allowing the progression to descend […]

Lady GaGa- Colby O'Donis' "Just Dance" – Why it Works

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. Let “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” turn your songs into hits! _________________________ Ever been on a roller coaster? It’s not about the scenery. It’s about the excitement. “Just Dance” is all about the energy of the ride, and if you’re looking for something profound, it ain’t […]

Those First Seven Seconds

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: I have a theory that people judge your song within the first 7 seconds. By that time, a listener has decided if they like or dislike what you’re doing. That shouldn’t really surprise us. It’s a product of the age we live in. Television producers […]

Shaping Melodies – Does Your Melody Have a Climactic Point?

With a good song, there’s a strong sense offorward motion. How you know that forward motion is there and working for you is by your own sense of anticipation: if you find that at any given moment in your song, you want to hear what happens next, that’s the vital sense of forward motion working for […]