An important part of improving your songwriting skills is singing your songs for others to hear. Not doing this is like writing in a vacuum, and your artistic improvement will be slow and restricted. Having someone else judge your music can be a very humbling and unnerving experience. It takes a lot of inner strength […]
So what’s wrong with inspiration? Don’t the best songs in the world inspire us? And so doesn’t that require inspiration? The simple answer is: no, songwriting does not require you to be inspired. And in fact, if youare waiting for inspiration, that could be the source of that pesky writer’s block that keeps raising its head. The role […]
A chord suspension involves playing one of the tones of a chord higher than is usually found in the basic version of the chord. Suspensions are found in all genres of music, from classical to folk to good ol’ rock & roll. And you can theoretically create them using any chord of your song. Here’s […]
by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: Vocal harmonies can be the perfect touch your song is looking for. Harmonies have a lot to do with controlling energy in a song, so in that sense, how and when to use vocal harmonies is an issue of formal design; you can make your song […]
It’s very important to consider the protection of your music if you are interested in shopping your songs around to be performed. But for many songwriters, the issue of how to properly protect those songsis muddled at best. What do you do to be certain that dishonest people don’t steal your songs? Most of the confusion […]
Lyrics are the main way you communicate with your audience, but it’s not the only way. What we do with chord progressions, melodic shape, rhythm, and the basic mood we convey with all of those elements, all work together to communicate something to the listener. But lyrics probably stand as the most important way we have […]
