If you spend any amount of time listening to today’s pop offerings, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that mainstream pop music is steadily dumbing itself down. Lyrics often fail to inspire, melodies are less than inventive, and chords are usually simple and repetitive. Getting melodies and chords working well together is vital knowledge for any […]
On this blog I’m often pointing out the similarities between what the classical music masters were trying to do, and what today’s good pop songwriters are trying to do. Except for the fact that the instrumentation is usually completely different, it’s the presentation — the musical arrangement and basic beat — that tends to differ. […]
I can say at the outset that there is no one way to write a song, and certainly no one way to begin the process. Songs are judged by how they sound in their finished form, and if the song’s a great one, how you got there — at least at that point — becomes […]
To say it the way Barry Gibb of Bee Gees fame has said it: “Songs are about feelings.” If you aren’t causing your listeners to feel something when they hear your song, you’ve probably missed the main point of what good songwriting is all about. But there are many ways to deal with feelings in […]
Learn how to take a song from faulty to fixed! “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!” It’s part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.” Get it separately, or as part of the bundle package. In songs that use the verse-chorus format, it’s the chorus that really needs to stand out and be memorable. For […]
A time signature is a way of indicating how the basic beat of a song is organized. By far the most common time signature (also called ‘meter’) is 4/4, or common time. Most of the songs you’ve heard in practically any genre are in 4/4 time. “How to Harmonize a Melody.” It shows you, step-by-step, […]
