Violin section of an orchestra

Changing Instrumentation May Be All the Innovation Your Song Needs

Chapter 5 of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” shows how melody and lyric need to work together. Learn how to do it right! Get the entire 10-eBook Bundle along with a free copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.” Most songwriters will, from time to time, worry about their songs all sounding […]

Guitar and Notepad - Songwriting schedule

A Deadline Is a Powerful Writer’s Block Antidote

Stuck trying to figure out what’s wrong with your song? This eBook will help you diagnose the problem: “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!” If you don’t have a specific day when the song you’re writing needs to be completed, you may not have a good reason for that song to be finished at all. […]

Singer - Songwriter

Songs Are About Feelings, So How Do You Get a Listener to Feel Something?

Good songs represent a partnership of components. It’s not just that songs have melodies, lyrics and chord progressions; it’s that the melodies somehow make the lyrics sound better, the chords make the melodies sound better, and the lyrics make the chords sound better. Trying to get a handle on writing song lyrics? Discover the benefits […]

Bruno Mars

Got a Chorus, But Can’t Come Up With a Verse?

For most songwriters, it’s a lot easier to come up with a hook or chorus as a first step than it is to come up with verse. That’s because the hook acts as a kind of musical target; it essentially tells the audience what the song’s about. To start with a verse means that you […]

Dick Clark - American Bandstand

When Negativity Attacks Your Sense of Creativity

I firmly believe that if The Beatles were a band of our decade trying to get a start in the business, they’d probably not have survived the onslaught of negative opinions and comments that come hand-in-hand with social media. There’s a really interesting video you can watch of young folks in 1967 — in their […]

guitar - keyboard - headphones

A Process For Creating Chord Progressions

If you have a reasonable understanding of how chords work, and already know which chords are likely to be useful in a given key, you’ve got an advantage over songwriters who must rely solely on improvising to create progressions. If you want to have just a bit of chord theory to get you started, try […]