Folk Singer - Songwriter

On Being the Only Sound In the Room

“Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base” shows you how a good hook can make the difference between songwriting success and failure. With great examples from pop music history. Every conductor has phrases they mutter when things aren’t going well in rehearsal. I’ve had a good number of […]

Neil Young

Borrowing Ideas From Other Writers’ Songs

John Lennon tells the story that Yoko was playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano and he asked her to play the chords backwards. From that reversed performance he composed his song “Because”, from The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album. I’ve listened to Moonlight Sonata many times, including listening to it backwards (on YouTube you can find […]

Tuning a guitar

A New Way To Label Your Songwriting Failures

If you’re ready to take your songwriting to its highest level possible, you need “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” Get the manuals that thousands of songwriters are using. Comes with an all-important Study Guide. I love when someone says something that gives me a “Wow, I never thought of it that way” moment. […]

songwriter's challenges

The Most Important Part of Being a Student of Songwriting

The best songwriters that I know consider themselves to be “students” of songwriting, even if only in an unofficial sense. They consider every song that they hear to be an opportunity to learn something. The problem with being a student of songwriting is that we all hold very strong opinions about music. We have our […]

Guitar at Sunrise

Staying Positive When Songwriting Gets Hard

If you like starting songs by working with a chord progression, you need to read “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression.” It will give you the pros and cons of this songwriting method, and help you create songs that really work! Here in the northern hemisphere we’re in the dog-days of summer. If you’re […]

guitar - keyboard - headphones

The Songwriter’s Rut: You’ve Always Got Tomorrow

There is a kind of rule of life that most of us are familiar with: that the time it takes to complete a job expands to fill the time allotted to it. In short, if you give yourself a week to finish a task, it will take a week. If you like starting songs by […]