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! How many songs do you write in a typical month or year? You […]
When a song is working well, it means that all its separate components don’t just sound good on their own, but they also partner up well with all (or most) of the song’s other components. In that sense, a good song is typically better than the sum of its parts. Some songwriters find chords to […]
I’m back home after an absolutely wonderful 2-and-a-half weeks in the U.K. It’s been the first proper holiday I’ve allowed myself to have since 2009, fourteen years ago. It felt very odd — almost stressful at first — not updating this blog for two weeks. Sometimes the best vacation you can give yourself is one […]
Hello all – I hope you’re all doing well as I write this short message from the beautiful Dartmoor region of the south-west U.K. I am currently on holiday here, which explains why you haven’t been seeing any updates to my blog. I’ll be here in the U.K. for the next bit-more-than-a week, returning on […]
Lyrics become all the more powerful when they’re properly paired with a good melody. That’s what Chapter 5 is all about in the eBook “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” Polish your songwriting technique with the 10-eBook Bundle. This blog post is a kind of “part 2” for the previous article on this blog, “Moving Melodies […]
It sometimes happens that both the verse and chorus in a song use the same melody — or at least a very similar one. The kids’ song, “Puff, the Magic Dragon“, is a good example. It seems to fly in the face of the otherwise important principle that chorus melodies are typically higher, generating more […]
